skybadger

Also try here http://basebe.obspm.fr/basebe/

Check the spectroscopy groups.io group, there's a team looking at them there from a list. I don't seem to be able to add it from my phone

I like the idea of 'ammeter asteonomers', seems like we're in the lab.

You can find wifi storage cards which will do what you want, they are a bit old hat nowadays. 

All of the above, it's up to you. 

You can store locally on the emmc disk, but not recommended 

You can store locally on a SSD if you install one.

You can store locally on the SD card if you install one. 

I'd prefer to setup a FileShare where you save the image files to on the Mele and then connect to that from your laptop or desktop and use something like xcopy to monitor and copy anything saved.

Carol,can you share the image for plate solving please, and provide pixel scale and focal length if not in the image headers ?

Does it fail to solve when submitted to the online solve facility ?

9 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

Pegasus list them as "Power Supply Unit 12V / 10A – 120W" on their website and it says 10 amp on the Pegasus PSU I have. The Pegasus mount on its own may be fine with a 5 amp supply, but running the mount, camera cooler, fiterwheel and a couple of dew heaters may need a few more amps on tap.

Oh yes it will. But probably only by a little, the running current is 2.5 A or so. Which leaves 2.5A for extras like camera, FW, focuser, heaters. Not much when a camera cooler will take 2 A and a slew takes the motors from 4A.

58 minutes ago, Astroblagger said:

Some state 20 Volts but is that the max rating or what goes in comes out but no greater than 20 Volts? 

The usb x power connections run from 20 v to 5 v for charging and operating purposes.  So you should be looking for the ones for charging purposes. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Connector-Adapter-Degree-Charge-Laptop/dp/B0CFK2SCZL/ref=mp_s_a_1_33?crid=1V6EF7HTTE6TX&keywords=5.5mm+2.1mm+female+dc+to+usb+c+adapter&qid=1693258940&sprefix=dc+2.1mm+to+usb+c+adapter%2Caps%2C87&sr=8-33 but it was cheaper when I got 2...

22 hours ago, Budgie1 said:

The Pegasus PSU is 12v 10amp, where as most of the other PSU's are 12v 5amp. Depending on what you're going to be powering with it, then one of the cheaper 5 amp versions may be enough.

You can get cheaper 12v 10amp PSU's on the likes of Amazon, which is what I had to start off with my Pegusus Powerbox Advance. It had a bad connection between the mains cable & the PSU, and you could hear it spark when you pushed it together. I was lucky enough to get a genuine Pegasus unit second hand and never had an issue with it.

The other option is a Navada power supply and use a 12v cable with a car power connection on the end to supply the Powerbox.

The standard Pegasus PSU, from experience with the mount, is for a 12v 5A. I bought a generic 12v 10A one from Amazon and made up adapter cables to suit. 

You can find 12v 2.1mm jack to usb c adapters on Amazon. I have a few for this reason. 

I'll stick my neck out...

First I assume the sky is to the left and primary to the right. 

I would rotate the secondary long axis about 15 degs CCW to align with the tube direction unless it's the picture being taken at this angle...

Then I would increase the distance from the spider to move the centre of the 2ndary mirror towards the centre of the focuser view, along the tube axis.

This sounds like a reason to do osc on the rasc and mix in mono luminance on the refractor. 

Not that I have a spare asi178 cool mono available to try with...

Yep, just use the expensive stuff at the end. 

Of course you can use condenser water from your dryer...

 I use a bag of cotton buds from boots, lots of blu roll and.industrial IPA

20 hours ago, AndrewRrrrrr said:

Hi Skybadger,

Are you using the native onstep app or are going through something like SkySafari on your android device? 
I got hold of an old android phone but although I can run the onstep app fine, apparently the android version is too old to run stellarium+ and I’m too tight to buy SkySafari again! need to learn about android…..
Out of interest, what implementation of onstep are you using? 
cheers

andrew

 

I am using onstep 4.2, built from the github distribution and installed onto a CNC V3 R2 ESP32 board with a smart web server running on an esp8266 side board linked via serial port.

The smart web server offers skysafari support on port 9999 and TCP IP support for an ASCOM driver interface which can be connected via serial over Bluetooth or directly via WiFi.

I installed this on skytee to drive the altaz mount to track the sun. 

I run it via the android app over Bluetooth and from firecap on the remote home pc. I also have run it from skysafari over Bluetooth using the meade lx200 protocol. 

I plan to install two more , one each on a large and smaller altaz dob I have built.

So I think the key question is whether the one for sale supports the WiFi interface. It would be severely limited without. 

HTh. 

Mike

Yes, mine does from my HTC phone on android 9

Needs to implement the web server part of onstep.

21 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

So you are losing 1v between your PSU and the ASIair, assuming the input display is correct…😮 how long is the cable between the two..?
I would guess that the displays are wrong, your input should be close to the 12.5v and show that, hence why the outputs are higher, but you shouldn’t really be losing 1v unless the cable between  the PSU and the ASIair is long…over 3m… 🤔

Alternatively that you have a grounding problem withe grounds differing by 1 v

5 hours ago, symmetal said:

As the dew heaters are most likely PWM driven the voltage displayed would be continuously flickering between 0V and 12V depending on what phase of the PWM cycle they were sampled when being measured. Displaying the PWM mark to space ratio as a percentage is a better indication of the actual power being delivered to the dew heaters.

Alan

I would expect the voltage of a pwm output to register a constant low voltage proportional to the average pwm % of max since you are measuring an AC voltage with a DC meter. The only Eason you see anything at all is due to internal capacitance smoothing some of the AC. 

On 02/08/2023 at 07:55, bosun21 said:

Does this kit slew at go to speed? Thanks.

A typical onstep slews at 3 degrees per sec. Fast enough for most. 

It can go higher but that depends on voltage ,steppers and gearing. 

My skytee will do 4.5

I have a bank of solar panels charging a utility battery with mains charger backup. 

And other setup similar for the rotating dome section. 

The intention is for a large damped 12v current capacity for instruments and cameras.

Been working for 2 years or more now. Key thing I'm missing is voltage sensors on the Batteries so I can control the mains charging more effectively. 

Thanks for that, that's how I intend to use mine when we get a clear spell. 

9 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

@Stu that makes perfect sense as it is a thrust bearing, so carries the load better in a horizontal orientation.

But a taper roller is better at centering and those flat plate ones have more slop than the ring ones. I have both and much prefer the ring type. It's currently carrying my 18". The flat one is also quite noisy. I have not lubricated it yet though. 

13 hours ago, Snoani said:

It's not been the best of summers at times but I've found a few opportunities to get my new smaller rig out, and boy am I glad that I did.  

I know these targets aren't the hardest to capture but I am really happy with them and how the scope is performing.  This is probably my best capture and process of M31 to date, I just wish I had had another night to capture some Ha data for it.    

I'm heading to the Black Mountains in a couple of weeks and will be taking this rig with me, I just hope for clear skies while I am there.  

I hope that you like them.  

Is there any information on the camera and image, filters ?

Make yourself some shower caps from vinyl or blackout cotton and some elastic. 

Cheers for that, I'll check it out. 

I am also looking at dark sky site at Newport IoW and one in the Brecons...