cthorpey

I bought these for the shop and the workshop. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LED-T8-Tube-2-3-4-5-6-8ft-Fluorescent-Replacement-/321872983577?

take the old tube out, take the old starter out and stick the new stuff in.

My old tubes are failing so I am replacing them 2 at a time.

First Light for the focuser......and it all works!

APT telling me its 0.5deg C outside, slewed to Betelgeuse and tried the autofocus. 2 mins later it was spot on. I LOVE this.

Currently imaging M42 before it vanishes behind the house next door.

Thanks again to everyone involved, this thing is awesome.

Chris

Wa Hey!!
All built and tested on my SW130 (not the pds) 

Hopefully going to give it a field test later if it clears up

A Big THANKS!!! to Dave and everyone else.

Chris.

Hi.

All the bits arrived today so I am planning to get stuck in on Sunday.

I am trying this on a SW 130p. Should be fun. Will report back.

Themos,

It would appear that my "neat freak" tendencies took over and I have deleted the images I took when aligning. 
As soon as I get another clear night I will re do it for you and send the images. Sorry.

is it just the images you need?

Chris

Themos, will do.

Just a note to anybody using APT with this, I was able to reduce file upload times and solve times by reducing the image quality in APT to "M".

Local solving would be a great bonus but I am more than happy with the way it works.

Chris
 

YES!!!

Now that I have the camera oriented as described above the "move" instructions make sense and I now have a polar alignment error of 0.54 arc min.
I then started all over again, deleted my images and restarted PPA. I did the initial shots and checked alignment and it is exactly the same error.

Ooo I am a happy chappie. Going to celebrate with a nice hot chocolate then off to bed.

Themos, Thank You so much.
 

Chris

yup, thats what I did. if I have my camera that way round I get the horizon horizontal.

Hi All,
have done some checking this morning and it seems that the orientation of the dslr to the focuser does make a difference on a newt!

I have now set the camera so that the base of the body is parallel to the tube / focuser knobs.

This means that when i move the scope 90 deg from vertical / home I will have the long edge at the bottom and hopefully should now get results that make sense. D'oh.

Chris.

Piccy is one i found on the net, not my setup.

Thanks Themos,
I will test it out tomorrow as long as it doesnt rain.

If it does make a difference I will post some piccys to demonstrate.

Chris

Dumb Question Alert!

I am trying this with a canon1100d. Does the orientation of the camera with respect to the focuser make any difference?
Things were going quite well last night but I seem to be having some mechanical difficulties with the mount. The software was wotking and solving quite nicely.

Thanks

Chris
 

Looking good for tonight...fingers crossed. 

Will report back.

The installation all went fine with one minor hiccup.

I installed to c:/users/lappy as instructed.

My system didn't know what to do with the ppa.py. I had to tell it what to open it with. No biggie at all, I just pointed it to the anaconda folder on c: and clicked the python 64 executable.
I did not have the extra space included when I copied and pasted my API key. 

Ran through the supplied images absolutely fine.

Loooking forward to trying it for real tonight.

If there is room for any more I'd like to have a go. Tried the AT method and got nowhere.

The thought of spending another night fighting with PA is putting me right off.

Ta

C. 

Wow, these images are amazing!

Would you guys mind a few questions?

I currently have the 130p and connect my Canon 1100 via a standard t ring to the built in t thread that is part of the 1.25 lens adapter.The primary mirror has been pushed waaay up the tube and I can get focus with about 10mm of the focus tube still in the light path.

Is the camera connection still the same on the PDS or can I use my t to 2 inch nosepiece in the focuser?

When I try to use the 2 inch nosepiece with the focuser adapter i hit the same problem because the adapter is so thick.

Thanks.

Chris

Perfect timing, I am going to be doing the exact same mod myself fairly soon, I have the other version of the focuser but the theory is the same, Thanks for posting the piccys.