Category Archives: Astronomy

NEQ6 belt mod, part #2

Posted on June 11, 2020 by james

The first job was to remove the control panel by undoing the four outer screws (the inner ones hold the circuit board in place). What’s inside is actually pretty uncomplicated: That actually looks less threatening than the inside of the … Continue reading →

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NEQ6 belt mod, part #1

Posted on June 11, 2020 by james

Just before the bank holiday this arrived in the post courtesy of First Light Optics: Such was my enthusiasm for getting started that I’m not sure I have a photo of the contents, so until I find it (assuming it … Continue reading →

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NEQ6 belt mod kit arrives

Posted on June 10, 2020 by james

No excuses not to get on with this now. A little delayed (it was ordered at the same time as the HEQ5 Pro kit), but it has now arrived…

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HEQ5 belt mod

Posted on June 10, 2020 by james

I’ve had my HEQ5 Pro for somewhere around seven years and to be honest it’s always sounded like a bag of nails when slewing and has had a fair bit of backlash, so the Rowan belt mod has been on … Continue reading →

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Definitely not a meteorite :(

Posted on June 10, 2020 by james

After M51 I decided to move on to a new target and have a crack at M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy. There’s been a lot of fuss about Elon Musk’s starlink constellation and the effects they’re having, and here’s the first … Continue reading →

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A first attempt at M51

Posted on June 10, 2020 by james

Through March and into April I attempted to image Messier 51 with my Skywatcher ED80 and Atik 314L+ (mono). I ended up with twenty-six five-minute luminance exposures and nineteen three-minute exposures for each of red, green and blue for a … Continue reading →

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Possible meteorite image?

Posted on June 10, 2020 by james

I suspect long exposure images that catch genuine meteorites burning up are not that common and I try quite hard to explain any unexpected trails on my images as satellites or aircraft, but this one doesn’t seem to fit and … Continue reading →

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Guidescope in need of TLC

Posted on June 10, 2020 by james

I recently purchased a used Celestron 80mm guidescope with a focal length of 600mm. Normally I’d probably have gone for another ST80, but in fact I wanted this one to use with a slightly longer focal length OTA anyhow, so … Continue reading →

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Interesting guiding drift plot

Posted on June 10, 2020 by james

In relatively poor seeing recently, the drift plot for guiding in Ekos showed up like this: An interesting pattern, I thought, like three circles on a line through the centre of the plot. I can’t explain either the circles or … Continue reading →

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Odd diffraction spikes from a refractor

Posted on June 10, 2020 by james

The other night I was framing an image using my 80ED and Atik 314L when I noticed that some stars in one corner of the image had odd diffraction spikes: I couldn’t see what the problem was at all at … Continue reading →

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