AngryDonkey

Ah ok, sorry. I assumed that Nebulosity had native support for the DMK.

I haven't used it myself but I think with the Nebulosity ASCOM plugin the idea is that you start Nebulosity and connect the DMK camera to Nebulosity via the native driver. You then select the 'Nebulosity ASCOM driver' in ASPS and ASPS can take image with your DMK via Nebulosity (which is doing the actual image taking).

I think it has more to do with the fact that you have more houses and trees on your image now and less of the sky which reduced the median brightness of the image significantly.

For your night images it is quite normal that the median target is not reached. I would set the max exposure time to 45s and let the auto clip stretch lake care of the image brightness. If you find it is too dark then adjust the auto stretch parameters to give you a brighter image (and/or increase the gain). 

Great image though!

The 178MC is a great all sky camera! The included lens is ok but you will get a better picture with an Arecont or Fujinon lens.

I actually prefer the slightly cropped format to the full circle as it uses the sensor space much better (and I don't need to see the horizon). 

A lot of people are using the Arecont 1.55 for their all sky cameras which seems to work well. Also, it looks like either the camera or the lens is at a bit of an angle as the aberration only appears at the bottom of the image. If you get it all centred it will probably be better all round. I went for a Fujinon 1.8mm lens (which is even more expensive) and even then you get some aberration: https://www.allskeye.com/allskeye-live/

Mike

No, never experienced this before. Probably best to ask on the Voayger forum.

My entire dual scope setup runs on a single Intel Compute stick (M3) with a single USB port. Computing power seems to be more than able to cope with demand but I only have USB2 cameras (2xMoravian and a Lodestar for guiding) and don't do any planetary imaging. In the past all my issues were related to drivers, USB hubs (also laptop internal) and USB connections. As has been mentioned each camera, filter wheel, focuser etc. has to have a dedicated ASCOM driver (if ASCOM is the weapon of choice). Some manufacturers already provide two separate drivers (e.g. camera1 driver, camera2 driver) but its worth checking beforehand.

1 hour ago, Davey-T said:

Been messing about with dual setup for a while and just about to set it up again ready for darker nights so interested in this, also been using Maxim for years but it has problems with two of everything even running two instances of it.

1 hour ago, Fellside said:

Dave I think Voyagers Array setup uses A vitual machine or to or more PC conected on your Network.

As of very recently Voyager does allow two instances of the app to run on the same computer at the same time when using the Array version. So a second computer or virtual machine is no longer required.

The only trouble I had was with the Moravian cameras because they only had one ASCOM filter wheel driver in their ASCOM installer and they always got crossed when I used them at the same time. I wrote to Moravian to explain the problem and two days later they published a new ASCOM driver with two cameras and two filter wheels. Very good support and the ASCOM driver is rock solid. One of the main reasons I bought them

Squirrels?

3 minutes ago, RayD said:

Really good bit of kit, and it seems pretty speedy also.

Yes especially on the focusing side for me. My Moravian cameras are pretty slow in downloading full frames but with Robofocus, Voyager will automatically move to a suitable nearby focus star and because it does a low accuracy platesolve on it (which is fast) it knows exactly where the star should be in the field of view and can use subframe capture to only ask for a small portion of the entire frame which is very fast in downloading and speeds up the focus no end.

25 minutes ago, RayD said:

One question if you know, when carrying out a meridian flip, does it automatically plate solve to reduce cropping, or does it simply target the previous coordinates?  I've not tried yet but I can't seem to see whether it does or not.  Also, where do you input your current observatory location?

Yes the meridian flip is fully managed. I don't think there is a place to enter lat and long, these values I think come from the mount driver.

The more I use it the more I like it. Dragscript is hugely powerful for automation and provides an enormous amount of flexibility and recently I've started to use the multi scope version for the dual setup which is really good. I also enjoy tinkering with software... 🙂 

Hello!

I also have a dual scope setup and over the last 3 years have been evaluating pretty much every software package available to try and control both of them in a synchronised way. Up until now I did not find a satisfactory solution because for one reason or another it never quite worked 100% (Prism can do it but doesn't allow the running of a fully automated sequence, APT can do it but autofocus is lacking in sequence, NINA can do it but I had multiple other issues, Maxim can do it but is expensive and needs two computers and third party software). In the end I just ran two instances of SGP, changed from an OAG to a guide scope (to allow independent focusing of the scopes) and turned off dithering.

Since mid of last year however I've been following the development of Voyager and swapped the two instance of SGP for two instances of Voyager (one on a virtual machine). I didn't really gain anything in terms of the dual scope setup but I like the software (no affiliation) because of its capabilities and stability and I knew that the developer was working on supporting multiple scopes.  As of two weeks ago there is a new version of Voyager that can support up to four scopes on a single mount in a fully synchronised way. Over the last few days I've been running tests on my setup and the implementation is truly awesome. It's been specifically engineered to support multi scopes and allows the connection of the different 'nodes' from either the same PC or other PCs on the same network. It is only the first release of this feature but already its fully featured and it ran a number of sequences for me in a fully synchronised way i.e. from parking position to parking position.

If you are thinking about a dual scope setup then I would definitely recommend giving Voyager a try. As with any application it has a learning curve, especially because it has some very powerful features which allow a lot of automation and flexibility. But if you have the time to spend then it is definitely worth the effort.

Mike

PegasusAstro I think have just release a 'FlatMaster' panel which also looks interesting. Not sure about prices and sizes though but might be another option.

Surely round stars are worth 5400 Pound!? 🤣

1 hour ago, bomberbaz said:

Thanks Mike, good to hear they deal with you direct. How good were they to deal with direct. Were there any language barrier issues or misunderstandings

Communication was really good, the person I dealt with had good english and as I said they went above and beyond to help me fit the push to to my scope without having to resort to crude DIY.

2 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

Interesting telescopes with some good features specially weight and transportability.  Slight eyebrow raise at the three vane spider, this will produce six diffraction spikes and the secondary size looks a bit skimpy, on an instrument aperture usually purchased for DSO's I would have thought that maximum field full illumination would be an important consideration.     😃

There is a two vane holder as an option when you order direct.

Hi Steve,

I have the 12 inch f5 dob and absolutely love it. This thing is so small that I can easily take it on camping trips with a family of 4 and the dog. It's up and running in 10min tops and provides amazing views. Build quality is good but of course the portable design makes it lighter and I guess less stable as a result. I never found this a problem though unless it was windy where it needs a while to settle.

I bought mine from Telescope Express but it would have been better to order it directly. If you go direct you can specify exactly what you want and it's not any more expensive. I ordered the push to system from Taurus directly as an add on but it would have been much easier if it already had been factory fitted. They were really good an made me a special bracket so it was easier to mount.

So all in all I'm really happy!

I can really recommend Voyager as  acquisition software, especially for an observatory. It's stable and very powerful and has a fantastic web dashboard to monitor and control the session. It also has a companion program to take care of the observatory automation.

Hi Phil,

I just released an update to AllSkEye which supports Indigo server. The idea is to use a Raspberry Pi at the camera end running an Indigo server (there is a ready made indigo sky image which you can install) taking the pictures. Using the indigo camera option in AllskEye you can now connect to the indigo server and control the camera. You still need a Windows pc to run AllSkEye but it can be located anywhere as long as it's connected to the same network.

There is more info here: http://www.indigo-astronomy.org

Kind regards,

Mike

8 hours ago, Northernlight said:

and when they receive them on the date you specify, then i'll stop  making fun of JTW

I have just read this entire thread. I don't know you, I don't know the manufacturer of the OGEM mount and I don't know anything about it apart from what I've read here. My observation though is that what you are doing here has nothing to do with 'making fun'. You may well have good reason to bear a grudge based on your personal experiences and are obviously entitled to voice your opinion but your contributions to this thread just seem to be a string of comments 'having a go'. I'm not defending that company (I know nothing about it) or this saga but I think it would be better if you stated the facts and told people why you feel the way you do and then move on. I'm sure the people who ordered these mounts are more than capable to fight their corner.

Maybe I'm wrong about all this but I'm just surprised to see this on Stargazers lounge which normally seems to be a very courteous place.

5.25 or 3.5 inch? 🤣

21 hours ago, kmaslin said:

Expect this has been asked before, but what options are best to get reliable links over 3m between scope and warm room? I have a working system (just) using powered usb hub and direct usb3 cables, but is pushing the boundaries as technically links are over 3m. Have tried various "active" usb3 cables but with limited success. However issue might be me not paying enough for the cables which range in price from £10 to over £60! Should I invest and any suggestions, or have you tried usb3 to ethernet converters?

What distance is it exactly?

The most reliable connection would be to not use any networking at all. I think this has already been mentioned above but if the distance allows I would keep the PC next to (but not on) the mount and just have a monitor, mouse and keyboard in the warm room. Then you can use a longish HDMI cable to connect the PC to the monitor and bluetooth for the keyboard and mouse (or a USB2 cable if bluetooth does not work). This way everything is directly connected to your PC and you will have greatest reliability. I have a very similar setup for my portable setup which stays in a tent and I sit outside about 4m away. Works really well. Of course if the distance is greater then getting the HDMI connection will become more difficult but should be fine with 5m. It's also a fairly cheap way of doing it.

Mike

Great mods Carol!

I have the same tent and agree with everything that's been said. The material is flimsy, the zips are cheap and although I've been through a couple of heavy rain showers I would not recommend to use it when you know it is likely going to rain.

Having said that it works really well to keep the dirt out and creates a bit of a wind break which also helps with dew to a certain extend as it's slightly warmer inside. At outreach events it's also a good barrier to stop people falling over your scope... 🙂 

One thing to look at is the height of your setup. It needs to be high enough to clear the sides but shouldn't stick out too much as otherwise you will loose some of the benefits. Also in terms of light pollution it's probably not high enough as an effective barrier if you have a lot of stray light around.

I took a while to get it there 🤣 but time well spent...

In terms of easily portable mounts I think the Avalon hits the (expensive) sweet spot for me and as I have no prospect of a permanent setup just now it's just what I need. 

15 hours ago, arjv said:

Hi Mike thanks for the info, I'm guessing you also have to rotate the RA axis out of the way everytime to get to that hex bolt because there's barely any gap (2-3mm) from the photo. I use polemaster to polar align and one problem I have with my current NEQ6 is when I tighten the altitude adjustment bolts after achieving P, the alignment goes off slightly. And then I have to try again to bring it back to alignment while simultaneously tightening. Have you faced this issue with the linear? Can you get away with just finger tightening the bolts?

Yes I definitely am considering the tripod extension but only issue is its too expensive (200 Euros) and I'm already at the limit of my budget. I'll just try to DIY the extension and if that doesn't work out then I can always buy it later. 

How is your typical guiding with this mount , are you able to get around 0.5 arcsec total RMS regularly? I've read some reviews that say that wind can be a major issue with this mount. What scopes do you typically use with the mount? Since you said you're loading 19 kg on it I'm guessing a big Newtonian or SCT. 

Arjun

Hi Arjun,

At my latitude I don't actually have to move the axis out of the way as fingers just fit into the gap (but I have slim fingers 🙂). For me the trick to slightly overdo the adjustment on the hex screw (with fingers) and then tighten it up with the knob from the other side going back the other way. I also have the polemaster and this works well.

Please be aware that there are various versions of the polemaster adapter for the Linear. The latest one is correct but you need to remove the carry handle to fit it. Previous version only allowed the polemaster to be fitted with the cable coming out of the bottom which is incorrect. The USB cable must come out the left side looking from the front to ensure the the atmospheric refraction compensation is applied in the correct way. And at your latitude that's going to be important.

Yes I would say the mount is susceptible to wind but can't quantify how that compares with other mounts. I use an astro tent around it when it gets windy which works well. For me the guide performance using a guide scope is anywhere around 0.4 to 0.8 arcsec RMS usually. But regardless of the values I haven't had any issues with loosing subs due to guiding.

I'm using a dual scope setup 2xFSQ85 on the mount (the images are still with the WO71):

Hope this helps.

Mike