16.09.2025 More solar imaging.

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  Tuesday. Showers, sunshine and wind.

 By the most fortunate of coincidences a German astro dealer has just restocked.With the 495mm long Losmandy dovetail rail I needed. For mounting the long and heavy, 150/10 H-alpha telescope. Order confirmed.

 This afternoon seems to be sunny so far. With the wind having dropped for the moment. I shall make another attempt at solar imaging. 

 I am all set up and it has clouded over and is spitting with rain. The telescope is covered with a trailer tarpaulin. The 28" screen with a bin bag. The weather radar shows a single patch of rain heading over us from the NW. So it might yet clear. I'll leave it out there and turn off the power if it rains. Lots of blue sky to the north and overhead. Solid cloud to the south and west. Sunshine! Off we go again.

 I managed to focus the sun and tune the etalon. Though my view on the screen was spoilt by the brightness of my surroundings. I captured a few videos. None of which I could process in Autostakkert. Because the screen problems. It kept clouding over. Until, eventually, it had to rain. Then rain hard. 

 I brought in the monitor and keyboard. Left the telescope covered in the tarpaulin. The telescope is now safely indoors but the mounting and tripod remain outside. Along with all the electronics! Just waiting for a lull. The sky is covered in huge clouds. Now, as I sit here at the indoor PC the sun has come out again. Grr!  

 I need some kind of hard shell. To instantly pull over the telescope during sudden showers. A tarpaulin cover is too clumsy. It risks puddles falling. Precisely where one was hoping to protect the electronics. I have discussed animal shelters as covers at length but never got much further. It may be time to reconsider the idea.

 The problem now is having the captures on the mini-PC. I have to re-connect everything indoors to access the data. I have no idea what to do about this garbage Logitech Bluetooth "NOT-Wireless" keyboard and mouse. Life is too short to waste further time on this crap. 

 It seems that it is not illegal to sell product as "wireless" when it uses Bluetooth. Why would any company with Logitech's global reputation. Need to advertise this crap as wireless instead of Bluetooth? 

 It was always satisfying to get a nice new Logitech mouse or keyboard. With an implied guarantee that it would work straight out of the box. One of the suggestions to get BT working was to replace physical components in the computer and update the Bios! All that just to get a Logitech keyboard or mouse working as expected? So I can continue to familiarise myself with all new software. 

 I wasted another hour on the pathetic Logitech support chatbot. Trying to get me to do exactly the same things as the Windows support chatbot. Do they have some special relationship as global monopolies? I wonder how they sleep at night. 🙄 

 

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