jfrijhoff

Välkomna hit! I experienced the Swedish no-dark summers from Stockholm for 7 years. On the flip side, plenty of time to image in Winter 😉

Well, I thought I had to set a baud rate of 115200 with an EQMod cable, but turns out that 9600 does the magic, and I can connect with GSS now.

15 minutes ago, AstroMuni said:

I was referring to EQMOD/ASCOM drivers. This has more info https://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/docs/EQMOD_Doc.pdf

I installed the top one

I actually also tried with green swamp server. Uninstalled everything, reinstalled ascom, the driver and GSS, but also there I got a timeout error.

2 hours ago, AstroMuni said:

Have you got the right drivers and have you rebooted after the driver install?

I did download and install the driver from skywatcher website, the following one: I rebooted at multiple stages, still nothing:

1 hour ago, malc-c said:

Ideally these mounts like being powered from a decent 13v - 14v under load.  Some 12v supplies fall below 12v under load which can cause dropout.  Other documented causes have been certain USB cameras which take all the bandwith and disrupt comms with the PC and mount.  Also the use of long passive USB cables cause drop outs.

Thank you for the tips! Yeah, it came with a power supply from a guy that was running it with an Asiair. It was also the supply that was provided together with the mount from a good Dutch astroshop. I tested it also with the handcontroller only during the day, and the mount was slewing everywhere I was telling it to.

I’m using a DSLR camera as main, and ZWO 120mm mini as guide cam. Cables are ‘regular’, not long, not short. They are connected to a mini-pc on the mount, so not traveling meters to a laptop.

I keep getting a Timeout error in EQMod when trying to connect my HEQ5 Pro. I’m remote connecting through a mini-pc with a eqmod-cable. I’ve double-triple checked that the port and baude rate are the same on the pc and in EQMod. The port appears when I connect the cable, so cable seems fine. Also tried a different outlet, because I read it may mean the mount doesn’t get enough power. 
Setting up and working through the handcontroller worked fine, and it was slewing, but I want to use the mini-pc and NINA, so here I am. 
would love to hear suggestions on what I could try.

Edit: latest ASCOM is also installed

Thanks!

Jeroen

Picked up these two second-hand. Now just to get the flattener and connector for my DSLR, and to try them out!

Cuiv the lazy geek put up a video on his YouTube channel recently on installing a mini-pc for astrophotography, also for tips about not going to sleep etc. Very useful!

Got a great deal on a virtually new MeLe quieter3Q. Looking forward to using it when it arrives! Cuiv also recently posted a video on setting up a mini-pc on his YouTube channel, found it very helpful.

That looks and sounds great!

Welcome! You’re not the only Dutchman around 🙂

I’ve come across some good results over on Astrobin using this lens and filter, so I went and got a second-hand, which is on the way. 

Just had two nights to try out guiding with PHD2 and NINA, via laptop for now. With great polar alignment it looked I could go easily to 3 min, and even to 5 min exposure time without trailing. Will fiddle with PHD2 settings some more, but guiding accuracy was around 1.5”, which I’m very happy with considering it’s the SA2i.

You say you have the WO Flt120. When I look up that scope, then the flat6Aiii is not the recommended flattened/reducer, but rather the flat68iii or flat7A. Perhaps that’s where your issue is?

I’ve been using the star adventurer 2i, and am quite happy with it. Finding targets takes some getting used to (e.g. using phone apps to get general direction, take a picture and plate solve on nova), but certainly doable, especially for the ‘regular’, ‘bigger’ targets. I will say that I upgraded the base to the William optics one, which was a definite improvement. I consider it a good start before going to a bigger go-to equatorial mount. 

Hope it's solved! Similarly, I (and others) were sure I was experiencing walking noise. Dithering or whatsoever didn't work. Turned out that after cleaning my Samyang, I hadn't cleaned it properly and there were streaks from cleaning on the front lens, barely visible with the naked eye, but very noticeable after stacking 🙂.

I was going to say if you left the focusing mask on 😃, but I read you say it wasn’t. Those spikes with the different colors sure do look like them. I wouldn’t know what else it would be.

46 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Its not designed to work at F2.8, if you own one try it, but if you dont own one then you will need to invest in a preshifted filter instead.

Its not so bad a situation as with a scope that has a central obstruction as in those cases you can litterally end up with nothing, but most likely you will not be truely getting the full benefits of imaging at F2.8.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/idas-filters/idas-nbz-uhs-dual-band-nebula-boost-filter.html

Above is that I would recommend. See the reviews and you will note comment on the SharpStar 15028HNT with L-extreem with

Adam

Thanks Adam, at the moment it’s just a DSLR and rokinon lens, so stuck with clip-in filters at the moment. I did indeed read good reviews in general of the IDAS filters.

That’s a good suggestion, I’ll check astrobin as well, thanks!

It’s a clip-in for APS-c sized DSLR. Don’t have a dedicated astro-cam for now.

That’s the thing, I don’t have it yet, but there’s a second hand that I could buy.

Hi, I’ve been reading that narrowband filters aren’t always suited for fast systems. I’m wondering if anyone can help me assess whether the Optolong L-enhance would be suited for my rokinon/Samyang 135mm at f2.8? I’m using it with a full-spectrum eos 550D.

My humble setup, hope to have a bit of guiding to add soon as well.

I find it to be Ok for short-term prediction (like any weather forecast), and good on the extremes (very clear or very cloudy). The in-between are a bit of a hit and miss for me, based on the south of the Netherlands.

Interested to hear the result, as I’m also in the market for such a modded HEQ5 Pro.