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bilbo

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Everything posted by bilbo

  1. That would be one alternative, but they'e not cheap and can be problematic. The HD pro wedge & matching CPC tripod costs the equivalent of $1,000 here in the UK and the guy would still have a low quality mount that doesn't like the pole area. For long exposure AP the only real way to go is with an eq mount, Short exposure stacking works well enough in alt/az can be derotated in software, But really needs a very fast scope and the images will need to be cropped. From what I can see in the pics, The OP also seems to be using a standard SCT reducer on an Edge HD which is not going to produce great results. Steve
  2. Instead of going "straight" Use a short diagonal such as the baader T2. https://www.baader-planetarium.co.uk/shop/baader-90-32mm-t-2-prism-diagonal/ The optical length is much shorter. Reducer/SCT to T adapter/T Diagonal/Camera & spacers (if needed) Avoid wedges with Evo mounts Steve
  3. All the work is done within the AA+, The tablet is for remote display and sending instructions., Once you've told the AA+ what you want it to do it just "gets on with it". Naturally the better the tablet the less problems you will come across. Wifi capabilities vary a lot. If you have a decent laptop try running the Bluestacks Android emulator. I use it on my win10 laptop. The laptop has proper antenna's giving a better signal/range than my both my Ipad and Ipad pro Steve
  4. Take a look at https://theskylive.com/ Great for info on what's "Up" Steve
  5. Don't confuse EAA for observing with the usual EAA as a quick entry into pretty pictures. The idea from the start was to"see" beyond the visual limits of your scope. Astronomy not photograpy. If it's within the limits of your scope use your eye's if not use a camera. Steve
  6. I have found its all down to the boards & chipsets used in laptops and the power that is supplied to them which is shared by many internal components.. My 8m lindy pro and others work internittently or not at all if I plug them directly into my laptop, The solution is to use a powered hub. Laptop == Hub == Exlension == Camera Laptop == Hub == Exlension == Hub == Camera (for more complex setups) Steve
  7. bilbo

    Help!

    The only driver you need is the first one that says "MUST" The direct show & ascom drivers only clutter things up. Steve
  8. I've started a new post for the benefit of anyone needing info on these drives in the future. Thanks to xsubariner for the "manual" There seems to be a few variations on these, Simple variable speed rotation. Dome needs to be moved by hand to new position after backing off knobs RF Remote via a velleman kit (my type), A key fob remote with forwards / backwards is used to slew the dome to the new position. Backwards rotation should be done inbetween the regular pulses which rotate the dome forwards Shelyak interface which allows computer control of the tracking If anyone can add info/pics of their "variants" I'm sure it will be appreciated Rigel Dome Controller Installation Manual.pdf
  9. Brill Thats the one I have, I've actually removed it from the dome now (which is in parts) to take a look. The key fob does slew the dome forward & backwards which is a big, big plus for me, As pulsar told me otherwise I'll post a new topic with pics and the instuctions in case anyone else needs this info in the future All the best Steve
  10. Hi All After completely giving up the idea of a permanent dome and even selling my Meade 14, I have found myself with a 2.2m Pulsar dome. The dome is the current model but came with an older simple Rigel rotation drive, The type with an On/Off switch and speed control. In the course of dismantling the dome we found a spare door key and a Velleman key fob type remote. A closer look at the Rigel control box revealed a Velleman control unit inside which I assume is the receiver. Main question is what is the remote for. Speed or does it slew the dome. Any other info on these units would be a great help. Thanks Steve
  11. Its the Altair (purple) The pro & pro tec use up different amounts of your back focus. 12.5mm on the pro, 17.5mm on the protec (as I annoyingly found out) So the pro needs 97mm spacers, The pro tec 92mm. Back of reducer (not threads) to face of camera T connection. Or at least it would in a perfect world. Then there is reality. At least you've got things on the right track. Steve (waiting for the rain to stop nr west auckland so I can take the dog out)
  12. Good to see you’re in the right direction. Distance does look a little long but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. The reducer can be spaced short/long throughout a wide range so play about to find what gives the best results for your sensor. Have fun Steve
  13. No, That was the first thing I looked for. I have now found out it is in fact threaded. So I need a scrap 2" extension to screw in from the opposite side. I'll drill two holes in the extension and place a bar or screwdriver through the holes. (Circular box spanner) as it tightens it will unscrew the adapter unless it strips the threads first
  14. Thanks but I need to know how this thing comes apart. Maybe Altair just superglued these. Added a pic, cheers
  15. Anyone have one these things, More important has anyone managed to fit a filter in one. Its got me stumped, I assumed the rear adapter would be threaded and simply unscrew to fit a 48mm filter. but it will not budge. On the Altair site they sell separate adapters for GPCAM, Hyprecam & Pro Tec looking at those they don't appear to be threaded. There are no grub screws holding the ring in either. A mystery and as usual no doc's or help on site. Cheers Steve
  16. Not into astrophotography in any way but you need to identify what the light pollution is you want to filter out. Older street / commercial lighting is brightest in the green yellow/orange area of the spectrum, Modern LED lighting tends be brightest in the blue area and very strong across much of the remaining spectrum making it a very difficult source to deal with. As local conditions vary so wildly for everyone its a difficult question to answer. Most of the general CLS / Light Pollution Filters basically chop out a lot of that GrYeOr area and are the same filter that they were ten years ago. Take a snap of your skies at their worst and post it up so peopl can see what you're dealing with. The Multiband Optolong L Pro seems to be a popular filter, (I have one, just not had the opportunity to test it) its available in Canon full frame format also. Gallery at http://www.optolong.com/cms/document/detail/id/84.html The Ra is a Canon R with a modified internal filter. All the best & clearer skies Steve PS Don't forget under distance selling rules you try and return items, you may have to pay a small fee, but it'll be worth it
  17. Plenty of recorded live sessions on you tube, Searching "EAA Astronomy" works quite well. Gary Hawkins does some long sessions using sharpcap without exotic equipment. You may find these very helpful, especially as he's not one of the "know it all's Steve
  18. Hi All Has anyone with an Esprit 80 tried or tested the dedicated flattener outside of the recommended 55mm spacing. As you will know the flattener has a 48mm thread. My filter wheel would be perfect but has a 42mm thread, adding a 48/42 adapter will add around 7mm (62mm) total. If I buy the 48mm SX adapter it will add 4mm to the distance (59mm total). As the scope is an F5, I'm guessing that this distance is a little more critical. An answer from someone who's checked this out would be most helpful. cheers Steve
  19. The way you have it doesn't work so your options are limited, Dump the crayford and go for the Celestron motorised focuser which works on the main focuser knob and can be controlled from your laptop. No idea how good (or bad) these are. You would need to dig around and do some homework. but it would also allow you to use a diagonal and gain some extra altitude or clear the mount completely. Dump the SCT reducer and buy a 2" Type as in pic. These are reducers only, not correctors. but being 2" they can be inserted deep inside the crayford so your camera is flush with the back of the focuser.
  20. Hi All After having to dump my big obsy plans, I decided I would head down the EAA route. Last night I put some of it together for its first run through. Never used any of this kit or software before. Everything worked pretty much perfectly from the start but sky conditions were not great and I had to point the scope north into the worst of the light pollution. I had a "dabble" with sharpcap and saved an image. Today I decided to take a closer look and after playing around with basic brightness/contrast managed I noticed what looked like vignetting and some odd tadpole shaped stars (I'm assuming these are actually pixels). I've made this as bad as I could to highlight the effect. Can you you guys take a look and share your thoughts. Setup was NEQ6, Aligned with polemaster, Esprit 80 & flattener, Hypercam 183C (16mm diagonal) correctly spaced at 66mm from flattener, 55mm from spacer. Flattener has 48mm connection but a reducer to 42mm had to be used. cheers Steve PS I was tinkering around a lot, may well be my doing. m81-2 Stack_16bits_14frames_420s.tif
  21. Hi Andrew It should solve as long as the image your'e trying to solve was taken with that 1003mm newt and the 2.9 micron camera and no other optics in the train. You may still be missing indexes though, I've been playing around a bit, I put in a test image of 55 CYG. According to the log file this was solved with index 4204-15 (FOV 8-11 mins) the actual field of view is almost 1 x 0.5 Degs. For such a small image you may need to download those whopper index's Also try aborting the solve after varying amounts of time. I've found that ASPS seems to get carried away or is trying to do something else when it has in fact already solved the image. IE after 20 secs of processing the image is solved but the clock keeps running. Press abort and it shows image solved. My thoughts here are bin ASPS, At least for now. My other choice for solving was ASTAP. It took me some time to figure out what info needs putting in where settings wise, but I can say it did work well and very fast on my test images. I might write up a little comparison test on the two. As far as a standalone test on blind solving goes, ASTAP is far and away the better option. Steve
  22. Partial eclipse visible from the UK on Jun 10th Duration Over 2 Hours, Max around 11.20 am with the sun nice & high Further North you are the greater the eclipse London 19%, NE 27% Edinburg 31% Don't forget your brolly
  23. It does look interesting, but a bit gimmicky for me. still not convinced about pressure tuning long term reliability. You can get spare '0' rings for the tuner but what about the sealed chamber containing the etalon. If the seal in there gives up, the scopes duff. (Why I bought a tilt tuned LS60) If I had the cash spare, I'd go for an etalon & filter kit which can be fited onto any scope. options are then endless. I loved my little LS35, The LS60 was a dissapointment when I got it , but that turned out to be down to the fact that lunt swapped out the 1mm AR coated IR Cut Glass for a 3mm uncoated type resulting in a big light loss. I've corrected that now so hopefully this year I'll be able to enjoy some long awaited activity. I'll let you know how it goes All the very best Steve
  24. Hi Andrew Just in the process of setting up my outfit for EAA and as it happens ASPS and Sharpcap are two of my choices. I've just went the same route as you throwing an "old" image into ASPS. Seems the key is the FL and pixel size (not scale). These have to be correct for the actual image to be solved. If not it'll sit there all day. These should be entered into Plate Solver Settings which is in the Settings tab Steve
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