Zakalwe

1 hour ago, Jonk said:

Probably, trouble is it’ll need melting back down from swarf spaghetti to solid! 😆

 

😁😁

1 hour ago, Jonk said:

I received this photo today...

16.5kg each. This weekend I’ll put one on and get the mount slewing and under control hopefully.

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.

1 hour ago, Geoffw said:

I know you won't believe me😀, but I've never placed a bet online in my life!!!!

The point is that the advert wasn't selected by the website.....it is served up via a totally unrelated system.

10 minutes ago, Gina said:

I have had adverts that have nothing to do with my online activities including betting which I don't believe in - I don't even do the lottery.

I assume that the system isn't 100% perfect. it is, however, clever enough to make Google a very wealthy company.

3 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

What are the odds of getting gambling ads on your screen, when you dont gamble.

😀

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.

16 hours ago, Gio said:

Hello, where do I find the Eqmod.ini file? I cannot find it. Do I need to remove the file entirely or keep the file and remove its content?

Thank you

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 "

3 hours ago, alan potts said:

 on the way the bright stars have come out, but maybe this is scope related

 

Its the micro-lenses causing refraction. Its a known "feature" of this sensor.

Lovely shot overall though

56 minutes ago, Carbon Brush said:

At risk of diverting away from the OP question.

Ref Zakalwe. Correct - The Lunt & PST issues are not fungus.

But the failures were (to the best of my knowledge) never explained by the manufacturers.
The approach was simply to provide a replacement that should be OK.
Reports from numerous users do not identify cleaning fluid, damp storage, etc as being to blame.

The most obvious usage difference between astro and solar scopes is the amount of light they receive.
It is far more than 'day use' optics like spotting scopes.

Degradation of various plastics and rubbers from UV is well known. As is paint fade and the like.
The Lunt experience suggests optical filter coating can be damaged.

For these reasons I wonder if excessive UV into an astro scope might do harm.

Obviously a few minutes of unfocussed sun does no harm to the scope.
But a scope left all day?
What about taking the scope into the suntan lounge with you to kill fungus? 5 minutes here browns your skin more than most UK days.

I await an informed comment. Preferably from a manufacturer of optical equipment.

As a precautionary step, I have made a lens cap for my Lunt scope. A simple push on cap instead of the fine pitch screw on cap.
If I walk away from the scope, the cap goes on. That way the scope optics are only subjected to the sun only when in use, rather than all day.
My preferred use of the scope is to set up in the garden early morning and leave it on a tracking mount all day.
When (if?) there is a 5 minutes gap in the clouds, or I get a chance to take a look, it is immediately accessible.

David.

 

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?

1 hour ago, Carbon Brush said:

This thread may be of interest.

Given the recent threads about filter damage on solar scopes, I wonder about the wisdom of intense UV for long periods.

In all the solar scope damage, the offending glassware has been replaced, often at no cost by the scope manufacturer. But no definitive cause or explanation provided.

David.

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.

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.

On 02/07/2018 at 17:43, Davey-T said:

Shouldn't think that would have much effect on the view mine was nearly 80% obscured.

Dave

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.

59 minutes ago, xtreemchaos said:

try it, it will not hurt. as I said I agree mono is best charl.

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?

On 28/01/2018 at 12:31, xtreemchaos said:

I agree mono is best, but I use a colour because 1. I didn't have a mono cam to start with, 2. there cheaper , 3 after using both types I find the colour you can turn the red channel up when seeing isn't so good and grab more detail than my mono under the conditions.

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

7 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Great advice from everyone but i must correct my initial post, i mentioned my mount is unguided, what i meant was no tracking period! can an object as bright as the sun not be hand tracked for a burst of frames??

i would have though that with a camera taking many images per second especially of the sun (like a camera freezing a car in motion) would be impervious to movement considering selected frames are used for image? or am i totally wrong here?

Hand tracking would be fine. You MUST cover the finderscope with Baader Solar film (the darker version, not the imaging version) if you use the finderscope.