MarsG76

Tops..... the cloud whisps give the picture character.

That is scaringly close to disaster.... lucky that you spotted the missing filter.

+1 from me on the above... solar observing is no joke and setup always needs triple checking.

I second that... I'd say no... different sensor, different age, color and mono will result in a different Dark frame pattern.

Ah the new scope feel.... so what is it?? Newt, SCT??

Hello Astronomers, I have some sad news, sad for me anyway, but unfortunately during the final night of imaging my last DSO, the Fighting Dragons in Ara, my CGEM blew up. At about 4 am, I went outside to check on the imaging progress and decided to dim the laptop screen but accidentally hit the "sleep" button instead of the "DIM" button. Usually this shouldn't be a problem.... but when I "woke" the computer up, the CGEM stopped tracking. Not thinking like it's a big deal, I tried to re-center the object and guide star and this is when I realized that there is something seriously wrong as the mount was not responding to my computer or hand controller commands. When I power cycled the mount and hit a RA button, the mount moved, it moved at full speed until the OTA and camera almost hit the peir.... the only way to stop it was to cut power to the mount. Power cycling it a few times did not change anything except that the mount stopped responding in RA completely.... note that the DEC function works as normal. The hand controller is working normally and not reporting any NO RESPONSE error messages either. I went on a fault finding mission and tried a different Hand controller with no change than I opened the CGEM and swapped the RA and DEC motors on the main motor control PCB to determine whether I burned out the motor. With the motor connectors swapped the mount moved in the RA axis and worked properly by pressing the DEC buttons but now the mount is not moving in DEC, so I knew that the motor is not burned out, but the Motor Control board is faulty, possibly the RA encoder/controller chip. I tried to re-flash the MC Board firmware, hoping that it's possibly just a corrupted data in the EPROM, but after a successful firmware flash, that did not change the situation. With is information, I need to get a replacement motor control board, and this might take a while to arrive from the USA... so until that moment I will have to return good old observational astronomy using my 14" Dob and imaging will have to wait for the future. I guess I'm lucky in a way that the failure happened toward the end of imaging my last image, in that last hours, instead of in the middle of it, so at least I ended up with an image. My theory why this has happened: I don't think that accidentally sleeping the laptop caused the mount to fail, at least not the act itself... of course, there is a possibility that it's just long term use and eventually everything fails, since I had the mount for 9 years, and it did do a lot of tracking hours... BUT than again it did work flawlessly for all of this time until soon after I started experimenting with PEC, and I had PEC running when this happened. Could it be that PEC in the mount was trying to move the RA axis in one way, and PHD2/GPUSB tried to move the mount in the opposite way, causing some kind of conflict, or short circuit like/excessive current drain event? perhaps not in general use with quick pulse commands, but when I did sleep the laptop, could it be that GPUSB was stuck in nudging the mount in one direction, and than PEC tried to move it in the opposite direction and that state was held for long enough to burn out the encoder or controller IC? Either way, comparing PEC programmed mount on PHD2 guiding accuracy to no PEC accuracy, the results are so close that PEC might not even be worth the hassle, and PEC is more useful for unguided imaging? I think that when I fix my CGEM, I might stick to NON PEC autoguiding since, like I found, PEC is no, or very little, improvement, such a small improvement that the reason can be caused by just the atmosphere becoming slightly more still within the comparison time... accuracy difference of only 0.02-0.05" arc sec RMS. Thanks for reading and of course thoughts, opinions and experiences welcome. Clear skies, MG

Being a DSLR imager.... I'd love to see a head to head comp with the DSLRs heavyweights in the ring.

I'll second that....

Yeah also true

Very interesting presentation.... I think that the mathematics is all good and a good guide, but in the real world there are too many factors at play and sop there is still a big trial and error component involved.

and another superb collection...

AWESOMES... SkySync shall be back in business.....

true that...

Great project.. my Skycam is also a budget el-cheapo solution.. I use my rarely used IS DMK41 with a $9 CS and a $8 4" security camera dome on top of my Obsy.... It doesn't deliver quite as a wide field of view as your project but still allows me to keep an eye on the sky when I'm imaging when away from home or inside watching tv through VNC.

Very true, not the easiest hobby to get into....

Yeah, I remember that feeling well.....

We all started somewhere.. but do you remember how proud you were of your first image? I remember that I was as proud as punch of my first shots, even though they were as mediocre as can be comparing to the slight imaging improvement we have today.

@Stub Mandrel don't laugh... this was on a single arm alt-az mount that wobbled with me just breathing near it.... 30 sec exposure, ISO3200 non astromodded DSLR..... ah memories of the start of the AP track....

Very nice project... are you having any issues with dew fogging things up?

Unfortunately NO... there are always going to be those bit and items that we'll always crave...

My first DSO image is an embarrassment to post.... But here it is...

Yes that is frustrating, but unfortunately that a part of the hobby.... if it worked every time and was easy than it wouldn't be a challenge and everyone would be imaging.... I myself was presented with "NO OPERATING SYSTEM FOUND" on my obsy laptop, than after sorting that out... no USB was recognized.... happens. Relax, calm down and try again in a night or two...