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WADAS (Wakefield and District Astronomical Society)

stonemonkeylives

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mapstar

mapstar

Posted
Posted

On my little refractor, one of the two threaded holes (for the thumb screws that tighten down on the star diagonal) is fractionally too large and the thumb screw won't grip and it just comes straight out.

I have tried the thumb screw from the other side, and that too falls out of this side, so I know it is the little threaded hole rather than the screw.

Is there anything I can put round the screw or in the hole to help to grip/tighten the thumb screw, or do I need to see if I can find a slightly bigger screw.

Trouble is that is only fractionally too big, so the next size screw might be too big.

Obviously, I still have one side to tighten down onto the star diagonal (or DSLR nose piece), but don't feel it is as secure as having them both in.

Any advice would be appreciated :)

Vicky it sounds like the thread is stripped. When we meet up sat just bring it along and we'll see if we can get it sorted
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Ryan P

Ryan P

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Superb meeting last night. Big thanks to Dr Julian Onions. A great insight into the world of Astrophysics. Stars are amazing things. Just pure physics in action! Fascinating stuff!! Sorry I didn't make the curry. Maybe next time.

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adam_sage

adam_sage

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It was a fantastic night and the talk was incredibly interesting, the curry and company was awesome too!! Looking forward to wincer tonight (I'm allowed out to play lol) meant to have clear skies until 4am!!! and its a friday....and I'm running on 3 hours sleep...oh well i can sleep tomorrow lol

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cosmicbug

cosmicbug

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Another successful meeting followed by gorgeous pork chops and curried bacon....

Company wasn't too bad either!

Great night!

Btw.I still think we should have one lecture meeting at the Lounge. A sort of dinner with speech evening and then get to throw food at the speaker if we disapprove!

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Vicky050373

Vicky050373

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Vicky it sounds like the thread is stripped. When we meet up sat just bring it along and we'll see if we can get it sorted

Thank you - will do - see you then :)

Absolutely dreadful weather in Horbury today. Wonder if it'll clear for this evening to do a bit of Damian's fabourite pastime...... lunar viewing lol ;)

Been to the opticians, and it's not the news I was hoping for. I have scar damage across the centre of my cornea, which he believes will be permanent. He warns I may always have this "ghosting" affect in my right eye. They are changing my prescription to see if they can improve it, however this will effect my close up vision even if it improves my distance. I'm gutted, but have to think that there are many people who would swap for my vision. Also, thank goodness it wasn't my eyepiece viewing eye that I damaged! Shame that I'll never get that crisp vision through my binoculars again though, but hey ho.

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Vicky050373

Vicky050373

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I'm just thankful it's not my EP viewing eye! New prescription in my glasses will hopefully improve things, although I don't use my glasses when using a scope or binoculars. Might just have to wear them with my binoculars and see if it helps. I'm not worrying about it. What has been done has been done.

Been busy making a solar filter for my new little cheapie grab-and-go refractor. Well, we've got to live in hope and I needed to "fiddle" with my astro gear.

Was hoping to test the focus of the CCD on the little frac ready for doing some lunar imaging, but the weather has put pay to that today as I need to see clearly across the lagoons to Durkar to test the focus.

Hopefully might get a chance this evening if the weather clears as promised.

My plan is to get the little frac on the Star Adventurer with the mono CCD to see if I can do some AVI's. That's the plan anyway :)

post-39306-0-44962200-1453462916_thumb.j

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Vicky050373

Vicky050373

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I don't know what's happening with this forum and my posts at the moment they seem to disserpear and the when I re do them they appear.

Nice solar filter Vicky hope you get to use it soon

Thanks Mark - yep, it's weird - your post has come through on the thread when I am looking at the iPad, but it hasn't come through on my phone notifications. It's all gone odd lol
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Matt Scunthorpe

Matt Scunthorpe

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Ive not noticed any problems of disappearing posts. Maybe I'm just overseeing it though.

It was a fantastic night and the talk was incredibly interesting, the curry and company was awesome too!! Looking forward to wincer tonight (I'm allowed out to play lol) meant to have clear skies until 4am!!! and its a friday....and I'm running on 3 hours sleep...oh well i can sleep tomorrow lol

Im wondering if its worth going upto Winscar considering the Moon is going to be near full and up most the night.

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Vicky050373

Vicky050373

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I won't be heading to Winscar this evening. The moon is not far from being full, and so it will wash out all the sky anyway. If the intention is to do lunar viewing or imaging then you don't need to go trailing down there to do it.

I have promised my daughter I'll be around this evening as I've been out 3 nights this week, however, I'm hoping to get my gear set up later on if it stops clear after 10pm.

Really want to have a go at doing a bit of CCD lunar imaging whilst The Moon is high and bright :)

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adam_sage

adam_sage

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I just want to try and figure out what im doing so wrong that i cant align it to anything. I have watched a few videos on you tube about 2 star auto align so im hoping to try that if i can just do that one thing tonight i will be happy.

Yeah vicki you have a point going all the way to winscar for the sky to be washed out seems a bit pointless.

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adam_sage

adam_sage

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Does it matter what order you line stars up? And yesh the coordinates are wrong but its hard figuring out how to edit them as the nexstar control has no "undo" button just...."align" "enter" "back" however my plan tonight is to just set it up and just do nothing more than get this one bit figured out

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astrotyke

astrotyke

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Posted

I concure with Matt, ive done it before. first get the coordinates correct, then the time, so at the moment I think it will be universal time with no day light saving, then it could be the stars, but if its the same as my celestron setup, you dont actually need to know the star names as it tells you them once youve pointed the scope to them.

I have always used 3 star alignment on mine, it just seems to work. And also make sure your tripod is nice and level too.

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Matt Scunthorpe

Matt Scunthorpe

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Does it figure out which star is which by a combination of the time and coords?

I use 3 star align, I was always told you two stars that are 'opposite side', ie - so your scope has to turn 180degrees, then one in the middle ish. The idea being that it should give you a better accuracy as its covering more of the sky than if you did 3 stars all in orion etc.

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2STAR

2STAR

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I just want to try and figure out what im doing so wrong that i cant align it to anything. I have watched a few videos on you tube about 2 star auto align so im hoping to try that if i can just do that one thing tonight i will be happy.

Yeah vicki you have a point going all the way to winscar for the sky to be washed out seems a bit pointless.

Adam, make sure  any previous input you have done is not showing, system reverts to previous regarding co-ordinates,( ie; if you have set it at winscar) level the scope accurately, and when you input the date do it USA style mm-dd--yyyy , make sure its not on daylight saving,  co-ordinates should be longtitude first then latitiude,

3 Star alignment I had problems also with, align from west to east and not too far apart , I found that worked for me after much frustration. 

Eric

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adam_sage

adam_sage

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yeah see i did that last time but then it said confirmed i was happy until i told it to slew somewhere and it just went to the floor....so my guess is the coordinates are out but its figuring out how to change them thats the hard part as there is no clear way of doing it

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