Zakalwe
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Posts posted by Zakalwe
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2 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:
I think there is something in this observation, a definite connection between the two. For me it is helicopters - and you thought fixed wing was expensive?
I was having a brew with my CFI today down at Blackpool. The hanger that we were using houses a jet thats used for acrobatics. £900 quid an hour.
One bloke was slower than a slow thing with his checklists and blew £300 just taxying the thing onto the runway
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2 hours ago, ollypenrice said:
So there is indeed this strong mental connection between astronomy and flight.
Astronomy is not a cheap hobby. Especially the ones that can afford to take astro-specific foreign holidays. Many of these may have retired from quite well paid careers and are still young enough to enjoy a variety of past-times.It's highly probable that your sample size is very narrow and not at all representative of the hobby in general?
Another way of looking at it would be to sample a couple of flying clubs and see how many "do" astronomy. There may be a link, as amateur fliers will certainly have a far better grasp of atmospherics and basics like which way is North compared to the general public at large. For what it's worth, my local flying club doesn't seem to have many that peer at the sky, except to moan at the cloud ceiling (at least we have that in common!).
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I'm currently doing my National Private Pilots licence, so there may be something in this!
If you think that astronomy is a bottomless moneypit, then don't even think about flying!
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2 minutes ago, Mcrogers1 said:
Congrats on your mount! What saddle plate are you using? I'm going to a single scope setup until my refractor issues get resolved. All the ones I have locally are too close to the mount to allow you to tighten knobs.
Thanks.
Mike
Use a Geoptik saddle but take the knobs off and replace with Allen bolts
http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/geoptik-universal-dual-load-mounting-saddle-plate.html
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If successful the card issuer will advise what to do. The retailer won't come into it as the claim is handled by the card issuer.
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I had understood that if you go to the CC company they will ask why I have not approached the retailer.
They can ask all they want, but you have no obligation to go to the retailer first or even at all. The law is clear- they are jointly and severally liable. This means that they are as liable, no more or no less, than the retailer. There is no "first point of call"- you have complete freedom to claim from the card issuer first if you so wish. If the card issuer takes this approach, then you might want to point the at case 86/08 on the Financial Ombudsman's website:
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/86/86-consumer-credit.htm
"card provider refuses to consider claim under section 75 until consumer has first pursued the matter direct with the supplier:
complaint upheld
We were satisfied, from the evidence Miss V had provided, that the dinner service was not a matching set. So she had not been given what she had paid for with her credit card. Under section 75, she could seek redress from the supplier of either the goods or the credit.
We thought Miss V had taken reasonable steps to try to resolve matters with the supplier. Despite what the card provider appeared to believe, however, she was not obliged to have done this - or indeed to have returned the dinner service - before she could make a claim to the card provider.
We told the card provider that Miss V was not obliged to exhaust all possible avenues with the supplier before claiming under section 75. And we said we could see no reason why it should not pay the claim. The card provider argued that if it gave Miss V a refund then she would still have the dinner set, as well as getting her money back. It did not think this was fair." (emphasis mine)
Of course, you will be asked to prove your claim.
I know that there are costs involved in going to the Court but these are not too bad and at least I do understand this system, having used it before. Furthermore, Court costs can (and should) be added to the claim.
Yes, you could go down the Moneyclaim route. perhaps a written notification to the retailer might jog his/her conscience into action, especially if you remind them that the costs are claimable if you win. A S75 claim may be easier and faster.
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The card issuer may try and reject the claim if the retailer has rejected it.
If one was to make a claim under S75 and declined to offer the information that the retailer has supplied, but rather showed the maker's specifications and your finding showing those specs to be in doubt, then I would suspect that such a claim may be stronger. You are under no obligation to tell the card issuer that the retailer has rejected a claim, as the card issuer is jointly and severally liable. You are free to pursue a claim with the retailer or the card issuer.
An independent optician's report would nail it, but that would incur costs which the claimant would then have to pursue. The mention that the costs of such a test would be added to the S75 claim might also influence the card issuer to come to a sensible decision....
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Thanks Zakalwe. I had thought about the CC company (I did use a card). I've never done that before though. Do they recoup the dough from the retailer?
Under Section 75 of the 1974 Consumer Credit Act the card issuer jointly and severally liable for any breach of contract or misrepresentation by the company, as long as the item cost was more than £100. So you can make a claim through the card issuer without even talking to the retailer, though in most cases you would normally (as you have done) speak to the retailer first. As the card issuer is jointly liable, they have an obligation to you regardless of the retailer's position.
More info here:
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/section-75-of-the-consumer-credit-act
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases
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Did you buy it using a credit card for some or all of the purchase? If so, you are, depending on the timescale, protected under Section 75. You can make a claim directly to the card issuer without involving the supplier.
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Have you consulted this thread? On the second page Ian posts an excellent diagram of the consequences of incorrect spacing.
http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/225831-flattener-spacing/page-2
Steve is using a Tak 85, which is a Petzval design. There is no reducer or flattener in use (outside the Petsval) and the design means that, AFAIK, spacing isn't that critical.
Having said that, it'd be worth playing about with spacing.
Is it worth playing with focus as well? If the focus is set bang-on in the centre of the imaging circle then there is a chance that it will be out at the edge, especially with a large sensor. After all, no focal plane is perfectly flat. What about setting the focus bang-on about 20-55% out from the centre? That might give the best balance of focus and minimize distortions?
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No need to sell it Dave - if it ain't right it's going back. (You weren't hoping to pick up a bargain were you?)
Nah, it's knackered Steve. I'll take it off your hands for £50 and that's me cutting me own froat.....
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I'll give it a go, but, before I do, can I see a photo of the hat?
Thank you Sara. My wife has repeatedly told me that she'd like me to experiment more. Now I know what she has been on about.
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I could try the ED80 but what about th f/5 vs f/7.5 (from memory) issue?
What issue?
Even with a small sensor like an original Lodestar you will have a 35.33' x 27.25' FoV. I'll eat my metaphorical hat if you can't find a guidestar in that!
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I assume that trying to guide with my C8 (once I get dual mounting up and running) would be complete madness?
Hmm..you have the potential for mirror flop to contend with.
Rigidity is everything in guiding...and a moving mirror does not give rigidity.
<edit> I'd be tempted to try the ED80. The slightly longer focal length won't cause an issue. The ED80 is a lot heavier than the ST, but you've got the Mesu now. You'll not be running out of capacity just yet!
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If I were you I would remove the Skywatcher Guidescope mount and secure your guidescope by some fixed means . I suspect younever need to move the guidescope to find a guidestar anyway. Im think Mark is right pointing towards Fexure as the issue. At that focal length I would want pinpoint stars and you right to expect them.
Mark
I'd agree with this. I personally never liked the look of those guidescope mounts and have always treated them with some suspicion. Too many pivot points and potential areas of movement. With a short focal length guidescope is there any need to move the guidescope at all?
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I am quite certain I am pixel peeping! At 100% I am a little suspicious of those stars, but I really need to go to 200% (or 2:1 in PixInsight) to see the ovoids clearly.
I will check polar alignment again if I get the chance (recent weather here has been beyond a joke). Could this be cause by a little bit of cable drag on an insufficiently tightened scope (see my previous post)? I can also rotate the camera - I presume that if I rotate it 90 degrees I would expect the direction of ovoid-osity to change by the same amount.
Wouldn't the PA have to be a far bit out to get field rotation?
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To my eye (but please bear in mind that I wear vari-focals), the bottom left and bottom right look pretty good to me - this could be a case of sensor tilt rather than tracking?
I would agree with that...the bottom corners look OK to me too. the top right looks marginally worse than the top left.
It could be sensor tilt, a bit of slop in the focuser, flex in the filterwheel front or rear plates. it could be a right old so-and-so to track down.
Steve, are you using a fully threaded connection from the focuser to the camera? Do you have CCD Inspector to run some subs through?
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This is not good news as I just ordered a used one off Amazon yesterday
but maybe it's not too late to cancel. Do you think a wired one will work with Nexremote? The only option is to activate a controller or not so maybe a wired one would be recognized just as well by the software?No idea, to be honest. I was an EQMOD user...very powerful software.
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I found a wireless gamepad to be very hit-and-miss, even when stood beside the receiver. A wired one worked perfectly every time.
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BTW, how’s it going with your new Mesu mount? I saw in another thread where you had commissioned one which caused me to become quite envious when compared to my lowly AVX.
Im getting there. The weather, as usual, is stopping play as it seems horrible when I have free time and clear when I have commitments
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If you did that you would have to ensure that pieces of gravel could not get jammed between the pier and the wood or you would definitely loose isolation!
A bit of duct tape or foam shoved into the gap would sort it.
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Fill the cavity with pea gravel or shingle. Mice are more than happy to chew through wood if they really want to get in. Pea gravel will fill the void and still isolate the pier.
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Sometimes the old adage "Buy cheap, buy twice" applies. ☺
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It looks like you are well out of focus. What looks like stars are hot pixels. The "smudge" is a massively de-focused star.
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Solar imaging advice
in Imaging - Solar
Posted · Edited by Zakalwe
No, guiding isn't necessary. The mounts tracking should be sufficient. if you start doing multi-hour solar animations then good tracking helps a lot.
If you start doing high-resolution animations at long focal lengths (ie with a Quark or modified SCT) then guiding starts to become a very worthwhile feature.
The colour is added in later in the post-processing. You can make the Sun any colour that you like.
Lots of great tutorials over on the SolarChat forum. Mark Townley has a wealth of information on his site:
https://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/p/imaging-tutorials.html
Ken Crawford's tutorials are brilliant too, especially once you become more skilled at post-processing. They are linked on Mark's site.
You'll need Autostakkert for stacking. ImPPG for sharpening. Microsoft ICE does a good job at stitching panes to create mosaics.
I use an old copy of Photoshop for final processing. GIMP would probably work fine, and is free.
Make sure to spec the laptop with a SSD drive and USB3. The newer CMOS cameras with big sensors DEMAND USB3 and a fast disc. They also need a lot of space...I can easily generate a couple of hundred gigabytes of data in an afternoon's imaging session.
For your scope you will need a mono camera with small pixels. A second hand DMK21au618 would be a good starting point. The sensor is a bit small, but they work well in solar. If you could get a Point Grey Chameleon then these are brilliant solar cameras. The chip is sensitive in the right frequency and the pixel size would match your scope well. The later USB3 Chameleon would also work very well.
Be wary of cameras with rolling shutters.....they can cause artefacts with fast moving objects.