malc-c

Don't fret over reviews etc... I know there are more options to get your name in print these days than it was a decade or two ago, but it's still something you should be proud of... well done

12 hours ago, Adam J said:

How do you know its on a EQ2 OP may have upgraded?

I presume its because the 130M comes on a motorised EQ-2 mount, and I'm sure the OP would have stated if he had swapped that out for something else, so its a fair assumption to make.

To the OP, imaging covers a wide range of disciplines, from Luna and planetary through to faint DSO's.  There is no ideal equipment (just look at similar posts and people will argue over recommendations made) and a lot will depend on the targets you want and the budget you have.  Other than Luna imaging which can be done with any mount and a cheap webcam or even a mobile phone, the equipment required to do it to a level where you get decent results isn't cheap.  Yes if you own a DSLR then that would be a starting point, and ten years ago it was very common to see setups based around a Canon D350, 400 or 450 as these were easily modified (if you wanted to make a true Astro spectrum camera) and were quite affordable second hand, especially compared to the "entry" level dedicated astro CCD cameras at the time.  These days dedicated astro imaging cameras are getting better in performance and cheaper in price, making them recommended more over older DSLRs.

Again, the equipment is dependent on the results you aim to get.  If you want to do wide field then camera lenses on a tracking mount, or a small fast refractor would do the job, but the same kit would be useless for a really fain nebula that requires hours and hours of subs.  One of the issues I have with similar posts is that members could recommend spending £200 on a camera, and then the OP realises the limitation of his mount or scope and then ends up needing kit that is way out of their price range.  Maybe if the OP narrowed down the targets he/she is aiming for and if possible link to an image of what they are expecting, along with their budget then others will be able to narrow the recommendations down 

Well done Kevin.  I love the feeling you get when you see your work in print, and that was just a few articles in a national magazine, I bet its ten fold to see your work in a stack of books...  Was this self funded or through a publisher ?

I need to read posts a second time... I thought you had a C8 / EQ5....

Maybe if you elaborated on the targets you want to image, and what you budget is then it might narrow down recommendations.  Or simply browse through the forum for similar posts where people are after suggestions for gear needed

No expert, but I believe guys who use a scope like yours tend to use some form of focal reducer when imaging faint deep sky objects.  The long focal length of the C8 will make it great for planetary work where magnification is needed.

Personally I think your EQ5 mount will struggle with the C8 plus camera and a guide scope of some description.  For imaging the max payload would be around 6-7kg and the C8 is around 5.5 to 6kg so you are already on that limit without the extra equipment.  But you do have excellent skies so exposures needn't be too long.  I would suggest the tried and trusted HEQ5 would be the ideal mount.  It's load capacity, precision, and affordability both new and second hand  would be able to handle the C8 etc just fine.  Budget around £200 for a small guidescope / guide camera package, and £30 for an EQDIR cable to hook the mount up to a PC for control.  Software wise, most packages are free, or just a few ££ for an annual subscription.  Sharpcap, Cartes du Ciel, EQMOD or GSServer, APT and PHD2 are just some options, but other planetarium software is available.  The PC to control the mount needn't be a powerful one, but to stack the results in something like Deep sky stacker (again free) and then process the result does need a PC with some umph...

Now as we all have our own opinions and hopefully others will chime in here and make other recommendations.  There may be flatteners, correctors and focal reduces they can recommend.  I don't have a C8 so can't really advise on that part. 

23 hours ago, Patrick Chevalley said:

I don't know for the OP, but for me this is interesting when using a full sky chart with a specific orientation and zenith on the center.  I not want this change when I check the location of some object.

If you are working from Chart 1 that you don't want to change simply click FILE and select New Chart, and then search for the next target., which will be centred in the chart and circled with a label  - you can then flick between the two charts

Did you check the links - I get an error from all three - all use the URL with the e missing 

For doing the basics of controlling the mount, guiding and taking the images the PC doesn't have to be anything special.  I still use a Core2 Duo processor with 8GB of old DDDR3 Ram, with mechanical drives as the main observatory PC (it was a dinosaur back in 2011 when the observatory was built) - the processor is circa 2006 !).  But the processing is done on a modern Ryzen processor based machine (4 cores  8 processors) with 16GB DDR4 ram and a fast Nvme SSD main drive.

The part that confuses me (easily done I know 🙄) is why would you want to keep a chart open if the target you are searching for (and presumably to target with a goto scope) is outside the "field of view" of the existing chart ?  - Anyway it doesn't really matter as I guess the beta version provides the OP with the functionality they wanted ?

15 hours ago, Patrick Chevalley said:

Yes, there is now a way to do that

Install the last beta version 4.3 from https://sourceforge.net/projects/skychart/files/0-beta/

Click the magnify glass icon or menu Edit / Advanced search.
Select what you want to search and click the button "Find info", this mark the object on the chart without moving and open the detail information window.

Patrick

It does pop up the info, and the chart remains unchanged.  - So to answer the OP, current release version of CdC doesn't have this option, but a beta release does have an option to display info on a target that is not in the view of the current chart without changing the focus to that target by centring it on the screen 

21 hours ago, StevieDvd said:

Sorry about the see this thread link, it was a page with dimensions which I can't find now.

However, that's not needed now. This is the sort of 2 plate setup on a home-made pier that I was referring to. It's from the self built observatory of an SGL member @malc-c

 

 

@StevieDvd I've dredged through my old images taken as part of the build, was this the image you are referring to Steve ?

It was the rough sketch I made for the local engineering shop (sadly no longer trading) and I think from memory cost me around £50  at the time

If fixed in an observatory you will need to clear all the previous aligning points anytime the clutches are released and the mount moved manually.  If you have to set up each night then these should be cleared before use with three or more new points found and added, much the same way as you would when using a handle.

But if you are searching for an object that is not in the current chart, then how else can it inform you where such target is ?? - Knowing that the target is bang in the centre of the presented map means it's easy to find, right click and select the slew to target option.

JST - If you google JST connector or JST header you'll see the various types

They have different formats based on pin spacing etc

Just now, iapa said:

TBH I’ve had a CAT6e cable running from the house to mount PC for several years.

I chose an armoured outdoor cable.

Mine is just tacked along the wooden fence, no armour, nothing - it's withstood 13 years of direct sun light, freezing temps to -9c and gallons of rain.... cable is still fine with no cracks or anything !

1 hour ago, pavel_s said:

Regarding the wired ethernet connection.

I strongly recommend to avoid wired connection to your house, and go for optical or wireless instead.

You may encounter different electric potentials, causing unwanted currents, not speaking about protection against lightning. 

Nahh Cat5 is fine.  I ran 50+ feet of cat 5 to my observatory and its been fine for over 13 years - no need for expensive fibre installations 

Sounds like you are you doing a sales pitch 🤔?

My observatory is around 50 feet away, and I used standard cat5  cable between the PC in the observatory and the switch in the house.  The cable was tacked to the fence and has lasted more than 13 years without any issues.  The home network is gigabite  speed which is ample for remote desktop sessions.

Totalling up the cost of fibre, there won't be much change out of £150 for a similar arrangement... but what would I gain... nothing as the fibre link is rated at the same speed, plus fibre is more fragile than cat5/6.   Now where you would gain is in distance, as the max cat6 length is around 100m.... but I don't know many who have 100m+ long gardens.

David beet me to it.  Just cut the old connect off leaving enough wire to join the new wires from the stepper motor... Hopefully the colours are the same, but if not then you may need a multi-meter to check which wires form the coils

If your new PC is windows based the FTDI driver is built in.  Just plug in the EQDIR cable and it should be detected and the driver installed, with a Com port assigned under device manager.  Ensure its set to 9600 baud so as to communicate correctly with the mount

1 minute ago, Elp said:

Type in weather balloon into a search engine and see what comes up.

Could be... but then the balloon would need to be lit the same way as a noctilucent cloud as they have no self illumination.  And the object does appear to be spinning around the vertical axis....

Strange one.  It's a UFO in the sense that its an object that is flying and difficult to clearly identify   However if you search for high altitude surveillance balloons they do take on a similar shape rather then the round balloons used for weather data, and a more likely answer

The version of the PCB is stated on the board, which looks like to be Rev F  relates to the design, it will be the motor board firmware that can be found by using the Skywatcher firmware updater application.  I'm beginning to feel this is more mechanical such as having the drive on the wrong side of the mount, or back to front, possibly something the previous owner did ??   -  Changing the polarity of the motor wires, or reversing the assembly may be the way forward.  Skywatcher are not likely to change a tried and tested design for one model of telescope and then write a dedicated firmware to reverse the direction of one axis.

When you say Ascom, do you mean EQMOD or GSS software ?  Ascom is the underlying platform used to link and communicate between astronomy software.  If it's the custom park position in EQMOD then you could always place the mount in the default home position (facing North weights down) and use the custom "park to current position"  or one of the undefined  options in the dropdown list.

If you are using EQMOD then you can always delete the configuration files using the Toolbox option found in the EQMOD folder on the PC.  I don't think it will delete any alignment data, just the general settings.  You could always make a backup copy of the settings found in the C:\Users\[ insert User name ] \AppData\Roaming\EQMOD folder

Bill, some good advice from the other members, and the stack processed in DSS looks a lot better.  There are still some artefacts that are giving purple rings round the bright stars, but that may be down to how the Sony DSLR records the image, and could be removed with more processing.

You don't mention any darks or flats being used in the processing.  If you are simply stacking 20x 30sec exposures at a high ISO then you are compounding any noise in the images caused by the sensor.  I would suggest dropping the ISO down to around 800, and stick with 30s to start.  Take 50 or 60 images, and then cover the objective lens with the cap and take 40x 30s images.  This will form a start, and I'm sure others will chip in with how best to shoot the flats etc.   Look at the images and if you see any light trails or satellite trails, discard them.  Stack both the remaining lights, and the 40 darks and then see what results you get.  I would suspect you'll still get some distortion at the edges of the result, but hopefully the result will be better. 

18 hours ago, ben_mtl said:

How would you explain the fact that I have two Az board supposedly identical (MC004 Rev F) that move the motor in opposite direction ? I thought about a different firmware version but not sure that would make any sense...

There is one subtle difference between both MC004 boards.  One will have a resistor connected between a pin on Port A of the microcontroller and +5v, the other the pin is pulled to GND.  The firmware reads if this pin is grounded or has voltage and depending on what it finds configures the board to control either the ALT or AZ axis.  The direction of the axis is down to two things.  Physical placement of the mount / scope, or in the case of software driven mounts using EQMOD or GSS, the RA reverse or DEC revers check box has been ticked.  I haven't used a handset in years so don't know if such an option exists in the handset firmware and either enabling or disabling that will make your scope track in the correct direction

4 hours ago, Bill Maxwell said:

Scope mounted on AZI GTI.

Not saying this is the issue, but AZ mounts are not really "ideal" for imaging.  The reason being is that you get field rotation.  Now at 30 second exposures with 20 subs the rotation won't be a lot, and most stacking applications can process the rotation out to align the stars correctly, but when you start taking longer exposures of fainter objects then the rotation can be an issue as longer subs have the rotation in them which causes odd shaped stars.

Is the JPEG just a single sub ? - the aircraft light trails suggest it is unless they appear on every sub ??