Jump to content

SkySurveyBanner.jpg.21855908fce40597655603b6c9af720d.jpg

Philip Benson

Members
  • Posts

    151
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation

75 Excellent

Profile Information

  • Location
    SE Essex

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. Last night while trying out some new binoculars I noticed something a bit strange. A bright 'flash' which for all the world looked like an iridium flare which lasted a few seconds and then faded again. However this particular flare didn't seem to be moving, and in any case I know that iridium flares no longer happen. This was somewhere between 8.30 and 9.30 and it was in the area of Perseus, so pretty low down. Almost exactly where Iota Persei is located. The lower right star of the little trapezium marking Perseus' head. Just interested if anyone else saw this?
  2. I have been using the same guiding cable for quite a while but it is now becoming a bit tatty. A couple of the wires at the camera end have become detached from the RJ11 plug but it still works. I tried a couple of spare guiding cables supplied with other cameras I have bought previously but they seem to stop the mount tracking when I connect them. Has anyone got any idea why this is? I'm guessing it must be something to do with the way the cables have been wired up but any other help would be appreciated. As it stands I only have one cable which works with my mount (AP 1200GTO). I am using a QSI 6120 camera.
  3. I found it by aiming firstly to one of the bright naked eye stars in the 'W' of Cassiopeia and then using SGPs 'Solve and Sync' feature to make sure the star was in the exact centre of the FOV. I then manually entered the RA and Dec as given on the AAVSO chart into my APCC mount control software and then took a 1m exposure. I then simply matched the stars in my image with those on the chart and rotated the camera until I had more or less the same orientation as in the chart. At that point the nova was obvious. The plan now is to use my Star Analyser 100 filter with Tom Fields excellent RSpec software to get the spectrum of the nova. I can calibrate that first by using a prominent A type star such as Vega.
  4. Managed to image this with ease last night. I will try for a spectra tonight. Where do we send or post observations/images to?
  5. I have just installed SN8. All looks great but when I go to Labels and then select Comets, the comet labels are not showing up on the sky display. Planetary labels are fine as are constellation labels. Any suggestions?
  6. So this afternoon we set the mount aiming at the NCP and turned on. Then connected the mount and the crosshair pointed at the NCP. All good. Next we manually slewed to a star using NSEW buttons in EQMOD. That was fine and we could synch on the star. Next we right-clicked on another star and selected 'Slew to …..'. The mount started aiming towards the star we chose, got almost to it but then the crosshair suddenly jumps a few degrees away from the star and the mount continues slewing past the position of the star. This jumping a few degrees happens each time the cross hair approaches our target star. Anyone got any ideas?
  7. None yet. I was going use Mizar as the first alignment/sync point but I didn't get that far. I know the mount encoders are turned on so I have asked that he turn the encoders off in case there is a clash going on. The way the mount was behaving it seemed as though something was fighting against the direction the mount was pointing so if the encoders are detecting that the mount is moving without the hand controller controlling the mount the encoders might be interpreting that as a pointing error and trying to correct it. By turning the encoders off with the hand controller connected, EQMOD would then be able to take over the pointing completely. Just a thought.
  8. I am helping a friend setup a SW EQ8 using EQMOD. We have all the cables setup and the connection in Starry Night works fine with EQMOD connecting to COM 3. Setting the mount towards the NCP we then slew towards Mizar just as a test star. The mount starts to slew in the general direction of Mizar. The mount settles on Mizar but then the crosshair suddenly jumps a few degrees away and then starts to slew once again towards Mizar. Settles near Mizar but then once again jumps back a few degrees before slewing back towards Mizar. Th mount physically moves further and further north until it is almost pointing directly overhead. I went into the EQMOD folder in the user profile (Roaming > AppData > EQMOD) and deleted all the ini files. Re-entered configuration info for EQMOD and tried again but same thing happened. Anyone know what is happening here and how to resolve?
  9. I have a QSI camera with the built OAG port. I know how OAG works. The prism in the OAG port pinches a small amount of the incoming light from the telescope and directs it into the guide camera. I wondered whether that means some of the same stars that are visible in the guider field of view should also be visible in the main camera FOV? I tried this last night on the Moon. Aimed telescope at the Moon and then started looped exposures on the guide camera. Light from the Moon was visible but was just out of view. So I shifted the scope slightly until the Moon came into the FOV of the guide camera and then took a short exposure with the main camera. The Moon was not visible directly but was obviously just out of the main camera FOV. If I adjusted the OAG position by pushing further in, would that mean I would be able to marry up stars visible in the main camera and guide camera?
  10. Like many others I suspect I use SGP for my image capture. Some time ago I experimented unsuccessfully with building mosaics. I decided to abandon the attempt in the end but ever since then the previews of my attempts still load up in main window area everytime I run SGP. There are four of them in different tabs. I would like to start from a 'clean slate' when SGP first opens. Does anyone know how I can stop these preview images from coming up all the time?
  11. Thanks guys you are giving me hope that I might finally solve this one! Any more suggestions, keep them coming.
  12. Hi all, I'm getting close to holding up the while flag with this one so... HELP! My observatory has fibreglass base ring which is sitting on a hardwood surface (see pic). Ever since I installed this I have had a problem with water leakage through the base ring. I have tried silicone sealant but not matter how hard I try I always seem to miss a bit and the water seeps through. There must be a brush on sealant that I can use which I can apply all the way round the base, both in and out so it seals any gaps for water to seep through. We even tried applying some primer and then flashing strip but it seems flashing strip does not adhere to hardwood very well. Can anyone recommend anything please?
  13. OK Julian thanks for that. The date and time on the scope side would have been set from the GPS fix so I will get Phil to check the date and time on the PC.
  14. Hi Guys, I don't know if you can offer any advice on this... I was helping a friend on Friday evening in establishing an ASCOM connection between his 14" LX200GPS and Starry Night etc. After trying a few USB/serial leads and drivers we managed to get a stable connection to the scope and this worked fine in SN. However We noticed a consistent error between the scopes actually pointing location on the sky and the shown position in SN. For example with the scope centred on M76 we slewed to a bright star in Cassiopeia. The scope slewed fine and we took an image which confirmed the star was in the FOV. However the red cross in SN was showing a couple of degrees off the star. I tried to 'sync on' the target but the cross did not move. We slewed back to M76 and once again a quick sub confirmed M76 was back in the FOV. So pointing is fine, but there is an error in the actual and displayed pointing positions. The same issue occurs when I closed SN and tried Maxim instead. Any suggestions on how I can bring the scope and the software 'in line' with each other?
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.