LaurenceT

2 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

I have one of the heated USB body warmers on that page that was bought for me and I love mine when I use it in the winter. 

When I connect a power tank it'll keep me warm all during my imaging session that I stay out with my equipment. Even when I don't use a power tank the silver material reflects all my body heat back in so only put the power on intermittently but so toasty.  The power draw can be low well with my power tank so the talentcell power pack should cope and not switch off or any power tank that stays on with low power draw. 

Lee

 

Thanks for the heads up Lee, should keep my old bones warm in the unlikely event of clear winter night skies but also a hedge against spiralling energy costs during the day 😆.

33 minutes ago, malc-c said:

You have a new revision synscan board as identified by the USB -B port.  You're best bet it to use a standard USB - A to B cable (active if longer than 3m).  Connect it to the mount and then the PC and power up.  Windows should detect the new hardware and place a virtual com port in device manager.  If it shows a yellow exclamation mark you may need to download the Prolific driver for a USB to TTL serial driver from either SW website or Prolific website.  Once this is installed and the COM port is no longer showing any warnings, open the properties and set the transition speed to 115200 baud.

You don't need to connect any cables to the handset.  In fact the handset can be removed completely as you should not use it when using a PC to control the mount.

You will also need ASCOM platform installed to allow all applications to communicate through it, and I recommend using EQMOD as the "driver" for telescope control.  - Configuring EQMOD has been covers time and time again on the forum, so no pint in repeating things here, just use the search function to throw up previous posts.

 

I did wonder why I was connecting the handset..........

14 hours ago, Paulo Campeone said:

Hi, I’m about 8 months into owning a Skywatcher 200p and the EQ5-Pro mount and feel brave enough to move onto connecting to my laptop and exploring Stellarium. Anyone got any tips on the hard wiring? No matter what variety of cables and connection outlets I combine my mount doesn’t show in Stellarium, ASCOM or EQMOD. 
As the mount has no direct outlet to connect too I have tried using the ports on both the Synscan hand set and the hand control system that it plugs into but neither have given me any joy.I know this has probably been asked a million times before, I apologise in advance but would appreciate any advice at all.

thanks.

Hi Paolo

Please forgive me if I'm misunderstanding what you are trying to do, I'm an absolute newbie to this astro business. However I do have the same mount as you and I've been setting it up this morning to try and solve your problem and learn something myself. Normally I don't use the hand controller, I use an Asiair instead so this is a learning curve for me too. Firstly you have to connect the hand controller to the mount via the hand control port on the the left of the controller. Secondly ditch the cable that you have connected to the auto guide port, it's not required. The USB port on the Synscan handset is a USB 2.0 type B. You must connect the hand controller to your laptop via the USB port on the hand controller using one of these cables:

USB C Printer Cable, USB C to USB B 2.0 Cable, Compatible with Printers, Scanners and other accessories (1m) : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

I have been following this video this morning:

https://youtu.be/nWoTr6CcFb4

It helped me and may help you.

5 hours ago, Heids said:

I remember that the sky got too cloudy to see anything and I was upset. It was in the winter I am sure. 

We had been visiting some friends in a village in Oxfordshire and we came out of the house in the middle of the evening to get the family into the car. We had a great view of the sky as the village was quire high up. I remarked that I was puzzled why so many car headlamps appeared to be playing across the sky. Someone suggested that maybe there were searchlights or even a massive laser show.

Suddenly we realised that we were looking at an amazing display of the Aurora Borealis with very intense lights and colours. As we drove back to West London I kept looking in the wing mirror and could see the lights almost all the way to Windsor. It was almost certainly the years you mentioned as that would fit perfectly.

6 hours ago, Heids said:

I’ve seen aurora twice. Once was in Newbury, West Berks during what was clearly a very very strong solar storm. I think it would have been around 1986-87ish? 

Second time was much more satisfying - around 7 hours of it from the window of a plane coming back from Vegas, beautiful dark purple and green hues. 

Definitely possible this far down south, but I think it was very much a fluke seeing it when I did in Newbury. 

The one you saw in Berkshire all those years ago, was it on a very frosty clear night do  you recall?

11 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Hi Lawrence, have you looked at the Kitakaru eyepiece.

StellaLyra 30mm 2" KITAKARU RPL Eyepiece | First Light Optics

Now it might not have a fantastic FOV at 62 degree but I have not heard anything bad about these.

The reviews I found refer to extremely flat and colour free results at the eyepiece. And your DOB at F6 will be a perfect match giving 1.5 degrees at mag 40. Slightly over budget but you might struggle getting one 2nd hand. 

There is also the superview eyepiece also by stella lyra but I believe this is a copy of the GSO although should still work well in an F6 and better still, under budget. However I am not able to offer any more info about it but might be worth pursuing further.

StellaLyra 30mm 2" SuperView Eyepiece | First Light Optics

I would like and may yet get a Kitakaru 18mm for the DOB for use on smaller targets. I love my 102 eyepiece but sometimes smaller objects look better framed in a smaller fov. 

Thanks for that Steve, I'll have a look at them. It seems that the real issue here is will I get enough improvement over the stock Skywatcher 28mm 2" EP by buying a sub £100 EP to justify the expenditure.

21 minutes ago, Louis D said:

There's not much in that price range, new or used, that will vastly improve the view in the outer reaches of the FOV at f/6.

If you doubled your budget, I'd recommend the 40mm Lacerta ED as a decent step up that gets you pretty close to 40mm Pentax XW level correction.  At 30mm, the APM UFF and it's other brandings is exceptional while not being TV priced.

You'll probably want to invest in a coma corrector at some point to clean up the edges and flatten the field a bit once you get eyepiece astigmatism under control (but not before).  The GSO CC is probably the best bang for the buck out there.  It's sold under many different brand names worldwide.

Thanks, increasing the budget sufficiently is unlikely given the current economic situation.

Interesting about the coma corrector, I hadn't thought about that, I have a Baader coma corrector lurking in a drawer. I'll have a play with that.

Now there is slightly more darkness I've dug out my stock 2" eyepiece that came with the 200p Dob and I've been truly amazed by the view offered. Up till now I've been using my Baader zoom but the 28mm 2" eyepiece is a different experience. I am however conscious of it's limitations, star sharpness falls off very quickly moving away from the centre so I'm looking for an effective upgrade.

As ever there are financial constraints so I'd be looking to buy used with a budget of around £70, any comments gratefully received.

20 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

Some members have adapted commercial chairs to make them sturdier and more stable:

 

That's a superb modification but as soon as I saw the words "woodwork shop" my enthusiasm drained away😄

Another thing to consider is the size of the chair seat relative to....how can I put it....the size of your anatomical seat. I've just bought the relatively cheap Geoptik Nadira chair and the seat area is hardly massive in area. I've added some padding of my own and it's just about comfortable with my size rear end. If you are having to shift your position to get comfortable on the hard seat then you could be straining the chair structure and potentially making it unstable.

If I had any woodworking skills at all I'd have made one to fit my personal physical specifications but if you can find one that you think would match the size of your rear end then that would be great.

Thanks Lee, I should have updated this thread. I have followed your advice and I'm now using the outdoor kit just as you describe and it works very well.

I hope you enjoy that zoom eyepiece as much as I do, it's one of the best things I've bought.

Solved the problem of the hard seat, found a foam seat cover from a childs bike in the garage. Looks a bit, erm, weird, but quite comfy.

1 minute ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

I got one last Xmas but I'm scared to sit on it! So last week bought a new exercise bike... Hopefully this Xmas I'll be able sit on the chair without sweating every time it creaks... 😱

I found it surprisingly stable, it's not as if your feet are swinging in the air as I imagined it would be. I've only tried it out on the concrete patio, I suspect it could be a bit wobbly on the "lawn".

Cheapest observing chair I could find, unfortunately not sold by FLO. I know some people have padded the seat, I might have a go, otherwise it seems stable. light enough to easily carry and easy to adjust.

Having decided to keep my Evoguide 50ED and use it as a guidescope rather than sell it I was not happy with mounting it on the little finder stalk that came with the 50ED. I had a search around and the best solution for me was the WO 50mm guide rings setup. Arrived this morning and now the ED50 is firmly secured. The rings the ED50 came with are being mounted on my 130PDS.

Has anybody used the AZ GTi in alt az mode combined with an Asiair for EAA?

For my home based grab and go I mount an Orion 80ED on my AZ5 mount. The total weight of the scope with all the bits on comes to 3.65 kg. The mount handles the scope perfectly although there is some backlash that I can't seem to cure. I have used it on both on the Skywatcher tripod :

Sky-Watcher Tripod for Star Adventurer | First Light Optics which is the tripod sold with the AZ5

and also my Manfrotto 055CXPRO3:

Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 | Cameralabs which I have had many years and used for photography

with both I noticed a degree of shake when viewing through the eyepiece which I found unacceptable. However I didn't feel that either of them felt unstable with the mount in place unless I raised the central column which I would advise against. In order to make them both more stable for viewing I bought one of these:

 Neewer® Black Heavy Duty Photographic Studio Video SandBag for Gitzo, Manfrotto, Didea and Benro Series Stands and Other Universal Light Stands, Boom Stand and Tripod (2): Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

which are out of stock at Amazon but may be available elsewhere, together with this:

Amazon Basics cast-iron kettlebell 4kg : Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors

which made a huge difference, I appreciate that is not an option for travel.

I bought one of these to help me carry my 8" Dob.

https://amzn.eu/d/56km9Cm

Whilst not exactly heavy I was always worried about the slippery tube rotating in my arms and falling to the ground.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to this forum

The ISS passing over Camberley at about 23.30 with the naked eye. Never seen it before in the UK, once before in Florida about 10 years ago.

I really enjoyed it, the trouble was I followed the BBC suggestion to then watch Brian Cox 7 days on Mars and fell soundly asleep 😄

37 minutes ago, markse68 said:

Had some nice views of 4 planets last night with the Tal 200k  Saturn was crisp and sharp and I could see 4 moons clearly- Tethys, Dione and Rhea arranged in an arrow head pointing to Titan. I was fooled into thinking i could see Lapetus beyond Titan but on checking it was too dim and it was a background star. Cassini division very clear.

Jupiter was beautiful too although no GRS or transits- clear bands and 4 moons visible.

Mars started as a multicoloured blob but got clearer as it rose. By about 3:30 it was sharp though tiny. Surface variations could just about be made out but couldn’t really discern an ice cap. Clearly not round

Venus was like a horizontal traffic light at first but rose enough to just about make out it’s gibbous form by the time our local star appeared.

I’ve missed the planets- it was a long satisfying night

Mark

Lovely description, about what time was your observation?

9 minutes ago, Franklin said:

? Me to, out with the SD81S but I could only see the 4 moons, one just coming out from the back of Jupiter, presumably Io. SSW5mm and Baader Neodymium filter, eq bands very clear. Too light for Saturn but the Moon last night was showing amazing detail along the terminator and Clavius was awesome, even gave the SLV2.5mm a spin and the view held up just fine (x250 in the SD81S), great seeing here for a change.

Actually, thinking back I only saw 4 moons so I'll edit my post!