Earl

good to see this service i can imagine a few "Quads" that would of benefieted from this as they were hit and miss to say the least... in fact if i was in the market for a scope a calibrated TS quad woudl be on the list.

oh and by the way the sky temp is not fixed, it has fluctuation and needs an eye on it as the seasons change.

Looking good Steve

my rotation gubbins is on its way back to Pulsar as its sticking, they ae goign to look at the electronics to see what issues are goign on then Dave is coming out to reinstall and see if there are any further issues.

I feel that the dome (due to is sitting on fibreglass walls with no flat surface on top of this) has moved over time and the wall is not flat any more so the dome is sitting on it at an angle, but this is just a hunch, Ill have to wait and see, and then get it all working again for the winter.

Just looking at Clear Outside and next to frost there is a link called Chance which is linked to the Australian lottery.  Is this a corrupt file or something you have added?

That sounds like your browser has been hijacked by a bit of malware that turns words on a page into links to various advertisements. Id run the usual security sweeps on your pc, and reset the browser to default settings ect.

Did you have a weapon license for that John?

ISS is a great one to watch for this effect. Take last nights high pass, potentially visible from horizon to horizon.

When it first appears in the west it seems almost stationary. Most of it's movement is towards you (radial). As it gets closer more of it's motion is across your line of sight (angular). When overhead or "abeam" (ISS never goes overhead up here) all its motion is angular. You see the full effect of it's 17000 miles per hour orbital velocity.

As it recedes everything is in reverse. Until eventually it's almost stationary as it fades on your easterly horizon. 

The change in apparent speed is smooth and steady. Nothing to do with flight dynamics or anything. It's entirely a visual perspective effect.

Should an object change its apparent speed abruptly or change it's path in any way it is almost certainly within the atmosphere under powered flight. 

The only orbital parameter that the space shuttle could change significantly whilst in orbit was it's altitude (and thus its orbital period). To rendezvous with ISS the shuttle had to be launched in a fairly narrow window  as ISS's orbital plane passed overhead. The shuttle was then effectively fired at it like a bullet. All the directional adjustments to ensure correct orbital insertion were done with the engines while in the atmosphere. Once in orbit all the shuttle had to do, and could do, was  play catch up and dock. Then to come home, it would turn blunt end forwards and fire its thrusters in the direction of travel to "de-orbit" . Again, no significant directional control was possible until back in the atmosphere when aerodynamics came into play and the wings did all the work.

These limitations (on any orbiting craft) are why the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia could not take refuge on ISS even if they had been aware of the damaged wing on that fateful mission. That flight was not in ISS's orbital plane and there was no way of getting there.  

Space flight sure "aint like dustin crops"

Yet.....

what speed does the x-37 do in low orbit? if that is even known?

there will be no records for its activitys available.

Yes, just teasing a bit Chris, apologies

Your images show the splits well so its scope and/or conditions I guess.

If in doubt always blame the seeing

yep sorted automatic start on reboot

AH HA !!!

progress im just running of some flats sould be sleeping but the house is busy as the family are back from been a way for a few days....

as soon as thats done ill do a reboot to test it

Sorry Steve im lost here, Im used to things like example.exe -start

how do you do that outside of vb though?

oh do you know a way to autostart the cloud sensor un reboot, it will go in the startup folder but still needs to be clicked start to go. is there a switch i can add to the command line?

Steve I dont bother with the dome locks had some strong wind and its not been an issue. Unless your using them for security purposes?

That skylight has an elegance to say the least!

My baby

I haven't as yet documented my ASCOM setup as I am still assembling the system and completing the observatory installation itself. However, I am using POTH to connect to both the dome controller and the mount. Is there any specific information that would help you?

when you get round to it a flow chart of sorts and mayeb some reasing to why certain routes would be helpful overall, getting it all to talk reliably is an ongoing issue for me atm.

Steve I may of missed it but have you documented your ascom setup so to speak?

CDC is the best free option for scope control, I have not bothered with a purchase option as it does all i need, Stellurium is great for sitting at your computer and mooching.

Steve what settin do you have the knob on the dome rotation box set to?

making sure these offsets are the same accross all the settings is key too, as with all astronomy stuff there are no standards and applications all do it differently. its a nasue.

reminds me of the day mine came

Steve a word of warnign with the flap, make sure you balance your scope with it in open I did it with mine shut and it does change the balance point.

Im also find the balance shifts as the ota points to other parts f the sky due to the weight of the unit on one side so it might be wortth considering counter balancing it.

Id be very interested to hear if you have any issues and how you deal with them regarding this.

I have my sensor placed about 10 foot awy from my dome on one of the compost thingy posts, it is sheltered a bit from northen winds, but we very rarley get them here mostly southernly or easterly.

This looks handy.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ethernet-16-CH-Relay-Module-Board-for-Home-Automation-SNMP-Web-IP-LAN-/170724913886?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27bfff72de