AndyKeogh

I will look back in my records. I have been there in February and my recollection was that it was cold but excellent skies,

Good pictures 😊 I have never seen an aurora. In case I do, what camera settings and lens did you use?

Which mount is this for? My EQ6 is not in use at present so if someone is passing Ponteland then they could take it up to you.

Sandra continues to make progress, but will still not camp! Are you up there house hunting? Andy

I hope it improves in 2 weeks as I am booked in for 10 days in the caravan Andy

It is indeed sad that this has happened . I just hope they were well insured. has anyone else noticed that the mounts and scopes are missing from each pillar. Would the mounts melt completely in such a fire?

Hi Derek, may I suggest some editing is required. Please note: That although there are some spaces left for say: for Tuesday the 2nd and Wednesday the 3rd, that if you want to book for those nights you will not be allowed to extend your stay over the next night the 20th, if the camp numbers were to be greater than 25 pitches. That's some jump from the 3rd to the 20th and the text following the 20th is out of context. Sadly I will not be there this year as Sandra is adamant that she will never camp again !!

As Derek said very impressive. I suspect this was about 1am. What exposure was required and did you have to do anything special to stop star trailing? Andy

Does the Hitec Astro cable work if it is plugged into the handset controller? As far as I can see from some quick research here https://www.celestron.com/blogs/knowledgebase/what-are-the-aux-ports-on-my-computerized-telescope-for the only RS232 interface is in your hand controller. So I guess to answer your original question the driver you need is a Celestron handset. You asked your question in an EQMOD thread about Hitec Astro’s EQDIR adapter. Now that adapter replaces the HC. Because the EQMOD software replace all the functionality of the HC and lots more besides. You may therefore get more details if you ask your question in a Celestron AVX forum

OK it seems the cable is being recognised and windows is using an FTDI driver. So it should work. The question now is what is different between this cable and the others which have worked? I have had a quick look at the stellarium user guide and it would appear that you tell it to use com 6, I do not use stellarium so that is the limit of how I can help. Have you had Stellarium actually controlling you scope with another cable? Andy

It was the same for me last month with a new 4G router except I had to drive back home to pick up a screen and keyboard before I could get the imaging rig to work Still it was a nice 300 mile drive !! Countryfile weather forecast seemed promising for Tuesday onward albeit a little cold as the week progresses. Hope you all get lovely clear skies. Andy

OK the property box is a drop down. Could you select hardware ID rather than description and take another image please. I can see from your cable image that it is an FTDI chipset. Need the hardware ID to confirm that That is what w10 recognised it as. Does com6 only appear after you plug the cable in? If so can you also screenshot the driver tab as well. TIA Andy

Can you upload a picture of your cable please. Hitec Astro used to use Prolific chips and some were unsupported by W10 So the consensus was to use the FTDI 232R chipset . So the question is what chipset does your cable use? If you look in device manager at the port devices and then plug your cable in how does it identify your cable? If you right click on the description and select properties Details tab what values are listed? This image is for my Hitec Astro EQDIR cable. A little later I plugged in my FTDI cable by which time W10 had updated the status to my COM3 to PHASED OUT since 2012 but in the screen below you can see the id for the FTDI chip (COM4). This does not need any driver loaded as it appears to be directly supported in W10.

You need to provide more details about your hitech Astro cable. It is a long time since I controlled my C8 using the Avx predecessor the CG5-AS-GT. My recollection is that it used an RS232 interface and Celestron had its own app to control the mount. I also had a USB to RS232 adapter as most computers stopped supplying a native RS232 interface. What OS are you running Stellarium on? Andy

No Derek 😔 I meant the week in which past camps have been held in November. Winds, tents flying about the place spring to mind but there may also have been some stunning viewing as well. Andy