Anne S

What's your pitch number? We'll be on yellow T149, also in a motorhome. Anne

I've come across Haw Wood Farm Caravans and Camping near Saxmunden, Suffolk. If you look for it in Googlemaps is has lots of pitches, both hard standing and grassy areas. They also have a cafe. It's around 3 hours from London, again according to Googlemaps. A bit of a trek for FLO (and us) though.

The iPolar is very good but it's detachable on the HAE29 so could be bought later if needed. The altaz setup won't need it and you won't need it for visual in eq mode. For imaging you will need to polar align more carefully to prevent image rotation. You save a bit of cash if you get the iPolar with the mount that's the only advantage.

I use a bench power supply bought from FLO a few years ago. At least at home. At starparties, it's possible to use campsite power by getting a multi socket strip that's ok for outside and an external extension lead. A 12 volt fridge adapter steps the voltage down to 12 volt. I also have a waterproof box to make sure any connections stay dry.

That's gorgeous. Anne

We'll be arriving on 17th, pitch yellow 149. There have been several other threads about Kelling so most will have answered in those. Anne

We'll be there from 17th April. Has anyone ordered the clear skies?

The bottom of the page shows the page was edited this year. Also there's been conversation on fb about one of the speakers whose also having a stall....

I use an outdoor mains cable which is plugged in via a circuit breaker via an outdoor socket on the wall of the garage. I have a bench power supply connected to it convert it to 12 volt. Hitecastro or Pegasusastro Powerbox mointed on the top of the scope, or somewhere on the mount if available. I'm in an observatory so the bench power supply is protected from damp. It's also on a small table. If I don't have a Powerbox with usb ports I use a 12 volt powered usb hub. I then connect usb to mount wiring or direct to pc. I've got usb2 wired through the mount. Laptop sits by the scope to control things. I can connect wirelessly to it but I don't often as I need to rotate the dome fairly often as its manual. My starparty setup has a MINIPC mounted on it so I use wireless to connect and control everything. I plug the extension lead into a mains socket in my motorhome garage. Some use batteries when away from home to power everything. Anne

You don't need bias frames with cmos cameras, just darks, dark flats and flats. Can't comment on the reflections though that's a nasty bright star. Perhaps more, shorter exposures? I have an ASI533 but mostly use ccd cameras. Attached is with a ccd camera, lots of artefacts around the star. It's very frustrating in Carmarthenshire too. Just 2 imaging sessions this season. One hour on the Ring nebula and then a usb issue a few nights ago. Anne

Looking at Device manager in my old - working - laptop there is no COM port mentioned in the list. You won't see a com port unless a device that uses one is plugged in. To find the com port number if your software doesn't find it automatically, open Device Manager, right click on the com ports, and go into properties. I used Eqmod several years ago. In those days it didn't like a com port number above 16. Windows doesn't delete unused ones, though you shouldn't have this issue with a new pc. Anne

We're not this time, we're in Portugal with some members of Swansea Astronomy Society.

Should have said arriving Monday, leaving on 27th.

I'm on yellow T149. We'll have amps Ioptron IEQ45 with a 152mm and 60mm refractors on and an Ioptron IEQ30pro with a 70mm refractor and Atik camera for imaging. Also a Ioptron tracking mount to capture wide field images. Not all my equipment! Anne

I've one too, also used with an ASI533 camera. I use it for travelling on an Ioptron IEQ30PRO. First image below, though I havent used if for a while as I'm going on a trip taking an Atik428 mono camera and filters. I also use a flattener or focal reducer depending on the focal length I want. Though I have a smallish ccd which isn't badly affected by field curvature. Balance can be an issue but I use a long vixen dovetail with the focuser upside down so it can be mounted further forward. Wouldn't work if you wanted a finder though. I use a focus motor which can get in the way otherwise. Enjoy your new scope. Anne

I notice you've got dark ticked in the calibration area. I remove the tick when I don't use darks. I always use bias. I'm using a SXVR694 that doesn't need darks. PI then warns me I don't have any darks but continues calibrating anyway. Maybe that's why you don't have a calibration folder. I don't think it's using your master flat.

I use an Altairastro Hypercam 174 which is a fan cooled cmos camera. It has 5.86 micron pixels and is suited to longer focal lengths. ZWO also do a similar camera. Not sure whether the fan does a great deal. It's a 1/2 inch chip. It's very easy to focus accurately. Please excuse the processing, I need to work on it. This was taken during the previous sun cycle when there wasn't much to see.

We use our Quark with an Altairastro Ascent f7 80mm scope.

I'm using the Powerbox micro with the autofocus accessory and a Beelink U59 mini pc. My travelling setup. I'm also using a GLNet Mango travel router to create a hotspot at star parties so I can connect to the mini pc, no wifi available. I've a spare variable power socket on my Powerbox micro. The travel router is charged using a usb cable as it takes 5 volts. Has anyone used the variable power socket to power the router using a micro usb to 2.1 mm jack? I've seen one on Amazon but it says it powers something else. I don't want to damage anything. The router only takes 1 amp and I'm nowhere near maxing out the Powerbox. At the moment I'm using a small battery pack. Thanks (Sorry to hijack l the thread!)

What about Erwlon Caravan and Camping Site. They have a field for tents some pitches with electric points. Full facilities. It's just south of Llandovery but walking distance into town. According to Clear outside it's bortle 3. Llandovery is around 20 miles west of Brecon along the A40.

Here is my version of the Californa Nebula imaged in my back garden using an Atik 428 and Altairastro 70mmEDT Starwave refractor. I used Ha and Sii filters, processed as a bicolour image, Ha to red and Sii to blue and green. At two panel mosaic with 10x600s for each filter on each panel. Taken over a couple of nights in April when we had a fortnight of mostly clear skies. I was careful to complete both panel with each filter on the same night. I did try a few Oiii subs but didn't perserver as I would have need a very large number of subs to show anything other than stars! Stacking and calibration was done with Astropixelprocessor. Further processsing done with Pixinsight. One of my best images I think. Anne

My eq6 was a lot noisier before I had it done but it was an old eq6. Your heq5 may have been quieter to start with.

What about this.TS-Optics padded Carrying Case for SC RC MAK from 6" to 8" Aperture it states RC6. found it on another vendor site.

I've also got a 6 inch RC. I think the size is closer to an 8 inch SCT, which I've also had in the past. It's certainly a very generous 6 inch external dimension.

I had my eq6 belt modded years ago. Afterwards is was mostly a high pitched wine, a bit like yours. Is yours quieter with the cover on?