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wakefield area

crashtestdummy

By crashtestdummy
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Sammyb

Sammyb

Posted
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Hi yes I'm up for a meeting next week. Wednesdays are dodgy for me - but I should be OK to turn up about 9:30ish.

Steve - yes we could have a look at your GOTO. I find the goto can be a bit variable in accuracy at times - it depends on the stars you align to on the night and also their position in the sky compared to the object you want to view. I have used my laptop to control the GOTO using EQMOD and a planetarium programme called Cartes du Ciel (you can also use Stellarium) - with that method you aren't limited to three alignment points and you can keep adding them to increase accuracy... but its quite fiddly compared to the handset.

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Soupy

Soupy

Posted
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Still up for Wednesday yes. I won't be bringing loads of students but will get the keys so we can have access to the fields at Parker road again if you are up for it, and obviously if the weather holds up. Can aim to get there for 7.30 onwards

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stevemuir

stevemuir

Posted
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Will try to be at Parker Road around 8.30, maybe earlier. Not sure I can bring my scope because I foolishly bent my altitude bolts :-( It's a common rookie error - not sure if I'll have replacements by then. But see you there - or pub if its cloudy!

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stevemuir

stevemuir

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Yup - if you Google 'EQ5 altitude bolts stiff' you get 100s of people with the same thing. Over-tightening, and especially not loosening the opposite bolt enough while tightening, is the prime cause. But in addition, Skywatcher use pretty crappy soft metal (nickel??) for the bolts it seems.

I was lucky in that I didn't strip the thread and could get the bolt out, but others have had to have new threads cut. Many experts and experienced amateurs recommend upgrading te bolts (which I'll have to do ANYWAY) with the following:

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=280618415279

£27 seems a lot to spend on a couple of bolts, but they are hand-made, specially hardened, and to be honest to protest an investment of several £100s I don't think it's too bad!

My luck was also out in that I sheared off one of the axis clutch levers - it was having over the edge just a tiny bit as I used the Goto to slew somewhere and got sheared! At least that's only £6 from the distributor... Still, costly month for two silly, rookie errors! (Though actually the replacement bolts sound a pretty good idea anyway as future protection).

Gosh, that was a long answer...!

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stevemuir

stevemuir

Posted
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Yes it is - but it's been tried a thousand times I think. The answer is that you get what you pay for. I don't think it's right, but the Skywatcher scopes are pretty "cheap" for what you get ("cheap" is relative, of course!!) - better materials would therefore cost more - though for the sake of a couple of bolts you might think they'd be able to do it better...!

Oh well, probably nothing I can do now, though will try with Green Witch, where I got it....

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Soupy

Soupy

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Still on for tomorrow night then at parker road. I will get keys and aim to be there for 7.30. Will mention it to a few on twitter so might get a few extra turnouts, as long as its clear then should be good viewing.

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nicks90

nicks90

Posted
Posted

astropanel says good this evening, but clouding over towards midnight, with another possibly good night tomorrow! Bonus, 2 nights on the trot after 3 weeks of solid clouds :grin:

So I will be there from about 7.30 to test out my new 70mm spotting scope lol and see how good i've collimated the newt.

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