m.tweedy

17 hours ago, Swoop1 said:

Has anyone out there tried this?

I had a thought that I might be able to tap up the local authority for a beyond seviceable use lamp post whch could be cut off and the bottom section used as the basis for a pier? Weld a plate on the bottom and a brake disk onn the top and, if possible, keep the access hatch to tidy away connections etc.

Am I being relaistic or just plain dumb?

Mine is. Cut from the lower section above the hatch area. It was cleaned up before welding the pipe flanges and fins.

I have been waiting for this to come out. Thank you, I enjoyed it on my TV. It seemed to work fine for me.

Dennis is checking how its going there. Our clear nights have now ended. How is it going at your place. Any new stars seen tonight (TV we mean)

here is the discharge curve for Lithium Polymer. Not Great for powering an NEQ6 Pro. THats why i went for the LiPo4 which suited me better.

Thank you for your comments. Sadly the Mesu will be long gone before i get the funds for the sale of my gear. It was one that i wanted but was outside my budget new.

I will just have to be patient until i get the funds. 😞

I have my own Observatory in the back Garden and am looking to move my modified NEQ6 (SKF bearings, Rowan belt drive, Geoptik head and Counterweight shaft with their counterweights, Improved home made latitude adjustment-similar to the rail) as despite all of this I am not happy with its overall performance. 

The new mount would need to handle my 81mm triplet and ccd etc together with (at a future date) a 10 inch RC.

My options seem to be 

Ioptron CEM60 (with or without RA encoder-unsure if needed in an Observatory).

New EQ8-R

Any other mount-no tripod needed that needs to be a maximum of £3K

Looking forward to thoughts on this.

As this post was from January 2015 and Photosbykev has not been on the forum since March unfortunately it is unlikely he will see it.

turn your iphone or ipad red

IT WORKS

I think this qualifies as a dual set up (just) as the 60mm has a planetary camera in it

here it is

http://ca.skywatcher.com/post/firmware-driver-resources/star-adventurer-advanced-firmware/

I have recently discovered this person who makes these things at a very reasonable price.

http://www.astrokraken.fr/skywatcher-or-ioptron-type-polarscope-adapter-for-seagull-right-angle--a129918512

I am in the middle of ordering the combination set he does

http://www.astrokraken.fr/set-of-3-adapters-for-skywatcher-star-adventurer-a129517816

4 hours ago, Nightwatchman said:

Thanks very much Dave for your advice here.

Received my Synscan wifi adapter today, plugged into the AZ EQ6, fired up my Android Nexus tablet. Connected fine.

Set up Sky Safari Plus with the IP address and connected to mount and operating motors.

All seems fine on Android.

I can confirm it doesn't work with Ipad !

Very satisfying and now all set up for star parties for our summer visitors to SW France. 

 

It will and does work with an ipad but it is a pain. You need two apple devices the first running the Skywatcher wifi app the second running sky safari with the setting that Skywatcher list in the help section of the app

Very comprehensive reply. Much better than i would have come up with. My basic error at first was not connecting the laptop wifi to the dongle. After that it just worked after i used the telescope chooser 

ASCOM Driver for SynScan App and SynScan Pro App

4 hours ago, tteedd said:

Will this work for Alt Az setups?

I believe so. However i do not have a Skywatcher AZ mount to test it on.

Just been to Observatory and when i switch it on it automatically recognises the mount type. Mine is an NEQ6 Pro. I also tested it at the Club last night and it recognised the EQ5. So it looks hopeful that it should recognise an AZ mount. There is also a brightest star align which i have found tends to be mainly used on AZ mounts (or it was when i owned a Skywatcher AZ mount).

Just to add a little further information.

For my static Observatory set up I was pleased to find that this adapter also works on my laptop with ASCOM. I can now use my Planetarium software on my laptop integrated with this meaning only one wire to my USB hub from my laptop now. I hate wires.

http://skywatcher.com/download/software/synscan-app/

http://skywatcher.com/download/software/ascom-driver/

it also works like a dream. Tested last night.

4 hours ago, festoon said:

I've been thinking about buying one the wifi adapters for my HEQ5 for the past few days  

I've watched this review and the chap mentions that it seems to run the mount a lot smoother and others have commented that you can enhance the accuracy of the goto for mount by centering each object and tapping the confirm button.

What I was wondering...can anyone else please confirm if the performance of the mount is improved by using the wifi over the standard handset? Also is the enhanced GOTO just the same as adding a PAE point for each object after you goto it when using the handset?

Thanks and Happy new year

I have found that the first star is always off, however the other 2 are nearly always centred (or nearly) in the eyepiece. I cannot comment is improved however as it reads the system information from the phone/pad it is a accurate on  the settings as it can be. I guess the enhanced go to is the same as PAE (which incidentally should be cleared before use every time on a mobile set up). 

Just now, Stu said:

Thank you! Will give that a go

practise first otherwise you will get it running away. NOT THAT I KNOW THAT.

from memory you need to tap the screen when you have finished tilting otherwise when you lift it up WOOPS off your scope goes

https://support.simulationcurriculum.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015867607-Scope-Control-View

Once your telescope is connected, arrow buttons appear on the sides of the screen (unless you have selected the "Tilt Device to Slew" option in the Settings).

9 minutes ago, Stu said:

This sounds interesting Michael, but how do you do it? I have 6 Pro.

https://support.simulationcurriculum.com/hc/en-us/sections/115004140107-SkySafari-6-User-Manual-for-iOS-and-Android

set tilt device to slew to on.

It gets a bit of getting used to at first

On 29/12/2017 at 21:32, tteedd said:

Mmm

Maybe 'stuck with' sounds a bit strong. But stuck with seems to be the case. I seem to have to move from Stellarium to SkySafari and up a fair bit of cash as well.

CDC means 'Control Data Corporation' or 'Computer Digital Control' to me and I do not know a lot about Ascom except that it seems to be an interface between programs and equipment for control of astro devices. I have not had to think about this too much so far. But it seems to be cropping up as I start looking at control and my new toy.

Where can I get a primer? (Any real software expertise I posses is 40 years old, so plain English would be useful).

Aha CdC for me is this

https://sourceforge.net/projects/skychart/ 

it is the skychart software i use instead of Stellarium.

ASCOM is the interface between the laptop and controlling your telescope which is very good however not needed unless you are using the laptop and various other bits.

I have used sky safari for years on my ipad and iphone and like it a lot however you do not really need it with the new dongle. If you do invest then the plus version is good enough and on half price for the brand new version 6.

The selling point as i have mentioned elsewhere is the ability to move the scope just by tilting the phone or tablet without having to keep looking at the device to nudge the scope onto the object.

On 23/12/2017 at 18:38, tteedd said:

Thanks Dave.

When I want to control via a computer I currently run Stellarium on a HP laptop (USB/serial converter).

I generally slowly loose synscan accuracy as I change targets with this and with the handset, so am looking forward to both getting rid of the wiring and having to repeat the setup.

When I am observing visually, it will be good to have the HP laptop off as it creates too much (dark adaptation) light, even in red mode. I will still need it when I want to record video. I normally have an LED display on my scope carriage (to avoid trailing cables), if I could get a remote link between the HP and the video camera I might do away with that.

It would be good if other software pakages worked with the adapter. Anyone tried? or are we stuck with Sky Safari.  (BTW I took a guess at the name and ended up downloading a seach engine called Star Safari!).

Lets hope some clear skies arrive with the WiFi adaptor.

at the moment it says it will only work with SkySafari (i dont agree with the "being Stuck" as in my opinion it is the best of the bunch out there however i know others may disagree). i use the Bluetooth adaptor from Dew Control wirelessly though Ascom and CDC that works well also.

We were out last night using this firstly on an Android phone. 

Connected to the wifi network it set up  (hands up we forget at first to connect to the dongle and wondered why it was not working OOPS).

Polar Aligned through the Polar Scope. (app gives Polaris position so no need for Polar alignment apps)

Chose 3 star align (gives a good choice of alignment stars)

alignment was very easy (first star slightly out as expected next 2 perfectly centered)

alignment successful.

fired up Sky Safari 5 plus using the port address in the help menu

connected first time.

chose first target NO MOVEMENT (scratched head for a few minutes then realised it was at Zenith and Synscan app has limits (75 Degrees i think) to stop potential of scope hitting tripod). Chose another target

slightly off centre centred it up and used sync button. now bang on.

Got clever on next target and chose a named star near it and synced on that then moved to target (cannot remember what it was now) but 60 second image found it nearly centre.

had a drop out when the phone decided to connect to my house wifi. Easily sorted by forget network in phone settings. Re connected and off we went again.

we were both very happy with the performance.

As i do not have an Android but have an iphone and ipad2 it was my turn next on my Neq6 pro. (We were in my garden with my Observatory mounted Neq6 Pro and Kens Heq5 pro that he brought round for our test).

connected dongle with handset cable (not as neat as the Neq5 Pro set up) but still OK.

remembered to connect to the dongle wifi this time (lesson learnt from last time).

Again chose 3 star align and same scenario as above so very happy.

Fired up SkySafari 6 that i am beta testing using the port settings off the dongle wifi on my iphone.

played with going to targets using the scope visually which worked very well (I am a SkySafari fanboy having used it since version 3).

LOVED the fact that in this version if you hold the ipad flat you can tilt it to move the scope (much easier than trying to find the adjustment arrows on the app and the only reason i could ever see of returning to using the handset).

It was no issue to me having both my iphone and ipad in use as i already owned both. 

CONCLUSION

very happy with performance 

loved not having to set date, time etc and apart from schoolboy user error it performed very well indeed.

Android wins on only needing one device but as i have both Apple products it was no issue to me.

Does not need SkySafari to function but in my opinion using SkySafari brings it up a level due to it being a very well appointed program.

Price made it easy for me to decide to buy it.

PS i have used Skywire and more recently the SkyFi connections but as this replaces the handset instead of plugging into it like the others makes it a much neater solution.

Hopefully i have not missed anything

Further progress and unofficial first light as not quite finished and not collimated.

Our Society have taken the opportunity to build (nearly) our 18.5 inch f5 dob.