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By DeepSkyMan
Guys
just wondering what options are available for me to upgrade the standard SXW Vixen clamp to enable it to accept Losmandy style dovetails. I recently acquired a CGE dovetail that I would like to use with my 8” Edge.
Kind Regards
Paul
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By andyrawlins
Hi All
After much research, primarily on this site and The Binocular Sky, I got hold of the above binoculars. I spent ages writing a review specifically for this site of what I found, as a thanks for all the advice I had received. By the power of idiocy I then managed to post it on Cloudy Nights instead (I had both open in my browser). Too much Christmas port I guess
Anyway, too late to take it down as some have already replied and I guess I shouldn't post the same thing on two sites so here is a link to my review on completely the wrong site No offence at all to Cloudy Nights but I wrote it with the Stargazers Lounge audience in mind and it may make less sense on a US site.
Comparison of Pentax SP 50 WP 10x50 and Nikon Action EX 10x50 CF
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By ZS1RA
After what felt like a decade my Mesu e200 was finally delivered. It is such a beautiful piece of machinery, no frills just pure functionality.
I had the counter weights manufactured locally and completed the mechanical assembly, pretty straight forward. Thanks to @Jonk, https://stargazerslounge.com/profile/37161-jonk/ for providing me with the dimensions for a 16,5kg counterweight in stainless steel. I downloaded and installed SciTech.exe plus the other bits of software to make it work. The only thing I’m still uncertain about is Carte du Ciel. I’m used to Stallerium for my Skywatcher and Celestron PWI, which I love. I guess I’ll just have to get used to CDC.
I need some assistance and would appreciate help. My mount is not going to have the luxury of a permanent pier, I have to move it off the balcony every time I’ve finished my session. I have a very limited view of the South (I’m in South Africa) and no view of the SCP. Despite this I can polar align to a high degree of accuracy with the Synscan routine embedded in the SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro hand controller. Having had a cursory glance at the help menu in the SciTech Polar Alignment tab and it appears that I will need to have a view of the Celestial Pole. Does anyone have advice please?
Thanks Shaun
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By Zermelo
I saw a suggestion somewhere (possibly in SGL) to attach lights to your tripod legs (dark-adaption-friendly ones, of course). The idea being to avoid accidental collisions, especially at star parties or outreach events. We experience this quite regularly at home too, so I decided it was worth pursuing (and also, as users of go-to functionality, I’m getting tired of repeating alignment operations throughout the evening).
The very simple idea was a (removable) clip for each leg, each with an LED. I briefly considered a self-contained battery to power each, but decided that charging them was too much hassle (and I also doubted finding LEDs that would operate at such low voltage). Instead, they would be fed from the USB port on the power supply I previously rigged up. I thought the LEDs would be more noticeable if flashing, and found these.
My SkyWatcher 150i tripod has 1.25” upper legs and 1” lower. Since collisions are most likely with the lower legs, it was that diameter I worked with. I looked for plastic pipe clips of this size (the most common ones are 15mm and 22mm used for plumbing) and found these. They have a hole for a fixing screw that can be used to hold an LED, and they have a hinged collar for holding the tube, which preserves a gap that allows electrical connections to pass.
The screw hole in the clip was wide enough to admit the LED body but not the rim. To allow the LED to protrude from the clip I drilled out the holes a little wider, and about 2/3 of the distance through the clip. The LED could then be pushed through until the rim engaged, and the terminal leads were bent into a succession of right angles to guide them to the top of the clip. I found some twin speaker wire in my junk box, and soldered lengths to each LED’s terminals. The clips have a channel along the edge to allow them to be ganged together. I opened them out with a needle file so that the speaker wire was a tight fit when pressed in – this was for strain relief.
I covered over the soldered joints with some scrap plastic strip, screwed into the clip, and pushed some Araldite into the hole and around the exposed metal, to prevent shorting:
These LEDs seem to work on 5.1V without needing a series resistor, so I twisted the positive and negative ends of the three speaker cables to run directly in parallel. I cannibalised a USB cable for its male socket, and soldered it (with a bit of its flex) to the speaker wires. The USB wires were quite flimsy, so I reinforceded the joint by gluing, sliding over some bits of thin plastic tubing and wrapping with duct tape.
The clips are a very tight fit onto the tripod legs; with hindsight I’d try to find some slightly larger. I’d planned on adding and removing them as needed, but decided to leave them permanently attached:
Total cost: £8.39
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By Harmann Multani
Hey everyone,
I'm new to visual astronomy and I have an Astromaster 130EQ by Celestron. I have a problem with my tripod. It is the standard stainless steel tripod which comes with the telescope. I am having issues with leveling it as it bends as soon as the weight of the counterweights, mount and optic tube is put. Please help me.
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