Hi 10Chainers: well, the Weather looks a bit ordinary doesn't it? I'm hoping the expected storm clears us by evening or a little later perhaps and leaves us with nice clear skies in its wake. That's what I hope. What the weather Bureau predicts is showers and thundrestorms developing during the day and scattered showers tomorrow. Skippy Sky has painted us red forthe next few days it.
I'll still be here if anyone wants to try their luck.
Peter
I'm putting in apologies Peter.
Merry XMAS to all the gang though. Would love to have seen the year out with a final great night, but its not like we've been too hardly done by. I'm going to save up my brownie points for now.
Many thanks again mate for all your hospitality this year too!
She's in!! The new Pegasus pier is in and holding up the HEQ5Pro and the GSO RC with OAG /DSI and Canon EOS all kitted up to run under EQMOD. That really is about it for now. I've blown the budget for 2009 and 2010 so it's time to take Anex's advice and get on with some serious imaging.
Peter - Looks fantastic.. Hopefully I'll get a chance to see it in operation between xmas and new years, or maybe shortly after... I'll be trying to see the Ponders observatory early in the new year too... I dare say you'll have some fun in that shed now boy!!
How much did the Pier for the HEQ5 cost? I'll have to see if I can adapt the Losmandy pier adapter to one...
Waddyamean, almost??? After the inevitable initial teething and mechanical problems, it was polar aligned in about 20 min (and I won't have to touch it now, though I will check to keep the practice in ). Autoguiding a treat in an hour and imaging camera running and imaging (though only saving a couple) half an our after that. Ran for about 3 hour all up. And steady as a Rock! Woo Hoo!!
Sounds the goods Paul! I've been looking at a few different options for a removable pier in the back yard so that I don't have to check and confirm my alignment every night out.. I've got my mount set up permanently on the tripod, however when I mow the lawns sometimes I give the tripod a bit of a nudge... so every time I use it I still have to check the alignment.. Although with the Toucam and K3 its a 5 minute check/touch up at worst.. A pier will negate the need for that.. I had a look at a few designs of pier adapters for the GM-8, finally deciding to just buy the Losmandy pier adapter... Just got to get myself a pipe from work and some concrete... I figure by march I'll have a pier in for the GM8. Will only have to polar align after new moon weekends..
Waddyamean, almost??? After the inevitable initial teething and mechanical problems, it was polar aligned in about 20 min (and I won't have to touch it now, though I will check to keep the practice in ). Autoguiding a treat in an hour and imaging camera running and imaging (though only saving a couple) half an our after that. Ran for about 3 hour all up. And steady as a Rock! Woo Hoo!!
How much did the Pier for the HEQ5 cost? I'll have to see if I can adapt the Losmandy pier adapter to one...
Mate the pier was $995 and that included the top plate to fit the HEQ5Pro. The finish is excellent. It has an internal electrical channel that emerges down at the base which is handy and is desifned to be back-filled with sand. It's a good size, easy to bolt into a slab and solid as a rock. You could probably rebuild the functionality for a good deal less (like my pier under the EQ6) but the finish is worth the extra.
Peter
How often do you have more than one setup going at once Peter?
So far, not al all. But from now on, with the wireless internet being pushed out to the obs, I expect to be able to set both scopes workingmsimultaneously. Light may be a bit of a problem with so many little LEDs flashing and blinking away though. Time will tell on that one.
One of the reasons I wanted to have a play with that SX of your was to see if it was possible to blend images of the same object from both scopes (despite the differences in scale). AlexN as suggested using one for RGB narrowband and the other for luminance. That sounds like a cracker of an idea and another reason to give your SX another life (that's if you didn't sell it). But apart from that idea, I don't see why I could not have a crck at multiple objects simultaneously. Isn't multitasking the great new skillset of the age? Yuppie tapdancing at it very best.
Peter
That's my starlight not RobF's. I guess you could combine images from the 2 scopes. Here's a FOV image from the sky so they are pretty close but the starlight is only 1.3Mpixels so you'd want L from the QHY8.
I am supposing the ED127 is F7 and the RC is F8 in this image?
Another thing to think of is focus if you want to remote image. You'll need robo focus. The focus will change with temp and possibly with filters as well.
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