dannybgoode

Thanks to @fifeskies I took delivery today of a really nice condition Televue 2x Barlow. Been on the look out for a decent Barlow for a while so have a try at some nice close in lunar imaging/obs and planetary obs and imaging through my TMB. Figured given that the clear nights also seem to coincide with when the moon is brightest I may as well spend some time with it! My first taste of black and green kit as well. Must say I the thing exudes quality.

I am still a little unsure about what you are trying to achieve. Are you trying to achieve more accurate goto and if so is this for imaging or visual work or; is your goto acceptable and you are trying to improve your PA and if so to what end? Or, are you trying to improve your PA in the hope it will make your goto more accurate and if so it is back to my first question about whether you are looking to image or look ? We need to understand what is not working for you to know what needs attention. You do not *have* to have good PA even for imaging if you are guiding. I often just align visually in the polar scope and guide with subs of 3 minutes or more without issue. If everything is working acceptable, it's just that Polaris doesn't quite line up in your polar scope as you think it should then I'd be inclined just to leave it alone. And no, at this stage, until we understand the precise issue you are having, don't even go near PHD2's PA routine

What would you want covering and in what format - it's the sort of thing where some form of real time screen capture / streaming would be incredibly useful. My knowledge of Zoom is limited though having managed to avoid it for pretty much all of lockdown . Is it possible to share screen images etc? I am happy to try and put something together covering the basics - installation, initial set up etc...

I quite like that. Better than any of my attempts at photographing it. Which reminds me, I need to try and get my annual attempt at M42 in - I use it as a benchmark to see how I have come on year to year. If you want to post the image data I will have a crack at it in PI. I am no expert in using it but am more familiar with it now than I ever have been

Oh that's nice. Wonderful framing and extremely well processed...

Platesolving is magic. You have a camera and I assume some form of imaging control software so you just need an EQDir cable to attach your computer to your mount.

So far so good. Attaching it to my Moonlite focuser was straightforward however the L bracket is a fraction wide and so I've had to insert some washers behind one side of the box so it lines up straight. I'll take a grinder to the bracket now I know it's working to get it to fit a little better

I was a bit intimidated by the concept of plate solving at first but having use it first in APT and latterly in KStars/Ekos I couldn't go back. Particularly in my heavily light polluted skies I'd never be target for anything. Even when I had goto working reasonably well it couldn't be relied on to be accurate enough for imaging. The nice thing about EKOS as well is over a session it learns how much error there is in the goto so if you quickly go to 3 or 4 objects using plate solving after that it is pretty much bang on every time. This has the advantage you can set up using the camera, slew to a few targets and then go visual and it'll be spot on

I'm entering into the 21st century at last. A Pegasus Astro FocusCube v2. I did get the hand controller for it as well. Looks a really nicely made thing and was a 10 second job to get it talking to EKOS so all good. Verified it works insomuch as the focuser is controlled by EKOS. Of course need these pesky clouds to clear before I can test it in anger. The hand controller is a nice enough thing. Perhaps a bit overpriced in pure terms for what it is but works well so it is what it is. Oh, I got a dew band for my SCT as well to see if I can get some use out of it and learn to love it...

Next question then. Are you looking to use goto for imaging or visual work. If imaging then forget about the handset and star alignment etc. Just get an EQDir cable and platesolve. It'll always be many times more accurate and much quicker.

Absolutely I agree to an extent. I am more interested in what the OP is trying to achieve. Re-reading the post it seems they are doing 3 star align to improve PA, which isn't going to happen. For visual as well so long as PA is there or thereabouts goto is at least OK. But yes, better PA does equal a bit better goto but the errors can be dialled out over a session of centring targets that are a bit out anyway

I am a little unsure about what the issue you are describing is in that case. Star alignment will not improve polar alignment and polar alignment is not that important for the goto funtion to work properly once you have run the 2 or 3 star alignment process. What is the problem you have and are trying to resolve? Is it your polar alignment not being accurate or is it that once you have set everything up your scope is not slewing to targets propoerly?

I know the feeling! For £200 though there must be a dozen things at least that would be more useful in the obsy though! I have quite an extensive list so if you want to buy me something instead... 🤣

First thing to check is that you have your lat/lon and time all correctly input into the controller. Use the SW app to find the format in which it likes lat/lon and remember that the date time format is US so MMDDYYYY. Incorrect inputs are the most common cause of alignment errors/failures.

What are you looking to gain by moving from a laptop to a mini PC? They are very handy things and as @Jessun says they are particularly useful for attaching to the mount itself. I use an RPi for this reason and it is another building block to a fully portable system. If I had an obsy though I would stick a great big (in terms of power if not size) workstation in there. Note the one you have linked to looks underpowered and over priced also...

*cough* Try Astroberry/EKOS *cough*. To steal a well known advertising phrase or saying; it just works. Has it's own in-built guiding system as well as in-built plate solver etc

No - I mean how to attach the camera, filter wheel and lens as an assembly onto the mount. I have the various adapters I need to connect the imaging train together, I just need it on the mount

Continuing my occasional series of potentially stupid questions... Let's say I have a camera lens, a dedicated astro camera plus filter wheel and the means of attaching the two together. How do I then go about attaching that onto my mount and possibly add a guidescope and cam?

Honestly, having used PI a fair bit now it is really starting to gel with me and I'd highly recommend trying it. Key is a) not to be put off by how hard people say it is. It is not that it isn't difficult but it is just like any new software that you haven't used before, it takes time to get familiar with and that leads be to b) do not try to mentally compare processes and steps with other imaging software like PS or GIMP or whatever you are used to. It isn't any of those, it's PI. This might sound obvious however I think a lot of people try to associate a step they might take in PS to one in PI to aid familiarity when it is better to just go with it. Inside PixInsight is pretty much a must and I know there is a new book out as well which is highly regarded (title eludes me). Lots of good YouTube videos as well and once you have the hang of it you can do things that you simply can't do with the same elegance in any other packge.

Now this sounds (and looks) an interesting challenge. 1) I will have to remember to actually take the photos, 2/ remember the time and spot I am meant to photograph the sun at and 3/ hope for enough sunny days to actually get enough shots in However I will give it a go nonetheless...

You need an EQDir cable for a start. I have linked to one from a UK seller but note you are in the States so this is just so you know what you are looking for: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-cables-leads-accessories/lynx-astro-ftdi-eqdir-usb-adapter-for-sky-watcher-eq5-pro-heq5-syntrek-pro-az-eq5-gt-az-eq6-gt-and-eq8-mounts.html This plugs into your mount instead of the handset and allows a computer to control the mount. Then you need a Raspberry Pi and the Astroberry software: https://www.astroberry.io/ Which you then flash to an SD card using balenaEtcher: https://www.balena.io/etcher/ From there you stick the SD card in the RPi (I'd recommend an RPi4 but at the least an RPi3) and let it load up and then you log in, launch KStars and then EKOS and pretty much just use the dropdown selections for your mount, camera etc. There are some excellent YouTube videos on how to use it fully but one of the features is you use KStars to point your scope at a chosen target and then tell EKOS to plate solve and away it goes and does its stuff. Nails it every time. Note though you do need a camera attached as it takes an image of the sky, looks that image up in a database to work out where it is pointing and compares this to where it should be pointing and adjusts accordingly. You cannot do it just with an eyepiece as the software has no reference points. I have set up my guidecam so that it will plate solve when I am using my main scope for visual instead of imaging and it works well.

Having faffed about with APT, Nebulosity and various other Windows based packages I moved across to an RPi4 running Astroberry and absolutely love it. Plate solving is near instant each iteration and to watch the scope go from park, poddle off and find the target, centre it perfectly and begin a sequence is still magic to me . Of course the nice thing about Astroberry is that it is free as well - you just need a Raspberry Pi to run it on...

Yeah that too 🤣

Nice - I like your M82 in particular. Your M81 has bags of detail however the focus is a little soft, something that I often get wrong also. Do you have a Bahtinov mask to help with getting the focus just so? If not it is a worthwhile investment and they can be had for cheap.

Wow - one of the best renditions of M47 I have ever seen. So much dark detail in the nebulosity - that is just lovely! Beautifully controlled stars as well. They have punch without overblowing the scene.