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Sp@ce_d

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Everything posted by Sp@ce_d

  1. Here's something to consider with placement of the CloudWatcher. I've never had this "problem" before as I've usually packed up for summer having lost Astronomical darkness by the time it's got this warm. It was 19c when I got home from work tonight. The leading edge of the roof (covered in black rubber) faces west so has the last of the sun. My Cloudwatcher is mounted on a support at the end of the runoff so the roof comes within a foot of it when it opens. As you can see the heat from it has caused it to read cloudy when its clear. So when ACP Scheduler opened the roof tonight it imediately got an unsafe & closed up. I've just set the unsafe to be overcast for now as you can see it is pretty sensitive.. I'm going to have to move it.
  2. There's probably a fair variation in component tolerances between units. Certainly, going by the variations in settings I've seen posted on the yahoo support group, I don't think any two units will setup the same. I've taken a note of the real conditions & compared to what the AAG was showing then tweaked to suit. There are still occasions when it may show overcast & its actually clear.. seems to be when the air temp is unseasonally warm. It has been stable over this winter with these settings but I have noticed it needs adjusting during the seasonal changes. It was fairly stable over last summer but I had to tweak fairly constantly over 2 or 3 months of Autumn. I was expecting to need the same over Spring but not noticed yet. Mind I probably won't bother changing anything anyway as I've normally stopped imaging by the end of April into May as we rapidly start running out of astro darkness.
  3. Very nifty Steve.. way cheaper than my alarm dialler implementation, although it also serves as a backup to the main house alarm too.. As promised here's my current settings for the CloudWatcher... a year on of tweaking.
  4. For power & sensor control I decided to use these.. http://tienda.lunatico.es/epages/Store.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Store.Lunatico/Products/ACNSEL03 http://tienda.lunatico.es/epages/Store.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Store.Lunatico/Products/ACNSELFL I had thought about building my own and trying to write Ascom drivers for it all but decided I just don't have the time. They have Ascom drivers & so are supported by just about if not all the software that would be discussed here. Network or USB connectivity and scriptable control/monitoring. I've been using the lightwave control system around the house for some time & used that for a while to control power in the Obsy but it's not really easily incorporated into the Obsy automation. http://www.lightwaverf.co.uk/ With the Platypus/Firefly I can automate switching & sensors for individual components/configurations. For instance I have 3 Atiks. Normally with them all connected the software ( Maxim in this case ) will pop up a dialogue box to select which one (serial number) to use but if this is on auto connect with ACP its a pain. So currently I have 2 imaging setups on the mount. I switch configurations depending if I'm using the Esprit or the SCT & this is easily scriptable selecting which power relays to engage. Same with shutting down, closing roof & turning on the humidifier for instance. You can also have this dependant on what the state of the sensor inputs are too.. if the mount parked sensor is not closed then "do not close the roof" "do something else" for example. I can even use it as another method to detect intrusion. I have several independent alarm systems/methods . Thats something else to consider as part of automation.. Arming/Disarming. Do you still want monitoring when the Obsys in use? I do.. I'm able to differentiate between normal movement of the operating Obsy and movement of an intruder.. (or cat). Not wanting to give too much away here.. . You'll also want cameras to see whats going on too. Also, USB simulation of resetting a device via the disable/enable in the drivers doesn't always work. I've found being able to switch an individual powered hub useful to clear this issue. Otherwise the only way to reset the device/port is to go and unplug/plug the cable back in! EDIT: I should add, I'm talking about switching 12v DC & 240v AC levels here. You should be comfortable with handling/working with MAINS wiring, otherwise get a qualified electrician to do this.. please!
  5. Just a quick reply for now as supposed to be working [emoji4] When I evaluated CCDComander it was against SGPro & at the time I was more interested in getting the multi imager setup working. With the promise of dual dither support in a future release of SGPro I went down that route. So you may be right. I'll need to have another look although I don't recall it being obvious.. Maybe some scripting required? You can simulate any weather conditions by going into the "unsafe" tab in the AAG software & clicking/selecting what u want to open/close the relay. You can unselect all if you need to. All you are doing is setting what conditions open & close the relay. Happy to share & help with settings. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  6. Great write up Steve, (although you are a bit of a dab hand at this). Somehow I think this will a popular thread, pulling all the info together like this. Took me quite a while to untangle the options & working out if this will work with that when I was researching mine. I would like to say, that I do think setting up automation for a UK based Obsy has its own challenges with our weather systems. Depending on what level of automation you are happy to achieve. Now this is something I hadn't appreciated until I tried this. If you don't mind me going on a bit I'll explain. I would like to clarify "Fully Automated" as it has different meanings to people. It also helps to explain the wildly differing costs between the software. When we think "Automation" there's quite a variation of an individuals expectation of how much user input will be required. When I tested with some of the options listed, it became clear that the fickle nature of our weather (well, up here in Scotland anyway) would cut short the majority of sessions due to a few minutes of bad weather. With all of the software options listed (as far as I could work out) ALL of them will require user intervention to restart the session once they have shut down & made safe the Obsy. So, what do you do if you want to make the most of a totally clear night apart from that 10 minutes of cloud passing over, 5 minutes after you went to bed, that killed the guiding & closed the roof? Well, there are ways you can set an alarm system to wake you. Or you can just get up & check at periods through the night. I'm sure our other halfs wouldn't mind being woken up life's too short for sleep anyway. Well, I know mine would be even shorter if I woke her up! As far as I could tell there's only two "off the shelf" products that can handle the repeated stop & starts of the good 'ol British weather. That's CCDAutopilot or ACP Scheduler (Note. It's the Scheduler add on in conjunction with ACP. NOT the standard ACP as mentioned). I never got around to trying CCDAutopilot because I tried ACP first & it did what I wanted. Sorry to go on a bit, I felt it important to get this over as I invested time (a year or so) & money going about things the wrong way to maximise sky time (triple shooter) in my opinion. I hope it's useful to others. I do believe Automation is the way to go for any serious imager with an Obsy. Incidentally, talking of weather. The AAG_CloudWatcher is a great bit of kit. Having run mine for about a year now I think perhaps the British climate requires it needs a bit of tweaking to get right, especially noticeable as the seasons change.
  7. I am really intrigued.. but please.. please.. I don't want to be the one that gets this thread shut down. Err.. the Tattoo. How did that come out exactly?
  8. Been trying to think of something to say.... that would convey. But... Jaw... meets floor! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  9. It's something you have to enjoy doing when you're doing it for yourself & not for financial reward! I decided after a few attempts to go & try that certain "astro software". It made my eyes water even more than the cost when I realised how much of the guys life had gone into it! Best decision I made though, not having enough years left in me to write "a bunch of scripts" that would come anyway near! You still have to customise & script a bit to fine tune though.So, I take my hat off to you. You've come a long way with this. Make sure you reward yourself that sense of achievement & enjoy. It's not a trivial undertaking. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  10. Excellent.. one of those rare "astro" solutions that didn't involve yet more financial investment too..
  11. Might be easier to set up a LAN using something USB powered like these... http://www.ebuyer.com/660634-startech-portable-wireless-n-wifi-travel-router-access-point-repeater-ap150wn1x1u http://www.ebuyer.com/343320-tp-link-tl-wr702n-wireless-n150-mini-pocket-router-tl-wr702n
  12. Excellent approach, prove it in a test environment before rolling out to production. It's only when you tackle something like this you realise the enormity of the prep & planning for something that actually leaves the earth!
  13. Oh I understand completely... hey, my obsy is in the back garden & more than 3 years on I'm still finishing it & still not ready for autonomous operation.. (but getting closer). At least if it goes wrong I can run out to sort it! I think there's quite a few on here that have fingers crossed for you... & many that are learning from you too
  14. Got to admire the perseverance on this.. been following since the start.. what.. almost a year ago? Glad you've had some break in this really naff August weather & really looking forward to First Light
  15. Sp@ce_d

    Nebula

  16. Sp@ce_d

    IC443 - Jellyfish

    From the album: Nebula

    Data acquired on 12th & 15th Jan 13 using the "twin shooter" ZS66 and 80ED. ZS66 & 314L+ 24 Ha x 600 13 R x 300 13 G x 300 8 B x 300 80ED & 1000D 80 x 300 Most of it processed with PixInsight apart from registration for which I used Registar and PS CS3 for layers to blend the 314 & 1000D data.
  17. Sp@ce_d

    Unfinished Business

    Unfinished Masterpieces.. ;-)
  18. From the album: Unfinished Business

    Thats all I'll get for this season.. 31 x 5Min Ha 314L+ & ZS66 62 2Min 1000D & 80ED Combined with Nebulosity, Registar & CS3
  19. Sp@ce_d

    The one's I nearly threw away

    The ones I'm not really happy with but deserve to have a life if only for the effort put into getting this far..
  20. From the album: The one's I nearly threw away

    This was taken over a couple of nights during October 2012 5 Min Subs Darks & Flats Camera: Canon 1000D - Self Modded Filters: SW LP Scope: WO ZS66 APO + GT81 flattener Mount: NEQ6 Guiding: ST80 + QHY5 + PHD Processing: Nebulosity, CS3 Still learning the ropes with processing.. Seems like there might have been high level moisture. Anyway I'm not happy with my attempts to process but I think I'll just leave it at this for now...
  21. Sp@ce_d

    Clusters

    Some Clusters
  22. Sp@ce_d

    NGC663

    From the album: Clusters

    This was taken on 03 Nov 2012 50 x 5 Min Lights Darks & Flats Camera: Canon 1000D - Self Modded Filters: SW LP Scope: SW 80ED DS + .85 flat/reducer Mount: NEQ6 Guiding: ST80 + QHY5 + PHD Processing: Nebulosity, CS3 NGC663 (also known as Caldwell 10) is 6,000 light years away at 15 arcminutes across containing some 400 stars. NGC654 cluster is also seen nearby.

    © Sp@ce_d 2012

  23. Sp@ce_d

    M35 By Sp@ce_d

    From the album: The one's I nearly threw away

    Taken on 21/22nd January 2012 16 x 3 Min Lights Darks & Flats Camera: Canon 1000D - Self Modded Filters: SW LP Scope: SW 80ED DS + .85 flat/reducer Mount: NEQ6 Guiding: 9x50 Finder guider + CoStar + PHD Processing: Nebulosity, CS3 I had 36 lights but threw 20 out for poor star shape. PA &/or guiding just wasn't on form so this is the best of a bad bunch.
  24. From the album: The one's I nearly threw away

    This was taken on 28th January 2012 22 x 3 Min Lights Darks & Flats Camera: Canon 1000D - Self Modded Filters: SW LP Scope: SW 80ED DS + .85 flat/reducer Mount: NEQ6 Guiding: 9x50 Finder guider + CoStar + PHD Processing: Nebulosity, CS3 One of my favourite groups of galaxies, there are so many here! This was a quick test to see how these targets looked. Conditions weren't very good & I never got another chance on these so looking forward to trying out the ZS66 on them next season.
  25. Sp@ce_d

    M3 By Sp@ce_d

    From the album: The one's I nearly threw away

    This is a combination of 3 sessions. 1st Feb, 4th Feb & 27th March 2012 14 x 3 Min Lights, 17 x 2Min Lights, 17 x 1Min Lights Darks & Flats Camera: Canon 1000D - Self Modded Filters: SW LP Scope: SW 80ED DS + .85 flat/reducer Mount: NEQ6 Guiding: 9x50 Finder guider + CoStar + PHD Processing: Nebulosity, CS3
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