Astro Noodles

Hi Marfa. Welcome to SGL.

Hi Jin Welcome to SGL

Welcome to SGL. 🙂

That's interesting because I saw the same thing in Hercules the other day. Green and increased in brightness over a couple of seconds then blinked out. I wondered if it was a meteorite coming in at a steep angle.

All I can say is good luck with that! 😄 Ever since I was a lad, I have been pleasure sailing. Across the channel to France, around Cornwall and that sort of thing. Obviously doing that, one keeps a close eye on the weather and it is a habit. Back in the 80s and 90s, summer weather was fairly predictable. Often, you would get 4 or 5 days of settled weather, followed by a couple of unsettled days and the cycle would repeat. These days, the weather is all over the place. In the last two years I have seen low pressures barrel in from the Atlantic, backspin over the UK and go back out into the Atlantic twice - never seen that before. Last year we had a persistent high in April which hung around over the UK for about 10 days. Last winter we witnessed a low pressure area come around the top of Scotland and down the North see before heading off over Holland. I know that Ideal astro weather and sailing weather are far from the same thing, but my point is that the weather is becoming less predictable. and therefor difficult to forecast with any accuracy.

Hi Liv Singular white lights flying in a direct line are usually either high flying aircraft catching the evening sun, or satellites. Sunset is at about 9:30 so the flashes are probably the sun reflecting off either aircraft or shiny satellite surfaces. There are a lot of satellites up there.

It looks to me as though it has over-rotated. That would make sense and is corroborated. When I ran through the 100 subs I took last night, the image slowly slid to the left. When I checked the RDF finder after the session, it was to the right of where I had placed it. So, do I have a lemon? Is there a fix, or should I return it to FLO? I've just lifted list off CN. I will try this first to see if I can re-calibrate the unit. Turn the unit off and press/hold the center button. Switch the unit on while holding down the center button, then release the button. It'll do an 8-minute slew in one direction and stop. Press the center button again, and it'll slew for 8 minutes in the other direction. Power cycle, and it should function normally.

You're probably right. Hardly scientific. But to trail at 200mm after 20seconds, it must be out by several percent I would have thought. It may be detectable visually. A longer experiment over several days might be more obvious visually.

I have decided to conduct an experiment to determine whether a) The Sky-guider pro is a lemon, or b) I am a pillock. The time is 16:00. I have turned the sky-guider on to 1x. I have set the reticule so 12 is at the top. In 6 hours time, at 22:00, the red mount head should have rotated through 90 degrees. Am I correct?

All bout the same. Here's one with the best 9 frames stacked

Last night's effort. 80x 20 sec subs at iso 3200. Better I think. @RoloFanatic, you are absolutely right about the PA. You only need to breath on the mount and it goes out of alignment. I'm going to change my set up routine and do the PA last, just before I start to image.

I have not calibrated my polar scope. 😳

Maybe I'll have a chat with the good folks at FLO.

Well that has ruled out incorrect PA as the problem then.

I'm scratching my head with this as all my subs have star trails and just wonder if my PA is way off. I am putting Polaris in the outer band of the inner circle of the reticule. It is 21:15 here at 53.78 North. So Polaris should be at the 1 O'clock position. Is that correct?

Thanks Clarkey. It is definitely set to 1x tracking. It seems to drift off upwards and to the right which makes no sense to me. I could understand it if drifted in the direction of the rotation. I am not ruling out an issue with the sky-guider but I will try it a few more times in the hope that I discover a foolish mistake. I am ready to buy a proper small refractor for my setup but am not going to buy one until I ca get this tracking situation nailed.

I'm really not getting on with the skyguider pro. I have only used it 4 times but I can't even get 20sec subs without star trailing. I was able to do that on my old rig with only a rough polar alignment. I have been out this afternoon and have discovered that the bubble levels on both the mount and the tripod are giving bogus readings - so perhaps I will have more success tonight

I don't think I would get away with that.😄

I just threw out my old tank bag about a month ago.🙁

Yeah, that's the sort of thing I was thinking of.

What I'm lookin for is a pouch or tray to put the intervalometer and USB power block on when using my skyguider pro. I have a camera tripod which doesn't have an eyepiece tray, and the cables from my intervalometer and dew heater don't reach all the way to the ground. Does anyone have ant suggestions?

Well said.

Looks like Elon Musk isn't the only one to blame for pollution of our skies. Brexit lorry park 'ruins night sky' for Kent residents - BBC News

A very technical pursuit, lots to learn nice (expensive kit). A lot of the enjoyment is in the learning process. But dark, crystal clear skies are like coral reefs for the UK astrophotographer. You've heard they exist, you've seen pictures on the internet, but there aren't any around here. 😁 I wonder what the astrophotographical analogy of wreck diving is? 😆

My first reaction would be to suggest 'pinched optics'. Although that doesn't seem likely in May. Perhaps it is camera wobble caused by mirror/shutter activation.