Spaced Out

21 hours ago, Budgie1 said:

I'm not sure the PSU has anything to do with the USB hub on the camera, I think it just powers the cooling because the camera & hub should work without the PSU being connected, taking the power from the USB cable.

Have you also ruled out the powered  USB Hub by connecting the ASI2600MC directly to the laptop with the guide camera plugged into the camera hub?

Searching the internet, I've read at a few places that the USB ports on these cameras need power and so a suitable PSU is important.

I've tried running both cameras separately, direct to the laptop without the powered USB hub in-between and they work fine. If I do the same but plug the guidecam into the ASI 2600 instead of direct to the laptop, I have the problems again, so it makes me think it is the ASI 2600 causing issues.

1 hour ago, paul mc c said:

What are you running off the Asiair.

Sorry just read again,thought you wrote Asiair pro.

Ah yes, I can see that could cause confusion ! Just changed the title 👍

1 hour ago, Elp said:

I see you may be referring to the camera hub on the back of the camera, same principle of power draw applies.

Thanks, I'm hoping it is a power issue and just a shoddy PSU. Unfortunately I don't have a spare one I can use to check this out atm.

42 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

What is connection route between the ASI2600MC Pro and the laptop?

Are you using the ZWO supplied flat USB3 cable only or does it go via another USB hub of some kind or active/passive USB extension?

If you're using the ZWO flat USB3 cable then try a better quality cable, I use Lindy cable and they're not that expensive from Amazon.

Thanks. I use lindy cables throughout and have swapped them all to check for cable failure, I have also swapped a powered USB hub which sits between the camera and laptop, but these changes made no difference and the problem persists. Makes me think it has to be the ASI 2600, therefore either power supply or faulty camera 🤔. I don't have another power supply I could swap to check that out unfortunately, I might just have to buy the proper ZWO one and hope that fixes the problem. 🤞 

Hi all

Just wondering if anyone with a ZWO PRO camera has ever had problems with the USB hub ports not working properly ?

I have a ZWO ASI 2600MC, It works fine, but when I plug in my guide cam into either of the USB ports, the guide cam often works for a little while then hangs and disconnects. Sometimes the guide cam only shows a small fraction of the image in PHD too, the rest is just a black screen. Other times, both cameras just give up and hang/disconnect with this configuration. When I plug the guide cam direct to the laptop it works fine and so does the ASI 2600.

I am thinking it might be either...

Poor power supply to the 2600 (I'm using a pretty standard 12v switching power supply from the mains, it isn't designed for use with a camera, I presumed these are all pretty similar tho ?)

Or

Faulty USB ports on the 2600.

I’m really hoping it’s not the latter.

Just wondering if anyone has ever had similar problems with a ZWO camera and if so, how it was fixed.

Thanks  

Northumberland Astronomical Society

20 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Really happy with it. Nice and sharp and everything is so smooth and well fitting. It's just the rotators that are a little bit of a let down. I moved the camera today doing some cable management and had to reframe tonight on the same target as last night. Nina told me I was 10° out, markings on the rotator would have made it one movement instead of trial and error. Apart from that nothing bad to say. 

Brilliant ! I am inclined to agree, haven't used mine properly yet, but the build quality seems really good.

On 17/09/2022 at 14:00, Anthonyexmouth said:

Ok, first full night with my new SM90. 

How was it ? 
 

I’ve had a run of unfortunate circumstances. Apart from just a couple of hours to set up and test the FF spacing when I first bought it, I’ve not been able to get out with mine again. Hopefully this will change in 2 weeks time, looking forward to actually using it. 🙂

On 13/09/2022 at 17:18, Anthonyexmouth said:

Hope are you getting on with it? Mine arrives tomorrow with the reducer and I'll be using the same camera. 

I'm sure you'll be just fine. I've only managed a quick test so far with the stellamira 90mm + 0.8x reducer/flattener and the ZWO ASI 2600MC. The stars in the extreme corners are not absolutely perfect when I pixel peep, but I think this is due to a very slight tilt somewhere. If I was using the 294 it wouldn't be an issue.

See here...

On 10/08/2022 at 15:50, 900SL said:

That looks pretty good to me. Do some full stacks and I'm sure you'll be happy

Thanks, yeah, you may well be right, it's not far off. I was just pixel peeping at first to try and get the best I can out of this new telescope.

56 minutes ago, spillage said:

Hi

Can you let us know what focuser you went for?

 

 

TS Optics V Power, solid build and really smooth.

1 hour ago, sagramore said:

I have always looked at getting something like the ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro, probably one of the kits with filter wheel, LRGB and narrowband filters (I have a real thing for the Hubble palette and I live in a moderately light polluted town). However, it's been YEARS that I've been considering that, and I'm wondering if there's anything new/better at the same price point? For reference I'm in the UK so brands/pricing/places to buy need to be available here where possible!
 

Any thoughts or advice? Thanks a lot!

Mono is wonderful ! I moved from a DSLR to cooled mono a while ago and certainly didn’t regret it.

For a short time I used the ASI 1600 with the 130PDS but I encountered problems with the weight of the camera gear I was using, it caused gravitational tilt with the stock focuser. My solution was to upgrade the focuser, that cost more than the telescope itself, but it worked OK. For info, the gear I had hanging off the focuser was - ZWO ASI 1600, ZWO 8 pos EFW, ZWO OAG + guidecam + TS GPU coma corrector, it weighed in at about 1.3kg.

I think others have used mono cameras without these issues, so I may have just been unlucky with a flaky focuser, but it left me feeling that the focuser is a weak link when using heavier camera gear on this telescope.  

Re- newer cameras, I’m not really up to speed but I think the 294 mono seems to be the recent model with good reviews, I think I am right in saying it doesn’t have the microlensing issues of the 1600 ?

Good luck ! 👍

22 minutes ago, Pompey Monkey said:

Do you use an electronic focuser? I found this article about methodically evaluating backspace and tilt using NINA's "Hocus Focus" plugin that might be useful: https://www.astrobin.com/forum/c/astrophotography/equipment/fixing-the-dreaded-tilt-and-backspacing-error-in-optical-systems-with-objective-analysis/?page=1

It describes the potential pitfalls of analysing single frames for backfocus and tilt too. 

Btw, your stars don't look too bad anyway!

Thanks for this. I am not using an autofocuser yet, but the ZWO EAF is on my shopping list for when funds allow !

Agreed the stars aren't bad, I'm just trying to get this new kit set up the best I can before I start to use it properly. 👍

1 hour ago, newbie alert said:

Looking at my phone it don't seem too far away, but the bigger the sensor the more crucial the spacing... I'd be inclined to add the thinnest baader shim , think the thinnest is the black one .3, red are .5 and gold 1.0.. delrin ones aren't that accurate, mine wasn't the same thickness all the way around and created tilt so I threw them away

 

If you're adding a filter you need to add 2/3rds of your filter thickness to your spacing

Thanks for this. Yeah I think it's quite close, just struggling a little to work out what is going on as all 4 corners don't look the same, one seems a bit better and the others more comet like. A slight sensor tilt has just been suggested and thinking about it that seems to make sense.   

1 hour ago, newbie alert said:

Looking at my phone it don't seem too far away, but the bigger the sensor the more crucial the spacing... I'd be inclined to add the thinnest baader shim , think the thinnest is the black one .3, red are .5 and gold 1.0.. delrin ones aren't that accurate, mine wasn't the same thickness all the way around and created tilt so I threw them away

 

If you're adding a filter you need to add 2/3rds of your filter thickness to your spacing

Thanks. This is what I was struggling with tbh, it is subtle. TR looks best, but it's a bit squashed, but the others all looked a little more comet like. Confused.com ! I think what you say about tilt makes sense tho, probably bringing the TR corner back to match the others, then try spacing again if necessary.

It's a new camera for me, so I need to work out how to identify which corner to adjust first and then how to adjust it. Tbh I was dreading having to fiddle with those tilt adjusters !

Hi All

I bought my first ever refractor 3 weeks ago but, due to non-stop cloud cover, last night was the first time I have been able to point it at some stars.

First job was to try and space the FF/reducer correctly. To cut a long story short, after a couple of hours of faffing, this was the best I could manage. 

So, do these corner stars indicate under spacing or over spacing ? I’ve seen the diagrams posted on here for stars that are over and under spaced. To me, some of the stars (particularly on the left hand side) seem to be pointing outwards with small tails. I’d really value a more experienced opinion on this though.

The equipment is - Stellamira 90 ED, dedicated Stellamira FF/reducer for 90 ED and ZWO 2600MC.

Thanks

Single 10s frame

Top left

Bottom Left

Top right

Bottom right

36 minutes ago, Carbon Brush said:

You should of course use separate supplies for mount & dew.
The last thing you want is a confused 🥴mount because the deew straps have pulled the 12V supply down to 8V.

HTH, David.

Good advice ! Thanks.

50 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Doh! Sorry - wrong site!

https://dewheater.com/?page_id=2

 

Thank you, they look interesting. Could be the simple solution I am looking for. 👍

Thanks both for the replies. I was just looking to keep it as simple (and cheap !) as possible, so, I guess I should have asked is a dew controller essential for running dew straps ? Sounds like it is.

Hi All

Just got my first refractor and need to sort out some dew straps for this and a guidescope. I have a pier with mains sockets, so just wondering if I can I run 2x dew straps (via a splitter) straight from a 12v switching power supply plugged into a mains socket ?

Thanks

Hi

Has anyone used a TSFLAT2 x1 flattener with this telescope ? Just wondering if it will give round stars into the corners on a APS-C sensor ?

Thanks

1 minute ago, geeklee said:

It does.  Grant @ FLO provided some good insights on best fitting, so worth an email.  I ended up doing it very slightly differently (re-using the thumb screw) but still seemed solid.  

That's great. Thank you.

Anyone know if a ZWO EAF will fit this telescope ?

Thanks.

Well... the postman didn't bring it, I had to go and collect it. 🙂

19 minutes ago, GrampyG said:

Hi 

I have one with the flattener: I haven't used it a lot yet but on my ZWO 294MC they appear fine

Regards

Graham

Thanks Graham, that's good to hear. Is it the dedicated SM 0.8x FF ?

Anyone else using this setup with an APS-C sized sensor ?