Monthly Archives: February 2012

Observation Report, 18 Feb 2012

My plan for this evening was to spend a bit of time collimating the 127 Mak having had it in pieces a week or so back and then attempt some imaging of Mars, but strong winds made that completely impossible. … Continue reading

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EQ3-2 Polar Scope Illuminator

I’ve read a few posting by people who have made polar scope illuminators for their EQ5 mounts and as I find aligning my EQ3-2 very awkward thanks to the lack of illumination of the reticle I decided to attempt to … Continue reading

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Mains Power for Skywatcher Motor Focuser

Now I have the motor focuser on the 127 Mak I decided it might be useful to be able to power it from the mains when the opportunity arose. I had a rummage around for a suitable power connector socket, … Continue reading

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EQ3-2 Mount Tune-Up (Part Three)

My EQ3-2 mount came with a pair of motors installed for the RA and DEC axes. I’ve had no major issue with the RA motor, but backlash in the DEC axis was very bad. Up to now my experience of … Continue reading

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Skywatcher 127 Mak Focuser Motor Drive Conversion

It seems to be fairly widely accepted that the 127 Mak suffers badly from vibration when the focuser is adjusted by hand on the mounts it’s shipped with as standard. That’s certainly the case with mine. For me, it would … Continue reading

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Splitting Eggs

Though it’s much warmer today we’ve had four or five days on the trot where the temperatures have barely risen above freezing, getting down to close to -10C on one occasion. One of the unexpected results of this sudden cold … Continue reading

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Solar PV Generation Update, Feb 2012

It’s the start of another month and time to review our solar PV installation once more… Generation for January was 120kWh, almost double the estimated production for this area during January. In fact, every month so far we’ve exceeded not … Continue reading

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