steppenwolf

The needs of astrophotography (AP) and observing are rather different so with AP in mind for the future, your choice is going to be more difficult. For Deep Sky imaging, you will need the best equatorial tracking mount that you can afford and, perhaps surprisingly, not necessarily a large aperture telescope whereas for observing, an altazimuth mount and large aperture are better. I think this is a matter of priorities so think very hard about where you mainly want to go, AP or observing. Armed with that knowledge, we can advise you better.

Unfortunately, 'accuracy' is a relative term here because of the resolution that I mentioned which applied equally to the Dec axis! Personally, I would really recommend star-hopping when using this mount as you are more likely to achieve success quickly.

Setting circles on small mount are notoriously difficult to use as their resolution is so low but:- To align the RA setting circle: 1 .Locate a bright star near the celestial equator The farther you are from the celestial pole the better your reading on the RA setting circle will be 2 . Use your star atlas or you astronomy app to lookup the coordinates of the star you selected 3 . Center the star in the telescope’s eyepiece 4 . Without moving the telescope, rotate the RA setting circle until the RA indicator points at the RA coordinate of the star you selected * NOTE: The RA setting circle does NOT move as the telescope moves in RA, the setting circle must be aligned each time you want to use it to find an object. However, you do not need to use a star each time. Instead, you can use the coordinates of the object you are currently observing. Have you definitely got stage 4 correct?:

Very much so, Tim. Such a big brand too, it is a shame that it isn't going to be a 'local' company picking up the reins.

That is very sad news - my dealings with them have always been been met with professionalism and a desire to help especially from their technical department. Indeed they are ......

I've done that before now!!

Luckily, you can still test without a clear sky as you don't actually need to see the test object that you want to track. It is a little perplexing that you are getting a stopped mount without a stopped message. Slightly off the wall question but does the mount 'know' for certain what side of the meridian it is on?

Welcome to SGL, Torben. I too have a Mesu 200 which performs perfectly. I wonder if you have a horizon limit set too high in either SiTech or your planetarium software although in fairness, I would expect SiTech to report 'Stopped'. Worth a quick look and also worth contacting Lucas Mesu directly as he is very responsive and helpful.

Condensation is part of astronomy! However, it can be harmful if not managed so the best way of dealing with it is to bring the instrument into your home after your observing session, place it on a flat surface with the dust cap and eyepieces/camera removed with a towel either side of the tube to stop it rolling anywhere and allow it to dry naturally. When dry, cap the telescope and plug the eyepiece holder with a dust cap.

Chances are, no cleaning is required - shining a bright light at optics will give a confusing result, you should be led by the view of the mirror in ambient light. Even then, you need a lot of dust and debris to make a difference to the quality of the view.

I'm not trying hard enough then! 😁

This is a really stunningly beautiful image, Ciarán - well done! Such a magnificently wide field of view of such a busy region of our Summer sky.

What is even more strange is that using Laurin Dave's O TIF, I am not getting this issue in Photoshop unless I am not trying hard enough?

If you felt uncomfortable then you were right to walk away - not all dealers have your best interests at heart.

What a fantastic result and VERY pleasant surprise - Hooray!!!!!

I struggled with Chemistry at college but if I had had the pleasure of having Richard as my tutor, perhaps I may have become a Veterinary Surgeon after all!! 🤣

Hi Alan, part of my circuit diagram is taken from this online resource which was intended for use with the Lesvedome observatory control system. However, the two boards (RF board and relay switching board - the one that was fried) are identical it would seem in both the Shelyak system and the Lesvedome system that I had. It might make more sense if you have a look at the link to see what is going on with the diodes, the single relay (RY1 on my diagram) and the limit switches which all pertain to the left hand part of the circuit diagram that I posted earlier in this thread. The two additional relays (RY2 and RY3) swap around the polarity to the motor depending on what happens at the relay switching on the output of the receiver module and also allow for manual operation of the shutter using Auto/Manual Selection switch (S3) and the existing Open/Close switch built into the control panel (S4). Switch S5 simply turns the whole kit and caboodle on and my guess would be that this switch is present on the front panel alongside S4 but perhaps @tooth_dr can confirm its presence.

Yes, this. Yes and is the connection for the manual switch. Yes Yes

These are indeed the Open (OP) and Close (CL) limit switches On the other connector, OP1 and CL1 are connected to the manual Open/Close switch, OP2 and CL2 are connected to the NO connectors on the RF relay board. With regard to the PIC solution, I agree because full control can by organised using three relays and four diodes (excluding the flyback diodes for the relays)!!

Well done, Alan - great job!

Hi Adam, I can't sell you mine in case my current system ever starts to play up, I need to know that I can replace it with one that I have already proved works 100% - sorry. However, I can help you with diagrams, layouts, component lists etc. This is what you would need to build:-

I have some really good news for you (!) - if the original control system can't be repaired, my totally different system will simply connect to your CEBEK TL-2 board 👍

You're dong a great job at the moment, Dave so fingers crossed!

I don't think that there is a company 'Rigel' - it is to the best of my knowledge just a cool name given by Pulsar to their control system. Don't you dare!!! There are other options to resolve this. For example, when I got my original dome control system, it was based on the LesveDome system which is open source and actually very good. However, the shutter control system was pants (no fault of the LesveDome system) and failed numerous time on me for which I did kick up a bit of a stink which partially led to me be invited to have a little bit of input to the latest system which is SUPERB (although not because of my minor input!!). However, before the new system was introduced, I had given up on the old shutter control system and produced my own which worked absolutely faultlessly and cost under £20.00 to make. To determine whether my solution would work with your existing system, I would need to know what the outputs are from your Bluetooth board - a clue to this would be a close-up image of the inputs marked on the board that has died. All that said, I hope that Dave can help you resolve the issue on the existing board as that might simply require the replacement of various components but I can't assist there as I know nothing about the Microchip PIC16F628A microcontroller.

This is quite typical - blue light suffers greater dispersion through the atmosphere than the other colours. Always aim to capture the blue data when the object is at its highest point in the sky.