adyj1

A tip I saw from 'the guy with the Swiss accent' on YouTube was to always print your holes slightly small and then ream them to the size you need with a device like this - much more accurate;

As long as your part isn't too thick it works quite well. 

Ady

3 hours ago, malc-c said:

Editing registry settings is not as scary as people think

To my mind a novice could render their PC inoperable with the wrong registry setting (not likely but possible), so it's not something I'd ever suggest publicly without a ton of caveats. 

In my experience, whenever someone has needed to know what comm port a device is on, the suggestion has been to look in Device Manager / ports - which in itself isn't that intuitive (they don't have meaningful labels for a start). 

My post here is to say there's a quick and easy piece of software, particularly useful if you often plug and unplug devices, that tells you with a pop-up notification what comm port the device you just plugged in has been allocated... 

No ninja IT skills needed. 😉 

1 hour ago, malc-c said:

Google "Deleting unused Com ports" - there are methods from editing the registry to 3rd party apps that can manage the registering of comports for the devices attached.  Sometimes plugging a device into a different USB port can cause windows to issue it with a new port number.

I know what you are saying, but would you agree that those methods are pretty hard-core for most?

For the casual user, there are plenty of install instructions that say "check device manager to see what com port has been added", and I just find it really useful for the computer to tell me the com port when I plug the device in, rather than digging around in the settings... 

18 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

looks very handy, tho these day's I'm not often using serial devices much compared to when I was in the field and hooking into computer systems and peripherals. Thanks for sharing tho, might come in handy when I next need to use the car diags cables 🙂 

For me, it seems that every other time I plug in my flat panel it gets a different com port! 

So, you plug in a USB device to your imaging PC and need to know what COM port it has been given so you can configure the software. Do you find yourself scrabbling for Device Manager and trying to work it out from the ports listed?

I found this really neat utility on Sourceforge that does exactly what I want; I plug in a device and a notification pops up to tell me what COM Port has been added;

Serial Port Notifier

It is quite old (2016),but in my experience has worked a treat on Windows 10. 

Ady

(I posted this in another thread, but I find it so useful I thought I'd give it one of its own.)

2 hours ago, ninjageezer said:

Thanks Ady ,what i meant was when you slew and centre will it platesolve in the exact position you place the framing  if that makes sense. 

... and that's what I didn't understand 😉 

Slewing is telling your mount to go to the exact co-ordinates provided by the framing wizard (i.e. where the box is located on your screen). However, because the accuracy of most of our mounts is not observatory-grade, the mechanical tolerances mean it will likely only be close. ish. Particularly on a long slew 😉 

As your slewed location is therefore unlikely to be the exact co-ordinates the mount *thought* it had slewed to, Platesolving is used to take a picture and tell the mount the *actual* co-ordinates it is pointing to. A bit like a back seat driver 😂

NINA will then know the mount isn't pointing where it should be and instruct it to slew again, and as the mount will be quite close to the target co-ordinates, this second slew will hopefully be more accurate. NINA will repeat platesolving - telling the mount where it is actually pointing,until the results match the co-ordinates provided by the framing wizard. 

HTH

Ady

(I hope I've correctly understood your question - apologies if I've ended up teaching you to suck eggs..) 

11 hours ago, ninjageezer said:

why can I not find the recentre tab in Nina on the framing page    ....what am i missing ?

If you move the framing box, then press 'load image' to re-centre your view

1 hour ago, ninjageezer said:

am I correct in thinking wherever I place the framing box on the target it will  slew and centre on that

That is my experience - move the box then press 'slew' to or 'slew and centre' and it will use the new coordinates regardless of whether you have pressed 'load image' to refresh the screen. 

1 hour ago, ninjageezer said:

even when platesolving

Not sure what you mean by this - the 'centre' in 'slew and centre' IS platesolving. 

HTH

Ady

Talking about ports, I found a really simple program on source forge that will pop up a notification when you plug a USB device in in and say what com port it is on. It is quite old (2016),but in my experience has worked a treat in Windows 10. 

Serial Port Notifier

No more scrabbling around in device manager trying to work it out 👍 

8 minutes ago, BrendanC said:

If that's like this, then I've been recommended this and have already bought it, so fingers crossed: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/astro-essentials-parfocal-rings.html

The parfocal ring will slide over the nose of the coma corrector and will 'shorten' the amount of the CC that gets inserted into the draw tube. As long as this doesn't leave the CC too short/unstable to hang the rest of the imaging train on, you should be ok.

The extension tube method lengthens the draw tube and so the length of the nose of the CC is unaffected. 

HTH

Ady

Edit: the click lock method also extends the draw tube, and as @bottletopburlysays, are an excellent addition if you have room in your imaging train - they self-centre and grip like **** 😉 

2 hours ago, PhilPassmore said:

Each socket is supplied with 12v on one pin, 5v on nother, and a commonground. This allows any five or 12 volt device to be wired into the matching plug, so it picks up the required voltage, regardless of the socket they are plugged into.

I like this idea - very nice 🙂

@Sarek, Hi and welcome. 

As you have already learned, there are no shortage of options to suit any budget - and budget is the absolute limiting factor... 

Can you afford to spend big on a 'proper' mount? The EQ6 is better than the HEQ5 and the HEQ5 is better than the eq5. None of them are 'portable'*, but the better they are the heavier they are. You will want to spend money on other astro essentials, so I wouldn't recommend blowing the whole budget on the mount. Will you be imaging from the back garden, or do you need to travel to get a clear sky? 

I was finance-bound when I started and got all my kit second-hand and mainly from this week group: DSLR (eventually modded by cheap astrophotography), EQ5 (motorised, and eventually diy modded to goto), and 150pds. I've supplemented it with diy auto-focuser, dew control, imaging pc and filters, but these upgrades took quite a long time because of finances. The 'big upgrade' I decided to plump for when I did come into a bit of money was a dedicated cooled astrocamera (ASI533MC Pro). Still imaging on my eq5 and not regretting it 😉 

So the tldr; is that recommendations need to reflect your budget and desire/ability to add funds... 

Ady

Edit: *Oops - by 'not portable', I mean that you'd want to carry for any distance - they can all be unloaded from the back of a car and carried somewhere close... 

Got this from the wife;

I'm fairly sure she's after a new pair of shoes 😂 

1 hour ago, RobertI said:

8 minutes ago, RobertI said:

Just to confirm, by “run off” shed I mean a small shed or box on wheels, rather than a sliding roof observatory ….. just in case I am using the wrong terminology! 

 

... or if I'm not paying attention 😉 

Would you have such a thing running on rails, or some sort of castor arrangement.?

I've no practical experience of this kind of scope cover, so I will sit at the back and watch. 😁 

What do you have in mind as 'low profile run-off shed'? What size floor plan? Something high enough to stand in? 

9 hours ago, tompato said:

Yes it's the astro essentials one which I think is f4 and 30mm so 120mm focal length

I have both and was about to say the Astro Essentials one is 32mm and so 128mm f/l, but I had a quick check on @FLO before posting and the description  now says it is 30mm. Something is afoot, as the product code is listed as "ae_32mm_guide_scope" - hmmm... 🔎

There probably is that much difference between the two to worry about. 

1 hour ago, tompato said:

the 120 stands for 120mm focus distance (I think?

It is the guide scope focal length you need, which isn't anything to do with the camera. Mind you, if you have the ZWO mini guide scope, then by complete coincidence that has 120mm focal length. 😁 👍 

1 hour ago, herne said:

My Skywatcher wedge (all Skywatcher wedges?) have their scales inverted for some unknown reason.  So for my 51 degree north location my wedge is set to 39 degrees on the scale ie., 90 - 51 = 39.

It was designed to be used with the Star Adventurer, which aligns in a different axis.

1 hour ago, herne said:

So for my 51 degree north location my wedge is set to 39 degrees on the scale ie., 90 - 51 = 39.

The actual setting will depend on how accurately you have leveled the tripod, for a start. Given that and the low accuracy of the scale itself, it is probably best just used a rough guide to start the PA process rather than expecting to be bang on.  

8 hours ago, Crist Rigotti said:

Do I have to use the Synscan APP first to set the mount to EQ mode, then set home position and do a 2 star alignment before going to the ASIAIR Plus?

Apart from polar alignment, you need to stick to one controller, or start again with alignment if you switch controllers (think of it like a reboot of Windows 😉) 

5 hours ago, fortytwo said:

I will take a look at Sky Safari for that purpose, do you think it would be better than Stellarium?

You just need to choose your poison - skysafari is what I would use when planning a viewing session as I have my FOV overlaid on the star map to show what targets fit. Whatever you normally us should work, or even the FOV tools on astronomy.tools website will work to show the difference that sensor and pixel size have on your FOV. 

2 hours ago, fortytwo said:

I am assuming that I will need additions to the imaging chain to achieve focus when compared to the DSLR and wonder if that will make a difference to the FOV?

The FOV is determined by your sensor size rather than distance to achieve focus (it is the same telescope with the same focal length after all). 

I went with a 533mc pro and the smaller sensor meant a smaller FOV than with my dslr. I plugged the sensor details into Sky Safari to see what FOV I would get whilst deliberating the purchase.. 

1 hour ago, Roog said:

Its good enough for my purpose

I think you are playing it down too much - it is a well-engineered solution that does *exactly* what you need, cossetting your precious Dob from any hazardous jolts as it is gently lowered to the launchpad with little effort from yourself.

I think you should be very proud - I bet there's more than one envious observer reading this thread...

Thanks for posting the vid, btw - I've watched it more than once   

24 minutes ago, Roog said:

Thank you , but it really is a very dull watch! But in order that others can suffer, do you have any ideas as to how this could be posted?

I recently managed to post a 48mb video of my automated RORO shed roof (zzzzzz) - how big is your file? 

Looks great - I'd like to see the video.

44 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

No, don’t assume I know anything much about affinity. I just use it to occasionally tweak terrestrial photos. I use PI for all my astrophotography.  The other day I did actually become aware that stacking was possible  on affinity because I noticed a video on how to do it. Is it any good? 

I'm pleased with Affinity. I followed a few of James Ritson's Youtube videos and downloaded his macros (he's a product expert for Affinity Photo) and also use his macros.

I don't expect it comes close to the power of PI, but it does for me. 

5 hours ago, Rodd said:

I like widefield too--but I would need to upgrade my camera to a full fame (of medium format) to really do them justice.

There's always better kit 😉