cjdawson

hmmm.

Let's see if I can help out a little.

Firstly, my LX-90 is the EMC version that was sold in 2001, I bought it brand new and have been using it every since.   My Autostar is on firmware 43G, the highest from Meade for the #497 Autostar.

I got a delux version of the wedge.   I believe that the different is the addition of the fine adjustments for the alt and az.  Although they are a bit basic really.

The alt adjustment came in two parts, one attached to the screw holes on the north side of the tripod (opposite one of the legs)

and the other part attaches to the edge of the edge.  This allows you to push the wedge left and right with a screen.

The Alt adjustment is threaded through a bar that goes under the wedge and allows fine control of the altitude.

I've got no experient with the LNT stuff.  That said, from memory, I was under the impression that was only designed for Alt-Az use.

For setting my scope to the home position, what I do is once the scope is on the wedge.   I use a torpedo spirit level to set the forks so that it's resting on both forks and showing level.  The gap is behind the spirit level hence the use of a long one so that it can rest on both forks without falling through.

I then have the scope pointing directly up at Polaris.

From there, do a 2 star alignment.  Make sure that you have the date time, lat and long of the site entered correctly.

And it should work just fine.

One final random thought, in the auto star menu I think you can choose which scope the autostar is connected too.   Might be worth double checking that's set to the LX-90.

WOW, hold on there.   Firstly, I have an LX-90 with a wedge.   There's loads of things that can be going on......

As I don't know anything about your kit apart from it being an LX-90 , it's on a wedge, and we're in the visual observing part of the forum.  I'll make no other assumptions.

1. Don't use internal power, ever.

The batteries simply don't last long enough to be of any use and it'll get "motor unit faults" which are simply frustrating as it should say "batteries are not powerful enough"   Use an external battery anything over 7Ah, for the scope itself only should see the end of any power problems.

2. Train the scope.

This is worth doing,  setup your scope in Alt-Az mode (leave out the wedge) in daytime.  Set the Telescope targets to Terrestrial and point at something in the distance (further the better, and with a reticule eyepiece if you have one) then run through the drive training routines.  (I used a flagpole that's about 5 miles away)

This will properly train the motors of the scope, so that it's pointing accuracy is much improved.

3. For visual observing don't bother with the wedge.

The scope is much more stable when used without the wedge.     If you are sure you want to use the wedge though go ahead.  Either way, make sure that you tell the Autostar that you are using the wedge there's a setting in the Setup menu for it.

4. Make sure that you have your location entered properly.

This will help the pointing accuracy

5. Make sure that the date and time is entered properly too.

6. Make sure that you set "Targets" to astronomical.  That will enable the scopes tracking.

For the alignment process, I do the following....

1. Setup the tripod and add the wedge.

2. Level the tripod, making sure that the wedge has the lifted up part "facing north"    i.e. the part of the wedge that hangs over the edge of the tripod is on the southern side.    Or more to the point, is on the same side as the equator.

3. set the elevation for your latitude, it'll help to get you close.

4. Add the fork mount and OTA.   Point the scope so that it's in line with the fork, it should be pointing towards polaris.

5. release the RA clutch, and whilst looking through the scope look at how the stars move.   The closer you are to alignment the tigher circles the stars will move.

6. once in the polar home position, turn on the mount and do a two star alignment.

At this point everything should be running pretty much spot on.   The pointing accuracy isn't perfect, so whilst the targets may be a little off after a slew, you shouldn't ever be too far away from the target.

As I do astrophotography, I've switched to using a camera in my piggy backed guide scope.  This makes my alignment much easier as I can use the Polar Alignment tool in SharpCap Pro.   But that's another story.

The most reliable method for collimation that I've found is to do a star test.  If the collimation is correct, when you defocus the star, the black dot will appear - but it will be very small, that will give a much better clue as to how close you are in final collimation.  Also when you focus the star, it should end up as a point, the dimmer the star that you can do this on the better, as you end up with a smaller, sharper point.

awww, I'm going to miss it this year.  That's the same weekend as Kielder star camp, and this year.  I've already booked to head north and get into the really dark skies.

On 11/03/2019 at 13:07, bottletopburly said:

+1 for deepskydad autofocus unit ?

https://deepskydad.com/

I personally cannot support deep sky dad. Not sure if things have been resolve, but check out this thread...

Turns out that Deep Sky Dad has been accused of plagerism.

I don't want to restart the debate / argument that hijacked my thread, just wanted to highlight that things are not all as it seems.

My opinion is to go for one of these https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinoascomfocuserpro2diy/ as it's well supported by Robert, he's done a fantastic job.

Hiya.

I'm also getting myself up and running with LRGB imaging using a ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro.  Everything I understand on this subject is that there is no easy answer.  That said, I've got a plan.   Turns out there's an idea exposure time statistic in SGPro, I'm not expecting this to be the perfect answer by any means.

As an experiment, I'm going to take a sub next time I'm out, and will see what this statistic says.  From there, I'll adjust the sub time and see what happens.   I'm going to try this in L only to begin with, then if it works well, I'll try the same for each of the other filters on the same target.   If it all works out, then I'll should have some idea of the ratio of exposure times for each filter (yes, I know this is nieve, it's a start and not ment to be a complete answer)

From there on out, I'll have a starting point to tweak from.

29 minutes ago, Z3roCool said:

That sounds brilliant

May have a look at this...even though I did an Electronics & Engineering course many years ago...I am not the best when it comes to DIY but will have a go

I'm currently in the process of building one of these for my telescope.  Actually, I've for enough parts to build 3!

I got it working at the weekend using a NEMA 14 Stepper motor, works like a charm.    My version even has a Bluetooth connection so there's no need for a cable from the computer.

On 03/03/2019 at 20:30, Peter Drew said:

Many years ago I built the tube assembly to house a 106cm mirror for the Astronomy Centre. We eventually managed to purchase a pre-generated mirror blank but the project to grind, polish and figure the mirror is currently on hold whilst we find a way to mitigate the effects of turbulence from wind farm turbines that now ringfence our location.    ☹️

I'd have thought there was already enough wind at Todmorden, without the need to farm it.    oh well.

There's no need to use a cloud based sharing service.    Instead there's nothing stopping you from sharing a folder on the laptop, then connecting to that share from the desktop and copying the files directly across the network.  There won't be any thottling involved and you can pull the files off as fast as you make them.

This is the method that I've setup on my astro laptop, so that I can simply copy the files off over wifi.  it's fast enough for the deep sky images.

Hiya.    Here's a few thoughts to add to the mix.  I'm just comming into the thread, so might repeat things what others have said already...

1. Forget about ST-4, you have a goto mount and using PHD you are better using pulse guiding.    result is that you'll end up with one less cable and better results (PHD is designed for pulse guiding)

2. Windows remote desktop requires that the service side is running windows professional, so won't allow a connection on windows home edition.    Alternatives will work, Teamviewer, VNC are a couple of examples.

3. As long as you can get a good network connection for both PC's you will be able to remote control the scope.   The quality of the connection will determine the quality if the images you see remotely.

4. WIFI comes in many forms these days, they're not all equal.   The protocols are 802.11a/b/g/n/ac or for short you have the choice of a, b, g, n or ac.  a and b are extremely old and new kit doesn't bother with these.  G allows 54Mbps, again it's old and probably not used.  N allows about 300Mbps, and AC is much faster - I think it's comparible with Gigabit networking.     For Remote control of a PC, you should be fine with G, N or AC.   That is provided that you have sole access to the channel with no interference.  (which can be a tall order)      The distance of the PC from the Access Point (The Wifi antenna) determines the max throughput of the signal, the further you are the weaker and slower things go.

4. Wired network connections - These offer the best throughput the cables are normally 10/100/1000 Mbps.   The better cables Cat 6 and above allow 1000Mbps without any second thoughts.  You can get a 100m run from the switch - if you have a router (which you most likely to) all you need to do is run a standard patch cable (not cross over) to the switch and plug in there, it'll then be available on your network without any issues.

I think your idea is good and should work without much difficulty.

My own setup I'm running two cameras, filter wheel, and mount from a laptop.   I think remote into the laptop using Windows Remote Desktop and can work with it like that.   For my purposes, I run over a wifi (N) and it works just fine for my needs.   The data is captured and stored on the laptop running the camera, I transfer it afterwards.  This helps to keep the network traffic down a little.

Here's my answer....   in short, don't clean it.  It'll look after itself!

That would be funny.  All the SGL Admin team, in bikinis, in the middle of the night.   It'll be freezing!

IIRC the only place that doesn't have EHU is on the far end of the rally field.  Don't think anyone has booked onto those pitches.

I've found that both EE and Three's signal is ok at Lucksall. can't remember what O2 was like.   (yep. phone on EE, Mifi on Three and ipad on O2)0 

21 hours ago, thommo10 said:

From what I can remember Kingfisher is hardstanding ie gravel, oaks is softer hardstanding

 

Yep, that’s right.  Quite how gravel can be softer, I’m not sure.   They both good for caravans

14 minutes ago, thommo10 said:

Hi Grant

             Great work, I don't mean to be a pain but is it possible to move me to caravan hardstanding please.

The oaks are hard standings.

13 hours ago, Azbec said:

Is an RCD required for the electric hookups at the site?

You'd be extremely well adviced to have an RCD somewhere in the system when plugging into the EHU.

If you are camping then something like this would do the job....

https://www.leisureoutlet.com/mains-hook-ups-and-inverters/electric-and-power/camping-and-outdoors/36740-maypole-230v-mobile-mains-unit?gclid=Cj0KCQjwruPNBRCKARIsAEYNXIjcce1AjcMo10YKv-90kxumkc99NWyp_IGrhbKs8iKpSCqQx8gcggQaAooAEALw_wcB

If you have a caravan/motorhome, then then should already be one inside the van.

Personally I think anyone that doesn't have an RCD somewhere in their setup is asking for trouble.

2 hours ago, DaveS said:

Hope I've got enough extension cable.

My adaptor block has 15m, and I've just bought a 10m and 25m extension lead from GO

I'm on Pitch 49, Buzzard.

You'll have plenty.  Just make sure not to keep it coiled up when you are using it.  Or if you do let me know so that I can toast the marshellows the your bonfire that was your tent.

Lol, you'll not be the lonely motor home.  There will be both you and Jonk.   I'll most likely by the lonely Caravan.  We're all on Kingfisher, so it should be less lonely than last year for me, everyone else who was left was on Kingfisher.  

18 hours ago, simmo70 said:

Ok cheers,

what about electricity are all pitches  elec hookup ? and big enough for  large tent car and scope ?

 

The pitch that I have will be big enough for sure.  My plan is to park a Caravan, Add an awning, toilet tent, telescope and car.     Even with all of that in place.  I'm still expecting that there will be room for on the pitch.   I'm going for a hard standing on Kingfisher.   The pitches all looked to be roughly the same size.  i.e. plenty big enough

The rally field is the name for all the pitches that we're on.  It's an area of the site far away from everything else.

As for booking with a large tent, tell them.

Anywhere on Buzzard or Hare that has electric hook ups would be suitable, iirc

Looking good.  Still plenty of room for more people

18 hours ago, Bramisheu said:

Its more a case of work, I wont get the time off...

Bram

"I boss, I'm phoning in sick."... "yeah, I'm seeing stars in front of my eye's"

14 hours ago, Bramisheu said:

Me and my daughter would of loved to come to this, a bit late now but ill be sure to keep an eye out for the 2018 one.....

We love our camping and star gazing

Bram

Still plenty of time to book and stuff.