red dwalf

i had a few teething problems using atsrotortilla myself for the first time the other night, firstly it wouldn`t solve, then i realised that i had loads of sync coordinates already stored in eqmod which loaded them as soon as the mount was unparked, i deleted them all from eqmod making sure that the wouldn`t apear again when restarted and tried astro tortilla again, it solved but was not quite centred on the target, i then checked my field of view and entered the exact high and low degrees field of view of my scope and camera into the tortilla settings, tried again and it solved a little better even with the exact field of view sizes, getting there but still not to my ocd standard i noticed at the bottom of the tortilla settings it was in JNow mode, i know that mt stellarium settings are J2000, so changed from JNow to J200 in tortilla and tried again and was spot on.

result.

after a couple of hours on my target, i tried a different target on the other side of the sky and for some reason tortilla wouldn`t work, turned the program off and back on again but to no avail, not sure what this problem is and haven`t had chance to try it again to see if it will work after the pc had been turned off, fingers crossed i`ll have a chance tonight but if anyone can help with the last problem i would be grateful as it looks a good bit of useful kit.

Louise,

you mentioned above the AT can plate solve from a previous image, how is this done ? would be very useful to get bang on the target night after night when doing lrgb or narrowband imaging with my rather small ccd chip.

many thanks. 

great achievement Mike, glad it all up and running ok,

nothing better than sitting somewhere warm and watching the subs roll in. 

check that the output folder is being used, if you don`t select a output folder or it`s missing you get no image at the end of the process.

go to settings / stacking settings, move the tabs along then select output and make sure the create output file is ticked, autosave tif/fits, then output location, create output file in the folder of the reference frame.

hope that helps 

that's the hard part Mike believe me, processing been the worst part of the whole hobby for me, hard to get advice as everyone does it a bit different to others but i`m getting there slowly

looks very nicely done Mike, makes the hobby so much more enjoyable when you don`t have to keep setting up every night, turn on and off you go.

do you have any problems with condensation ? i only get it on my tin roof when it gets fairly cold, i don`t seem to get much on the equipment itself.

it was alittle cold over the last couple of nights, i had to put the heater on in my obsy which made it nice a warm, alittle too warm as i fell asleep, woke up at 3.20 am but got some nice data on the bubble neb.

seen one in use on a heq5 and they are solid

good news all round Mike

keep the pics coming Mike, love to see other builds, 

managed to find your build thread at last Mike, love the pier, looks great and well finished, i bought the heq5 pier adapter from altair and although expensive it work great, then i bought a neq6 and had to buy another altair adapter to fit that, cheesed me off but i do like them and the fit lovely.

dome looks great also, l toyed with the idea of a dome but as i`m a tight so and so with three teenagers bleeding me dry i went down the roll off roof method, but i must say that i like the warm room, makes stargazing so much more enjoyable,

keep up the good work,

all the best,

Rob

thanks Tony

looking a real quality build,

can i ask where you got your roof track and wheels from ? i`m strugling to source something simular

that is very good for a first image, you`ve managed not to over expose the center of the neb which is a very common problem for first timers to do.

well done indeed.

here`s my first effort of M51. forgot to use the reducer and also forgot to use a uv/ir filter which might of helped with the bloating alittle.

They are very good to deal with, first class and offer good prices on gear, there are others too, opticstar for one, another first class dealer I've dealt with

Hi Dave, have you checked the com ports on your computer ?, can't remember which one you need but you might need to change it to one of the other selections it gives you.

It's a good idea to cover the top of the adapter with a filter as stated to stop the sensor getting dust or moisture on it, you can use a clear filter but for a few pounds more you would be better getting a proper uv/ir filter. Cheaper ones seem to be as good as dearer ones

sorry forgot the link, been on nights so i`m all over the place.

link here,

BrickVent - Weep and Vent moisture solutions for brick and masonry, BrickVent and Masonry Innovations, Inc.

there is another way to install ventilation without the mess and disruption of removing bricks, i`m no builder but what i`d do is grind out the perps, these are the vertical mortar joints, and fit weep vents, alot easier and less mess than removing the whole brick which could lossen other bricks, or just drill some holes in the mortar joints or even leave the perps with no joints.

here`s a link to a site that might help.

looks Great, i like the pier idea, cheaper than a steel pipe, i`ve bought a second hand roll off roof obsy myself and the pier was one thing i`ve been chewing over for sometime as these can be expensive, so i think i`ll go down your route, concrete and pipe cheap, which i like ! my wife always calls me a cheap skate

have you tried Toolstation for your items, i find them cheaper on alot of things and also alot cheaper on delivery costs

very impressed so far.

great effort

here is my first effort taken at SGL6 with alot of help from "Glider" and "Ibbo" using a meade dsi pro mono, scope used was a Celstron 8" sct with 6.3 focal reducer and guided with a st80 and phd, 20 5 minute subs and 12 darks, stacked in dss and alittle processing with photoshop cs3, the image is only mono as i`ve yet to get some colour filters for the camera.

i tell you what i did and works very well,

1. first decide which little squares you wish to remove.

2. stick your fingers down the edges of the area to be removed all the way to the bottom and remove the chuck of foam.

3. this makes it very easy to cut the foam to the required depth when it`s removed and using sissors or sharp knife cut to requirements.

4. here comes the cleaver bit, put a little PVA glue round the bottom edge of the piece of foam you wish to replace and from the bottom slide it back into position.

5. leave it over night and it will be stuck back into place.

this leaves a very good look and finish which is better than lots of cuts and chops into the foam while it`s still in place.

i`m not sure whats wrong but i can tell you what my settings are,

firstly if you are using Stellarium 10.4 or above you don`t need Stellarium scope any more as it`s built into the new versions.

1. start Stellarium

2. click configuration window or F2

3. click on plug ins

4. click telescope control

5. at bottom make sure theres a tick in the box load at start up

6. click configure

7. click on add

my settings are,

1. telescope controlled by :-

Stellarium, directly through a serial port

2. name :-

call the scope whatever you want to

3. click start / connect at startup

4. device settings :-

com 1

5. device model :-

celestron nexstar compatable, but there are lots more in the drop down window

6. then click o.k.

hopefully you should be working but remember it only works when the scope is plugged into the computer, if you want to try it with out you need to set up virtual scope in the same way as above.

wow !

flashed mine tonight, took me 2 hours, i hate computers and tech stuff !

didn`t realise that i needed to have the camera running i.e. taking images so when i ran the WCRMAC program it kept coming up with a weard message

anyway up and running now, thanks Russ ! i definatly couldn`t have done it if i couldn`t see you pictures.

not to hard if you understand the layout of a board, there`s plenty of diagrams if you google search the mod your after, but for me, i couldn`t understand the instructions at all.