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Hi from Sunderland

ianaiken

By ianaiken
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ianaiken

ianaiken

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Hey all :rolleyes:

I've been reading the forums for sometime when I get a chance and thought it was about time to say hi. I live in Sunderland North and have been interested in Astronomy for sometime. Please accept my apologies for the amout of cloud we are getting in the UK, I am afraid I have been contributing to this heavily as I keep buying something every two weeks so it doesn't get a chance to clear :glasses2:.

Earlier this year (March) I took the plunge and decided to get some kit as widefield star trails, although interesting, were limited. I think one of the main reasons for my investment was that being a newish father (daughter is 17 months old) I needed something non computer orientated that I could do at home. So here I am ;)

My kit is the following:

SW 100ED DS-PRO + Finderscope (I couldn't afford the 120ED, and it was pointless getting the 80ED as my existing lenses could match the focal length). I needed something that gave both imaging and observing capabilities and I am very happy with it, a good all rounder with minimum fuss and setup.

HEQ5 Syntrek (With EQMOD)

Electric focusser

0.85x Focal Reducer

Canon 40D Modded

SW 28 LET and TR-Planetary 6mm EP's

QHY5 Guidecam on Second Finderscope (works really well)

ADM Dual Mount bar in case I want to share with Friends or my Father.

Sigma 120 - 400mm Lens

Sigma 1.4 EX TC

Sigma Wide Angle

Canon 17 - 85

13 miles of cables to connect it all

Currently building a Peltier box for dSLR, actually I'm onto my third revision.

Loads more stuff like powertank, USB hubs, but these are the main bits.

I don't have an OBS but I've got setup to around 20 mins and tear down to about 10 mins.

Software wise: APT, BYEOS, Ascom, PHD, AstroPlanner, Cartes Du Ciel, DSS, CS5, Noel's Actions etc... I control everything from a laptop or game controller if I am feeling a bit adventurous.

So far I've done a bit observing and had a few imaging sessions. I've observed Juptier (could see the bands) and the moon. It was pretty amazing and I look forward to more. Imaging wise - M31, M51, IC 1396, M81, M101 and a few others, all at different stages of my "development" while collecting kit. Most images are unfinished due to experience resulting in not capturing sufficient subs (yet). For instance, I spent 4 hours the other night when it was finally clear, but only got 56 mins of subs on IC 1396 just due to daft things, from which I have gained some valuable experience from which is great.

Hopefully I will be past this developmental stage by the time it really does get clear, if it ever does, as I've heard reports that we are in for a bad cloudy Winter :(

You will notice that I come and go on forums but that's all down to my hectic lifestyle.

Ian

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