Zakalwe

😁😁

Lovely work. I could do with one of those! Got any spare material left over? 😀

They are called "Anti Luce fasteners" https://www.absolutehardware.co.uk/sc/trailer-fittings/?gclid=Cj0KCQiApaXxBRDNARIsAGFdaB_EzMhTLHBlwTXoK8iIoPa1MGL77691wFA1taDiwKFrwVpoJDEYmdYaAjwrEALw_wcB

Its an advert supplied via Google. The ads are targetted based on how much the advertiser bids and from the information Google stores on you. The point is that the advert wasn't selected by the website.....it is served up via a totally unrelated system. I assume that the system isn't 100% perfect. it is, however, clever enough to make Google a very wealthy company. 😀

The adverts will be based on YOUR browsing history, interests Google searches and nothing to do with the website publishers. It's how online advertising works.

The Edge has some significant upgrades: Mirror locks to prevent mirror shift, Tube vents to aid mirror cooling. Extra optical elements in the baffle tube to provide a much flatter field of view The Edge has been designed for astrophotography (albeit at a very long focal length.)

Anything at all will be suitable. Heck, an offcut of 1.5mm would do the trick.

You can download astronomy.net and set it up to platesolve offline with an ANSVR server. https://adgsoftware.com/ansvr/ Or, if you image, invest in Sequence Generator Pro and use Platesolve. It normally blindsolves in well under a minute and SGP is brilliant for imaging.

All user settings for EQMOD applications are stored using text files with a .ini extension. They are stored in the "application data" directory - each user has their own application data so different users can have different settings. To find the application data location type %appdata%\eqmod into the explorer address bar (makes sure you can see hidden files).

This looks interesting: https://www.skywatcher.it/sky-watcher-eq8-rh/ (I used Google Translate). " Same identical technical features as the EQ8-R, same load capacity, same design, same weight and same functionality. However, the substantial difference lies in the presence of a Renishaw encoder on the right ascension axis "

Its the micro-lenses causing refraction. Its a known "feature" of this sensor. Lovely shot overall though

To be fair to Lunt they replace the BG filter with no quibbles, regardless of the age of the diagonal. The PST is a different kettle of fish. I wonder would a blast of UV from a UV bulb down an OTA every now and then help or hinder?

The BG failure on Lunt's isn't caused by fungus though, is it? And the "rusting" failure on PSTs is also caused by another agent.

It looks like Homer Simpson's car design., i.e. designed by someone with not a clue!

That's a good looking mount. The pier looks like it will need a lot of floor space. The centre column doesn't look like it can be bolted to the floor on it's own, though the complete assembly might be able to be adapted. Unless you've got lots of space in your obsy then I might guess that you'll soon get sick of kicking those huge legs and knocking the alignment off

It looks like an internal reflection coming from the bright star that's on the very right-hand edge of the image. Tracking down where the light is reflecting from could be tricky....it could be the inside of the OTA, the focuser draw-tube or any extension tubes. It could even be reflections between the camera sensor, cover glass or filters. images where you have a bright star in the frame can be tricky.

New BG filter arrived today. Great service for a scope that's 6 years old. Not a penny requested from Lunt...that's pretty outstanding customer service.

Hi Dave, I agree that's it not that bad. however, it's not going to improve, only deteriorate further over time. Lunt have been in touch today to ask for my mailing details so they can send a replacement. Superb service! On an aside, I'm not buying the ingress of moisture theory. Mine has developed the spot well away from the edges and with no visible path of damage to an edge. Who knows what is causing it?

I checked mine this afternoon and there's a spot developing on the BG filter. Its 6 years old, so it's had it's use. Ive contacted Lunt to see what they can offer.

Oh I know it won't hurt. But I can't see how "turning the red channel up"* would ever deliver more detail than a mono camera with the same sensor in the same conditions. *I presume that you mean increasing the gain?

I cannot see how that is possible @xtreemchaos, as the light coming into the camera is the same frequency. Yes, if using a telescope to image the moon you can use a red filter to cut out the blue frequencies (these are most disturbed by the seeing) to help "cut through" the seeing, but on a hydrogen-alpha scope the scope itself strips out all of these frequencies before the light hits the camera. It's, AFAIK, impossible for a colour sensor to get more detail than a mono sensor* as the green and blue pixels will be doing nothing other than adding read noise into the final image. Even if you separated the channels and only used the R channel then the mono would still win hands down as it is collecting data across all pixels, whereas the colour sensor is only collecting data in one of four pixels. *Naturally assuming that the sensor are the same type, just one is mono the other colour. If your mono camera is using a completely different sensor to your colour then all bets are off.

Is the pick-off prism silvered or clear? it might be an internal reflection in the prism. Perhaps blackening the rear of the prism would help?

Have a look through this thread. it has answers and more to similar questions:

If it's not being recognised in Device Manager then it's possible that the camera is a dud.

Cooling is not necessary in solar, lunar or planetary imaging. Don't get too hung up on wanting to capture only full discs....you will lose the maximum obtainable resolution. Photoshop has an automated merge routing that makes stitching frames together very easy. Likewise Microsoft ICE (free of charge!) is also very good. All my solar full discs are multi-pane mosaics. it really doesnt add that much to the image capture time when you are using a camera that can capture at 100 FPS and the stitching is quick. https://flic.kr/s/aHsjAQpKfG