chubster1302

Cloudy here this eve so no practising guiding tonight. But here I present, my first ever galaxy....OK OK, don't get too excited, its just a phone shot from the back of my dlsr from the other night when I was trying to grips with slewing to targets.

Thanks Malc-c. Mount is connecting to PC via USB a hub. So I can just use the USB cable to guide camera to hub, back to pc. Using eqmod/Nina to control everything

First thing first. I have the ASI 120mm Mini and EQ5 Pro mount. Do I need to attach the guide cam to the autoguide port on the mount via the ST4 port. Will be using PHD2 and I currently have the camera attached to a USB hub via its USB lead. Nina and PHD2 can see the camera so wondering if the st4 port is needed too ?

Perfect, thank you.

hmm....ok. It seems "gamepad" had been configured, even though i do not have one installed . Cleared the entries and all good now

20230609_232752.mp4 Trying to sort one problem out and now I've got this happening. What's going on. First noticed that when I took an image in NINA I had star trails. Then notices EQMOD had started up in sidereal tracking. Never normally did, I had to start it myself. Now this weird RA rate thing going on ?????

Am i right in saying that a pc running Win 11 Home can remote into a pc running either win 10 or 11 Pro?

Eving all....As some of you may know I'm currently controlling the scope via a 4 port star tech usb cat5 extender and I have a "feeling" this may be causing a few issues. I'm running a Eq5 pro mount, asi120 guide cam and nikon d5300. What would be a "bulletproof" way to connect that up to the remote pc. Not worried about portability and it would always be connected to the mains. Ideally something that also has room to grow, connection wise

Would my current setup, WO ZS73iii and D5300, give me good shots of the Sun?

Just noticed when I move the mount "east" in NINA, mount goes to the left (viewed from behind mount) but when pressing east in EQMOD it goes to the right. What's that all about? What have I got wrong somewhere?

Perfect thanks... As for the quoted text. I believe the error I got was "telescope out of tolerance" so assume that is why I was getting that

OK, cool. So i think ive been doing it right but overthinking it. Mount is pointing North, weights down, scope in line.....so switch on and connect and I should be "good to go". There is nothing to set in EQMOD or NINA so to speak?

I "believe" it uses an image database held by ASTAP to work it out, it then sends commands through NINA to scope to move in the direction needed, well, thats my very basic understanding

I've got it set up yes, but haven't been able to fully test, as I had an error, then the clouds rolled in. Hopefully will test tonight. I think im probably over thinking it....so my goal for tonight is... 1. Mount is set up, and pointing North 2. Run TPPA in Nina 3. I'm then going to make sure I'm in focus by slewing to Vega. This is where I would plate solve and get Vega dead centre, correct ? I think that is basically the procedure, am i correct?

This is the bit I'm getting confused about I think. Mount is level and pointing north, using a compass. I even looked in live view of cam and polaris was sitting low in the frame. Then did TPPA in NINA So, how do I "tell the scope" where it is before I then slew ??

Think the times etc are all ok ?

Yes, sorry, I have the eg5 Pro. When you say "when you initially setup the mount", is this within NINA?

I used Ninas 3 point polar alignment plug in. I would assume once this was completed I would then be basically bang on when slewing to targets ?

Hmm....where do I check this

OK, what am I missing? Running NINA and Stellarium. Set scope up, did a 3 point alignment in NINA, then switched to Stellarium to slew to Vega to get focus, scope, slewed to right direction but was not centred, in fact wasn't even that close. What am I missing?

Was playing around lastnight using NINA and 3 point alignment and got it to 0 0 34" error margin. If I plan to guide with PHD2 would that be acceptable ?

Images are just showing focus and error results

Managed to get everything set up and working. Think i managed to get focus, see image? Did a 3 point alignment and got to, what I believe is an acceptable error margin..... But.....I believe the d7000 cannot be in bulb mode, as I cannot take any exposures above 30s without nina throwing an error. I can put it into bulb mode when not connected to the pc but as soon as I do the d7000 just says PC on display and I can't change exposure settings on the camera....?? 🥵

I'm just getting things sorted in my head for tonight, as lastnight was cloudy. Can I use NINA whilst trying to get focus through the D7000. Camera is attached to WO ZS73III? I have a Bahtinov mask

Yep, I've got everything configured and "ready to go". I've tried to focus on something using sharpcap bit there is nothing "far away" enough really, so that's going to be my main problem initially. Are there any goto gain and exposures settings to get me in the ball park, so I just have the focussing itself to worry about then fine tune gain etc