adyj1

24 minutes ago, DaveSw said:

If you want a copy of my current software let me know and I can send it to you.

Dave, I'm part-way through doing the blackwaterskies mod to a tracing panel and would appreciate a copy of your code, if you wouldn't mind? 

On my mobile phone screen, A

Spectacular...

1 hour ago, Maho said:

I posted this question after watching Gary's video. Scared the hell out of me to be honest.

 

I've emailed Juan, so just waiting to hear back 👍

I don't think it is Juan's main job, so don't expect a FLO-like lightning email response 😉 

1 hour ago, GoldTop57 said:

I'm using both the L-eNhance and L-eXtreme with the ASI294MC pro - I've gone with an OSC because of the limited imaging time here in the UK.

I've been trying to work out which one to plump for... When do you use the l-enhance over the l-extreme? 

34 minutes ago, Phillyo said:

The more I look at this, the more I regret uploading it. You could tell I was tired when I edited it. Methinks I shall have another shot at this and tone down the colours/saturation by about 300%. 

Appreciate you don't like that version any more, but I say keep uploading anyway - it was a stage you were at. I'm now interested to see you do a different version 👍 

Both astronomiser and cheapastrophotography have very good reputations on these forums. 

22 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Ah, yes, of course.  I'd forgotten that bit.

James

😉 

Nice obsy. Thanks for sharing your experience - it is a challenge to try make the roof supports aesthetically pleasing, but your story shows their importance! 

Dave, do you have an Eqdir cable to allow your computer to connect to and control your mount? This answer applies If you do.

Ideally you will use your capture tool to do your alignment. APT is the one I have used out of your list, and the feature is called plate-solving (under the Pointcraft menu).

From the home position, you use APT slew to your desired object, then tell the Pointcraft feature to take a picture with your imaging camera and platesolve it with its internal database to figure out *exactly* where your mount is pointing, and  synchronise the mount with that location. This won't be exactly where your object is (because the mount's internal location wasn't accurately synchronised at that point), but your mount is now synchronised for that part of the sky, and another goto for the same target will get you really close. Once you've got APT set up properly you can use the feature called Goto++ to tell APT to keep slewing and plate-solving automatically until it is *exactly* on target and you are ready to start imaging a point that is repeatable between sessions.

When you slew to a target in a different part of the sky it is always worth doing another platesolve (or use goto++) to ensure that your mount still accurately knows where it is pointing. 

I would say that getting this all set up when you're starting out can be a daunting task (we've all been there), so if this does seem a bit of a leap from what you are currently able to do, then just say - there are more basic ways of achieving a 'good enough' alignment to keep you going until the more advanced stuff falls into place. 

HTH

Ady

2 minutes ago, Craney said:

I thought it just screwed out  as a block  ...  Like this.

Are there two holes ??     Could you use a pin spanner on them  if greater than finger tight ??

I have the 120mc, which is the same. There aren't two holes, so it isn't easy to use a tool.

Grasping the barrel below the lens focus ring bit does it for me - @Craney's picture shows you what you're trying to achieve. 

As a follow-up question,  would this change if your NB data was collected with an l-enhance filter, it being triband?

Thanks

Welcome Dave, 

As you'll come to learn in astronomy, there 'taking photos' and 'astrophography'. Level of expenditure separates the two.... 🙂

(well, to be fair there are different expenditure levels of AP, its just I don't have the self control to stay at the budget level 😂) 

Don't hesitate to ask questions as you come across them - starting out on your own can be a bit of a challenge... 

Ady

1 hour ago, malc-c said:

but for me (as I stated  above) I can't see the point in porting an application to Windows and then handicap it buy effectively disabling  one main aspect of the application and that is equipment control.  Especially as us windows users tend to expect all the functionality to work right out of the box

Hehehehe - you said you understood client/server and then said that they have 'handicapped' the client by not updating the server. They went from being linux client /linux server, to windows-or-linux client/linux server. There are plenty of people who are happy with this new option, so a big thumbs-up to the devs 🙂 I can't see how this is a handicap.

It can read that you're saying they shouldn't have because it's of no use to you...

(I already covered the 'us windows users tend to expect' earlier... 😉 )  

1 hour ago, malc-c said:

Which brings me back to the point I raised above, and that is if you are going to port an application over to another platform then it needs to support whatever is needed to give the application 100% compatibility, in this case it needs to support ASCOM.

I agree with what you've said and can see where you're coming from - apart from this last bit... 

We've 're-established' the baseline that Kstars/Ekos is separate from (but requires) an indi server. Kstars/Ekos is a client/server application in the finest tradition of unix client/server applications, in that the two are developed independently. You can run kstars/Ekos on a unix machine in the house, and the Indi server on a unix machine at the mount. 

When the kstars/Ekos team ported their application to windows, it caused a bit of confusion for those unfamiliar with this architecture (usually traditional windows users), who expected it all to work on windows. 

So to someone familiar with this sort of setup it is completely acceptable for the current situation to exist - kstars/Ekos runs on unix or windows, and it relies on an indi server which runs only on unix.

57 minutes ago, LondonNeil said:

Not quite, it's evident he's very good and evident he 'makes it look easy' so only a fool would think they could replicate him being fresh into the hobby.  I guess my question is more like, how many amateur astronomers are at our above his level?  30%? 3%? 0.3%?  Could a newbie get similar results in a year of practice? 3 years?10?

Ahhhh - I didn't get that from your post 😉 

In which case - who knows?!? All I know is that I'm firmly in the (100% - his percentage) 😁 

Some good advice on your dob being given in this thread  tho 👍 

11 minutes ago, alacant said:

And here is Kstars with EKOS communicating with it. On the same laptop in a virtual machine sitting by the telescope if you really must.

Eek! You said 'yes it works in windows', then 'the simplicity of Linux', then 'Virtual machine' appeared in your answer...

There are many discussions about the different ways to set up kstars/Ekos (I am running it at the mount on an rpi4), but I think the question being asked at the moment is "can I connect my windows laptop to my astronomy gear (let's say at the mount to keep it simple) and *just* run windows with kstars/Ekos to control everything.?" 

Running the indi server on a Linux VM doesn't count as an answer to this question... 

Hope I'm not making things worse 😉 

Ady

And just in case Rory is ever giving away freebies in the future when he becomes an 'influencer' - yes, and subscribe to his channel 😂 

8 minutes ago, LondonNeil said:

It's he?  I guess the amateur astronomers world is small  (yet massive and expanding?)

 

No not a plug, although first post from a new member i can see it looks possible.  I'm just a potential newbie.... If an eBay auction goes my way today I'll have a 8" dobie to play with.  My main interest is in showing my kids assume stuff and seeing their faces 😊

So I guess if your question is "I've seen this guy on the Internet who says he's an amateur astronomer and his YouTube vids looks really good - does he seem to actually know what he's talking about?" 

Yes. 

Phenomenal! Well done 🙂

It's great to hear how you've been able to keep your daughter interested - there's a lot of good advice there. 

2 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

Not expecting much I hovered my phone camera over the eyepiece. As soon as I did colours popped onto the screen. Even without taking a picture this view had her literally jumping up and down.

And this is exactly how I got into astrophotography 😁 

16 hours ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Just checked now and theres 40% discount so around £11 now, an absolute bargain.

'absolute bargain doesn't do it justice! Lots of colours to choose from. Just ordered a couple of rolls  (including white, of course 😉) 

Here's an Amazon Link directly to the offer - I don't expect the 40% voucher will be there for long.

Ady

1 hour ago, malc-c said:

This was discussed a few months back.  I got slated for using a standard 7808 8v regulator as I hadn't included the smoothing caps in the setup !  

My scope is in its observatory, with a small power box attached to the pier.  In this box I have the 12v coming in, passing through to a connector which then has a cable that powers the mount.  The feed in is split and taken to a 7808 8v regulator with a couple of electrolytic capacitors to give a stable 8v DC out to a second connector.  A lead then goes off to a dummy battery that I made by taking out the two rechargeable cells.  This powers my Canon 400D without any issues.

There are loads of commercial options to power cameras form the mains... just google   - Here's an example

I will be doing something similar to what Malc has suggested, but using an XL4005 buck converter so that I have screw terminals instead of having to do any soldering. It'll need a bit more tinkering to get it in a small box with a DC 5.5/2.1 connector, but at least its cheap 😉

NB - I won't be using DC 5.5/2.1 connectors for anything other than 12v (I see that some dummy plugs have 5.5/2.1 connectors, but are only for 8v). I don't trust my astrodark self to no plug the wrong thing in 😉  

Ady

6 hours ago, newbie alert said:

No longer relevant... Thanks

13 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

So why don't zwo or any other brand name call it what it actually is than call it what it totally isn't... why not call it a sausage glow ? 

I'm as anally retentive as the next pedant, but if you're selling to the masses it is probably better to use an inaccurate term that everyone understands and helps sell your product than it is to be accurate and confuse people....