Ratcatcher

Hi everyone, I am having great fun with my scope (Astrofi 5" SCT with starsense) and today thought I would give CPWI a go. First I tried 'Direct mode' and this proved very successful, I then tried 'Access point mode' and try as I might I could not get it to work. I followed (or tried to!) the instructions in the CPWI online manual, ie first connect in direct mode, select 'wifi-lan config' to be able to enter SSID and password only to beinformed that it can only be done when the laptop is not connected to the mount. OK then disconnect the mount and then try again, only to be told that CPWI could not make contact with the wifi in the mount! I had been moving the connection switch on the mount from ditect to access but no joy. Has anybody been able to get the 'Access point' method of connection working? if so could you enlighten me as to how to make mine work please! I am using the curent beta version of CPWI Thanks! Mike

Yes! a cluster indeed!....in fact a series of mistakes is also a cluster .... I think you can imagine what I mean! Well, how the particles got inside the scope is a mystery to a degree, meaning that to fit the larger gear wheel onto the focus shaft I first drilled out the hole in the gear wheel and filed an interference fit. I thought I was very careful to blow out any metal dust from this wheel each time before offering it up to the shaft. Maybe not! So the repeated offering up maybe a not perfectly debris clear gear wheel is a possibility. As for the finder idea, when I first got the scope I did not bother to mount the red dot finder preferring to fit my starsense camera that I had previously used on the larger Meade. (I loved that Meade so much that one year I bought it a CGEM for it's birthday!) This also needed a little fettling due to the smaller diameter of the tube on the Astrofi 5", and no particle ingress was noted. Also not dropping the corrector plate while cleaning took a lot of effort!

I have always thought of my self as a careful chap. Around my telescopes? ...even more than careful.....fastidiously safe even! Imagine my horror at being caught out by crass stupidity while fastening bits and bobs to my scope! Lets have some detail. In my quest for as full automation of my observing experience as possible the final fence was focusing my scope from my front room while wiggling my toes in front of the double log burner while enjoying a scotch and seeing the results of my frozen telescopes efforts on my TV screen. In this day and age this is not a too hard a goal. Most of us have a lap top, and a tablet to borrow or knocking about to commandeer even, enough freebie software out there? lets go!, lets cobble something together that's reliable and works! All pretty tame stuff. Until that last fence....fixing the focus motor to the scope...easy!, ...I have a Celestron 5" Scmitt/Cass....Celestron's electric focus motor does not fit....look elsewhere.....got it! Skywatcher focus motor coupled to Hitec astro DC focus control! What can possibly go wrong! In the past, when I was fit enough to chuck about my then Meade 10" Scmitt/Cass fitting things like a dew heater control and the like was no harder than fashioning a aluminium bracket, mounting the dew heater control on that, then taking out one of the many un-used hex bolts around the front or back end of the scope and fixing the bracket under it and screwing it back. Job done. When it came to mounting the focus motor and the DC focus motor control unit on my 5" Celestron ,I did not think!....just used the same method! It was only when I stood back to admire my handy work that I saw what I thought to be a large amount of dust on the corrector plate! O.K, no problem, a very careful use of a make up brush should clear it up. It did'nt! what was worse was the small amount of tree sap/pollen/whatever smeared on the front of the plate! It was then that I realized that what I could see was on the INSIDE of the corrector plate.... and it was SMALL GRAINS OF FILED ALUMINIUM!!! Eventually my heart rate came down far enough for reality to sink in.....it was a 'take out and clean ' the corrector plate job! Not done that before! After a trawl of 'The University of Youtube' I felt able to tackle the job with confidence, the result being a clean corrector plate, no serious changes to the collimation via an artificial star, and a day time focus as well, just leaving a real star collimation to be done! Thanks Dr Clay!! So, don't be like me! if you fit things to your scope think it through first!

Hi everybody, I am looking for a little help again! It regards connecting my Celestron Astrofi to the internet via my BT router. To fill out a little more info, I am using CPWI software to control my Astrofi 125mm scmitt/cass. There are a few ways of doing this, the first being a built in WIFI hot spot generated within the mount and you connect to this with your laptop. This works very well as long as you are within about 20 to30 feet of the scope. Another method is to connect the mount to your network via your home router. The big advantage of this is you can then control the scope from your nice and warm front room rather than freezing half to death outside! This is achieved by giving your mounts WIFI the SSID and password of your router. ( I will not detail the procedure for this as this part is working) You then move the switch on the mount to its second position . You then should be able to connect your laptop ( or desk top) to your router again, open CPWI and away you go. My problem is it works up to the point of changing the mounts WiFi switch to the second position. I re-connect my laptop to my router, open CPWI and I get a message saying that it can not connect to the mount. I have been able to check that it has the SSID and password are correctly stored. Anybody had any success with this and a BT router? if so any advice you can offer will be very much appreciated . Kind regards Mike

Thanks Adrian and HTH, I will now make a light box. I will use a flat illuminated panel from Amazon as the are nice and cheap! I will post results as soon as I take some AVI's and processed them.

Hi, I have just bought a 'dip your toe' CMOS camera and I am wondering, should I take flats and darks or is this only done with CCD cameras? Thanks in advance Mike

michael8554 thanks, I will check there.

I like it also, just frustrating till I get it working properly. It displays time as UTC which is a hour behind current UK. I could not find a way to change this.

Well, that was a little disappointing to say the least! I down loaded Celestrons new CPWI the other day and on the surface thought it looked very good. This evening was the first opportunity I've had to give it a test run. Basically alignment failed badly. Has anybody else had a similar experience, if so, how did you resolve it? Now at this point it's best to give you an idea of my experience. I am not a newbie, I have had plenty of experience with a Meade scope, an LX90 10" on a CGEM. Long story short I had to sell due to ill health. I ran that scope for 5 years. I have mentioned this as it appears to most folk that I now run with a 'starter' scope, a Celestron Astrofi 125mm Scmitt/Cass....this one is lite enough for me to pick up! I found for me, the WIFI option to be unusable due to lack of accuracy. I have been using a fully up dated 'Starsence' and found it to be great bit of kit that has never failed me yet! (used one on the Meade also) I was very careful to enter all my info about location and mount , the 'up' and 'right' rule. Thinking back, the only thing I did not change was the time. CPWI is on UTC and the UK is on DST so CPWI is an hour behind. Can anybody think of why , other than this that it should fail? After this I went back to my starsense hand control and all was well. Clear skies Mike

Thanks Merlin66, That was the info I needed! I have been out of the hobby for a few years , due to a dodgey back I had to sell my Meade10". I now have a little 125mm Scmitt/Cass from Celestron so it is very light on a single fork arm. in light of this I thought I would make a wooden wedge. Thanks again! Clear skies!

I am about to make a small wedge for my Celestron 125mm cat. my latitude is 52 degrees. I was told that I need to convert this to an angle ( in degrees) above the horizon. Being a savage I was surprised to hear this! The problem is I can not remember the calculation. Can anybody remind me or point me to an on-line calculator please?

Now for the 'portable' bit. Although I have a garden, it's very restricted in field of view, (nothing to the south, houses to the north) it is useable, just, for a quick astro fix! This means that I have to be most definitely 'portable'. I cast around the shed and found my old foam packaging where my CGEM used to live. I thought that with a little 'chopping and changing' I could make things work. An un-used suitcase also proved to be just the right size to contain the whole lot. Result! The result is more 'practical than pretty' but it means I can put it in the Jeep and be away not worrying that part of the scope has been left behind! It also makes a convenient place to store the scope while it's in the shed.

Well, that's number one off the list! My previous telescope was a Meade 10" Scmitt/Cass mounted on a CGEM. It did not seem to matter much how high the pier was as the eyepiece was always in the most god awful positions! The current scope is a Celestron Astrofi 125 Scmitt/Cass on a single fork arm. It's worth noting that I had little success with the WIFI part of this scope and soon put my Starsense camera and hand control on it. I first removed the plate adapter for the CGEM, then removed the top plate. I had to drill three small holes in the top plate to accommodate three small pips on the base of the fork arm. I made a simple jig to get things placed properly. The threaded bar was replaced next and the correct height was found by trial and error with the scope mounted on the top plate and changing the position of the lower nuts. It was then the turn of the wooden sections used between the top and bottom plates to be remade. It was a simple measure (twice!) and cut. Two coats of weather proofing paint, re assemble and tighten all nuts down while being certain that everything was level and true. Quick slap of weather proofing on the rest of the pier had the job done! It only needed a lift of 300mm but it makes all the difference to comfortable viewing!

Due to the current crisis I have found myself will a vastly reduced working day. I have turned my thoughts to 'Astro' projects. Here is a little list of things I shall do to help me fill some of the time. 1. Extend the height of my pier as I have down sized my scope. 2. Make my new set up as portable as possible. 3. Make my battery power supply portable. Photos will be posted as progress happens! Clear sky tonight forecast here in Cambridge Kind regards Mike

Thanks for the detailed information vlaiv, I shall add a reducer to the list of things need. As soon as I am set up I will post results! Thanks again! Kind regards Mike

I have always been fascinated by EEVA and am now in a position to have a go, to dip my toe in the waters to see if it is really for me. As a 'toe dipper' I am thinking of this camera Altair GPCAM3 385C USB3 Colour Guide Imaging EAA Camera I would be mounting it on my pier mounted 125mm Celestron Astrofi (using Starsense) SCT Any advice and user reports would really help me in making a camera choice. Thanks in advance Mike

Thanks Tomatobro will go it a go. As usual read and re-read the manual a few times and found nothing. Thanks. Mike

Hi, as mentioned before I have returned to astronomy after a long break. The problem I am having is that the speed of the text scrolling across the screen of my starsence paddle is to fast. Anybody know how to slow this down? Any advice welcome! Mike

Hi, due to ill health I had to sell my large Meade. I am now back and had to choose a smaller lighter scope, so I went with a Celestron Astrofi 125 mm Schmidt-cass. While being attracted to the 'Wifi' idea I think that I will probably go over to a regular hand control. While an Nexstar+ hand control will do the job I really liked my Starsence controller and camera that I used to use with my big Meade. (LX90 10 inch on a Celestron CGEM) My question is has any of you used an Astrofi with starsence , or is it even compatable with this scope? kind regards Mike

Hi, ill health led me to sell my equipment a few years ago. I am now able to return. I have been checking out the Meade LX90 8" trotting out at around £1740 and the celestron NexStar Evelution 8 HD with starsence at around £2445. I am not interested in company bashing, I genuinely would like your opinions on what I would be getting for the extra money with the Celestron. To be honest I can not see any real benefit but my knowlage is limited. Looking forward to your replies. Mike OUT OF STOCK