malc-c

11 hours ago, SamAndrew said:

 

Apollo showed you can land and launch from the moon without a pad, Nasa wouldn't have picked Space X if they didn't think it was possible with Starship. 

But the upper section of the LEM used the lower section as a launch pad, and even then debris was scattered around the site.   

I've not seen any rendering of a starship with high level raptors installed, and AFAIK the idea was to land Starship on those short stubby legs and then use the same accent / decent motors to launch from the moon.  These would throw up dust etc so the landing pads would need to be at a safe distance to avoid any debris damaging living quarters of the intended base.

One thing that would be interesting to see is if moondust and rock could be used as an aggregate building medium, and if mixed with cement might form a resilient concrete.

Whilst I admire the drive behind SpaceX to keep the momentum going I do think that they (Musk?) are chancers and rush things.  They said that following the static fire the data suggested that the pad would be Ok, overlooking the fact that the static fire was at less thrust and for a short duration which still resulted in remedial work to the pad and better protection to the infrastructure of the pad.  If it was to impractical to dig down to install a deflector and deluge system, then raise the launch pad and surrounding area similar to pad 39a in Florida.

I'm betting that whilst Musk has said they will be good to go again in 2-3 months, even if they could rebuild the pad by then I don't think the FAA will grant a licence given the impact the first launch has made on the beech and ocean.  There will be more environmental constraints given the amount of debris that is scattered in that area.  All those groups that predicted the impact it would have are now pointing the finger at the governing bodies that granted the launch licence and saying "told you so".

No worries, whatever suits your needs.  My line of thinking is that you only really need the basics covered.  I use EQMOD as my "driver" of choice.  I probably don't use half the functionality it has, let alone the bells and whistles GSS has to offer.  I also use Cartes du Ciel as my planetarium application as it's main function is to connect to the mount (via EQMOD in my case) and send the command once I've selected the target.  Both get minimised once the target is in the FOV of the telescope.  I used APT to control my old Canon D400 SLR, and again, only use a fraction of what it has to offer as all I'm interested in is having it control the exposures and run the plan to take 20 or 30 subs.  Likewise with PHD2, all I need it a tool to guide the mount with the least amount of hassle. 

To be honest it was doomed from the start.  After previous static fires, including the 30 raptors at reduced throttle the concrete of the pad was obliterated, and often we noticed one or two engines having to be replaced.   It doesn't take a genius to predict that some or possibly most of the engines would be damaged by the debris of the pad being thrown at them.  IMO they were lucky that only a few failed at the start and there was enough thrust to clear the tower.  I doubt that there would be anything left of the tank farm, and the crater that was formed under the pad would have been a hell of a lot bigger if startship had fallen back onto the mount seconds after lifting. 

I'm sure if a traditional flame trench and water suppression system had been installed we would have seen a more successful mission.  

Download and install the Ascom Platform from here Its free.  As mentioned above, EQDIR cables use either FTDI or Prolific USB to TTL serial chipsets, and depending on which one you have, windows will install the driver for the chipset or, as in the case of the Prolific based cables you may need to install the driver for the 2303 chipset from the Prolific web site 

Once installed, and with the cable connected Windows will allocate a COMs port.  You need to open Device Manager and check that the default speed is set to 9600 baud.  EQMOD/ASCOM will only recognise ports 1 -16, so if windows gives this a port of 17 or above then you will need to remove them by selecting "show hidden devices" via the view command on the menu bar.  You can then manually delete any port that is no longer in use, and windows will re-allocate the port number the next time the device is connected.

If you want to install GSS then it and EQMOD/ASCOM can live side by side, however you will only be able to use either or and not both together.  Again, both EQMOD and GSS are free if you download for the correct source.  My guess is that you have been duped to download one or the other form a dodgy website.

I've changed the code protection bit setting in the attached version

EQ5MC002-NP.hex

Whilst a great application EQMOD is now somewhat outdated.  GSS is (as mentioned above) the modern alternative, but both are great at doing the main task which is to slew a scope to target, track it and accept guiding instructions from an application such as PHD2.  Both work well with EQDIR cables for reliable hard wired connections. Both have a fairly active support groups and both are easy to configure.  GSS has some more fancy bells and whistles such as a 3D animation to demonstrate the scopes position, which is useful if your scope is out of sight.

Some people report issues with both applications, from incorrect slewing, to issues with limits or flips.  Personally having used both, I've stuck with EQMOD as at the time GSS didn't support custom gear ratios where EQMOD had this from 2011 as the developers worked with me when I was experimenting with a belt drive conversion of my HEQ5 long before Rowan engineering came along.  I've not used SSP so can't comment on how it compares or differs from the other two, but no doubt it too offers the same functionality of being able to control a mount from a PC/Phone/tablet so it slews and tracks a target.  The other functionality, or the cosmetics of the GUI is down to personal tastes and prefrences. 

9 hours ago, skippyinspace said:

Initial failure was the wieghts had pulled the motor gears appart so that they didnt mesh nd then there was a coms error, I replaced the cable  with a new one as that was what the manual said to do. Still had the same error so sent it of for repaire but the card for this mount was not in production so a second hand one was sourced. The mount is still not working and Iopton say it could be a motor issue and the repairer has said that going down this road may incur high costs.  At the end of the day I belive the ioptron unit is an equivielent to the one of the first skywather goto mount kits.

Sounds like a common trend where mainboards are concerned.  Have a read of this thread which covers repairs to SW control boards.  I would suspect the the Iopton boards are much the same.  If you still have the old mount could you post up a picture of the goto controller PCB so I can confirm if this is possible.

In what way did the original ioptron EQ goto mount fail ?  Seems strange that its beyond repair.

2 hours ago, Elp said:

Not necessarily. I've read they're not so good for long focal lengths. And for very heavy setups a traditional gem is usually the only option. It won't be long however until a heavy duty, relatively affordable HD mount is released.

 

It has two axis's that are at 90 degrees to each other and it tilts to the latitude so as to counteract the earths rotation.... so technically they are a GEM class of mount.  The payload capacity or suitability for various OTA's doesn't designate the type / class of mount.  If a GEM can be angled to 90 degrees, then it could operate like and ALT/AZ mount, and an ALT / AZ can be angled to the users latitude it effectively becomes a GEM.... confusing really

Neat bit of wiring, using solderless breadboard links.  👍

I was considering OAG and found I would have  needed a very thin OAG to get focus on the D400.  At the time this was only available from Germany, and the cost of around £120 so I shelved the idea and converted the finder to a guider for £30.  OGA has the advantage of using the same optical path of the scope, and it's long focal length should in theory give better performance.  The downside is that it puts an obstruction in the optical path so you can get shadows or other artefacts in the images.

My advice would be to spend £30 and get the finder adapter and convert it to a guidescope.  Set the scope up on the EQ5, point it at a star close to the Celestial equator / Meridian intersection and let the computer run a guiding session.  You've not mentioned how you intend to control the scope, but I presume an EQDIR cable to a PC running EQMOD or Green Swamp Server, with a planetarium application such as Cartes du Ciel and PHD2 to handle the guiding ?  If that is the case then read up on using pulse guiding with those applications rather than on-camera.  Enable PHD2 log recording and then post up the log files if things don't go as expected.  If it performs well (ie the traces in PHD2 are as flat a trace as possible or the total errors are small then there would be no need (just yet) to look at upgrading the mount and optics.  I had a long thread that ran for almost a year where I tried to get rid of a rouge spike on bright stars.  In the end I replaced the stock secondary on my 200P with an Orion Optics secondary that had the same dimensions as the 200PDS and that worked really well, and saved me having to sell the 200P OTA and purchase the 200PDS OTA.

With regards to the base, yes having a foundation slightly below the level of the grass will help with mowing the lawn.  However, most who use a fixed outdoor setup tend to build a permanent pier with a head to accept the mount.  This is protected by using a thick plastic bag and rope when not in use.  Some even leave the mount attached and protect it with upturned plastic dustbins and bungy cords, up to a small tool shed that looks like a portaloo  that is rolled back, almost like a mini observatory.  If you are considering a removable plinth / pier then it has no advantage over using the stock tripod, and if using the tripod you could get away with three smaller concrete blocks/foundations placed where the feet of the tripod are placed.

So invest £30 in an adapter and see how your existing rig performs.  If you are happy with the guiding performance, or more importantly all the subs have nice sharp circular stars then there would be no need to look at upgrading the mount or the OTA, at least for now.  My HEQ5, ST80 and QHY5 were purchase second hand from an SGL member in Sunderland.  It resulted an a 480 mile round trip, but I got a great deal, and would advise looking at the classified section when you reach the criteria as savings can be made.

As you can see by the image above, I needed an extension bar to counterbalance the weight of the 200P, ST80, QHY5 and D400....

On another thread a member had just replaced his EQ6 controller board and handset after some incident that rendered both faulty.  I dropped him a PM to see if he had the old faulty parts and if he was willing to send them to me so I could do an autopsy on them.  He agreed, and I bunged him a few quid via Paypal to cover cost of postage.

They arrived mid week and I have just had time this evening to take a look.  I was hoping that the issue with the handset was going to be a blown component, like a diode or voltage regulator which when replaced brought the thing back from the dead, but sadly not the case.  Opening up the handset the board looked in great condition with no signs of burning or exploded parts.  I tested all the diodes and one displayed a short with around 15 ohms.  Thinking this was going to be the cause I removed it and tested it out of circuit, which showed the diode to be fine, with the short still existing on the board.  So I decided to plug power lead in and see if anything got hot.  At 12v it drew a few milliamps, everything remained cold, but the LCD was just a red screen.  The handset did beep after a few seconds suggesting it had issues finding the mount, so I wanted to see if the issue was just the screen or if the flash memory or the PIC processor was not running.  I connected my old skywatcher serial cable via a true RS232 to USB convertor, loaded up the firmware updater software and holding down the 8 and 0 buttons whilst plugging the power in I got a single beep to signify it was in the mode ready to communicate with the PC.

Having selected the correct com port I was able to read back the firmware version.

Excellent, so the processor is running fine... but what about the flash memory....  I downloaded the latest V3 firmware from the SK website and having selected the file hit the update button

And it was checked after the upload which confirmed the flash memory was fine

So it looks like its the old chestnut of a defective LCD screen.  I did occasionally see faint hieroglyphics but very faint and random, even after cleaning and reseating the ribbon cable.  The problem is that these 16 x 2 COG parallel LCDs are proprietary, and impossible to get a replacement.  So regretfully whilst we've got a result for the autopsy, the diagnosis means I can't bring this one back from the dead.

I'm hoping the issue with the mounts control board is blown serial ports on the two 16F886's so replacing those with two new reprogrammed ones will bring that back to life... we'll see

Don't worry about asking  questions, keep asking.

The 200P/EQ5 setup is ideal for visual, but at the limit for imaging IMO.  I started that way.  I soon found the visual observations of targets underwhelming from my location, so tried a friends 300D and was amazed at the results even from a town location.  But you really needed a windless night to get the best as the 200P acted like a sale in the slightest of breezes and the EQ5 just wasn't firm enough to reduce the movement.  Years ago when there was less choices of mounts we had the EQ3, EQ5, HEQ5 and EQ6.   Often the EQ3 would be used with a 150P, the EQ5 with the 200P, HEQ5 / EQ6 with the  300P.  But we would often suggest that for imaging you step them up, so that the 150P sits on the EQ5, the 200P on the HEQ5  and the 300P can stay on the EQ6 as that is a beast of a mount (before the days of the EQ8). 

You can use the 200P with the EQ5, but you just have to accept that there are limitations.  If you can come up with a wind brake to shield the scope from the wind then that will help, but ideally you also need to reduce the weight, which is typically 2/3 of the stated visual loading for the mount.  An ST 80 and guide camera is a fair bit of weight, which is why I removed and sold mine and then obtained the adapter ring to fit the QHY5 (the silver bit at the end of the finder)  to the finder scope.  It works, but the short focal length can cause the guiding software to have a hissy fit on some occasions.  The Evoguide and similar scopes are nice, but as you already have a similar sized aperture scope then why not use it.  The stars in the image my QHY5 produces are ideal for PHD2 to guide with.  If you want to use the ED as a secondary scope for wide field images then go for it, the ED optics will outperform the finder scope, and even the ST80.

The fitting of the guide camera to the finderscope requires an adapter ring that has a standard T or C thread on one side and the fine pitch thread of the tube of the finder.  These are around £30 Example here

The mount in my observatory is attached to a DIY pier made from 6" plastic drain pipe, sunk into a 1cu metre block of concrete with the pipe filled with rebar and more concrete.  The custom machined mounting plates were then dropped in place and aligned with a mark I made when the sun was at 12 noon GMT so the pin the HEQ5 uses for AZ polar alignment is on a N/S line.

Other examples of out door piers can be found on the forum.  Some used hollow building blocks as a base which is cheap and weather resistant.

If you have any more questions about my rig then just ask

A 200P plus an ST80 on and EQ5.... that's pushing the loading capabilities of the EQ5.  I had the same combination in and HEQ5 and that was taking the HEQ5 to the acceptable loading for imaging.   I would suggest you look at converting the 9 x 50 finder into a guide scope, or possibly off axis guiding to keep the weight down.

44 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

From what I just read, it will launch from Texas, the booster "splashing down" in the Gulf of Mexico then the Starship will make only a partial way around, landing in the Pacific.

Of course, I'm scheduled to work. What's the chance it will go off on the first attempt.

Is it worth getting a point for taking an unscheduled day off?

Watching a few of the you tubers last night when the announcement was made, a lot of think that there will be two failed attempts where either weather / intrusion into the NOTAMs etc will result in a scrub, or a technical issue will occur.  Would be nice to see them proved wrong and this thing finally get off the ground first attempt. 

I've very little experience of 3D printing, but it's possible to have prints done in metal.  I googled "3D printed metal gears" and found this

I have no idea if they can do one offs or won't entertain private orders and are more geared up (sorry couldn't resist) for bulk orders form large companies

I did have some servo gears made in SLS Nylon for use with servos to switch points on model railway layouts

With careful design of the layout I managed to 21 sets for £55 shipped from 3D print UK  

I have no idea if the torque in the servos is any more or less than the gears in the mount, but it may be worth a punt without loosing too much money

A quick google and it seems an update was released on 4th April link here

Might resolve the issue ??

16' private branch line    - Whet the OP isn't showing us is the battered 5 plank coal wagon that will be restored and placed on the short track similar to what local residents did on the site of an old disused line that was lifted as part of the Beeching act 

When I was messing about converting an HEQ5 to belt drive in 2011 (😧)  I used a company called Belting Online for MXL pullies and a 1/4" wide timing belts.  These were the same spec of belts and pulleys that Frances and other had used converting there EQ6's which was the inspiration for doing the same with my HEQ5.

This is a neat design and I can see an opportunity for  the OP to provide these as kits for those who wish to do the same but lack the ability to have the parts 3D printed.  If I read the post correctly the drive uses a 4:1 ratio, so I'm guessing that it needs EQMOD to control it as SW seem to use weird ratios when geared which are near nigh impossible to maintain unless you have access to a CNC machine to make the small motor pulley form one piece of aluminium, which is where Rowan engineering came in and the rest is history.

Shame the DEC ratio is such that a complet kit could be offered... even so, I think the OP has an opportunity to run a side line business selling conversion kits, and even at £50 to cover the costs of 3D printing and his time.  Get in there quick before Rowan does  

Glad to hear you managed to find out what had failed and that the mount can have a second lease of life simply replacing a couple of small screws.  Without the ability to see the structure of the broken screws you can only speculate that the screws failed through fatigue, but one aspect that may have contributed, based on the image of the rig above, is that the manufactures may not have anticipate the torque needed to move such a rig, and simply chose screws that would handle the mass of a range of OTA's that were originally supplied with the mount.  Again, this is just speculation, and who knows if those screws would still have failed for a casual observer who just used the same OTA for visual and kept the mount inside when not in use ?

Details of the scope / mount and proposed motor option would have been  helpful, but basically yes you have misunderstood how a GEM works.    

The motor and gearing will rotate the RA at a constant rate (Sidereal) and it won't change.  When viewing items near the celestial equator to the East, the position of the DEC axis is such that the effects of that rotation means that the scope's angular movement is more notable than it is at the pole.  If you place the scope in the normal default home position (pointing at the North pole) and engage the RA drive, or if you have placed the scope following a target one or close to the celestial equator, the RA drive will still run at the same rate to rotate the RA axis at 15 degrees per hour to match that of the Earths spin thus keeping the target in view.

59 minutes ago, Shimrod said:

I use a Celestron Skyportal wi-fi dongle with my AVX to control the mount with my PC - no handset required! @steamin63 doesn't mention what version of Nexstar mount they have been given (the name covers several models and a long history!), so it might be an option worth exploring. There is a list of compatible mounts on the Skyportal product page on the Celestron website here:  Celestron Skyportal wi-fi

If it is one of the older models, then I agree the wi-fi dongle will not be off much use.

Fingers crossed its one of the newer models.  Must admit most of my experience has been with Skywatcher mounts, and was going on the info supplied on Celestrons web page where it recommended the passthrough method.  If that turns out not to be the case then I stand corrected.

44 minutes ago, Shimrod said:

Could you get the wi-fi module from somewhere like Amazon to test the mount? If it works, you've got a relatively cheap mount and if it doesn't you can return to Amazon for refund. I'm assuming Australia gives consumers similar rights to the UK, allowing you to inspect and return goods bought online within a short period of time.

Unlike Skywatcher mounts where the handset can be removed and an EQDIR connection made, be that a physical connection or via a wifi / bluetooth dongle, Celestron appear to use the handset in a dedicated PC-DIRECT mode to pass through the commands from the PC application, with the PC connection being via a standard RS232 port.   You can do this with the Skywatcher handset, but for some reason Synta who make both brands don't recommend the PC-DIRECT mode of connection other than for updating firmware in the mount.

Whilst UK consumer law does allow the return of items, especially those bought from an on-line supplier, but on this occasion I can't see the point given the information on the Celestron support page

3 hours ago, Graeme said:

Thanks Malcolm

It would probably be a good idea to put them in before the floor goes down. And an access hatch is a good idea too that I didn't think of!

 

Here's an image of the access hatch.  Still has a gap around the pillar so that no vibrations get transmitted, but tight enough to stop rodents getting through.

Oh and don't do the same mistake as I did and use overflow pipe for the cables.  Use 1.5" sink waste with gentle bends rather then sharp 90 degree.  I had a few issues pulling cables through but by that time it was too late to change the pipes.

6 hours ago, steamin63 said:

hello all , ive been gifted a celestron nexstar mount without a hand controller . i dont know if the unit works or not so im looking for a way to operate it via a cable and laptop . im not interested in purchasing a hand controller or usb dongle as they are close to $300 au and if the mount is a dud ive just wasted my money . i have a sktwatcher goto but the controller and dongle are not compatible with the celestron . any help would be greatly appreciated . thanks. 😊

I think you may be out of luck.  The Celestron software  seems to requires the handset to be between the computer and mount, unlike Skywtcher mounts that allow a direct connection (using an EQDIR cable or USB depending on the age of the mount).  

https://www.celestron.com/pages/nexremote