Atreta

Hi everyone,

tonight, since the full moon is up, i took the opportunity to get my collimation right and to try the coma corrector with the 3d printed spacer.  The coma corrector is a gso, with all spacers and the adapter it's about 74.5 mm, it should be 75, but that's the closes i could get yet. would it be ok?  i took some pictures, but the cornes don't look good at all, and the center looks a bit blurry too. 

I also reviewed the collimation and did fine tune it with a star test, could somebody check it if it's  any good?

the telescope is a 130pds.

thanks a lot in advance.

here is a star field picture from tonight:, it's very noisy because it's really hot in here tonight ( middle of brazilian summer :D)  

1 hour ago, MilwaukeeLion said:

As mentioned good night for getting spacing - kit in working order.  Wish I had clear night coming up, have flattener spacing tests to do.

That's just what I did tonight, im trying to get my spacing and collimatiion just right. 

2 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

Thanks for that Paul I found an xml for a t2/m42 and m48 thread a while back but it disappeared before I got around to trying it .  I still have the file. You'd think Autodesk would make life easier for users...

I've done my best to calibrate the Ender 3 Pro now though I'm still sceptical about its ability to print threads. Anyone know if I can get Cura to slice at 0.1 rather than the 0.12 it seems to insist on? Would it make a difference anyway?

Louise

I use with a regular ender 3,   IIRC  i printed the last m48 extension with a 0.12 layer height and with suuports. 

Cura should allow you to change it to 0.1 with no problem, it's under the quality setting. with the ender you can go all the way down to 0.04 if needed. But the lowest i tried was 0.08.

Looks like you downloaded ascompad instead of eqmod,. When you click on the sourceforge link  at eqmod page it goes to the ascompad folder,  you have to scroll down for the eqmod folder. 

Here is the link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/eq-mod/files/EQASCOM/

2 hours ago, markse68 said:

Just wondering do such fine threads actually print 3D? 

I printed a m48 extension tube with an ender 3,  it worked fine.  M42 I've yet to try. 

42 minutes ago, Betton said:

I did think that, but when I watch the videos, or read tutorials, the dialogue box shows RGB, same as mine. It is probably something really simple that is really obvious to most. But I always told there is no such thing as stupid question

Did you align the rgb channels?  You can use levels in photoshop to do that. 

I would suggest APT,for image acquisition, it's a very nice program with a lot of features, you can use the trial version for as long as you want and it's really worth the full price. To stack the dso images i recommend deep sky stacker(free)

To stack planetary images i use autoskkert2 (also free). For image processing you can use gimp, photoshop, etc. I use stsrtools, not free but it's quite affordable, you can use the trial version to see what you can get out if your image, but it won't allow you to save the results. 

Those are the ones that i use, hth.

Edit: sorry, i overlooked the part you said you wanted an automated processing. 

56 minutes ago, almcl said:

I have been using my Canon 700d with a Skywatcher 200P for five years now and it focusses just fine, with or without coma corrector and with or without a barlow.

Nice to know that, thanks for saying it. 

On 25/11/2019 at 16:36, Clear Skies! said:

Thank you for all the answers, so I finally made a decision:

Skywatcher 200p (https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-200p-ota.html = 302 €) + Skywatcher EQ-5 (https://www.amazon.de/Skywatcher-EQ-5-PRO-SynScan-Computergesteuerte/dp/B009LA5FC8?ie=UTF8&tag=googdemozdesk-21&hvadid=337907747880&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14059812362909726081&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9067828&hvtargid=dsa-19959388920&ref=pd_sl_6boxv1ojib_e&language=en_GB = 358 €).

This costs 660 €.

Thank you, that you have helped in my choice!

Clear skies

I'd have a second thought about the 200p for astrophotography. If i remember it i correctly it will also not focus properly with a dslr( i don't know what camera you'll go for). Also in the bottom of that FLO link there is a note mentioning it.  

"Note: The Explorer 200P is designed primarily for visual astronomy, for astro-photography consider the Explorer 200P-DS model." 

To me you would be best suited with a 130pds with that mount.  But try to not buy in a rush, do some research. there are great advice in here. this way  you won't be disappointed later when you start imaging. 

On 18/11/2019 at 15:09, perdrix said:

Please could I ask any Brazilian Portuguese speakers to review the updated help and let us know of any issues.

I'll take a look and let you know if there is any issue. 

Thanks for the update. 

Hi,  i also prefer to use stellarium instead of cdc.

To control your mount using stellarium without stellarium scope is not implemented yet on the main version. You'll have to download the test version(I'll try to check the link and post here) or  use it with stellarium scope for the moment. 

Edit: this is where it's discussed https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium/issues/406

And this is the link for an install file(also posted in the discussion above): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hgTWKgmOgYq2OFNchOLdZxLgpZlKXPi7?usp=sharing

Very good images, specially for a dslr. Loved the iris nebula. 

11 hours ago, alacant said:

But it gets worse; my gf says it looks like 'Christmas

Lol, it was my first thought too. But it's a nice image anyway. With what software did you process it? 

Just to update, i fixed the serial cable with the rj12 i bought online.  I think I'll order an eqdir cable too anyway. 

Thanks everybody who helped

3 hours ago, MikeP said:

Hi Atreta. 

I took your advice and tried the Toolbox.  It gave a message indicating it could not find the port - at least that was consistent.  I went back to the Device Manager and looked at the properties for the port and found an error code of 10 - that was not showing yesterday.  Following HitecAstro's instructions, I uninstalled and deleted the driver and reinstalled.  Error code went away but still with the same results in Toolbox. 

More out of hope than expectation, I uninstalled the driver in port properties and then click install driver.  I expected a dialogue asking where to get the driver from but it just installed.  Result - success in Toolbox.

I restarted the laptop, started CduC, connected to the mount and happily slewed back and forth.  I have no idea where Windows got the driver from or why the Hitecastro one worked then didn't work but all OK now.

Thank you for taking the trouble to respond.

Mike

Glad you got it working again

35 minutes ago, MikeP said:

The Eqmod interface (or something) flashes on and then immediately off.  I tried using EQASCOM_Run, that does the same but does so continuously and has to be killed (Kill EQASCOM doesn't stop it).

Hi,  this happens usually when the program can't connect to the port. Open the toolbox and try running the diagnostic to see if itis sending data(remember to choose the right port because it starts with com1 selected).  

41 minutes ago, MikeP said:

The only other thing I noticed was that clicking on the Find button in the EQASCOM set up could not find a port.

You don't need to click on the find button, just select the right port and click ok. 

Can you  post screenshots of both eqascom setup and the device manager, it may help us swe if there is anything wrong. 

8 hours ago, stash_old said:

Wow cowboy - RS232 is not the same as TTL and you say you want to use your mount WITHOUT the synscan controller - do you mean without the handset ?

Most mounts are TTL levels (3.3v or 5v) RS232 is +12v so be careful.

If your want to connect PC directly to your mount (which is ? i) then you are using TTL levels (3.3v or 5v) and you can use the Lynx device from FLO £34 plus delivery.

If you can use a soldering iron then one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-to-TTL-Serial-Cable-FTDI-Genuine-chipset-3-3V-Black/292513285005?epid=1342449592&hash=item441b26838d:g:110AAOxy63FSrs93&shqty=1&isGTR=1#shpCntId  prices shown is £12 + £3 del to Brazil - note if your mount uses 5v then same site have 5v version. Then  just solder together 3 wires (need to check on EQDIR site for mount wiring details) - thats tx,rx,ground to your existing DB9 cable (which I assume is the mount end in your case). Just double/triple check you are using the correct wire. If it works (and it should) you can then use some heat shrink to cover the joins (which you cut and installed ready for the heat before soldering LOL).

Note the above cable is a real FDTI cable not a "clone" hence the extra price but still cheaper than Lynx set up (you could buy a spare 🙂  and still be cheaper).

If you want a cheaper version then CH340G chip set are ok but you can have problems when using more than 1 at a time !

Lots of people on SGL and Cloudynights etc  have done it with no problems!

Thanks for the advice,. My mount is a heq5 pro. The cable you linked is not that expensive indeed. But i think I'll just order the 6 pin rj11(rj12?) from an online store and fix that cable. 

37 minutes ago, almcl said:

Frank

There's a circuit diagram here : http://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/eqdirect2.htm

that may do what you want.  I tried their USB version and couldn't get it to work, possibly because of a faulty chip, you may have more luck?

Thanks, I'll give it a try and report back if it works. Let's hope so

Thanks for the reply,  I'll try to see if there is any available here in Brazil. 

Hi everyone,  i need a little help from you. 

The rj11 to rs232 cable that came with my mount has lost somehow its rj11 end and i can't find any new one with 6 pins in my city. I was reading a few sites and also in here about diy eqdir cable.  

Is there a way to use that cable with the rs232 to usb adapter and make it work with a rj45 plug so it can be used without the synscan controller?  I posted a picture o the broken cable. 

Thank you. 

Edit:  could an admin move this topic to the diy forum? I created here by mistake. 

Can you post screenshots of both windows device manager showing the adapter and eqmod displaying the error? 

I'm very interested in testing it, Alex. It will be great to have ascom support built in. 

One thing you could try is changing the adapter com port on windows device manager  and change under eqmod too to match it, and see if it works by any chance.  Also you could try a different usb port on your computer( remember to check the com port number again) 

Last time i had that error it was because i changed the usual USB port that I plug the adapter and was wondering why it was giving the not found error. 

13 hours ago, perdrix said:

The first line of my post had the URL: https://github.com/deepskystacker/DSS/releases 

David

Yeah, i was looking in there, but i overlooked the assets part. Just downloaded it.

Thanks again 

thanks for the hard work. 

where in github is the installer? must be somewhere obvious, but i couldn't find it.