What did the postman bring?

[JeremyS]

1 hour ago, johninderby said:

Nice 👍🏻

Are ypu going to pad the seat?

Mince pies and Christmas pudding should do that

😊

[John]

13 hours ago, UKDiver said:

Only if you're uncomfortable. If you get on with it, then no reason to change.

I quickly moved to a RACI on my Takahashi as well. The Tak finder was a gem but the lowly Skywatcher RACI is more comfortable to use for me and does the job. All the optical finders on my other scopes are RACI as well so I've got used to that orientation for finding generally. As well as the comfort issue it seemed to make sense to me to have finder consistency across my scopes.

Maybe a 3rd party company could come up with a quality RACI conversion for the Tak finders if Tak don't want to go there ?

 

[Dave scutt]

Tripod and extension pillar thanks to Franklin just need a mount , a diagonal and a RACI and a can use my refractor at last

[Oldfort]

Direct from Sky Publishing to UK.

 

 

[Franklin]

55 minutes ago, Dave scutt said:

Tripod and extension pillar thanks to Franklin just need a mount , a diagonal and a RACI and a can use my refractor at last

Hey Dave, it matches your kitchen floor tiles as well. 😃

[Dave scutt]

5 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Hey Dave, it matches your kitchen floor tiles as well. 😃

I don't think Mrs Scutt would let me keep it in the kitchen, maybe she could hang pot's and pans from it🤔

[jacko61]

1 hour ago, Dave scutt said:

Tripod and extension pillar thanks to Franklin just need a mount , a diagonal and a RACI and a can use my refractor at last

I'd be interested in seeing a photo of the whole kitchen floor. This brief glimpse of your insert pattern makes no sense to me.

Graeme

[Dave scutt]

4 minutes ago, jacko61 said:

I'd be interested in seeing a photo of the whole kitchen floor. This brief glimpse of your insert pattern makes no sense to me.

Graeme

I think there's some kind of pattern if you could see it all or maybe the tiler was drunk 🤪

[StevieDvd]

On 14/12/2021 at 18:34, Richard_ said:

Looks super solid! I don't think you'll get any weather related issues with this laptop. 

However, whenever I see laptops like this I am immediately reminded of this scene from Friends 😁 Going by the specs in the video, you can tell this scene hasn't aged well! 

 

That looks like the Panasonic CF-41 I used to setup a portable demo system of my old companies system (retired now). I used the Solaris X86 OS and maxxed the memory and drive space to run the Unix like Solaris system as a server.  The laptop was a measly £6500 in those days, and it needed a mini network hub (really cool in those days). The sales people connected with their own cheaper IBM Thinkpads via the mini network. I had to get a driver for the laptop pcmcia network card written by Sun - so it only worked for the one card.

All the gear arrived on the Monday and was used for a demo in the US on the Friday, we got the deal. I then had to buy/setup another 2 for the following week. Each setup cost around £10,000 so the IT department were not pleased whe told to hold off buying some toner for the laser printers when I had just blown £30,000

A year later we replaced them with Sun Sparcbooks (all SCSI) - even more expensive.  I could not convince them to use Linux back then so had to get the whole thing running on a Windows laptop (still used today) But eventually we were switching everything to cloud based servers,browser based front ends, virtual machines and sub-virtual machines.

A long way from that humble 'cutting edge'  laptop in the video.

 

 

[PeterC65]

TS Optics Photoline 72 / 432 APO.

I've spent way too much time researching a wide field scope to sit alongside my Skymax 127. I'd decided on the Bresser AR102XS but was concerned that CA might be a problem, and anyway, they are like hens teeth. So on Tuesday evening I ordered this from Astroshop, and today, Thursday lunchtime, it arrived. I'd been worried about ordering from Germany, import taxes, longer shipping, but no need. It arrived in perfect condition and VERY quickly. Well done to Astroshop!

The scope feels very well built. I've set the focus control vertically so that I can more easily get to it at higher elevations. It could be set horizontally but then the balance point isn't quite right and its hard to get at when the scope is pointing vertically. In daylight the image looks very sharp, sharper I would say that through the Skymax 127. I can't wait to check it out at night!

[F15Rules]

20 hours ago, JeremyS said:

I must be a fool then😊

There's no way you're a fool, using a straight through finder, Jeremy!!🤗..

..a "pain in the neck",  perhaps??

Dave

Edited December 16, 2021 by F15Rules

[tooth_dr]

2/3 the way there now 😍

[Ian McCallum]

This finally arrived, this morning.  Skywatcher EQ5 Enhanced Dual Axis Motor Drives. 

[Alan White]

Postperson Pete has been today.
My purchase from @Saganite in the classifieds.

Now the xpensive bit begins, all those pairs of EP to now purchse.
Looking forward to the two eyed experience to come.

[Alan White]

51 minutes ago, Ian McCallum said:

This finally arrived, this morning.  Skywatcher EQ5 Enhanced Dual Axis Motor Drives. 

Those work well, had one on a Vixen GP mount, very smooth and nice.

[JeremyS]

4 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Postperson Pete has been today.
My purchase from @Saganite in the classifieds.

Now the xpensive bit begins, all those pairs of EP to now purchse.
Looking forward to the two eyed experience to come.

I hear there’s a Pentax sale on atm Alan 🤣

[Andy ES]

6 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Postperson Pete has been today.
My purchase from @Saganite in the classifieds.

Now the xpensive bit begins, all those pairs of EP to now purchse.
Looking forward to the two eyed experience to come.

Alan, these are in my huge FLO wish list and I would be very interested to know which EPs you get and use.

they come with 20mm EPs when new??

[Saganite]

54 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Now the xpensive bit begins, all those pairs of EP to now purchse.
 

Yeees,  well you've seen my case of eyepiece pairs Al, so If you need help to spend your dosh , just let me know......

[JeremyS]

[Dean Hale]

ADM saddle for the CEM26 mount and a Buckeyestargazer bracket to hold the hand controller both from FLO. No more velcro. I really must sand and varnish the attic floor. I can never find the time.

[Stu]

This arrived today to complete my self assembled FC-76Q from the DCU unit I have recently acquired. Looks great and sits very nicely on the ScopeTech Zero mount still.

Cloud, please go away!!

I must find a better solution than my cut up old National Trust card to protect my new More Blue dovetail.

[Alan White]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

I hear there’s a Pentax sale on atm Alan 🤣

Indeed one is running, sadly the boiler packed up 2 weeks ago and new one I hope arrives on the wall tomorrow.
So sadly no Pentaxes this time for me.
The purchase of the BV was challenge enough for now sadly.
 

[HollyHound]

14 minutes ago, Stu said:

This arrived today to complete my self assembled FC-76Q from the DCU unit I have recently acquired. Looks great and sits very nicely on the ScopeTech Zero mount still.

Cloud, please go away!!

Oh that is lovely 😀

I will be very interested in how this works out, as I have all the component parts too for such a scope and if the FC-76Q is a significant upgrade over the base FC-76DCU and it's stable on the ScopeTech, then I'll try the same 👍

Thanks, Gary

Edited December 17, 2021 by HollyHound

[Stu]

14 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

Oh that is lovely 😀

I will be very interested in how this works out, as I have all the component parts too for such a scope and if the FC-76Q is a significant upgrade over the base FC-76DCU and it's stable on the ScopeTech, then I'll try the same 👍

Thanks, Gary

Thanks Gary, looks nice doesn’t it.

From what I’ve read, I think the biggest improvement is on the FS60C but it will be interesting to see how the 76 goes.

[HollyHound]

5 minutes ago, Stu said:

Thanks Gary, looks nice doesn’t it.

From what I’ve read, I think the biggest improvement is on the FS60C but it will be interesting to see how the 76 goes.

Hi Stu. Yes, I've got the same CQ Extender on my FS-60CB so it's effectively an FS-60Q.... does indeed create a nice flat field and a very useful "quick look" scope. I mainly use it as a second scope alongside one of the bigger scopes, as the FC-76DCU serves as the "grab and go". I do slightly miss the super wide field (almost binocular like) view from the FC-60CB though, so hence the interest and why I might consider moving the extender across to the FC76.... decisions, decisions 🤣