Sabalias

Hi Martin, Honestly it looks as though you might be comparing apples and oranges; the lines at A project to the central cut out while the lines at B only go to the edge cut out. I've taken the liberty of editing your image and I don't think there's an issue here. Regards, Stu

Hi Martin, When I had my EQ5 Pro I came unstuck by not putting the right information in when initialising (garbage in = garbage out) so since then I’ve been very careful to follow the same routine every time I set up. It might be overkill but it works for me: After initialising check (and double check) the data you put in (including date, clock time, and DST setting – which is YES for British Summer Time as has been mentioned further up the thread) Get the mount accurately polar aligned (as far as possible) Set up the scope, balance it and place in home position (I have to do this because I dismantle my setup after every session so my scope ‘home’ can vary a little) Carry out a 1 or 2 star alignment Begin observing/photographing etc. Of course all of the above require a clear night; I don’t think you’ll be sure of the capability of the mount until you’ve been able to use at night. Good luck, Stu

Hi All, I've just taken delivery of my new concenter, bought to aid in lining up my secondary. It seems to be a great little piece of kit and makes centralising the secondary an almost trivial task but when I come to making sure that the secondary is aligned witht eh primary I find that the image of the primary is way off to the side. As a result I adjust the secondary so that I can see the primary clips but when I check the positioning of the secondary with the concenter again it needs adjustment to cenralise it and make it circular. Then I go back to the secondary alignment with the primary and it's well off again. I seem to be going around in circles so I was hoping someone might be able to shed some light on fixing my problem? Many thanks, Stu

Thanks for the pointer Alan, works like a charm. In case anyone else has got a similar problem, you can solve it by setting the self timer on the camera to 2 seconds and kstars will still trigger the photograph but the first two seconds will be overridden by the camera parking the mirror. So if you program a 60 second exposure, with a two second self timer then the exposure will actually be 58 seconds. For this to work, you will also need to enable the mirror lock function on the camera and include a gap between exposures Stu

Thanks Alan. Is that option in kstars or built in to the camera? Stu

Hi everyone, Last night I had to fetch my son from a party in the wee hours; fortunately this coincided with some rare clear skies so I set up my rig (some new stuff included). Polar alignment was fine, two-star alignment was good and so the mount was operating well. Unfortunately, due to user error (I didn’t realise that my camera mirror lock up feature was enabled) and a technical glitch (Astroberry stopped communicating) I wasn’t able to get much else done. This morning I reinstalled Astroberry and sorted the camera settings - all good. Can anyone advise me how to enable a mirror lock through kstars on my 600D please? I have found the option in the software and added it to the planned session but I can’t see any exposure delay options. Hope all that makes sense Stu

I'd like to see my wife's face when she comes to use it and finds it flocked! 🤣 Stu

Something has gone horribly, horribly wrong

I find the image intriguing to be honest; the numbers and distances are eye-watering but I don’t find that I am scared by the information. I think my eureka moment for this subject came when I was studying Astronomy and Planetary Science one year back in the 90’s with the OU – the course was brilliant but it made me fell infinitesimally small 😄. As far as life in the Universe is concerned, I find that Brian Cox has said it best – there is probably life out there somewhere but it is unlikely to be complex. Stu

Hi Paul, Not a problem. Honestly, I have no idea how much they might be worth 😅 so if you have an idea I'd be glad to hear it. My daughter is a zoologist so might take them (or a pair of Bushnells) off my hands. Cheers, Stu

Hi Paul, They are Kowa 7x40 BAK 4 Prism with (it says) a field of 7.5 degrees. The serial number is 00057. Regards, Stu

Hi there, Apologies, but I don't know how experienced you are with Astronomical Observation so my question is - have you got the book 'Turn Left at Orion'? It doesn't have everything by any stretch of the imagination but it helps you to get started in navigating around the night sky season by season. This is a link to online content: https://www.cambridge.org/turnleft I believe a finder scope will also help you. Stu

Thanks Padraic. I think you might be right. As far as tuning out the backlash is concerned - I was extremely careful to make only very small adjustments until the loose movement of the RA vanished. Stu

So, under the side panel of the mount there are two pairs of gears. The test is to see if is possible to rotate both of the larger brass gears - the Dec gear turns easily while the RA gear requires a bit more force. Both of the axis gears rotatate 360 degrees and move the corresponding axis of the mount. Stu

It’s a new mount and the axis turns free and smooth when the clutch is disengaged. So far after adjustment I’ve not used weights or scope on it. Just for clarification, the motors work fine, I’m talking about turning the gears with my fingers as described in the link https://www.astro-baby.com/astrobaby/help/rebuilding-the-skywatcher-heq5orion-sirius-mount/adjusting-worm-gear-engagement-motor-gears/ Stu

Hi All, I recently took delivery of my HEQ5 Pro which I gave the once-over. I found that the Dec was good and sturdy but the RA had considerable movement (I presume due to the worm gear not being fully engaged). I followed the adjustment instructions on Astrobaby's site and, when I came to testing the mobility of the gears under the motor cover, I found that the Dec gears move quite smoothly and freely but the RA gears are quite stiff (it moves but it requires more effort than the Dec); this is both before and after the adjustment. Is this normal? I was thinking it might be because the RA is carrying more weight than the Dec (i.e. the weight of the whole mount rather than just the mounting bracket). Thanks, Stu

Hi Paul, How vintage are you looking for? I don’t know much about binos but I have a pair of 25 ish year old Japanese binos I can’t use anymore. Stu

Thanks David, Interesting points but, sadly, they don't apply to my situation as I don't wear glasses (and I've tried at various different times of day). The problem I have is that a muscle in my right eye has grown a bit weaker over the years; this means that my eyes don't move together (it's almost imperceptible but when I look right I start to get double vision). This issue is magnified (excuse the pun) when I use binoculars, to the extent that I get the double vision when I look straight ahead. As an aside, I have to sit on the right side of a theater or cinema too (when not in lockdown of course!). Stu

This is the way to go. Though I use a Canon I also use an Astroberry and I can tell you that you have all the controls you need through that for a ZWO CCD. I do have a ZWO guide cam and have used the software that came with the camera to test it using my PC but the astroberry option works very well indeed once you have it set up. I think most people who go down the ZWO ASIAir or Astroberry route do so to provide the control functions remotely; I believe that the same level of control can be gained by plugging your hardware direct into a laptop but it's probably a bit less mobile. Note that my understanding is a bit limited as I've not had a chance to use the setup in anger yet. Hope it all works out Stu

I'm afraid this might not help but I have a modded 600D and do not get this problem. I press the shutter release and the shutter opens, I press a second time and the shutter closes; no battery warning. Regards, Stu

I was in the same position recently, but my budget was significantly lower so I plumped for the modded DSLR. Eventually I hope to be able to upgrade to a dedicated astrocam. In your position I think I'd be checking to see what might be available second hand, as a rule it seems people really look after their astronomy gear and you can get some excellent deals so you £1000 could go far. Otherwise, apply the tech-buying rule of thumb - buy the best you can afford? Stu

Hi Mark, Good to hear that you have a viable workaround. Stu

You're right James, it is a shame. As you say though, there are ways around it - I really enjoy using my Newt and my spotting scope (which I suspect is similar to using a monocular). Stu

Thanks, It's first place I went but can't seem to find anything close to these. Nevermind, I'll keep trying. Cheers, Stu

Hi everyone, I have a couple of pairs of binoculars that I want to sell but have no idea how much they might be worth. They are: Bushnell 10x42 H2O and Kowa 7x40 BAK 4 Prism . The Kowa pair was bought about 20+ years ago for stargazing, the Bushnells are more recent and probably aren't best suited to stargazing (though I might be wrong). Has anyone got any ideas? I'd be happy to sell them on the forum or eBay. Many thanks, Stu