Richard Wesson

First attempt at Whirpool from patio in Bristol. Criticism (be gentle) and tips welcome!

That is excellent - especially considering equipment used and shaking!

+1 for the 32mm GSO plossl. I found it a big improvement over the standard Skywatcher EP which are I believe a modified achromat. These are also branded 'Revelation'. I also got the 20mm and 12mm as well as the 2.5x barlow by the same company after a bit of a spending spree... but obviously these are not essential and I find myslef using the 32mm most. The EPs were not paricularly expensive - especially as I bought from Astroboot - https://www.astroboot.co.uk/AstroBoot Not sure if they deliver to Serbia though.

Excellent. Thank you so much for your help - it is really appreciated.

Thank you for the reply. In laymans terms, I presume that means that there is no leakage from the positive (+12v) side of the circuit to the casing (earth) to where the negative is?

I am currently in the process of building a controller for dew straps. I have a plastic box to house it in, but the plastic is rather thich making securing the nuts onto threaded stuff securely rather difficult. However, rummaging around, I found a metal box I bought many moons ago for a guitar pedal project and thought of pressing this into service as the metal is thinner and it does look nicer! I am obviously keen to avoid shorts so have used copious amounts of heat shrink. The nagging doubt that I have is that obviously some of the external mount components (power, heater outlet phonos etc) have a metal out and this connects with the negative leg of inputs and outputs. However, when I think back to the electrics on a car which also runs at 12v DC, this also has negative eathe so this connects to the chassis, so my thinking is it should be OK. However, I would like to have the opinion of others who are more experienced than me to see if I am totally wide of the mark and also if there is anything else I have not considered. Many thanks in advance.

Thank you for that Kappy-kat. I will study the thread you linked to. I am guessing that if the tablet has Win 10 installed, it should run the software, drivers etc without too great a problem. The only other issue is I guess the single usb that is common, but I could get around this using a USB hub.

I currently am looking at starting autoguiding with my rig which comprises an EQ3 driven by the Astrogadget SimpleDream EQ3 and interfaced by GuideDreamST4 to provide pulse guiding. I have managed to connect it up to a laptop running PhD2 with ASCOM and relevant drivers installed and everything is talking after a couple of hours doing initial set up. This should work pretty well when at home with power within easy reach, but in more remote observing sites I was thinking that a more compact setup with regard to computer would be better. I am now toying with the idea of getting a windows tablet for running the autoguiding software as this is more compact and should have longer battery life than the laptop, plus powering is likely to be simpler as I can add power from a 5v power pack as opposed to having to run inverters or similar of my 12v battery power supply which I will use for the mount and dew heaters. Has anybody experience of using a windows tablet to do this and if so can you give me an opinion on pros and cons of this approach?

Those are great pics. I managed to find a darkish site the other night at least darker than Bristol) and took a number of shots with a 135mm lens. I now need to process these in Photoshop. I am something of a beginner to all of this and was wondering if anybody had any thoughts on what steps to take when processing?

Hi Charles, I saw your post yes - I am not too far off a complete beginner although have done little bits and pieces this year. The Mendips are pretty close - around half an hour for me so in very easy reach. I shall keep you up to date with any locations I find and hopefully catch up at some point!

I have the 130pds with EQ3 on an EQ5 tripod. Not the heaviest set up admittedly, but once all of the ancillary kit is included a little inconvenient to carry on one shoulder hence thinking of cart etc.

Hi John, I can imagine the high ground surrounding may have those issues yes. I meant a very slight rise just by the car parking down from the observatory at the and of a no through road which looks good. The next thing to look at is some kind of trolley to aid lugging scope, mount and associated kit. Have been thinking about various ideas such sack trucks, golf carts etc.. All need some degree of modification, but that is part of the fun..

Not too far away then - I understand there are some good spots to the north of Bristol too?

Thanks again all. Had a bit of walk in the Mendips looking at places around Charterhouse. Velvet Bottom looks good with some highish ground a short walk from parking which would be easy to lug scope onto. Couple of other potential places too. Just night clouds to clear!

Thank you John, was going to join Bristol AS then corona virus hit...Also hit my sailing sadly too! Has anybody used Deer Leap for observing - it looks good to me but then I am pretty inexperienced!

Thank you all for the welcome! I have found the forum an invaluable source of information. Xsubmariner - I use a Skywatcher 130pds on an EQ3 which is driven by a Simple Dream eq3. Only had the latter about a week, but finding the micro go-to via wifi link to Sky Safari great. Imaging wise I use a canon 750D . Imaging so far with the scope has been restricted to lunar and am waiting for clear nights at the weekend for imaging! I use the canon for imaging on an Omegon minitrack LX2 with manual lenses earlier in the year - I will use this for wider field stuff.

I have been lurking here for a while so thought that I would say hello. I am based in Bristol (UK) and have been largely been observing and doing a little imaging from my patio here in south Bristol. However, I have a hankering for darker sites and have seen posts from time to time from people in this neck of the woods suggesting various places like Wellow and the Mendips. I did a bit of a recce last weekend and thought I would explore around Priddy in the Mendips which is a shortish drive and found Deer leap which has (at least in daytime) some good views south across the levels. Has anybody used this location or have any advice/thoughts? It would be good to have some company on the odd session too!