Skipper Billy

Have a look at the dates on this page of my website.  https://www.davidbanksastro.com/deep-space-objects

I image EVERY clear night no matter what the moon is doing.

Its getting worse by the year.

This season we have had 6 clear(ish) nights since mid August.

1 hour ago, rickwayne said:

Cooling, like  other noise reduction techniques, is a game of diminishing returns. I wind up recommending Robin Glover's talk on CMOS exposure a lot, he shows some cooling/noise curves that should make you take notice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RH93UvP358

That's one of the most enlightening things I have seen on YT. I seem to be doing the right things by accident - Bortle 2 skies, noisy Kodak chip etc !!

My camera (ATIK 16200) can easily cool to 50 degrees under ambient.

I take a full set of calibration files just before the season starts - late August. A full set of darks, flats and bias for every filter and every exposure I might use and binned 1x1 and 2x2 can take 3 days and nights to gather. I use these throughout the season.

So I picked a temperature that the camera can reach in August and that is unlikely to be warmer than the ambient temperature too often and doesn't stress the camera too much whilst giving the optimum noise reduction (its a noisy camera).

-20 Celsius is where I got to and it has worked very well for me.

Did you put your longitude in as a + value - Kent is East of the meridian line.

If you look on the location page of Stellarium is the red dot showing where you live??

14 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

Yes, it’s good, but I dont like the way that if you have a disconnection, it opens another instance and desktop when you reconnect, rather than re starting the same one, so you have to start everything al over again...

Thats not what happens on mine - the remote machine carries on running and the new connection just reconnects without having to restart anything at all.

I often deliberately disconnect to focus on doing something indoors then reconnect to check that all is well outside - no issues.

17 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

I find RealVNC better than teamviewer...after having tried both...👍🏼

I find Windows 10 RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) better than anything else.

If my Mesu was stolen I would buy another without a second thought.

Big tick for the scope choice - cant comment on the camera.

If Bernard has one in stock I am sure he would keep it for you against a substantial deposit - the next batch are almost certain to increase in price.

Dont be put off the SiTech software - the GUI is very '70's but it works superbly. Take care in setting up the initial parameters and you will probably never need to touch it again.

I often describe it as my most boring astro purchase - nothing to twiddle or play with - turn it on - use it - turn it off - repeat.

I would be on the phone to Bernard first thing tomorrow!!!!

Lovely scope.

I would think the Moonlight may be better than the standard Takahashi one for visual use - buttery smooth and dual speed. 

For imaging I would go for the Takahashi focuser.

I hope it brings you many hours of happiness 😉 

7 minutes ago, SStanford said:

I've set RA & Dec rate to x0.80. Does it really matter if I were to put this up to x0.90? would guiding be more accurate at x0.50 for example?

AFAIK its a trade off between pulse guide settings in ASCOM and step size in PHD2. If you increase the pulse settings in ASCOM you will need to reduce the step size in PHD2. 0.8 in ASCOM is a very good starting point.

Once you have it up and running run the guiding assistant and implement its recommendations - it is usually pretty much spot on.

9 minutes ago, Cboillo said:

I hope you will be able to help me! I bought a car booster which deliver a 16v output.

Car boosters are usually a 12v lead acid battery. A fully charged 12v battery sits around 13.7 volts hot off the charger which would be fine for an EQ6.

Have you measured the output voltage with a multimeter???  Try a different multimeter.

Tonight's Moon - 77% waxing gibbous - grabbed between the heavy snow showers. Canon DSLR/guide scope/Star Adventurer. 50 subs - stacked 50% of the best RAW files. Lightly tweaked in Photoshop.

Breath-taking - you should be very proud of that. Well done.

9 hours ago, saac said:

That's a neat solution Billy.  At the moment I have my main camera and the general observatory camera controlled by Alexa via standard smart plugs.  Relays look a more practical solution once the number of devices starts to rise.  That's a reasonable price as well for the board . 

You can control this relay board via Alexa 😉 

Quick update in case someone stumbles across this thread looking for ethernet/USB controlled relays.

I gave up on the eBay 8 relay board for £10 - they couldn't supply the promised software and when I did find compatible software the board didn't work - the slightest vibration caused the USB socket to drop the signal - not what you want in the hostile environment of an observatory!!!! It will shortly be on its way to landfill sadly.

I did some research and found this product - https://www.robot-electronics.co.uk/products/relay-modules/ethernet-relay/ds378.html

Arrived next day and the chap who runs the company phoned me next day to explain that if any of the loads are inductive then I should fit 'snubbers' to lengthen the life of the relays - nice touch.

Its very well made - worked straight off the bat. Easy and reliable and with an amazing array of configurable options.

They also supply a variety of webpage options all of which are fully and easily configurable.

Cant fault it!!!

This is my new mission control.......

3 minutes ago, gilesco said:

Anyone knows if the NUC's need ventilation for high temperatures in summer? 

I wouldn't put it in a sealed box for instance  - it needs ventilation. As for heat - its all relative - a very warm summers day here is 18º !!!  I guess its a tad warmer in Athens !!!  Certainly cold doesn't bother them - mine has run very happily at -21º. (Mine is the fanless flavour)

2 hours ago, Nikolas74 said:

Just wanted to ask how do you power up your Nuc? 

I have a Pegasus Astropocket power box that gives 12volt, 10amps...could that work? 

I know that not all Nuc's work with 12volts so this is another point to check before buying..... 

The one I use states 19v - but it runs just as well at 12v. I originally used a 12v to 19v step up buck but when plugging things in I accidentally hooked it up to 12v - I didnt notice for 3 months - it made no difference at all to the performance.

here you go.....  

54 minutes ago, Nikolas74 said:

My first option was a Usb extender over cat5/6 cable since the distance is only 15 meters of cable , from my room to the balcony.....make a small hole on the wall pass the cable and that's it....but , there were a few concerns like 5v of power , is it going to work flawlessly or am i going to have delays or disconnections ?? etc, plus the fact that it was almost half the price of buying an intel nuc.

Then i checked about the USB active cables , but then i would need a bigger hole in the wall to pass the cable out and still i was reading about connection problems and disconnection issues.

Now i am checking for an Intel Nuc , there are a lot of threads here about them and many people use them with success , but there are so many options available which makes it so much difficult to choose the one that would be appropriate for just capturing images and remote operation etc..

Small versions vs Tall versions ?

Core i3 or core i5 ? 2.3Ghz or 3.80Ghz or more ?

Which generation ? 8th or 10th ?

Which Graphic card ? is it important ? Iris 655 or UHD ?

Which hard disk drive ? SSD or SATA ?

The USB - Cat5 converter works really very well - I used it for a couple of years before installing a NUC in the Obsy - its a good solution.

Active USB cables - run away !!!!!!!!!!!!!

NUC is the Rolls-Royce solution but you are right the choice is bewildering! It also depends on how many USB ports you need both now and in the future - many NUC's (but not all) take an after market lid that provides another 2 USB ports.

I needed 6 USB ports so chose on the basis that the USB lid was a must have.

Running everything at the same time doesn't require enormous processing power - I chose an i5 2.3 Ghz with 16gb RAM and an SSD - it never breaks into a sweat and it can even run Pixinsight concurrently so I can use Blink etc to keep an eye on image quality etc. Its connected to indoors via Windows RDP and it works flawlessly.

If you choose the first route I think I saw one for sale on here.

Shout out if I can help you!

PS - I am in the process of installing ethernet controlled relays to turn everything on and off remotely - the NUC can be set to run at power up which is a nice feature - mine has run for 2 years now with zero issues.

7 minutes ago, Peakedge said:

I was going to ask how the roof stays on but guess that is the pivoting arms that do that! What is the roofing material?

Yes, the arms effectively lock the roof down against high winds as well as acting a a pivot and guide.  We have had winds of >100mph and biblical rain and snow and it has never let a drop of water in.

The roofing material is 'EPDM' - https://www.rubber4roofs.co.uk/shop/epdm-rubber-roofing

Those of us old enough to remember Benny Hill might find this amusing - I did but then again small things and small minds.......

This at real life speed with the weather we are having - clear - raining - clear - raining - clear - raining .......

OK - the external measurements are .....

External 1500mm x 1500mm 

Height to top of door (exc roof) 1300mm

Internal 1400mm x 1400 x 1300mm

The inverted V shaped strip across the join in the roof halves is fixed and sealed to one of the roof halves (the side that faces the prevailing wind). The seal between this capping strip and the other half of the roof is sealed with a strip of butyl weatherproof non adhesive (one one side!) tape. The half that the capping strip is permanently fastened to must always be opened first and closed last.

Hope the following photos and brief (amateur!) video help.

Fire away with any questions and I will do my best to assist.

16 minutes ago, Peakedge said:

What size is your observatory?

It's about 1400mm sq - if it ever stops raining I will take some photos and measurements.

It nearly stopped this morning but then decided to carry on again! 😉 

+1 for the Mesu - most boring mount I have ever owned - switch it on - use it - switch it off. No excitement at all. Nothing to fiddle with or adjust. 

Hello Gary

I will take some photos when it stops raining - much easier than trying to explain in words.

Its not difficult and even during biblical rain and high winds (like today!) it is bone dry.

All the best.

David.