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Wednesday: Spent a few seconds looking at the sun in several hours of waiting for clouds to clear. It has been getting worse instead of better. The sun is only about 10 degrees above the horizon so there is a very long path for cloud to intervene.
I had the Neximage5 in the 7" and then in the H-a 6" but any image on the laptop screen was only measurable in the microseconds. The Neximage5 is very unreliable and the connection keeps getting dropped. I think the mini-USB socket is poor, loose or badly soldered. It has been like this from brand new. The slightest change in the cable tension causes the camera to be lost by the imaging software. This is true of several different softwares I have tried now.
I have ordered a Simple Handset from AWR to hang from the focuser. The distance is always too great from the laptop to center the image before registering a Sync following a Goto. The IH2 handset now has two cables dangling [now including the ASCOM serial cable to the IH2] so is too unwieldy to take to the focuser. So I have it parked just above and to the right of the laptop. I can run the Simple Handset cable along the OTA to avoid changes in balance. Allowing the Simple Handset to be hung permanently near the focuser and always ready for easy centering.
Yesterday's shopping trip took me past a charity shop. So I nipped in hoping to find a laptop carrying case/bag. I was amazingly lucky and bought a nice bag [in as new condition] for about £4 equivalent. My laptop fits snugly with plenty of padding, rubber feet, loop handle on top and an adjustable, shoulder strap. Large pockets front and back now hold the PS and the mouse mat respectively.
It had become quite a problem carrying the 15.6" laptop and its bulky PS. While walking back and forth to the observatory, in all weathers, day and night. With nowhere to put anything down safely while I locked and unlocked the doors which required both hands. I could only balance the laptop between my feet. Which was hardly practical and easily damaging to the cosmetic finish.
Now I have everything I need in one, well protected, easily carried bag. Handy for climbing [aznd descending] the steep, internal stepladder up to the dome. Rather than balancing the bare, slippery and heavy laptop under one arm. These laptop bags aren't particularly expensive on Amazon but any saving means more funds for something else. The postage alone would have been double my expense for the recycled bag.
Yesterday's shopping trip took me past a charity shop. So I nipped in hoping to find a laptop carrying case/bag. I was amazingly lucky and bought a nice bag [in as new condition] for about £4 equivalent. My laptop fits snugly with plenty of padding, rubber feet, loop handle on top and an adjustable, shoulder strap. Large pockets front and back now hold the PS and the mouse mat respectively.It had become quite a problem carrying the 15.6" laptop and its bulky PS. While walking back and forth to the observatory, in all weathers, day and night. With nowhere to put anything down safely while I locked and unlocked the doors which required both hands. I could only balance the laptop between my feet. Which was hardly practical and easily damaging to the cosmetic finish.
Now I have everything I need in one, well protected, easily carried bag. Handy for climbing [aznd descending] the steep, internal stepladder up to the dome. Rather than balancing the bare, slippery and heavy laptop under one arm. These laptop bags aren't particularly expensive on Amazon but any saving means more funds for something else. The postage alone would have been double my expense for the recycled bag.
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