cjdawson

It depends on what I'm imaging. But for this I'll assume we're talking Deep Sky. For this, I tend to use Astro Pixel Processor for stacking, then switch to photoshop for post processing, though I've just got PixInsight and intend working that in before photoshop. Going to be interesting to see how that turns out. As for why, to begin with - I've had better luck with stacking using APP than I did with deep sky stacker (though that did work) I just prefer the output from APP. As for photoshop, I already had it and found that it worked for my image processing. Though, I'm trying to push myself as far as possible, so have bought PixInsight as it I've seen the results lots of people get from that, so figure that it's worth exploring.

Ah Ha. Looked through that post. I had the port set to the default of 4030. So I tried the other port that was being mentioned - 9624. And hey presto it's working

Yep. I tried the SynScan first, and it does not work with EQDIR. Work great with the hand controller though (and yes, that's via the ASIAir)

Hi all, I've just updated the mount that I use for my SpaceCat, from the venerable Star Adventurer Pro, to an EQM-35 Pro mount. So far, I've been able to get most of it setup and running nicely. Howver, I'm having problems getting SkySafari 7 to connect to my new setup. When I connect using the hand controller and set Sky Safari to use the SynScan setting everything seems to work just fine without any issues. However, this isn't how I want to run the scope, I'd much prefer to remove the hand controller and the need for 1/2/3 star alignment, so that I can enjoy platesolving instead, so I'm trying out EQ-Dir connections instead. It appears that the EQM-35 Pro doesn't need an EQ Dir cable, as there's a USB socket on the mount controller, so plugging I've been able to connect to the AsiAir and controler the driver properly through that. (Though because of the cloud tax, I've not been able to use it outside yet, so haven't been able to align the mount) using only the AsiAri, everything seems to be working just find, regardless of whether I pick the EQMOD or the EQMOD with SkySafari setting... until I try connecting from SkySafari. Before I get into the SkySafari part, I just want to confirm that when using the SynScan or EQDir cable, the connection is at 9600bps, but when connecting directly to the mount, it's using 115200bps, instead. I'd prefer to use the 115200 speed if I can, but will go with whatever works in the long run. Ok, now for SkySafari. I tell this to connect via wireless, and point it to the IP Address of the ASIAir. Setting up the telescope as a "Meade LX200 Classic" the software starts to connect, but field of view changes to match the polar mode of the mount. However, it does not stay connected and put up an error message sayins that it cannot communicate with the mount. Has anyone managed to get this working, if so, are there any specific settings that I need to watch out for?

The heater is 2.8 Watts, I know that the PI's power supply needs to be 15watts max. So when running at full power, we talking about 18Watts of power. I suppose, the best idea would be to split to project into several parts. 1. The All sky Camera, Dew Control and sensing. 2. The power bank 3. The recharging solution This way I can build the camera itself and get that working. This would be powered by anything 12V, no requiring anything specific. This will allow me to take measurements of the power consumption, so that I can then size the battery, based on real world usage. This would then allow me to properly size the charging part without over or under doing it. All it needs to be able to do is put enough charge into the battery to get through the night in the winter. During the summer, it should be able to top off the battery. Though, I wouldn't want to discharge too far.

I'm planning a my astronomy project for 2023. This is going to be a solar powered all sky camera based on a Raspberry PI 4 (8Gb model) with a ZWO ASI 462MC camera. I'm thinking about the rest of the bulid, and have decided that the Dewcontrol 12v heater ring should work well. Here's a list of the things that I've been thinking about for this project, so ensure it's success. 1. Controller - Raspberry Pi 4 (8Gb Model) (Already have) 2. Camera - ZWO ASI 462MC with standard lens (Already Have) 3. DewControl 12v dew heater (on order) 4. Relay that will be PI controlled, (Have some already, but likely to order a different one later, I have duel relays, but will only need a single) 5. Temperature and humidity sensors. (want to calculate the dew point and keep the camera dew free) 6. Battery 7. Solar controller (already have one) 8. Solar panels. (have 50w panel, will this be enough) 9. SSD or MicroSD? My plan is to have the camera, PI and heater all run from the battery, and have the battery charged by solar power. For the OS, I know that there's an all sky project on Github that I'll be using for the camera control part of things, that's going to do most of the work. The PI will connect to my home network via Wifi, the build in wifi on the PI should be good enough, especially as it'll be in a plastic enclosure. I'm not sure what size battery I'd need to be able to set this up and leave it running. Most likely a 10Ah 12V battery should do the job? I'm thinking of getter a 12v to USB C adapter to run the PI on. That should provide enough power without worrying about under volting the PI. The real question here is will a 10Ah battery be enough to keep the PI running 24/7, and will a 50W panel be enough to keep the battery alive through the winter? Would be interested in others experiences as it would be helpful in allowing me to come up with a solution that is going to be up to the job.

I’m sure that I have some pictures somewhere. I’m on holiday at the moment so can’t take any fresh pictures at the moment. From what I remember the heater that I made is constructed like this…. 1. NiChrome wire (resistance wire) as the heating element. Run 12v through, at 100% duty cycle, I think it worked out to be about 30 watts of heating. (About 2.4 amps). Though in reality, I run it from a PWM, and normally at less than 50% duty so keeps my scope clear even on the soggiest nights. 2. The wire is threaded through heat shrink tubing, with the ends poking out, the ends are connected to another wire, think I used a solder, but it’s mainly a mechanical joint. Wasn’t happy with this and would do something different next time… though it’s lasted for years without issues. 3. The wire with heat shrink is then threaded through copper brake pipe. 4. The pipe was then bent to form a circle. 5. finally spray painted matte black. The whole thing is held in place on the SCT by pressure alone. the ends of the heater wire are simply taped to the side of the Ota, and run down to a phono plug which connects to the PWM (Heater controller). If I find out a piccy, I’ll post it here later

I'm a bit late to this party, but want to give my experiences anyway. SCT's are very likely to dew up if prevention isn't applied straight away. Here's how I do it. 1. Dew Shield. This is a must, don't use the scope without one, it will slow the heat radiation by a significant amount. Which will mean that part two doesn't need to work as hard. 2. Dew heater. You can get or make (I made) a dew heater that sits in front of the correctly plate, and provides enough heat to replace the energy lost even with the shield in place. This will prevent dew from forming, but at the same time allow the scope to cool to get stable images. 3. We all get caught out, so get a 12v hair dryer. This can be used in the event that you had the heater on too low, and the the optics misteded up anyway. It's a last resort, but one that's handy to keep on hand should it be needed. I find that the combination of 1 and 2, sorts out 90% of observiing sessions, even when everything else gets soggy. As for eyepieces, keep them in your pocket when not in use and that'll keep 'em warm.

Hi everyone. I don't normally do the support for the Meade Generic driver via the SGL Forum. Please use the mailing list that I have linked from the driver page. or the discord channel again details are on the page. However, I can answer these questions.... I've taken a very quick look through the stuff that you have posted. It doesn't look like an attempt has been made to connect with the Meade Generic driver. You don't need to use POTH or DeviceHub, just connect directly to the driver. I've created it so that multiple applications can connect to the driver at the same time without adverse effects. Actually, I run APT, PHD2 and CdC at the same time normally in my sessions. Might also add WifiScope if I want to use SkySafari instead of CdC. Make sure that you have the correct cables, and that you have setup the correct serial port in the driver settings. Other than that, you shouldn't have to change any of the defaults. You can create a trace log from the driver directly, which can give you some information about whether the connection is successful, or not. Hi Juan. I use an LX90 myself as well and guide using PHD2. However, for the LX-90 scopes, you can only guide when the scope is in EQ mode (on a wedge). The guiding commands will be ignored by the scope when in Alt-Az mode. PHD2 might be able to attempt guiding with Alt-Az scopes. However the Meade mount will not allow you to do it. I highly recommend getting a good wedge, so that you can run the scope in EQ mode. (it's how I run mine all the time)

I use the 12v output to a cigar socket that comes with the Tracer battery. From there, I run power to Lynx Astro 4 channel dew controller, and 2 dew heaters (one for the guide scope and one for the main scope) The lynx astro output has 2*2.1mm 12v outputs. One I use for my ASIAir, the other is good for my EAF (in the post) and I have a splitter, so that I can run my ASI1600MM pro as well. If I upgrade to the AsiAir Pro, I can do away with the splitter. That's my setup. An alternative if you only USB Sockets is to get USB charger for a car, I've got one in my car that has 4 USB sockets, so that should do what you want.

I attempted something similar to what you described and found that the 20K power bank didn't last nearly as long as I thought it would. The cold drains the batteries fast. I thought about insulating the power bank, and using one power bank for the mount and another for the heater, but then I got to thinking about it and realised that it was always going to be a problem. I also found that a dew heater that runs on 5V pulls huge amounts of power, and again will drain a battery fast. My solution was to forget the idea of running using 5v power banks that are not meant for the abuse that we give them and instead I purchased a 24Ah Tracer LiFePo4 power pack. Sure it was not cheap, but it's powerful like a lead acid, survives the abuse of running on a cold night and provides enough juice to be able to run my mount, ASIAir, cameras (imaging and guide) for a whole night. Charging it up next day with relative ease. with 1400 cycles, I'm sure that the battery will die from old age before the charge capacity becomes an issue.

Hi @Priesters There is no concept of J2000 v JNow in the driver at all. So, I don't know what sharpcap is doing regarding conversions or where it is getting any idea that there is a difference from. There is a new release of the driver which I doubt will change anything in the accuract of platesolving. I have tried platesolving with Platesolve2 which I have working successfully, I'm also trying ASTAP. To date, I've platesolved with SGP, and have been a little dissapointed with it, the reason being that after the platesolve happens and the software issues a correction, it does this by sending another slew command to the mount. In my opinion this is a problem as it will be trying to correct for small errors by using a method that is ment to go to any object. It would be far better after the initial solve, to use the scopes Slew (or jog) commands to manually correct the position of the scope using a cycle of slew, image, platesolve to home in on the correct place considering that the inital goto didn't go to the right point in the first place. APT has a GOTO++ feature, which I'm looking forward to trying out, it appears that this does work differently from SGP's implementation, and I suspect that sharpcap's implementation is roughly the same as SGP's. Regards Colin.

I'd say a 40D or above. The 70D has wifi, whilst it sounds like a gimmick, for wide field, it opens an opportunity to do day to night timelapses using the "holy grail" technique, or even "Holy trinity" technique. Holy grail is where as the light levels drop, the exposure time is extended to capture more information, then once a certain level has been hit the ISO is bumped up to keep things going. The trinity also adds opening the aperture of the lens into the mix to even better results. I've got software for my iPhone called "Control my camera" that allows me to do this using the camera without having to modify anything. Live view is a huge asset for getting things setup and focused quickly, though I sometimes still find taking exposures better.

Thanks for the link. I suspected that SGP is doing a slew, after the plate solve, however the slew isn’t as accutate as using guide commands. What I’m thinking about is adding a feature to the driver that will find the current position of the scope, and if it’s below a given threshold distance, it’l use guide commands instead of doing a normal slew. This will allow the scope to work to greater accuracy, even though it’s doing repeated slew commands. I’ve got some more research to do on this before I start doing any coding, I suppose the biggest question that I have to overcome is figuring out which direction the scope needs to move in response to the updated slew command. This might not be possible to implement. It’s interesting that other people has noticed this issue with Meade scopes, I’d noticed it too, and simply lowered the platesolve accuracy to about 400px which is kind of a cheat.

Ooo, that’s interesting. I’d love to know the details about that @michael8554 would you be able to find the link? I’m beginning to wonder if there’s something clever that I can do if the slew is for a small distance. I’m still thinking about this problem, and haven’t had a lot of time to work on it and don’t have access to my Lx-90 for the next couple of weeks.