chubster1302

OK, tonight is the night.....hopefully. Going to try and get PhD side of things setup. Will be using zwo mini 120 as the guide cam. Any tips, dos and don't from the off I need to know about, any tips to help it go as quick as it can 🤔🤔

.....what this hobby is all about. It's been WEEKS since I bought my new set up and yet it's not left the study once....🤔

I have PHD2 installed, William Optics 32mm guide scope and a AS120mini guide cam. Is there a way to "practice" getting the cam in focus indoors 🤔

yup...but going from those figures up there how many degrees do i need to move my declination on the compass?

Trying to use a compass to find true north. I have my declination info but no idea how to translate that to a compass ? Latitude: 51° 7' 49" N Longitude: 0° 0' 48" E Date Declination 2023-02-18 0° 44' E ± 0° 23' changing by 0° 12' E per year

Looking for an android app that will allow me scan my local horizon and give me the azimuth and altitude of objects blocking my view, does such a thing exist ?

Thanks. Just got to actually put it to use .

Thank you to everyone on here who has helped me get back into this insane hobby. 3 weeks ago I didnt have a single piece of astro gear. Now I'm up to my eyes in cables, cameras, scopes, NINA, Eqmod, plate solving etc Now just got to wait for some weather

OK....so I assume I need yo set this at startup, so which side of the mount is this? Assuming mount is aligned etc ?

Nina has filled this in with "west". i believe this is to do with Meridian flip but where does the West or East come from? How does NINA know, is that from my lat/long settings ?

Damn, you did indeed amd I remember reading it....then I must have started fiddling, ran into a problem and promptly forgot everything you had said. Gives myself a slap. Cheers Malcom

Perfect, thanks Stuart, that seems to have got me up and running, but why am i seeing 115200 as the baud rate on lots of youtube vids ?

@malc-c Thanks Malcolm Can I clarify one thing. You said "I also note that your synscan unit is one of the newer ones with built in USB, so there was no real need for the EQDir cable" Would I be better using the built in USB port?

Im currently using EQMOD cable, so i should set that to 9600 in both places ?

Trying to connect the mount, EQ5 Pro Goto to Nina but keep getting "Telescope connection lost!" messages. Im using a Startech USB2004EXTV extender and that shows a solid connection. Its listed in my Device Manager as USB Serial port COM3. I can confirm this as it disappears from device manager when i unplug it. I've set the bits per second and baud rate so that they match (following advice from youtube) in both device manager and EQMOD but when i try to connect i get the timed out message in NINA. Ive set the com port to com3 manually in EQMod, as an aside, when i click the binoculars next to port in eqmod it searches and reports nothing found, so assuming the issue is there somewhere ? Any help muchly appreciated

Ok...Thanks all. So does this look right ? Just getting it sorted in my head before attaching everything. I have a startech usb extender, in which i've plugged the eqmod cable, dlsr and guide cam. This then goes back to the host startech unit via cat6, then said host attaches to PC. I assume the round cable, labelled 1, goes into the mount but where? R.A. In, Dec In, Dec Out ? I then have another identical cable, again where does this go. "Logically" id assume cable from unit goes to R.A. In and the the other cable goes from Dec In to Dec out?

I have the cable, what does that plug into ?🤔

If I'm planning to do everything from with NINA/pc do I need to even bother installing the skywatcher handset ?

Thanks all....this is how the dovetail was attached when the scope arrived (from retailer). Looking at it it would make sense if it was the other way round, then the screws on mount would fit into groove 🤔

Is it a case of just sliding gold WO mounting bar into mount head and screwing down ?

Eq5 pro with WO ZS 73 So manual has options for either short or long mounting plate. Only seem to have short supplied with mount. So how do I attach the scope....with the mount supplied by WO ?

Now just got try and figure out how to put it all together

I "think" I've set this up right. Anyone see any glaring errors? I believe i need to set the measuring gauge to a specific setting for my Nikon. I assume that's what the 2nd image is saying ??

Well helloooo. 🥰 But man, why didn't they ship my mount at the same time.....now I've got to wait to play

I'll let you all know shortly......all I can say is that van must be delivering to every single house in my town before he comes to me..... 🙄