Rusted

I've just ordered an IKEA all metal drawer cabinet for my accessories. The cabinets come in various sizes and cost peanuts. I'll let you know how it goes. It can't be any worse than building with Meccano. Can it?

I tried the 10:1 slow-mo knob but even at maximum motor speed on 12V the focuser movement was glacial. Even now it takes 18 seconds per cm of travel flat out. Sitting in my observatory is necessary because I must constantly correct the AWR/ASCOM Gotos manually. It also avoids OTA collisions with the pier. Besides, I regular view as well as image. Constantly swapping the camera and EPs. between three OTAs means I have to be present anyway. One useful thing I discovered is that a timing belt will slip smoothly on the FT focuser knobs given enough effort on the opposite knob. This is important when I need a rapid four inches of drawtube travel after fitting/removing the Barlow, diagonal, prism, camera or binoviewer. I'm using a 14T pulley now because the 20T couldn't manage a vertical lift of the 3.5" focuser tube, 2" Lacerta solar prism and camera. It's all very manual and I really like that. While I could use the spacious ground floor as a warm room it make no real sense for me to do so. Sitting on the north side of the pier in a 10'/3m diameter dome my body heat probably rises straight up and out of the top of the open observation slit.

An unlikely subject for DIY obs. but bear with me and all with be revealed. I'm thinking of buying a 28" PC monitor to replace the 15.6" laptop screen for the obs. dome for Solar and Lunar imaging. I really can't cope with tiny text even with the 4k laptop set to 1080 and sitting on a 4" high riser. Constantly fitting and removing stronger reading glasses just for the laptop screen is wearing me thin. Grr? My indoor PC has a Samsung T28C570 1920 x 1080P x 125%. Which is perfect for sitting comfortably at arm's length all day long. My previous, pier mounted laptop shelf is to become a "proper" DIY, L-shaped desk. Wrapped around the pier, but isolated from it, with a nice drawer cabinet, all resting on the floor. I'll wall mount the monitor on my huge timber pier to gain some useful desk space and lift it to a heads-up position. Now I can have a proper white keyboard and room for my mouse mat and the essential AWR paddles and other junk. The laptop will return indoors overnight but I'm more concerned about the monitor: Dos anybody here have any direct, hands-on experience of the survival rates of observatory monitors? Any suggestions on choice for such a task? My W10 i7 2x SSD laptop can run a 4k screen and has all the right sockets. But do I really need 4k if some of the astro apps still aren't happy with 4k? Will paying more buy me greater reliability? Should I knit the monitor a woolly jumper? Or make it a smart polystyrene, evening jacket? Thanks for your infinite patience and [always constructive] thoughts.

The Mk1 human digits are an abomination above 200x when you have 4 meters of focal length grilling on yer laptop! Those little DC motors are excellent for fine honing yer focus. Sadly the control paddles are unworthy of further mention. RIP after a couple of hours. <sniff>

I watched every episode but hated his lack of interest in telescope making. <sniff> The observation side of things is just a hobby. Making telescopes is "a calling." I'll get my coat.

Congratulations! It's all coming together nicely! Enjoy the fruits of your labours. But, if you were responsible for today's cloud: Stop doing whatever it is you're doing. Guard dogs can be good. A new neighbour has one which lives outside. Barks briefly if you clear your throat at 50 yards. Sounds suitably big and fierce too! We're calling it NW, for short. Because it is. On both counts.

I'm shocked you were able to find that prom, let alone image it! Lots of thick cloud here today but I had a chance to take a look during brief clearances. Even tried the binoviewer. Nothing visible. Blank in WL too. <sniff> 🙄

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll definitely have to look into that option. I was wandering back and forth with the 500GB external SSD to bung the contents into the indoor 4K HDD. It was a laborious process despite USB 3s because the SSD was always full but needed to be given permission to unplug at "both ends." The 4TB HDD is also very much slower than SSD. Deciding which videos to keep is an endless problem too. I keep thinking I could do better with the processing next time. So I never throw anything away! Love the artwork. You've really made it yours! Or the dog's? Is that a wicked, Muttley grin!

Hello John, Thank you for that good news. The present HitecAstro software immediately crashed SharpCap on my 64 bit laptop. It refused to do anything including shutting down. I had to Restart a couple of times. So I had to set "Focuser" to "Simulated" under "File" & "Setup." Then I was back to pressing manual buttons on the little box. It has been far too hot to image so I hadn't updated this thread. I experimented with a 20T pulley driving the black focus knob but it made the motor labour. Though this was when the telescope was vertical along with its massive FT3545 focuser. I had the heavy Lacerta 2" Herschel prism fitted on a 4" extension as my heaviest possible load. So it's back to the 14T timing pulley for focusing reliability under all conditions.

You will have to be very disciplined and have a strict routine for cleaning out files from your SSD. I added a second 500GB T5 SSD to my onboard 256GB SSD on my laptop and still end up deep into the red on both. The little ZWO 120 produces massive files as fast as I can capture them on solar.

10% of 3k frames at 50 fps. ZWO120MC. 6" f/8 [120/10] 90mm D-ERF + PST. Crop inPhotoFiltre7. Lots of thermal image movement today.

I'm still waiting to hear how to catch one on its way down. Cut out the middle man, so to speak. What happens if you swallow one while you're looking up?

I haven't read the description but your excellent padlock hasp is only as strong as the smallest screwdriver which will remove the fixing screws. A padlock hasp must always cover/conceal its own fixing screws when closed. Anything less is wide open to drilling with a cheap, rechargeable drill. The screws must be the largest and longest possible and far more preferable, the largest bolts or machine screws which will fit. With lock nuts and load spreading washers and/or steel , load spreading plates inside the structure. A small and light crowbar will easily apply tons of localized pressure. The tools for burglary are readily available cost almost nothing these days. I speak as a victim who lost all his power tools to the scum from a [supposedly] padlocked shed/workshop.

Happy Birthday Gina. Don't stay up too late!

Yet another update: The first ASCOM driver must be chosen from the unlabelled HiTec software list. Otherwise ASCOM can't recognise the device. After a few more error notices I found a yellow "Telescope Control" bar right at the bottom of the camera control list on the right in SharpCap. Opening the menu allows a tiny focuser control panel to open amongst the other tiny, camera control panels. The 'Skywatcher' DC focus motor speed can then be adjusted and movements applied. I have attached a considerably enlarged image of the focuser control panel in SharpCap.

Hi John I can now confirm that both the laptop and PC will Connect and work with driver 1.2 but NOT in 1.3. I swapped back and forth, uninstalled and restarted both. ONLY 1.2 offers a Restart after installation. The basic focuser control panel will work on both machines but ASCOM reports a fawlty Hitec on both machines within SharpCap.

Guess what? I cleared everything Hitec focuser related off the PC. For the umpteenth time! Deleted all the HID references under Device Manager. Restarted. Checked and all the HIDs had repopulated automatically. Then I downloaded the ASCOM and Focuser drivers but chose 1.2 instead of 1.3. Reinstalled and was offered a Restart for the very first time! Opened Hitec and hit Connect then plugged in the USB cable and it finally Connected! Phew! I had to whack the settings right up to maximum to see much movement on the motor shaft. At least I can play now to see what more I can squeeze out of it. A light grey screen format would be infinitely better than this dull red and black! Night Vision is even worse! Now it is on to the laptop to try and repeat what I did on the PC. I'm most grateful for all your efforts in trying to help John. Thank you!

Thanks John. I found that discussion during my search for a solution. Let's see what HitecAstro support suggests.

Thanks. I seem to have .Net Framework up to at least 4.7.

No progress [at all] despite repeated attempts over further, completely wasted hours. Handed the problem to HitecAstro support. Life's too short. Google spelling checker keeps wanting to make HitecAstro into "Catastrophic." Oh the irony?

Thanks John. I'll give that a try tomorrow.

Thanks John. Yes, including the ASCOM driver. Several times, in fact. Deleting them again in between. I even tried loading them onto my PC to see if that would help. Connect > NO Hitec unit detected. The motor works fine on the manual buttons. Tried changing all the cables. USB and motor cables and 12.8VDC PS are all fine. Tried accessing it through SharpCap/ASCOM. Connect > No Hitec unit detected. It appears in Printers and Devices. HID drivers are shown as Windows 2006. Events show it started. I even had the Windows flag that it was ready to go. I was sent a V2 for those who want to run two devices in parallel without COM port problems. Shouldn't matter according to the Hitec blurb. Searched online for a solution but the only useful forum discussion was back in 2011 on W7. Both my laptop and PC are recent W10. I'm using USB 2 ports because Windows says the unit wont work on USB3. I've now wasted 6 hours solid on this thing without any sign of progress or the slightest change. Lucky I kept the box! I'm an amateur astronomer. Not an IT consultant!

Grr?

Does a full eclipse by the neighbour's ash tree count as proof of the existence of dark matter?

I'd be looking for an offcut of PVC drainpipe to sandwich between the studs and the boards. It would stiffen things up nicely and look quite purposeful at the same time.