M40

On the same day I recently read that we were to get a 25'c heatwave (as if 25'c is a heatwave anyway) and rain until mid July. I think thats called hedging your bets. 

1 hour ago, Neil H said:

I just had alert on my phone for seestar update so not going to do it , my phone is on 1.19  but my tablet is one behind that , I thought they would had been the same ?

The wonders of modern science Neil 😄 I only have the app on the phone so at least I have avoided one challenge 

Hello @AstroTin and welcome to the site. There certainly seems to be a few challenges with the latest updates so I suppose the way forward is to spot any common points first. What app version, seestar release and android version are you on? Are you on station mode?

I cant help with any clues on manual stacking, I just let it do it's thing and use the image in the phone gallery so hopefully someone will jump in here.

11 hours ago, JAC51 said:

Prompt well packed delivery of  risky solar hood from FLO today

I was just wondering what is risky about a white hooded garment 🤔

Glad it's sorted, as you say, seestar doesn't like android 11 then. All the best 

You are undoubtedly right but the app version on my phone is 1.20.0. I leave the apps on my phone to update automatically and just checked,1.20.0 is the latest on play store......at the moment 😁

Well I just bit the bullet and gave it ago and installed the latest firmware when the message came up. Installed to seestar firmware 2.71 and app version 1.20.0 with no challenges. Have a look @Appiantiqua and see what app version and seestar versions you are on and get back to us as it would be good to get this sorted. 

3 hours ago, ian2 said:

Another idea is a pier with an insulated box just big enough to cover a mount with refractor

A good move that, not sure about leaving the telescope outside though. I've had my mount outside on a fixed pier under a telegizmo cover inside a small enclosure for over two years now with no challenges other than a few cobwebs. 

I've been putting a backpack kit together and with the exception of the battery I am just about there with version 5.

This is a taster, can't wait for a clear night now to see what it can get. Number 5 is definately alive 😁

Taking astro gear somewhere to me means holidays so I am limited to what fits in the car with the holiday stuff. Doggie has the luggage area leaving me to be creative with the remaining space. My area is the space where, now from a time gone by, the spare wheel used to live. I  can get it all in a backpack apart from the battery and the 85mm refractor and I can "lump" it all in one trip. Depending on the where, the skywatcher tripod sits on the backseat, but that does prove challenging to lump the whole in one go from the car.

Hello Ejw298 and welcome to the site.

As Elp said, look for something during the day, so first off try removing the eyepiece and look through the hole where the eyepiece fits. You should see something as it is now just a mirror reflection. You probably know this but the highest number eyepiece you have gives you the lowest magnification, so fit your highest number eyepiece into your telescope and try and focus. It looks like you have an extension piece fitted, if you cant focus with it in, try removing it and have another go. All the best let us know how you get on then we can get you onto the next step of aligning your finder.

I did spot an observatory class mount in the for sale section recently so they do come up from time to time. It went quite quickly so when your name gets near the top of the 1100 list you could always sell it on. All the best.

Hello Jim and welcome to the site. You've probably already worked it out, but just in case, with your eyepieces, the lowest number gives the greater magnification and the highest number gives the lowest magnification. I  tend to start with a high number eyepiece to center things and find the target then swap them out. Being somewhat clumsy, I do tend to knock things when putting stuff away at end of play, so I always check alignment at start of play. I do this with a low power eyepiece in the telescope and then center the finders.

I wouldn't worry too much about filters just yet unless you have a moon filter. When looking at the moon, it can be quite bright, so a moon filter is quite helpful here. All the best and ask away with any questions. 

It looks quite a weighty lump so if modifying it to have lift off side panels and lighten the load is not an option, how about something to help raise lower it? Something like this comes to mind....

It could help you raise/lower the enclosure. Maybe even some sort of permanent winch? 

A bit more drastic, cut the whole in half to widen it and mount it on a frame with wheels? I have a sentry box type arrangement with two lift off sides and I pick it up and move it out of the way but I am currently thinking wheels are in its future. All the best 

3 hours ago, LaurenceT said:

I can remember when I was an early adopter of using the Az GTi in EQ mode people were losing their minds about it all over the internet, now it's the norm. I'm perfectly happy to continue using my Seestar in it's original configuration but I'm not bothered by people using it just as they wish.

👍 I think when zwo release a wedge for the seestar as skywatcher did for the az-gti, that will be the day when I stick it on a wedge and start yet another learning curve 🤣

My thoughts on the EQ discussion. I applaud people for thinking outside of the box, I make an attempt at it, but I also try to keep within the manufacturers parameters particularly when it involves gearing etc. That's why dont think it's a good move to stick the seestar on a wedge. I am pretty sure that the early seestars will be over-engineered, the later ones? who knows. I would also be very wary of buying a used seestar just for that reason and wonder how any warrenty would stack up.

It was indeed a 10.30pm start and interestingly I took an M58 early May and it was much better than last night. It got nicely dark at about 11.30pm, about 10 minutes before the clouds rolled in 🤣

A clear but bright night so mansged a couple before the clouds rolled in. All taken with stellamira 125mm, heq5, asiair, zwo asi290mm, all 30 x 10 seconds and simple screen grabs.

This is NGC3628, hamburger galaxy, about 35 million light years away 

Two galaxies in this, M60 at the top and about 57 million light years away and ngc4647 below it at about 63 million light years away 

This one is M59 at about 60 million light years away 

This one is ngc4526 at about 55 million light years away 

And one of my favourites,  M101 at about 21 million light years away 

Hello Tony and welcome back. Nothing wrong with your purchases, I use similar stuff.

I see you still have the heq5, so, one of my favourite pastimes is suggesting something outside of the box. Have you thought of a permanent pier in your garden? I  leave my heq5 outside 24/7 under a telegizmo 365 cover. I then went further and put it all under a lift off sentry box type enclosure. I  am not sure that the heq5 will work with your 250mm but it certainly will with your 150mm and your stellamira80. It will save a lot of heavy lifting.

Do you use the asiair app? Makes polar alignment on the heq5 a breeze. All the best.

21 hours ago, Bivanus said:

: Also , looking at the way the power plugs are mounted ...........all the wire penetrations tend to be on ......bottom as to ensure water has to work against gravity as much as possible.

Good call that from Bivanus.

You could look at mounting your existing enclosure inside a weatherproof enclosure. On my pier, I have used a weatherproof flip top enclosure with the cables bottom entry. I have cut off the cigarette lighter plugs, finished the wiring with bootlace ferrules and then used a couple of wago connectors on the end of the power supply cable. Makes for a very quick and reliable connection. Only challenge is brown and blue look very similar under red light so tag the cable in some way 🤣

A really nice gimbal tripod head landed today from K&F concept. It's designed for cameras but works perfectly for the binoculars 

Can't see any reason why not. I don't have a star adventurer but I do have an azgti and leave the weight on that. So I guess my answer is as long as it can be stored safely. All the best

All sorted, many thanks for your help Elp 👍 Plan D gives me the dslr and gs pointing as would a telescope on the azgti, tried it with the synscan app, all good, switched to the asiair and again all good. With the seestar tripod legs fully extended there are no balance problems. 

Next step pa with the asiair when the clouds part😁

Hello FPM and welcome to the site. Have you found the astronomy tools in the resources menu at the top of the page? If you look in the fov calculator, you can put your telescope in and then a variety of eyepieces and a target just to give you a vague idea of what may be possible. The calculator will give you the exit pupil and if you look at the flo website for eyepieces the descriptor gives some info on eye relief.

I have one of the explore scientific eyepieces together with a few baader hyperion eyepieces and I am more than happy with them. The brighter dso stuff should be good with your telescope so use the calculator on M13. I tend to start with a very low power eyepiece, explore scientific 52' 40mm, helping me find the target then move up from there and with M13, a 10mm will work well. All the best. 

Ok we are into plan C

Few mods to the camera mount and the zwo camera acts as a counterweight to the canon. Piece of 12mm stud in place of the standard counterweight bar and it all balances and drives with no issues.

Challenge I have or hopefully had is getting it to point in the right direction. I have found that using the asiair to connect to the mount via the eqmod cable, regardless of what type of mount I say it is, it could go anywhere. So I went back to the synscan app, connected and it went where it was supposed to go. Without switching it off, I then connected to it via the asiair, told asiair that it was connected to an eqmod mount and away it went. Is that how you guys do it? It does seem a trifle long winded.