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:

1. 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)

2. Get the mount accurately polar aligned (as far as possible)

3. 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)

4. Carry out a 1 or 2 star alignment

5. 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

3 hours ago, Alien 13 said:

Its on the camera itself, a useful way of getting a single trigger pulse from the shutter button/intervalometer/other to perform the lock up and open the shutter after a pre determined delay..

Alan

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

17 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

To add mirror lock up into any timer sequence jut use the camera "self timer" function, think it is 5 or 10 seconds.

Alan

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

On 07/07/2021 at 09:54, badhex said:

From the reflections it looks to be fully multi-coated, can you confirm? Would also love to know if it's internally flocked. 

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

23 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

Hi Stu,

That is a pity really wanted something with a 50mm objective I have a pair of 10x42 which are excellent but thank you appreciate you showing them to me.

They look like they are  worth a pretty penny more than likely out of my price range anyway.

Best wishes

Paul

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

10 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

Hi Stu, 

    What magnification are they please. 

Paul 

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

2 hours ago, Padraic M said:

Hi Stu, I'm not sure that you have a problem. I would imagine that any resistance you feel when turning the cogs by hand will come from the motor through the reduction gearing rather than from the worm. That step is to check if you have binding caused by tightening the worm too far. If the motor can rotate the axis through 360 degrees then you don't have binding - it will be pretty obvious if you've overtightened as the motor will be forced to a halt at some point in the rotation (or at least you will hear it struggling).

The trick with backlash is to tighten just enough so that there is no binding. For my mount, there is still a small amount of backlash left in the worm but you do the best you can.

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

1 hour ago, Seelive said:

I assume that when you are moving the axes by hand you are also moving the stepper motor via the preceeding gears.  Depending upon the gearing ratios, where you try to turn the axis can make a big difference to the apparently required torque.  Ideally, you need to 'feel' the torque needed to turn only the worm and wheel when the axis is balanced (and as the RA axis wheel will have more teeth, it should always appear to be 'easier' to turn?)

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

2 hours ago, 7170 said:

 

Is it a new mount or used?

If the RA clutch is fully disengaged does the RA axis turn very freely or is it slightly stiff, assuming good balance (worth testing with no scope or weights on it)? 

 

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

33 minutes ago, Carbon Brush said:

Sorry to hear about the binos issue. It is though not unusual to struggle without the squint.
I find two things help.

Usually I use varifocal specs. Swapping out for contact lenses is a big help.
Varifocal lenses are always full of compromises and can easily introduce what might be thought to be binocular issues.
Could this be clouding (OK I'll get my coat) the issue?

The second is time of day, or more specifically being tired.
It can be difficult, after a long day, to hold images from both eyes in correct alignment.
Looking at a few bright dots (stars) rather than a well lit view makes the problem worse.

I have seen both the effect described above. Maybe one or both of these is contributing to the problem?

HTH, David.

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

Quote

With a bit more detail: you'll need a laptop or a mini PC with appropriate drivers and software to control the camera. Plenty of freely available software for this - my choice is N.I.N.A.

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

On 26/06/2021 at 10:48, mark81 said:

Ive actually gone back to binoculars for all my observing, nothing to do with a visual impairment, but I am very tall and suffer from chronic back pain and any kind of telescope work causes me real problems now. So all my observing is with binoculars in a comfortable recliner and the best part about using a recliner is you can easily get away with using 80mm bins handheld... Perfect..

Hi Mark,

Good to hear that you have a viable workaround.

Stu

10 hours ago, James said:

I’ve been unable to use binoculars for many years now for that very reason Stu which is a shame in many ways but I’ve switched to using a monocular instead. Not quite the same immersive visual effect but at least I still get some nice wide field views. Naturally I’ve no problem using a scope  

In my case I’m locked in increasingly fraught discussions with opticians about whether to get prism lenses on my glasses prescription but that probably won’t help with binos…

James

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

2 hours ago, banjaxed said:

Do a search on eBay, should give you a good idea.

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