Laurieast

Thanks. Pictures were just taken on a Samsung J3 phone, nothing special, if that's what you meant?

Arrival Day!! Box damaged but scope and contents all look ok, local aerial mast a mile away looks good, object lens and R&P all ok, no marks on anything. Absolutely delighted, thank's again for the original posting! 100% guaranteed cloud cover for month's now.

Thanks for sharing, wonderful shots!

Stunning!

It was me!! Thanks for the heads up! 😃

More here https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/mar/01/uk-meteor-huge-flash-as-fireball-lights-up-skies

First DSO on a proper mount, through a brief hole in the clouds, 30x60sec at ISO 400, Skywatcher Startravel 80, Canon EOS 500D, AVX mount. HUGE amount of coma top left.

There's going to be a hole in the sky!!

I set up my ETX 105 and could not figure why there was nothing appearing on the camera at prime, I had not flipped the mirror from the eyepiece 🤦‍♂️

Tie a label on it?

I got my Celestron AVX mount back in September, I think I've taken it outside less than half a dozen times. Now an expert at doing fake two star polar alignments indoors, switch it off again and push it back in the corner.

No, not home made, it was either Meade or (Edit, think it was Meade) may have been from Broadhurst Clarkson and Fuller, you have me thinking now, long long time ago! I know it was expensive for what it is, plastic, threaded. It does look smart like that doesn't it , and has the added advantage of the flip mirror, which when par focal with the camera at prime focus is great, can't do that on a Skymax. Dismounting it using the two halves of a wooden clothes peg into the rear of the fork arms is the easiest way. Have also filed down the bolt retaining holes on the arms so it now can be refitted much easier to the still working fork mount when wanted.

@IangourlayI have done this with a Meade ETX 105, using Skywatcher tube rings from FLO, and a Dovetail bar. In my case I could not get rings of ther right diameter and had to pad it out, cork sheet works well for this. Tube Rings https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/skywatcher-telescope-tube-rings.html Dovetail Bar https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetails-saddles-clamps/astro-essentials-dovetail-bars.html

@Les Ewan I used to live just down the street from LF Ball, I visited his garden observatory with (I think) a 10" Newt , great guy. He gave me my first mirror a 6/34" F10, it was perfectly figured and gave me wonderful views of the planets. I also have Dr HC King's Book Of Astronomy(1966) , and my favourite was the Larousse encyclopedia of Astronomy with M31 on the cover.

Mine did all sorts of wierd stuff to begin with, then it calmed down after a few goes, no idea why. It would point as though I was in the southern hemiphere, or even more strange, would go toward something, slow down, but not stop and just keep going! Off switch quick. I even considered there was something wrong with my new mount or the dongle, but it's fine now. I don't think I would trust it for imaging though. Celestron AVX mount, Samsung J3 phone.

Just looked, the Read Me File it says "Currently, the input images must be in JPEG format."

I have done Lunar mosaics with Autostitch. But it was a long time ago, I don't remember what file types it can use. http://matthewalunbrown.com/autostitch/autostitch.html

This LED street light is on, and view is from front bedroom. Can barely see it visually.

They are brilliant, in the best way. They changed ours from sodium to LED a few years ago now, and the back garden went from having an orange glow in the sky and all around, to black, no stars to lots of stars, and now the milky way is visible. There is one outside the front bedroom, but if it's not raining or snowing, or misty, you cannot see the light beam, it's very tight on the street below as well. There is one in the street some distance away, but it was easy to shade it with no glow in the sky above it. This was a major factor in my taking up astronomy again after many years of not observing. The biggest problem now is neighbours, who have LED flood light's and leave them on in the evening for no good reason, or because they think the dog is blind and can't see in the dark 😤

Not an expert on this but... I was mixing a washing up bowl half full of fast setting and water with an electric hand cake mixer (as you do), and went inside for two minutes to wash my hands, went back out, and it had set in the bowl! Had to bin the lot.