fwm891
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Posts posted by fwm891
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2 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:
What an amazing piece of engineering! Brilliant 👏 Have you had first light with it yet? And how does it handle.
Lee
Not yet Lee, I had hoped to tonight but as it got darker so the cloud got thicker…
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I’ve just got an ASiair plus and to try it out I used a 12 VDC battery I had. At first fine but as soon as the voltage began to dropout went the connection and then the hassle or reconnect, reconnect. Plugged in a mains adapter and problem gone. It’s definitely voltage sensitive. Which is a shame because I got it to use as part of a remote (away from home) grab n go kit…
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With the recent stretch of bad weather I decided to make a mount to aid PA alignment with my AZ-GTi which has until now been done with a 3way pan n tilt photo tripod. I’ve now taken the 3 way off and put the new one on…
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Well it's pretty well finished now. Few little bits to finish off and a good clean/grease up. I've loaded it up with the expected loading and had it pointing east/west up/down and many stops between. Without access to sky at present I can't comment further but it feels really solid.
Will post some DSO's once the clouds part but until then heres a few photos of it tonight.
Thanks for looking - Francis
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If your in AZ mode then the mount is driving in az/alt directions to track the sky and ISS is travelling in a different direction and the 'judder' is magnified
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As Mark @markse68 has pointed out the side blocks are slotted. Along with the pivot around the centre pin and the slotted side blocks there’s enough constrained freedom of movement.
It works in the reverse fashion to the normal push on a centre pin with the advantage ( for me) that the adjustment screws never extend outwards, they always maintain their positions.
There are some small washers and compression springs to add yet. These are to maintain side pressure on the threads during adjustment and take out any shifting when locking azimuth adjustments.
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@Mr H in YorkshireThere is no need for an absolute level, close will do as I'll be doing a polar alignment via Sharpcap et al once all the kit is mounted on the head. Which is all you're doing with an EQ mount anyway.
When using at home I will keep the tripod legs at a set height and have three holes drilled in the patio stones to place the legs in to each time and only need very minor adjustments (if any) night to night. If going to a different location then a small bubble level will suffice to level the tripod top plate after eyeballing north.
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8 hours ago, vlaiv said:
Could you provide more detail for this?
How does it operate? As far as I can tell - it's not usual "push against central pin" configuration.
@vlaiv I've annotated two of the photographs which I hope will help with the description.
I'm ignoring anything to do with the Altitude part of the head as it's only it's hinge that's shown at this stage of the build.
1, The Azimuth unit comprises 3 basic parts: a lower disc (fixed to a tripod column or pier and does not rotate), an upper pressure disc (there to provide pressure to the two thrust races and a locator to the azimuth plate) and the Azimuth plate (horizontally adjustable between the upper and lower discs)
2, Both the discs are channelled to take a thrust race (thrust races are 60mm OD x 40mm ID x 5mm Thick) the channels are 60 x 40 x 4.5mm so the thust races sit 0.5mm proud of each disc.
3, The Azimuth plate has a hole 40mm in diameter bored through it (the upper disc locates in this hole to prevent sideways movement) and the link bolts between upper and lower discs pass through this hole. See schematic below.
4, the lower disc has a bracket fixed to it to take the pivot pin. The pivot pin passes through a barrel nut which is threaded at both ends (standard righthand threads 6mm).
5, The Azimuth adjustments are made via two 6mm screws one each side which enter the barrel nut. The barrel nut is threaded to a depth of circa 18mm each side. Each of the adjustment screws are threaded approx 12mm with bare 5mm shafts going out to a pair of knurled knobs.
6, Azimuth adjustment is made by rotating the knurled knobs. Left/Right motion turn the knobs in the same direction (ie one thread tightens one thread slackens) to lock azimuth motion turn knobs in the opposit directions. I'm getting circa ± 10° left/right azimuth rotation which is enough for PA alignment.
I hope this helps
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I like to tinker and after getting a SW AZ-GTi and trying to get it aligned off a 3-way pan-n-tilt tripod head I decided to try building my own....
This is it so far.
The attached drawing shows its basic layout being built arounf a pair of roller thrust races, the outer halves of each are linked together by three (not 4 as shown in Drg) cap head bolts. The inner halves press against the Azimuth plate which is adjusted by two small knurled hand wheels (see photos) Turn both in the same direction for motion either way, Oppose directions to lock. The silver looking cylinder in a three part hinge which will take the Altitude plate (that and the alt adjustment mechanism is under construction atm).
I'm building this with about ± 5° movement in it's current config. If I change the alt adjustment screw for one of a different length I can change the range but as I will principally be using this in the UK making it 0°-90° was just adding a complication it (I) didn't need.
Photo 1 shows the upper face, 2 & 3 show the under side. The threaded hole centre 2 & 3 is a 3/8 standard tripod thread.
More to follow...
Francis
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You just might need to give yourself a little ‘wiggle’ room between Obsy and fences. Both will need maintenance at some stage - even just a coat or two of preservative !
Good luck with the build.-
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7 hours ago, windjammer said:
Very promising indeed for a single frame. Are the spacings quite right on the MPCC - star shapes etc ?
Simon
I don’t think so. Still some fettling to do yet with the setup but quite happy atm.
Francis -
Apart from a few frames getting things focused and centred this is the first light image frame for my new Orion Optics (UK) VX 10 @ f4.8 Baader MPCC and Altair Hypercam 26C. UVIR cut filter. Guided with 8x 50 finder guider conversion ASi12MM.
Captured as a FIT frame in Astroart 8.03, converted to Tiff in PI and then processed and cropped for framing in Photoshop CS3.
1x 240 second sub
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1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:
I know! I'm now participating in two rigs using this chip.
lly
Too many cables!
You'll be WiFi next 🚀
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Superb imaging Olly. Beware though OSC CMOS cameras can become addictive....😃
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Well I guess it's my fault the rains have kicked in 🌧️. Two scopes in the same week 🛒🔭! I went to PAS2023 last weekend and ended up (nay went straight there) on the Altair stand. Bought myself an Altair Starwave ASCENT 80 ED Triplet with 1x flattener and 0.8x flattener reducer. Then my loooong awaited Orion Optics VX10 with 1/10 wave optics upgrade arrived today!
I've managed to get the Starwave on my AZ-GTi mount and have a play just getting it to slew round to different parts of the room (wet outside!). Today I've been unwrapping the VX10 and getting the static balance sorted out (indoors - wet outside!) Once it dries up a bit I can get it in the obsy and start getting cables up together.
Sorry about the wet stuff
The VX10 went into the obsy this morning...
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I think you could lift it a little more there's lots of stuff there sitting at the borders of visible/darkness and the extra in the brighter areas will do no harm. My TP's worth.
Great imaging Olly 🙂
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20 minutes ago, michael8554 said:
And 0.5sec exposure is a bit too fast.
Michael
Not with a RASA....
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The distance from the camera mounting plate to the focal plane is critical on a RASA consult the RASA White paper on the Celestron website for the technical specs on this distance. You will need to take the thickness of your filter drawer and the 533 back focus from the RASA 11's back focus for the dimensions of any required spacers. See attached speccy bits towards the back pages.
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Great imaging Huw
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10 minutes ago, kbrown said:
I'm considering getting the Baader Mark-III Coma Corrector to replace my old SW 0.9x CC. Just wondering if anyone with the Baader Mark-III Coma Corrector could measure me the depth of the M48x0.75 thread? I couldn't find this information anywhere...
Cheers,
Kari
Hi Kari,
It's circa 2½mm (2.5mm)
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39 minutes ago, RayWUK said:
Is it possible to Polar Align the AzGti in EQ mode without the aid of a computer/ASIAIR just using the SynScan app say?
I think there’s a polar alignment routine in eq mode under settings and advanced…
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OK it's early days with my AZ GTi and I'm experimenting with trying to run it via different capture sofware. My favorite capture software is Astroart 8.# as it combines goto-star charts, plate solve, guiding, sequensing etc, etc... but has no native mount driver for the AZ-GTi (unless someone knows differently!).
I've used it with a mix of CdC/EQMOD, SharpCap, PHD2 but it becomes quite a performance working between the different softwares. I've yet to try it with SG Pro or NINA.
If there's someone out there that uses their AZ-GTi via Astroart 8 can you let me know what mount driver you're using please...
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Not had my AZ GTi long. I started using the Wi-Fi app but it’s been very patchy so I’ve been playing tonight with a Lynx cable and setting up EQ MOD. I remembered reading about changing the ra and Dec gear numbers for EQMOD under EQ Pre requisites but the baud rate I had to keep at 9600 as at 115000 it wouldn’t connect. Once EQMOD was sorted it was time to get the az-gti and CDC sync’d together. Comic Relief couldn’t have done better. I had the mount On a tripod and had to release the pan lock and spin the mount in the opposing direction a few times. We got there in the end. The test will be under the stars for the first time….
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lly
Weather : finale demise !
in The Astro Lounge
Posted
Echo @azrabella as just a little further east near Hereford rain, rain and wait - more rain... weeks of it!