steppenwolf

If you remote booted the observatory PC, it could be that it didn't receive the Wake On Lan magic packet so isn't actually running? If this was the case and you attempted the boot from the Internet, it could be that you didn't have an active 'master' PC running on the same Lan as the observatory PC.

I feel your disappointment, John - after such high expectations this must come as quite a blow. What is so sad is that Sky-Watcher CAN produce excellent telescopes but frankly, they only have themselves to blame if this one flops in the short term, there really is no excuse for such poor QC! Your honesty in revealing the full 'warts' version of the review is to be admired, John. Get out there and enjoy that 120, mate!

That is an impressive turn around! Fingers crossed for some clear skies over the weekend and as your biceps now have 'muscle memory', you should be able to mount it in a flash.

Wakey, wakey, John, your audience awaits! ?

Excellent news, John - the biggest surprise for me so far is just how big your existing 120ED is in photograph 11! Clearly the 150ED is a lot bigger so it is a big beastie but not overwhelmingly so. The pair look great on your Ercole mount and the Berlebach tripod. It's probably just the imager in me but I'd be mounting it in the CNC rings and 'Losmandy' bar but, of course, for your review you should indeed be using the 'standard' mountings first for comparison. I hope you get plenty of clear skies and good seeing in the near future, John!

Here's the link to my video if you decide to clean your mirror.

I purchased the Esprit 150 from FLO about 18 months ago and arranged for it to be bench tested by Es Reid. Es was extremely impressed with the optics and general build as am I!

I really love the colour palette in this image but I am concerned about the Flame which has lost something in translation. However, any re-work should retain this palette as it has really given this object a little special something.

Is there any way that you could run a Cat 5 network cable to your dome from your home PC? This would remove one set of comms. challenges from the equation. Although I no longer use it, I used to have a Lesvedome system for dome rotation and dome shutter control and it worked very well but I used an old Windows XP PC in the dome and controlled this remotely using TeamViewer down the network cable. I also used a second VM110 to control a whole set of observatory components and, in fact, I continue to use this part of the Lesvedome system even now as it saved me having to design and program a complete new control system for my ancillaries.

I think there is something in this observation, a definite connection between the two. For me it is helicopters - and you thought fixed wing was expensive?

Fantastic report, John, I'm so pleased for you that you have succeeded in finding and enjoying this most elusive of objects. Your report has captured the moment well, I can feel your excitement at each step. I have never got even close to observing this one so I am very envious. I have to confess that I am guilty of making the task harder for you last night as my camera stole some of those vital photons from you and if I could give them back, I'd gladly do so

I have found that Sangria, as made by Janie, cures most of life's maladies and when you wake up on the patio the next morning, there's no hangover either, amazing.

I have considered this question on numerous occasions and I always come to the same conclusion - if you add a filter to the light path then for the focal reducer/field flattener to continue to work OPTICALLY as required, you need to ADD spacing between the focal reducer/field flattener and camera sensor to compensate.

Chocolate and Banana Loaf for the tea tent will be arriving on Friday afternoon. Might bring a telescope and the baker too ........

That is sooooo cool - well done, what a brilliant solution! Welcome to SGL.

Thanks, Grant, looking forward to this very much!

I like mono images and often cringe for imagers you post them only to be greeted with a barrage of 'looking forward to the colour version' posts! My wife, Janie, is not so keen on them .....

Now THAT, I really like - very elegant.

Well, I give up after several days of testing and head-scratching! Unfortunately ASPS is too flaky to be relied on in a remote operating environment which is a great shame as it showed great promise as a blind solver when operated manually. Unfortunately, under CCD Commander control, it fails to respond correctly. This could be a setting that I have got wrong but either with or without the 'Taskkill' command in place, the program returns to CCD Commander too early so the next action is started prematurely. Not only that but it doesn't always solve despite good data and even when it does, it never syncs the mount to the solved position, making it useless for my purposes. Thankfully, it is only rarely that I need to carry out a blind solve so I will just revert to my old method when required. If anyone can recommend another local blind solver that can be reliably called from CCD Commander, please let me know!

This sounds like an interesting project and I too would like to see an image of what you have in mind. I have seen some digital display types but this sounds more 'analogue' (albeit with digital controller) and that sounds much more appealing.

Excellent - that is working very well indeed - the drive ring looks very circular and smooth, nicely done! As you already have the electronics working on the bench, the hook-up to the motor-drive should be pretty straightforward. Is that the encoder on top of the drive cog?

The simplest solution is to use a lead acid 12v battery installed in the dome section on the 'shelf' and a solar panel for re-charging. I used this system with great success on my Pulsar 2.2m Observatory. A 12v lead acid battery has a large reserve capacity to cater for dull days reducing the charging rate from the solar panel.

Additional Note 25 - Improving Start Up and Closing Down Procedures 1. Plate Solving at start of session I have noted that from time to time, usually after an automated shut-down following a cloud warning - but not always - the next session sometimes fails to plate solve the first slew as the telescope is pointing just outside the plate solve search region. When this happens, I simply run a manual 'blind solve' from MaxIm DL via PinPoint, however, I wanted to automate this smoothly and came to the conclusion that as I cannot specify a blind solve as an action in CCD Commander, I should find another way of doing it. The solution came in the form of the free software 'All Sky Plate Solver' as this allows 3rd party software (MaxIm DL) to access its search engine which is based on a local version of Astrometry.net. This feature connects to the CCD camera and telescope, captures an image, plate solves it from local data and then syncs the telescope to the solved position so that carrying out a subsequent normal plate solve now works flawlessly as the co-ordinates supplied by the mount are already very accurate. I now run this as an 'external program' in the form of a batch file using an action in CCD Commander to call the batch file:- Batch File for Calling All Sky Plate Solver : Run All Sky Plate Solver start "" "C:\Program Files\PlateSolver\PlateSolver.exe" /solve taskkill /f PlateSolver.exe 2. Disconnecting the CCD Camera at the end of a session The short nights of summer highlighted a small issue with my close down procedure in that it got light at 03:00! Part of the close down included warming up the camera and then I would manually turn it off when I awoke later in the morning. However, this left the camera running off-cooler but with the fan operating and the sensor 'live' for up to five hours unnecessarily. The solution was to write a VBScript to disconnect the camera from MaxIm DL, wait a few seconds and then physically turn it off under software control of the eight port switch unit that I built to control the observatory equipment. VBScript File for Disconnecting and Turning Off My CCD Camera ' Disconnect Camera from MaxIm DL Dim cam ' "The" Camera object Set cam = CreateObject("MaxIm.CCDCamera") cam.LinkEnabled = True cam.LinkEnabled = False WScript.Sleep 5000 ' Turn OFF Camera driverID = "ASCOM.LesveDomeNet.Switch" set o = CreateObject(driverID) o.Connected = True o.SetSwitch 5, False I am currently working on a new VBScript to control cloud cover .............

I shall be watching this project with great interest as, before my upgrade of a couple of years ago, I too had this style of Pulsar observatory and had on paper a different solution, although I think your solution has much merit as it keeps the motor in a 'fixed' position. I was going to use Subaru Impreza cam belts for my toothed belt but in my design, the belt would have been attached to the wall and the motor was going to be fitted to the dome on a sprung mounting. In either design, you do have to make allowance for the dome moving laterally, which it will do. The LesveDome system is excellent and I used it for a year or so on my new style Pulsar dome but upgraded to Pulsar's newest system when it was introduced 18 months or so ago. You will find the LesveDome system to be very capable and flexible with a real bonus thrown in - buying a second K8055N controller will give you access to 8 software controlled ports to further automate your observatory. I wish you luck with the automation project.

I like that a lot and the design saves the requirement for a full chain loop - excellent!