Black Knight

I forgot to mention that I also do the white T-shirt trick as well

Hehehe, of course! I should've realised that!

You can buy purpose made EL panels, or make your own light box. There are several light box projects knocking about SGL. Personally I simply use a laptop screen, running Notepad (maximised), and put the camera in AV mode. Works a treat

I like what you're doing here Carole. Mrs Black Knight has always preferred the look and simplicity of the SkyShed Pod over a conventional ROR obsy, but the zenithal view problem has always put me off. This PZT is a new one on me. When I was researching possible obsy's ages ago there was no such thing. Very interesting! TBH, it never occurred to me that it would be quite so easy to slide each half of the domed roof off the base. I shall be following your progress with great interest!

If you go for a Dobsonian like Jules suggested, you may want to think about either a Rigel or Telrad finderscope. They'd just make it easier to find your way around the sky than with the conventional straight-through finderscope. Rigel http://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/rigel-quikfinder-compact-reflex-sight.html Telrad http://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/telrad-finder-astronomy.html Welcome to SGL

Well, I certainly like! A grand image

Good result, well done. Good tip, I shall have to try and remember that

I missed yesterdays so I just had a peek. You're right, that's another good 'un. All the more stunning because he used a Canon DSLR!

It is good, isn't it

Terrific widefield Apod today showing both M31 and M33 in the same field of view, captured by Rogelio Bernal Andreo. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130926.html Rogelio used an FSQ with reducer and an STL11K. The mosaic is comprised of 3 x 4 panes. Capture details and some processing info can be found here. http://www.deepskycolors.com/archive/2010/09/17/andromeda-M31-versus-Triangulum-M33.html

Works for me just now. Perhaps the server was down for maintenance when you were trying?

I think I read that radio signals from Voyager 1 to Earth take 17 hours, so 17 * 60 I guess. Roughly.

Glad you got it working. I may just give this a go myself. Not that I do my imaging unattended really, it's just fun to have a go with new tricks!

There's probably loads of ways of potentially doing this. Take a look at the first answer here, it might help. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7041938/vbscript-to-send-email-without-running-outlook

A real testament to 1970s engineering.