adyj1

Just used it. Thanks Chris. Ady

I've been keeping quiet about this as I had every confidence that I'd come a cropper somewhere along the build process and it wouldn't work, but on Thursday night I had my first fully automated session in my new observatory - set Nina up and then headed out on a works do. The roof opened, the sky stayed clear, m81 was imaged, and in the morning the roof was closed... Hurrah! Inspired by some great builds on SGL, I'd been thinking about it for a while and took the plunge when the planets aligned for me: a bonus from work, a birthday, and a pergola that nearly blew over in the wind so had to be taken down which provided free treated timber. Managed to get the necessary permission to squeeze it into the bottom of the garden, behind the bushes 😁 (as long as I hide it behind trellis when I'm done) It's going to take a while to write the whole build up (particularly as my middle name is procrastination), but here are the big ticket items and some pics. (I warn you now, this build makes Heath Robinson look like high-end quality) 8x4 metal shed for £215 (cheap, and feels it) Gate opener for £101 8 Roof wheels £50 all from Amazon Before: During: After: A vid: VID_20220424_191819.mp4 It's a bit tight inside, but I reckon I can get two piers in there as my biggest scope is a 150pds...😂 More to follow.

I think it is called the 'aberration inspector' on the Imaging tab (has a grid of 9 squares in the icon. Here I'm trying without success to get the wrong Atair field flattener/reducer to work with my AA66ED-R. The other AP apps may well have something similar.

The diagrams on the ZWO website are surprisingly helpful and tell you exactly what you need; https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/tutorials/best-back-focus-length-solutions-55mm.html NIINA has an option in the 'image' tab to show a 3x3 crop mosaic which shows you a magnified view of all four corners that I have found useful when checking backspace... Ady

And a Happy Easter to you too! Biggest question of all is what's your budget - and with previous experience of astronomy - what are your aspirations? The 'don't buy twice' argument applies if you have the budget to support it, and the 'start off simple' applies if you don't. Many start off with a dslr because of budget, and if this applies to you it is a very reasonable place to start. PS - I can't see you 'needing' a rotator as you can usually do this manually.

I have had a reflection from very very bright stars if they are in the centre of the FOV, though (alnitak as an example) - but I was only taking that as an alignment shot and it has never troubled me through my normal dso imaging (the horsehead and flame was fine)

We've all been there, unfortunately. I would still have one more go at sorting out your alignment issues, though. Double check all your settings are correct (although I guess most of these are set through the app) and use bright stars as test targets as they are much easier to locate when the goto is off. Maybe there's a patten to the misalignment (for example a timezone or daylight saving issue that only affects one axis) . If you get the chance to play while the moon is full you haven't really wasted imaging time. I spent the first three moths with an Az-goto that wasn't accurate and found I had the wrong daylight saving (although that was with the handset...) Good luck!

I approached my neighbour about her dusk-to-dawn security floodlight and she allowed me to put a light shield on it, so you never know...

Spectacular. And now I know why it is called wide-field astrophotography 😁

I have a 150PDS and have used a skywatcher 0.9x coma corrector with a Canon DSLR (modded and unmodded) for a few years without complaint.

Agree with you completely, but it turns out that leaving under a dark telescope cover in the height of summer is like leaving it in an oven - way worse than just leaving it in the sun... 😁

Nor, as I found, under a dark telescope cover... ( I have a Cygnus cover which has served me well, but my focus motor mount - which was admittedly under a bit of tension from the belt - warped badly on one of the really hot UK days last year... )

I highly recommend using the android app 'synscaninit' when setting up my handset. It gives you all the settings to enter, reminding me to use American date settings and the right daylight saving settings. It also gives me the right lat/long co-ordinates if I'm away from home.

I would agree with OMGWDIG there, and my experience with a DSLR and APT was to always dither so that you don't have to take dark frames. I'm a true NINA convert too, but I'd recommend not rushing to enable every feature from the get-go - start with the simple things then add more to your routine as you get used to how things work. I remember in my first couple of sessions simply setting exposure 'loop' and 'save' in the imaging tab, and not going anywhere near the scheduler options.

The mount is really just the arms and legs - it's the controller that is the brains and contains the star database and programs for alignment and slewing. With the AZ GTi we are spoiled for controllers - synscan over wifi, hand controller or PC through EQMOD (or similar). The controllers are independent of each other, so if you switch controller you start again with alignment, etc. (if you've used a certain controller for polar alignment of the mount, then obviously that is still valid when you switch controllers, as you haven't moved the mount)

Yes. It (normally) has a shutter release button.

If you try posting to the Nina discord channel you will often get a very quick reply.. https://nighttime-imaging.eu/ (click Menu then Discord)

The only thing I'd add is that you seem to have run all three power supplies with your full load, including dew heaters. For diagnostic purposes I would have thought that one of the PSUs would have been good enough to power the mount on its own and therefore run without error, and once you've established a 'known good' configuration you can add more load to show that the psu iss the most likely culprit. I'm not saying it isn't the psu, just that I think that I'd prefer a better indication that it was psu before spending money on it. I hope it fixes your problem, though - the nevada is a good bit of kit.

As @happy-katsays, use left and down to go a little bit past the star you want to align on , then you'll always be using right and up to do your final adjustment (which then takes up the backlash on both axes and tracking is then accurate) It doesn't matter if you need to use down and left along the way as long as the last movement was up and right in each axis. remember the backlash is separate for each axes; so if you've aligned in the up/down axis with a final 'up', you can then go left and right as many times as you want as long as you finish on a 'right' and don't touch 'down'. once you've got the hang of it it will make sense, I promise... 😁

I have bought one but not built my obsy yet! Amazon UK Gate Motor (currently 129.99 and a 5% off 'voucher' to makes it even cheaper) - this one includes the rails as well (not all the cheap ones do). This was the cheapest on Amazon and I can confirm that the motherboard inside matches the one that Glen / Astrobloke used on his ROR (see Observatory Automatic Roll off roof control In NINA using an Arduino UNO ).

Well said.

I would still try to see if the movement of the motors matches the movement displayed through the software. Apologies for not spotting you didn't use eqmod, but in this case you do need something like nina; connect the mount in nina and use the slew controls in the equipment/telescope screen to move the mount and see what ascom is reporting to nina, compared with what you are observing the mount itself is actually doing.

This isn't quite right - when you connect to EQMOD it *will* have a co-ordinate for the mount (normally the default park position of polaris) which you can check in the EQMOD driver software. If you ask it to slew to an object, as @scotty38 says, the mount will slew to where it thinks that location is. It won't be accurate (that's what alignment is for), but it will be approximate. If the mount slews off in a different direction altogether then there is something other than alignment going awry. @dazzystar does the mount slew in the correct direction when you press the N/S/E/W buttons in the EQMOD software? The fact it is moving is good, you need to work out whether it is moving in the right direction (can be done inside) and then whether it is slewing at the correct rate (probably a night-time thing; from one known point does it over- or under-slew to a second location). If it isn't moving in the right direction you need to make sure location and time are accurate. If they are, then I'd look at the ONSTEP configuration to check you've set everything correctly there. Try to use just the EQMOD software and leave NINA out of the equation for now... Ady

Daz, is this new kit or stuff you've had working before but has started playing up?

With the EQMOD cable you can do as @AstroNebulee says and dispense completely with synscan app and connecting to the mount WiFi. It's my preferred mode of operation, and I have an old handset (from an az goto) that I use if I'm not using a PC. I dislike using the mobile app, and am grateful for other different options.