Visitors

[Ags]

I have discovered that the more wires and cables there are coming out of my telescope, the more impressed visitors are!

[John]

Nobody will be impressed by my scopes - no wires at all 🙄

Perhaps I'll add some dummy ones to make the rigs look more "technical" !

 

[Stu]

When I took my scope (FS-128 on Rowan AZ100 Goto) to show my daughter’s class, they nearly fell off their chairs when I made it Goto where Jupiter should be and thought it very cool that it was controlled by my phone.

[Ags]

They weren't impressed by the FS-128? Philistines! They need some eddycation!

[Alan White]

Its all Dark Magic I tell you.......
Wires are the sign of a frustrated IT technician, the more the merrier.


 

[Vroobel]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

When I took my scope (FS-128 on Rowan AZ100 Goto) to show my daughter’s class, they nearly fell off their chairs when I made it Goto where Jupiter should be and thought it very cool that it was controlled by my phone.

 

I'm still impressed by the GoTo, it's a kind of robotics!  I felt a similar thrill when I modified my EQ5 by adding stepper motors and an OnStep controller, so what about building a mount from scratch? Friends, neighbours and their friends were speechless with shock. A lot of cables, screws, motors, etc...  

[Emperor!Takahashi!]

I don't have visitors because there's no space for them with the telescopes and all of that.

[Elp]

2 hours ago, Ags said:

I have discovered that the more wires and cables there are coming out of my telescope, the more impressed visitors are!

They should see my "IT spares bag". Doesn't make the bag more technical mind.

[Paul M]

One can only imagine what a non-astro visitor might make of a complex rig.

I mean, a lot of the scopes containing mirrors don't even advertise their purpose, Add some cameras and cables and computers and it's probably unfathomable.

It'll be 7 or 8 months after my last session before I get out again, minimum. When I do I'll be both impressed and baffled by all those cables!

[wimvb]

11 hours ago, Vroobel said:

I'm still impressed by the GoTo, it's a kind of robotics!

Then you should see an automated meridian flip with target platesolving. It will knock you off you chair. Literally if you sit too close. 🙃

 

 

Edited Saturday at 07:23 by wimvb

[Vroobel]

1 hour ago, wimvb said:

Then you should see an automated meridian flip with target platesolving. It will knock you off you chair. Literally if you sit too close. 🙃

 

 

 

Me? 🙂 I see it often in my garden, sometimes twice at the time, because I have two (three?) automated mounts now. Anyway, the GoTo and Plate Solve are really awesome pieces of robotics and maths. 

A few years ago I was developing my own system controlling a motorised Dobsonian. It was written in Python. I had to read nearly whole Jean Meeus' 'Astronomical Algorithms' book to understand enough the sky mechanics to write RA/Dec -> Alt/Az conversion formulas. It worked quite good. The GoTo and tracking were satisfying, but I met some problems with a physical inaccuracy, so I abandoned the project. I started building a heavy EQ fork mount and this was the thing that made my friends' and neighbours' jaws drop.  😁

Edited Saturday at 08:58 by Vroobel

[tomato]

On 22/06/2024 at 08:21, wimvb said:

Then you should see an automated meridian flip with target platesolving. It will knock you off you chair. Literally if you sit too close. 🙃

 

 

Love the frost on the tube…

[wimvb]

2 hours ago, tomato said:

Love the frost on the tube…

There wasn’t that much. The SkyWatcher ”black diamond” finish enhances the effect.

What I don’t love is how bright anodised aluminium looks in IR light. The camera body is red (zwo) aluminium, and the adapters and filter wheel are black anodised. It’s difficult to tell the difference in this clip.

 

Edited Tuesday at 11:13 by wimvb

[ollypenrice]

See what it says on my catchphrase below.

lly

[wimvb]

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

See what it says on my catchphrase below.

lly

I bought a few extra just yesterday.

[bingevader]

9 hours ago, tomato said:

Love the frost on the tube…

Me too, very sparkly!

[wimvb]

2 hours ago, bingevader said:

Me too, very sparkly!

In astrophotography ”sparkly” is only good in the final image, imho.

[JOC]

When it works the goto on the Skywatcher 200P that I have is really good, but I found it was very easy to tie it up in knots (unbalance is particularly horizontally) by adding just large single EP's and if I use the scope I must admit I do just push it to where it is needed rather than using the expensive on-board system

Edited Wednesday at 13:01 by JOC

[Vroobel]

I have a similar kind of problem, but I think it's opposite. I added the OnStep GoTo to my EQ5 and I lost the ability of quick moving the scope, like manualy. Now I think about a StellarMate platform based on Raspberry Pi as it offers an app working on a smartphone. I already have the fully working RPi which I used with Astroberry before I bought an ASIAir, but I'm very reluctant, I don't like it's INDI, Ekos etc. too much. I look rather towards an ASIAir mini with its very comfy interface and stability. It would be great for observations with bino and also useful in planetary/solar/lunar imaging, even if I use a fast laptop for that purpose.

Edited Wednesday at 13:14 by Vroobel