BCN_Sean

Cheers Stu, I'll have a look at it later when I get chance!

@powerlord, I built a control system myself for one this morning (rare morning off!!!) using the same setup as you did minus beeper with a pair of interrupting push buttons attached to pins 2 + 3 on the 328 (Uno/Nano). Here's the code that I've used for it : FocusStepper.ino.zip Now it's just wait until someone gets one of the scopes on my hit list in stock, and then get one built up for it!

From looking at it, I think it's a Meade 390/395, 90mm F:/11.

A few years back I rationalised all my memory to SD cards, then use CF to SD adaptors on the cameras that don't use SD more for not doubling spend on memory cards than anything else. Both types, always good brands, never had any temperature related issues using them in air temps of +40ºC to -20ºC, but the internal temperature in the cameras would be higher.

Give it a while before thinking about it, whilst it looks great in the marketing blurb and a select few, it's still got to prove itself under the mis-use of normal people.

Glad to hear that one is sorted! You and me both, everything was nice and clear here until bits started to arrive; and I reckon now it'll be cloudy until May!

I'll be building one as well in due course, just frustrated with the back-order blues at the moment; but as a simple addition it's worth doing it and as you say, probably more precise than the hands.

With using this motor on a tangent correcting barn door, one thing I can tell you is that it's not a true 4096 step as the gearbox is slightly under 64:1, after testing it, it comes in at 4075.6 steps per rotation (reference : Arduino Forum) so if you're after serious precision then it's something to take in to account, and also the gearbox backlash is quite high. I didn't use a stepper library for it, instead using an array to step through each state when rolling forwards, and then just subtracting it when it's in reverse. Here is a bit of the code that I used to work with this motor, it's not been tested as it is, the pins aren't assigned for the drive (ints called drivePin(X)) and the only thing you'd have to do would make something to fix up the way to change the directions (the modes are called FORWARD, REVERSE, STOPPED, stored as ints 0, 1, 2). Hope this is some use. Forward_Backward_bjy48.ino.zip

I hope you get it resolved @JonDotCon, and please do let us know the result as what may be a frustration for you now could help someone else down the line; the most frustrating and yet intriguing thing about this hobby is how much there is to learn, and each little nugget shared and head scratching session resolved is there for the next one along. Some makes are definitely better than others (something like Eneloop Pro, whilst not cheap certainly deliver), and also how tired the batteries are; and the other thing what people tend to do with rechargeable batteries is to buy a box of say 12, and then just mix and match them so instead of levelling the use on a set of say 4, one could have more use on it and bring the rest in to disrepute. Also, there's the potential for memory effect where the batteries aren't discharged before recharging so that can affect things too.

It would seem so, I had to check though as I'd not noticed (or more probably not paid attention to it) before. I'm still scratching my head to how a set of rechargeable batteries are showing that voltage, and dropped it on my to look at list, when I get the time. It'd probably be better off still checking it with a different power supply as I've had issues with rechargeable cells before in situations where there is low current draw, the voltage is ok but as soon as the current draw increases things bottom out quickly.

Without the dec bar and balance, I'd say getting on to 3kg would be pushing it a bit; but as Chefgage says these things can soak a lot more well when balanced. That sounds odd as supplied voltage on a rechargeable AA is ~1.2v unless there's some power management happening on board; the fresh set of batteries would be a good test or using a mobile phone charger plugged in to the USB port (a wall plug to test with, as the Star Adventurer may not pull enough current normally to keep a portable awake, and that would only murk the water a bit more).

My thoughts are pretty similar to chefgage above, maybe it's a power supply issue, but probably more to the off balance of the load. How much weight are you attaching to the unit, so between lens, camera, whatever accessories (rings/lens hood/etc) and the weight of the ball head as well you are using?

I can't really help you with that one I'm afraid, it's been two years since I last had one of these in my hands and I can't remember if there's an "extended menu" option on it which opens or closes down menu options for just the basics or advanced settings.

Just downloaded the manual and had a look, there's a section in there right down on page 351 which goes through the steps of if the camera won't fire off when the shutter is pressed and then on page 314 - 317 is what modes are available with what types of lenses. The one that usually catches me out on the 700/810 I use is forgetting to turn the mode on the camera to fully manual exposure.

I think (as it's been a couple of years since I've had my hands on a D5x00 series), in the custom menu, setting A1, change that option to "release" and then set the focus to AF-C or Manual.

Best thing to do is to try and get the image under the compression threshold of the social media. The method I do for single images (it can be automated if you are that way inclined), first off is make a copy of the image on the computer, and then open that in Photoshop. First off, if the image is a stack or in 16bit/32bit, flatten the stack and then convert to 8bit. From there in to the image menu, image resize and set the longest edge to ~1920 pixels using bicubic resample. That'll give a nice size to view on most screens. Next, filter menu, Unsharp Mask with the settings of ~120%, 0,4, Levels : 5. After that, in to the file menu, export and save as JPEG with an image quality of somewhere between 70% and 80%. Then close the master image without saving.

What sort of weight are you thinking of using on top of it? One of them little Manfrotto you are talking about, really they are geared more to cell phones and GoPro and would struggle to hold steady a lightweight mirrorless and kit lens. If you're serious about taking a stable mount, and wanting to hold a couple of kilos steady, then upping the budget is a must really as one of the most overlooked things in photography is the tripod. Upping the budget to £60ish would start getting in to the territory of things like the Zomei Z818 or the ESDDI 64, both of those should hold up to a few kilos quite easily and without being fully extended should be quite stable as well. And fold up to fit in hold luggage, and weigh less than a couple of litres of coke. In a similar vein, I've been using a Benro IT15 for years for dragging off where it'd be costly to take one of the big tripods, cost a bit more (can't remember, but about 85€) and just spending that few extra notes saved a lot of disappointment in the "what could have been" category.

I saw that the other day, it's quite surprising to what this scope comes bundled with and whilst doing the rounds of clicking the "Inform Of Stock" finding how many different kit options and accessories are available; they've put a lot of behind the scenes thought in to this.

I had a look at that vid, and the author of this page has a few pointers as well as some "defaults" for a few things to get a bearing on it with; and mentions that if used on the moon that there would be some CA if not used with a moon filter (another thing on the list to use the search function here for!). Only thing now is to keep an eye out to when these are back in stock or if one pops up used around these parts.

@JonCarleton which distribution of StarNet are you using? Is it the one from Github or the one from Sourceforge? As a bit of a thought on this today, I went through on another machine and set it up from clean using the Github version, and found that at least one of the libraries needed (scipy) has had a couple of bits deprecated which in turn causes StarNet to fall over. The pre-compiled (this is on MacOS, though) binaries from Sourceforge running over Python 3.8 didn't have any sort of issue there. Would it be possible to post a grab of what the output is when it's dumping? As for being old school on the coal face, I completely get that and it surprises me how many people think it's some dark art now-a-days!

I've not really seen that much of an increase on the 72ED here, it may happen or not. One of the biggest draws for me with the ST80 (apart from that which I wrote above) is that it's priced less than what the insurance excess would be on a more endowed scope, a social scope if you will that I wouldn't mind breaking out if one of the nieces wanted an hour out the back or taking to a gathering.

This is what I'm seeing in a few places. After reading up on some of the tweaking for it, like matting the tubes, stripping and fettling the focuser and how it is a fair reasonable performer doing double duty, not just visual but imaging too (I doubt it'd be possible to find a similar performing 400mm/~F:/5 lens for an SLR for the same coin). It's almost starting to feel like a no-brainer as not only for a little scope to keep handy for sitting on the balcony with (or to take off on holiday or to work when it's one of them nights) at the price it's something that'd would make a good learning aid for stripping and working on a scope without worrying about wobbly hands on an assembly that costs 10 times as much. When the current raft of back orders are out the way....

How are you running StarNet, are you dragging the StarNet binary / shell script on to the terminal or going in to terminal and cd-ing to the StarNet path then something like "./rgb_starnet++ in_image.tiff out_image.tiff"? I know that may sound a bit daft, but I was ripping hair out the other day with nearly the exact same problem but on MacOS (I've been using StarNet a while and couldn't see this wood for the tree) and I was forgetting to cd to the directory and instead just trying to drag and run.

The more I'm reading about these ST80's, the closer one is to following me home; reviews like this are chipping away at the reasons not to. For the price of one, I'd have probably dismissed it as a "toy" scope, but from what I've read on here and in other places my mind is changing and quite rapidly.

Neat little setup, cheap enough too to buy full built instead of getting the finger burner out for a one off job. If I was building it mind, I'd probably change the resistor in the R5 position (the one in front of the LED) to something a bit larger (perhaps a 56k or 67k) just to drop the LED output as that could end up an annoyance when out there.