billhinge

On 18/03/2021 at 22:52, Shimrod said:

I've read that the Skyportal would work with the advanced GT (although not officially a supported mount) if you connect it to the hand controller port - but it would be cheaper to buy a replacement controller.

I had the Skyportal wifi dongle, used with  CG5-ASGT but  I sold it  a few months back. Did work and I'm pretty sure it was supported when I  bought it otherwise I wouldn't have

I  have the skywatcher EQ6-R now and I have to  say I prefer skywatcher

One thing I dislike about the CG5 is the noise. I turned my CG5 into a frankenstein before I  bought the EQ6. You will find the plastic motor housings amplify the  motor noise like a soundbox so I  took them off 😉 

(I was going to make a free hanging housing)

Two methods

1  - RGB stars  blended with HaLRGB galaxy with colour masked curves tweaks (looks darker here than  PI  despite SRGB profile?)

2- Images in full HaLRGB - normal & lighter versions

======================

• PI Dynamic background extraction on Ha
• Create new L  with old L plus Ha
• Create HaLRGB with SHO-AIP blend
• ArcSinhStretch
• Dynamic crop of uneven right and bottom edge
• Slight amount of LAB curves
• DarkStructure Enhance
• Sharpen
• Adjust  colour balances, AI Noise reduce & Super res in  Pixelmator

got mine today, really love the soft texture of the cover  etc, certainly oozes quality

Hi Francis

Thanks for that, it says still in transit between 

SAN FRANCISCO, UNITED STATES and  destination,  I'll keep an eye open, mind you still waiting  for the ebook  (checked spam  filters etc)

On 15/02/2021 at 11:46, fwm891 said:

General enquiry.

I ordered the books early December after downloading the electronic versions as I felt the book would be easier to work with.

I've emailed enquiring for updates but not heard anything?

Anyone ordered around the beginning of December 2020 and got their copies...

I received a reply to say that the book was in transit, just leaving the US, also received the pdf version

However, I also bought  the Deep Sky Colors ebook and despite asking twice via the contact email I have had no response after 2 weeks  (I don't use facebook)

Replenishment I believe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane_on_Mars

Methane (CH4) is chemically unstable in the current oxidizing atmosphere of Mars. It would quickly break down due to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the Sun and chemical reactions with other gases. Therefore, a persistent or episodic presence of methane in the atmosphere may imply the existence of a source to continually replenish the gas.

If you want a fluorite no expense spared

https://www.baader-planetarium.com/en/accessories/optical-accessories/barlow-lenses-coma-and-glaspathcorrectors/fluorite-flatfield-converter-(ffc)--3x-8x.html

https://www.astro-physics.com/bpffc

I believe you can get x2 with minimum distance, maybe  overkill though 🙂

define best grease, everyone has a favourite, there are more holy war threads about grease on the internet than anything 😂

Personally I used WS2 grease, developed by nasa, slippiest substance known to  man, you can  make teflon slippier, its hard, thin, overtime it  binds into  the metal and  you can actually powder coat metal to  dry lubricate without grease, they use it in space and high performance engineering

http://ws2.co.uk/engineering-ws2-applications.php

seems to be hard to get the grease/powder in this country, I had to order it from US several years ago

but many  people seem to recommend superlube, I also tried lubriplate plus various  teflon bike greases all seem to work but not sure how to pick the best (wasn't keen on bike grease I seem to recall)

My basic SHO in Pixinsight ; same  starting point with red=SII+Ha mix, green=Ha+OIII mix, blue=OIII in pixelmath then alltered in curves LAB to make red-blue 

not sure which direction I prefer 😉 

Presumably you looked on cloudy do-dahs https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/680923-dead-celestron-avx-motor-board-nxw445-rev-h/  could  this be similar issue?

How old is the  battery?, many years ago I had a desktop pc go funny due to the bios battery

My old CG5-AGT doesn't have a battery  

As  I recall from recent research and tinkering the handset and aux ports share a common bus (not the autoguider  port) hence probably why the handset can see the starsense

Hi Pete

Here is a teaser http://planetary-astronomy.com/index.php/preface/ for those who haven't seen it, read a couple of chapters, very good (nice glossy print, coffee table style book), even has  a chapter on telescope tuning and customisation, cameras, adc, uranus and neptune. http://planetary-astronomy.com/index.php/content/

On 04/11/2019 at 20:57, Pete Presland said:

Reading through the thread under the advert, there is question asking about the English version in September. The response is "still working on it"

I received my copy last week, 288 pages of very detailed stuff inc hardware, definitely the most comprehensive and professional planetary imaging book to date (hadn't had time to read it properly  yet)

no problem 

1 hour ago, RobertI said:

Sorry to divert thread slightly - interested to hear you have done a belt mod to the CG5-GT. Was it easy to do and did it make the mount quieter?

yes it  was, I did the  sums and bought premium parts, there is a write up here 

I also took the electronics out of the plastic sound boxes, those plastic things seem to magnify the sound. I had planned to put the electronics in a dedicated box and add damping to the motors (so far just a piece of blutak - works in high end audio 😉 

If you are  interested I  have a CG5-ASGT  which  is surplus to req,  I  upgraded the bearings and  converted to belt drive, replaced one of  the  motors from David Hinds.

I had planned on  selling it for parts at some  time this year if you don't mind waiting, bit time poor at the moment  (there is an  £80 abec 7 bearing  in the RA that I want to remove, still got the old one)

If no one wants it  I'll just  use it for  further experiments 😉 

Class action seems a bit dodgy to me, who benefits?

I get the support aspect but it doesn't leave you with many  viable alternatives in this price point? Vixen / ioptron?

I presume  they are still made unless there is a huge surplus stock?

http://skywatcher.com/download/software/    => http://skywatcher.com/where-to-buy/  => http://www.xdwyj.com/ ?

I could order one and hopefully lock in the price, 3 or 4 months would fit my timeline perfectly, I'm taking the delay into account (been waiting on a filter since October 😉 

Thanks, I'm tempted to get one, do I want one, yes, do I need one, not sure

If you had the cash, no questions asked, would you be tempted to upgrade to an eq8-r just to be 100% certain weight was never a problem? Say mounting a C11 plus heavy cameras for example

I recently had the celestron and the skywatcher dongle, we have lots of different wifi signals in my house from my own devices plus neighbours.

From the respective trouble shooting guides it stated 'try low data  mode' - that worked for me, low data mode doesn't mean what it sounds like

 Low Data Mode turns off routine background tasks that would ordinarily use data. When you turn on Low Data Mode, your iPhone may stop performing some common activities like automatic video playback, automatic updates, and automatic photo backup.

On 09/07/2020 at 23:18, johninderby said:

If you can afford it Asgard steel high security sheds are ideal. 5 point locking on the door and high security lock. Built in ventilation system. Mine never gets any condensation inside. Police and insurance rated.

Only downside is the cost. ££££

I  have one of those, great sheds, lasted for years with no sign of rust etc.

Only trouble is mine is full of junk now, perhaps I should clear it out (again) 😉 

Right, thanks Miguel - I am building my setup as purely photographic & robotic. I wasn't sure if the starsense would fit before sharpcap,ipolar/polemaster polar alignment or indeed it was needed at all?

(when I bought the starsense I was working visually with a dslr on a limited budget - not so much now)