Bolt it to the house !

[ollypenrice]

This is all too good! I love something with a bit of attitude, something which has its own agenda and knows where it's going.

I think that it is important to remember that we don't just want results, we also want to enjoy getting those results. We want to have fun doing what we do.

Olly

[orley]

This is all too good! I love something with a bit of attitude, something which has its own agenda and knows where it's going.

I think that it is important to remember that we don't just want results, we also want to enjoy getting those results. We want to have fun doing what we do.

Olly

So say we all

[saac]

This is all too good! I love something with a bit of attitude, something which has its own agenda and knows where it's going.

I think that it is important to remember that we don't just want results, we also want to enjoy getting those results. We want to have fun doing what we do.

Olly

Viewmaster what a fantastic project , your determination and ingenuity in overcoming obstacles is inspiring.  I think Olly's comments above sum up exactly what so many of us get out of this hobby - and that's even before we get our eye or CCD to the telescope.  Good luck with the project, you have me hooked.

Jim

[Viewmaster]

A little more progress, cocoon now mounted on top of pier.

The tongues in the top section are for guiding the top onto the bottom after stowing camera away.

The cocoon Is positioned right on the SW corner of the house where the soil pipe is.

Directly behind the window will be the control consol.

Don't anybody dare say that the house wall needs redecorating.

[Viewmaster]

OK, here's the nice cumfy warm control room being assembled. 

Security camera  monitor just above PC to enable me to

keep an eye on things. 

Box to right of PC contains all controls.

 Just outside that window is the two part cocoon.

Cable lengths from PC to camera gear is about 5ft.

[RichM63]

I think that it and you are just BRILLIANT!!!

I'm hanging in anticipation of your 'First Light' shots.

PS, my kind of clock.

[Viewmaster]

Here is first light of stars taken on the house wall mounted rig.

1 minute at iso 100  f2.8  There is a slight red halo on some stars caused by an Astronomik CLS filter

behind the lens.

(No PHD guiding in this shot, just Stellarium mount control BTW)

I had to lower the iso to 100 as the f2.8 lens  overexposes at 1 minute.

There is no sign of house wall wobble nor thermal effects through the bedroom's centrally heated room wall during the 1 minute sub.

The focus needs a tiny adjustment but I have difficulty getting stars to show in backroom EOS focus so far. 

So it seems that house wall mounted rigs, controlled from indoors will work.

It now occurs to me that maybe Stellarium tracking is good enough without any guiding

in the future 

It was only by chance that I had PHD turned off last night and relied entirely upon Stellarium

to do the tracking for me over that 1 minute.

So, anyone want to buy a redundant QHY5 ll  

[Cath]

Try it and see ?

If so, then please report back

[RichM63]

Darn, I missed being the first person to comment on the 'First Light'.

You Sir are an inspiration!!!!

Thank you very much for allowing the likes of me, to follow your journey.

All the very best,

Rich...

[D4N]

Great to see some images coming out of such an interesting project.

I take it you have the non-ccd version of the CLS filter and a modded DSLR that is causing the red bloat?

I never understood why they don't put IR block on those.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Viewmaster]

I have the CCD version and yes, the camera is modded.   A Canon 450d with f2-8 prime lens.

[ollypenrice]

Nice to see the updates!

I like analogue clocks, too. Digital ones don't present you with the time, they present you with a calculation to make...

Olly

[Viewmaster]

I like analogue clocks, too. Digital ones don't present you with the time, they present you with a calculation to make...

Olly

Maybe, one day, someone might suggest that Big Ben's clock in London be modified to become digital

[RichM63]

Maybe, one day, someone might suggest that Big Ben's clock in London be modified to become digital

But St Stephens clock already is. It requires the bloke to use his digits to move the balance pennies and set the time. Thus digital!

PS I'm the guy with the digital hammer, screw driver, and spanner. ;) I've embraced the "Digital Age"...

[Viewmaster]

Digital readout multi meters are useless.  Try to see how a voltage is varying for instance

when fault finding.

With analogue one can see the needle moving up and down or wavering. On digital it's just

a fast moving mess of numbers.  Digital OK for steady volts only.

[Viewmaster]

My wall mounted rig will never be able to take a long focal length scope. 

But to experiment I have got myself a 900mm f8 mirror lens (listen to the groans  )

I know that mirror lenses are taboo for astro work. Slow and poor images. 

One reason is the difficulty in focusing the beasts.

Here is my solution.  A 900mm lens adapted to focus at infinity only. 

A quarter turn on that small screw (6ba),  against a rubber compression stop moves the lens barrel around by 4 thou.

So,  using backyardEOS I should be able to get a finer focus.

This is all experimental and I  look forward to seeing the focused but degraded  images of the 900mm.

[RichM63]

No groaning here, I have a 500mm f6 version and stick a 2x convertor on the back, well hey...... we all like a 'challenge'.

Actually without the convertor it's not that bad on the Moon. Not quite as drastic but I have fine marked 'real' infinity because the lens does focus past infinity.

For daytime use I use an AF confirm adapter which does help with focusing on birds etc, I also use this when I'm daft enough to use my ST80 as a camera lens.

Look forward to some images with your rig.

Rich...

[Viewmaster]

Rich, Have you ever done any imaging with the 500mm f6 with or without the  converter or only used it for daytime shots?

That converter would give you 1000mm at f24 as against my 900mm at f8.  

[RichM63]

Howdy, I took some shots of the Moon over the winter but have not kept them. They were on a static mount single frame only just to see if it was posible. with and without.

On a bright full Moon I badly over exposed, my error.

With your setup you should do much better and it looks like you have found a method for focusing.

and focusing will be the issue, even a hair width movement removes all detail.

Have  fun.

Check out this SGL thread for an example. Samyang 800mm Moon

[Psychobilly]

Rich, Have you ever done any imaging with the 500mm f6 with or without the  converter or only used it for daytime shots?

That converter would give you 1000mm at f24 as against my 900mm at f8.  

Nice DIY job for the fine focus 

I think the maths are wrong in there somewhere.... a doubled 500/f6 doesn't become a 1000/f24.... but  closer to a 1000/f12...

Peter...

[Viewmaster]

Of course the real test is on stars, just pin points of light, not the moon.

Peter, doubling the focal length with a x2 converter, or in fact any other way, doesn't halve the exposure but quarters it.

f6 halved exposure is f12, but quartered is f24

Normal stops run f2, f2.8, f4, f5.6, f8, f11 and so on. Each stop is a halving of exposure so a two stop jump as in our case, caused by doubling the focal length, quarters it.

[Psychobilly]

I think we will agree to differ

f5.6 with a 1.4X convertor becomes f8... f5.6 with a 2x convertor becomes  f11.... etc....

N=f/D where

The 500/f6 has an effective apertures of 83.3333 mm So plugging in the numbers.... with the 2 x convertor  = (500x2)/83.3333  = 12....

My 600/f4 becomes a 840/f5.6  with a 1.4X TC (one stop increase ) or 1200/f8 with a 2x TC (two stop increase)

Peter...

[Viewmaster]

Peter, I just rushed to edit my stupid post and you have beaten me to it.

I must have had a brain storm arguing as I did in error.

Sorry to have wasted your time. Of course f6 to f12 is a quarter exposure.

[Psychobilly]

No worries you havent wasted my time - you had me questioning myself on something I use on a regular basis always good to exercise the grey matter

It's great to see the results from your setup and I look forward to seeing more of them...

Peter...

Peter...

[RichM63]

LOL, you had me wondering how the heck I could over expose with an f24 lens. (but with me, anything is possible )

One "Peter tip" on focusing the beast that works best for me, try focusing beyond the target and then bringing it back into focus works better than trying to hit focus on the outward journey. (I now use this technique with all my lenses when manually focusing).

Cheers,

Rich