M40

5 hours ago, LDW1 said:

Just bought a lens cover and dew shield for the SS from AliExpress !

Pictures please 👌 rather looking forward to a rush of optional extras for the ss50, the ingenuity of powerlord is really just a first step. 

I can’t make my mind up about a lens cover, but the dew shield sounds like a great idea.

17 minutes ago, powerlord said:

Just read the 'manual'. God that is terrible. How can they have spent all that time and effort on a product, but produce that - unbelievable. Absolutely abysmal.

I take it you've not read a zwo manual before 🤪 they remind me of old technical literature that came free with the product, just enough info to let you hang yourself.

9 minutes ago, powerlord said:

Oh also annoying - is that you can't set the wifi to join your home wifi. Hence, I can't sit upstairs cosily in my bed and control it like I can with my asiairs, etc but have to be in range of the seestar wifi.

yes, I know.. maybe this is an edge use case - but come on - it's basic stuff. there's no good reason why they have not done this. quite annoying. humph.

I thought I read somewhere that the 1.8.1 version enabled connection to your router? I  will have a search for it.

When we were looking, did all the usual with google maps, light pollution maps etc, but nothing beats simply going and looking. We crossed one house off as soon as we saw it because it was surrounded by trees that were in none of the pictures. Also look for streetlights, we are very fortunate? In that there are no street lights where we live and it gets very dark when the local pub closes and turns its lights off. Good luck with your search.

Welcome to the site Commacchio and congrats on the anniversary 👍

As others have said, the budget will get you a starter telescope and a mobile phone mount. If this is what was in your mind, let us know as there are a number of good starter telescopes and a few to avoid, so we can help with that.

On the basis I do like to offer alternatives, how about this..... a gosky 20-60 x 80 spotting scope with BAK4 prism complete with, tripod, mobile phone mount and an adapter for a Canon camera. Its in your budget and it has the bonus of a big lump of glass at the front. As it has a traditional camera tripod fixing, you can put it on your tripod and or a tracking mount. You will get tremendous views of the moon plus you will see Jupiter as a bright dot with at least three moons. Food for thought. All the best.

13 hours ago, fwm891 said:

We all see what we want to see…

All I can see is a womble.....

What a great image 👌

Looks like the android update is falling behind. From what I have found that update is in android version 1.8.1 whereas I have version 1.7.1. The Google app store and the Seestar website are still also showing the 1.7.1 version. Guess I will have to wait 🤦‍♂️ 

I think you have a dodgy version and should delete it........😉

22 hours ago, Stonecutter said:

firmware update available now....

the main features are Station Mode to connect to home network if desired, and the big one in advanced settings there is now the option to save individual fits frames that it auto stacks for stacking externally from SeeStar S50.

Can't wait to try them out, seeing above I think M33 will be next target.

 

Cheers

Chris

What version of software are you on as my app is showing that it is up to date, but I cannot find the watermarking selection.

+1 for the seestar. Walking doggy I spotted a gap in the clouds and thought why not. Connected to the seestar indoors, took it out and plonked the thing on the patio table and went for a couple of targets. The 15 - 20 minutes it takes me to setup the normal telescope, I had three pictures in the bag and the clouds were back . Never going to be prize winners but I  am loving it and cant wait to get it going alongside the normal telescope. 

Have a nose through the diy observatories forum, it might give you a few ideas. Someone built a good observatory using correx in which all was kept outside.

There are also covers called telegizmo 365 from first light optics which enable you to keep your stuff outside, personally I would limit it to the mouht though, I'm not sure I would keep the telescope outside under one. All the best.

Hello GasGiant and welcome to the site.

Where you had a 5se in the past, you must have a few thoughts but think about budget, storage, moving it and most importantly, what would you like to see. All the best and ask away with any questions.

I'm going to +1 for the heritage 100P or the ursa major 102. Both above budget I know but both will give a wow when you look at the moon so would be my suggested first telescope.

Both are in stock at flo, the ursa major has a much longer focal length giving better views of the moon, to beat it you would need to use the barlow with the heritage. The downside of the ursa major is its heavier. All the best.

1 minute ago, powerlord said:

it won't autofocus with the mask on - it'll just confuse it.

Ta muchly, I do like the sound of confusing a computer though 🤣

Using a mask with the seestar, where there is no manual focus unless I have missed it, I presume we goto a bright star insert the mask, then autofocus? What do you think.

Hello fatjon and welcome to the site. Take a virtual pat on the back for a great leap into a massive learning curve 👌 ask away with any questions, there will be someone who can help. 

Being the positive person that I am, I thought yes the clouds will go away so I thought have a look for a few target tonight. And there it was, just near Vega, I found an anomoly 🤔

On my target list anyway, but anyone got any thoughts 😉

A gap in the clouds so I went for it, the speed at which the ss50 can be setup and working is phenomenal. 

Another go at M31 as a much clearer albeit cloudy night. 30 x 10 seconds, no LP filter

Then M33, tringulum galaxy, again 30 x 10 seconds, no LP filter

And then lastly complete with clouds big time,  M57, ring nebula. 20 x 10 seconds, with LP filter

All the above are simple screen grabs of the final picture. 

Having used both, the chemical fixings work very well in crumbling powdery concrete but if your concrete base is sound enough, the rawlbolt type advised by doublevodka will work perfectly. My choice would be the rawlbolt type but with a 12mm stud, this way you can stick a second nut on the stud and then just cut the stud to suit. I cant see the concrete breaking unless you are drilling close to the edge. Hope it helps.

1 hour ago, Saif1a said:

Sorry to be pedantic, does it mean the AZ fine adjustments happen on the GTi mount head itself and the mount itself screws in firm or swivels on the bolt thread?

Yep, you screw the az gti onto the mount so that it is tight. Adjustment then comes down to physically picking the mount up and rotating to suit with fine adjustment by loosening/tightening the azimuth clutch. Using it in purely alt/az maybe look at getting mount as level as possible then plate solving. All the best.

I measure the diameter of the hole at between 50.15 - 50.19. 

Yes please, stick me on that list Mr Powerlord 👌

The solar filter is a plastic push in device and it came up wwith slightly different measurements dependent on where I measured it so..... hope it works. Let me know if you would like a couple of pictures of the filter itself.

With the az gti, you simply spin it onto the mount then polar align as normal. The azimuth clutch knob will enable you to rotate the mount. I've only used this mount with a wedge and that was some while ago, so hopefully someone else will give a few more clues there. All the best.

20 minutes ago, Saif1a said:

Is the AZ5 'Half-pillar' the black extension tube with white collars sometimes called AZ5 Extension tube?

Would all three parts then have the same girth? The part above looks plastic and smaller diameter to an EQ5 pillar (going by the thread size).

Alternatively could I just use the pillar tripod straight to the Star Adventurer GTi? It would introduce 1 joint instead of 3 which could cause movement in slew and alignment.

The above adapter takes the skywatcher pillar from its standard bolt to a camera size bolt which the gti needs. Its a solid lump, if you are getting the pillar you will need the adapter; so can I suggest you just get that and see how you get on? Ive not seen the az5 half pillar, but another option is the skywatcher heq5 extension pillar plus the above adapter. Very heavy very solid.

12 hours ago, michaelmorris said:

A bit of a hiatus whilst I do other landscaping work done in both the front and back gardens

Am I sensing a negotiated deal with management here? 🤣 looking good 👌

31 minutes ago, PeterC65 said:

M27 looks very impressive, M31 less so, but I think M31 can sometimes be a difficult target even with EAA.

 

Nice clear night last night but it was very cloudy when I took that M31. Going to have another go at M31 soon 👍