dk101

my setup is quite similar to @teoria_del_big_bang's above. I also have a mini pc strapped to one of the (azeq6) tripod legs with two cables up to the scope (data and power) on which i have Pegasus PBA which deals with everything else. Mount power and data are separate. Also, as @teoria_del_big_bang said, good USB cables are a must. Lindy Anthra ones work for me (and they have them in short lengths) and i would recommend them. Before i had these, i would occasionally get data dropouts etc which were annoying. Like the others said, minipc creates enough heat to keep frost/dew off. i had mine out on the both clear nights we had here in london this winter (...) and while the scope ended up completely covered in frost, the PC was happily dry. I did keep the nevada power supply in a dry box, away from dew, which is highly recommended and conducive to longer life. I run NINA on the pc and remote-desktop to it from either another PC or my iPad from the house and it all works like a charm and having the PC on the tripod leg instead of on the OTA has never been a problem.

I am not familiar with the UK wiring rules but is it ok to put a copper network and mains power cables through the same conduit underground? I hear that in some countries this is a no-no and this is where fibre comes in to play as fibre data can go with mains power while copper would not be allowed. Is this even an issue over here?

Amazing images! Congratulations to all winners!

Lovely depth! It looks very 3d. must have great skies to get that much signal in 5 hours. Youtube video would be great although a post with details would be even better. Personally i find videos too linear but either would be fun to look at.

Sh2-142 in Cepheus. My first nebula! Taken in West London on 2-Oct, 6-Oct and 8-Oct. Would have taken more but we have not had any decent nights since! Gear: SkyWatcher 200p Classic, SkyWatcher AZ-EQ6 Pro, SkyWatcher f4 CC, ZWO ASI 2600MM-Pro, ZWO 36mm Ha, SII and OIII filters. Ha - 52×300s (4h 20') OIII - 53×300s (4h 25') SII - 33×300s (2h 45') Total integration: 11h 30' Captured using NINA, processed using PixInsight.

I was wondering - where do you prefer to place your EAF temperature probe for maximum effect? I was thinking of (somehow) attaching it to the back of the primary mirror on my newt but i was wondering what everyone else does. i googled this and while there is a lot of debate out there about the general usefulness (or not) of temperature probes there isn't much about "best" placement. Thank you! dan

If you are starting to play with the USB port it is a good idea to put some blank RJ11 and RJ45 plugs in to the hand controller and the auto guide ports. This will stop you from accidentality trying to plug your USB cable in to them if, say, the cable gets unplugged in the middle of a session and you decide not to use any of the lights you have while try to reconnect the mount. If you do try to shove your cable in to, say, hand controller port, you will quickly learn that the electronics board has no protections of any sort and that you will need a new one right away. You will also need a new fuse for your mount power cable. Worst of all, your session will be over. Not that anyone would do anything as silly as this...

I also use a LED video light and it is working quite well. Needs some paper to filter the light even at 1% brightness for RGBL filters otherwise it is great. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08DHTD2TQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It would appear that mine is not available any more but it looks very similar to Richard_'s one. Can't really go wrong with one of these at <£60.

Tiger shop sells some cheap showercaps. They are flowery and my wife now calls my Dob "Betsy"

I agree with what others said - the best magazine is the one that suits your own preferences and the one you actually read. Personally I tried all that i could and i found that i prefer Sky & Telescope even though it is a bit US centric. I was really disappointed with Sky at Night and, while Astronomy Now was OK, but i found that i like S&T more. So now i read S&T and, of course, the British Astronomical Association's Journal which i really like. Personally, I would love a magazine with a lot more actual Astrophysics but sadly that doesn't exists, as far as i know. Good thing arXiv is there and it is free :D As the old saying goes - Your Mileage May Vary - so get some trial issues, go to the local library or good news agent and have a look. What is "best" will really depend on you and your interests.

So... even though the Goto Rate Limit was showing "No Limit", when i moved it to far right the mount started slewing (albeit slower than before). Then i moved it back to "No Limit" (far left) and it is now working properly! 🥳 I think this is a bug in EQMOD. The limit was somehow set to something very low (1?) while the UI was showing that it was not limited. Why was this not visible in the ini files i do not know. Very curious. Anyhow, if anyone has the same problem, the solution is: Even if the Goto Rate Limit tells you that it is "No Limit", move the slider to far right and then back to far left and confirm that the numbers change all the way up to 400 and back down to No Limits. This is a lot easier and cheaper then getting a new mount PCB or a new NUC... Thanks Malcolm, thanks scotty38, for your help!

Here is a thought. Since i can slew using buttons, but only when i up the Dec/RA rate above 200, is there some way to see what speed it is using when doing a goto? perhaps it is sending pulses afterall, just at some super slow speed. Are the any logs one can look at? Yes. the other computer has the same settings (that is can see) but still, it may be worth checking. Perhaps there is some registry setting etc which scales the slew rate and perhaps that somehow got messed up?

Just tried. When uninstalling EQASCOM it tells me that some files will have to be removed by hand so i am guessing it is not a clear uninstall. I let the uninstall run, rebooted the machine, reinstalled 200w, rebooted again and it is still doing the same thing. Works from cardinal point buttons not it doesn't park or goto.

Thanks Malcom! when this first happened i first suspected power then a dodgy mount PCB (since they are dodgy i hear) which is why i tried it with another pc using the same cables, power supply etc. I also tried a differnt power supply and a different USB cable just for the good measure. I agree that i have not eliminated NUC completly but i am not sure how/what to test to eliminate _it_ . I am not sure that it is at fault as i can slew manually by clicking on EQMOD N/E/W/S buttons so the communication appears to be working. I suspect EQMOD as it is less likely that all other programs suddenly got broken (NINA, PHD2, CdC) than that EQMOD stpped interpreting slew goto commands (i am guessing that PARK is just a goto). One possibility I considered was that something went wrong in ASCOM (since that is the other single point all others use to talk to EQMOD) but diagnostics say all is well and since park on EQMOD itself doesn't work i suspect it is more EQMOD than something else. Of course, i could be wrong since i don't know how ASCOM or EQMOD work under the hood. Starting EQMOD from CdC as you described sadly didn't work. I also tried starting EQMOD from NINA, PHD2 and SharpCap and then using CdC and slewing and that did not work. Starting EQMOD first before anything else is the same. EQMOD by itself also doesn't park, like i mentioned, if i use NEWS buttons to get it away from PARK position. It is really puzzling me, esp since it moves nicely with N/E/W/S buttons. dan

I am experiencing some new and strange behaviour with EQMOD on my AZEQ6. I have an AZ-EQ6 Pro connected to a little NUC (DroiX PROTEUS 10 i5) running EQMOD 200w and it has been performing happyily for a while. Mount has a separate Nevada PSW-30 power supply and NUC is connected it using direct USB cable (since the mount is one of the ones with the USB port). Everything has been working well so far and I have had no problems running things from NINA/CdC. Two nights ago, after NINA did its thing and parked the scope, things went a bit funny. I cannot get the mount to slew or park. When i use the NEWS buttons on EQMOD UI then the mount moves but if i click on the PARK button nothing happens - the mount does not move. When a slew command is sent (from eg CdC or NINA) the numbers on the EQMOD UI change, as if it was slewing, but it is not. If i connect ASCOM Device Manager, NEWS buttons there there do not slew the scope and PARK button also doesn't work. but Interestingly if i execute goto from it, it will pretend that it is slewing and then at the very end the motors on the mount would sound like the do when it corrects at the end of the slew. ASCOM diagnostics all come back fine. I tried different USB ports on the NUC with the same results. If i connect a different PC to the mount, running the same versions of all the software with exactly the same (copied) ini files (from %appdata%/eqmod) it happyily slews from NINA and all other tools. This suggests to me that it is not the cable or the power supply. I tried connecting other devices to the USB ports on the NUC that doesn't work and all USB ports worked fine so it is probably not that. So, to me, it would appear as if something is not right with EQMOD and how it interprets slew/park. I checked all of the settings on the EQMOD UI visually and i diffed all EQMOD setup files in %appdata%/eqmod between the machine that works and one that doesn't and there were no differences. I tried reinstalling too but that didn't help - it still doesn't slew/park. So, in summary: Following a NINA park, EQMOD won't slew or park unless i use NEWS buttons on the EQMOD UI. When it is sent a slew command from other apps, the number on the EQMOD UI change as if it was slewing but there is no movement. Sometimes after the slew-that-doesn't-slew finishes, the mount motors sound as if they are compensating for backlash. Mount works fine on another pc with the same cable, the same power supply, the same software versions and even the same EQMOD ini files. I am puzzled and would really appreciate some help here. thank you! dan