R26 oldtimer

Ok, I'm back. Here is the google drive link to a folder of fresh bias frames shot at iso800, 1/4000, .arw.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xU836mlPuEo7TlNXZcawPaubdt3_86Lk

26 minutes ago, Space Hopper said:

To get away from wires, noisy motors, plasticky hc's and polar alignements. 👎🏼

Perhaps you are right, but as far as I can tell this looks like a very well engineered mount, with many add-ons already, and with the proper "infrastructure" to make it an excellent modular mount. Besides the motors all it needs is a bent knee type of pedestral/pillar to become a "boutique"/non meridian flip eq mount.

9 hours ago, Jose Ignacio said:

So the only way I would need (vs want) the Mesu is if I want to mount a couple of OTA´s together, and that will only happen if I get an observatory. And as I cannot hide the observatory from my wife, it is a no go 😀. 

No, no, no. You are not thinking right. You should get the Mesu, so you'll have to get an obsy, and then there is no reason not to make it a triple rig by getting a couple of more scopes. 😋

Joking aside, if you're at the point of comparing those two mounts, then go for the best, or you will always wonder

The bias were at iso800 1/4000, but I must have done something wrong converting them to fits.

Would you mind if I upload another Google drive link in a couple of hours with the . arw  bias files?

I know this must be getting annoying for you, so I'll understand if you wanna call it a day.

2 hours ago, vlaiv said:

Btw - you did not paste link to google drive - but fits file twice

Oops, my bad. Here is the link

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1EICLKoR6-NjwLYpae8W-ewZk2wbNdr8e

P. S. :Those bias frames were shot at room temperature, same as DSC263. Should they match the temperature of the darks (and lights in the future), or it doesn't matter?

That looks like a very nice mount. Rowan should be making motors+motor controller+a nice eq wedge for that beast.

13 hours ago, vlaiv said:

Would it be too much trouble for you to do another master bias

Would it be much trouble to start my car a few times, so an that an excellent mechanic with deep knowledge, would fine tune it for free?? 😊 No trouble at all!!

So, I've downloaded Fitswork and following the settings you've mentioned, I converted the raw bias frames to fits. Then I downloaded a trial version of PI and tried to do a simple average on them (no weighting).

integration pi.fit

integration1 pi.fit

In case I've messed up something in averaging, here is a link to Google Drive with the individual .fits bias frames

Ok, here is a master bias (I think) shot at room temperature. Are bias frames temperature dependent?

bias-BINNING_1.fit  bias-BINNING_1.xisf

8 hours ago, vlaiv said:

Another important thing that I just noticed - exposure time is rather different for each of these subs. How did you set exposure time?

914s, 909s, 931s and 970s

I didn't use an intervalometer just a stop watch to count approximately 900sec, so that's why there is a variation.

8 hours ago, vlaiv said:

Which number was shot under which conditions?

DSC263 was at room temperature ( around 22degrees)

DSC261 was at room temperature ( around 22degrees) but with the peltier cooler on.

DSC265 was shot outside (at temperature of around 12degrees)

DSC269 was shot outside (at temperature of around 12degrees) but with the peltier cooler on.

I couldn't get a temperature reading out of the sensor

8 hours ago, vlaiv said:

With set point cooled camera when you have exact temperature

Unfortunately this isn't set point cooling, just the peltier running to it's max (obviously not enough to freeze the sensor)

And now a couple of more questions!

Since I won't be able to dither with this camera, I will have to use calibration frames (darks and flats). Is there a need for bias?

As the cooler is not set point, it will not help with calibration frames, it will just help with the noise especially during summer (temperatures above 30deg celsius), is that right?

You've used Fitswork to convert the .ARW files to .fits. Should I do the same before stacking them or feed DeepSkyStacker with the .ARW files?

And finally, do you see any real life advantage in using the cooler, or the benefits are minimal (as in wait a couple of hours for the ambient temperature to fall 5-8 degrees later in the night). Take into account that I am still new at AP, and far from chasing the tiniest detail to improve my pictures.

Again I have to thank you for your precious time to respond to my queries!!!

Vlaiv, I must say you are awesome!!

I'll just need a hour or two to digest (comprehend) all of the above, and I'll get back!

Thank you again Vlaiv, I'll be waiting for your verdict!!

Thanks Vlaiv for the quick response!!

I don't know if the fact that the frames were shot with a custom white balance makes any difference in the channels being different?  I've also noticed that gradient which looks like a light leak or internal light pollution or amp glow, so I've tested taking the darks in a box inside a cupboard with no difference, so if its not amp glow, then it must be some internal ir leak. Oh and the ISO was set at 800.

The camera is a sony c3 mirrorless so the raw files are .ARW, here they are:

_DSC0261.ARW

_DSC0263.ARW

_DSC0265.ARW

_DSC0269.ARW

Good morning, I've just finished my DIY conversion of a mirrorless camera.

The mods include:

Removal of the IR filter (single), making it a full spectrum mod.

The soldering of cables directly to the shutter button, since the camera lacked any remote shutter connection.

The cooling of the camera back using peltier elements

Everything works ok, and since its completely cloudy over here, I took some test darks to see how the camera works. So I took two sets of 900sec dark frames, one set  inside the house at 22deg celcius with the camera uncooled and cooled and another set outside at 12deg celcius, again with the camera uncooled and cooled. The cooled darks look a bit better to me, but I've noticed that the uncooled dark when shot outside at 12deg ambient looks a bit better than the cooled one at 22deg, suggesting that the cooling effect is actually less than delta 10deg.

I would like your opinion on those darks (maybe using some fancy ccd analysis tool?), because if the cooling effect is minimal, then I might as well remove the peltier cooler.

Thanks in advance!!

HI, although I am not familiar with jump desktop, I assume it is a wifi connected remote screen. The trouble is that your laptop (any laptop), can establish only one wifi connection at a given time. That means that it can either be connected to the synscan wifi or the remote screen.

I recently had the same issues, more or less, but solved them by ditching Eqmod and using the SW synscan pro app instead.

You have to adjust the output voltage. This can be done either using the small potensiometer located on the board, or by bridging (soldering) the pair of the corresponding contacts at the rear end of the board for a specific voltage ( I think it has contacts for 3.3 , 5 , 9 & 12 volts). Whatever you choose check the output voltage with a voltmeter, before connecting to the board, although I found mine to be pretty accurate.

I've got an AZEQ5 mount and it's pretty decent, not a mesu, but it gets the job done either for visual or A.P. while standing at the borderline of portability. Now, although I've been using it with a wifi adapter and my phone&skysafari, I've never used it as push to, because it still needs power for the the encoders to work. And since it's powered, there really isn't a reason to push to instead of goto, but yes it can be done.

2 hours ago, IanL said:

Plugged it in, powered on mount, small puff of smoke and now have a dead mount board (no response on both axes error).

That is very ☹️ unfortunate. Do you have any photos and wiring diagram of the connections you've made? What puzzles me is that as the wifi board is 3.3v ttl, then worst case scenario would be not to sent a logical 1, and not fry a 5v ttl motherboard. Are you sure you've used the above mentioned 3.3v wifi board and not a standard RS232 one?

That's great, waiting for a photo of the done unit!

No pinout info on the AZgoto, as you said, but a quick search came up with this:

Before you proceed, better cross-check with another reference just to make sure.

1 hour ago, Mike Oliver said:

So, would you humour me and tell me what EEVA is, please?

I'll try to skip all abbreviations and technical terms. EEVA with a camera is when you use a very sensitive camera with a fast (F/ratio) scope to register as much light possible using short exposures. This camera connects to a laptop through an application such as "sharpcap". This application takes in short exposures, one after the other and combines them (by aligning and stacking) to produce an image of your target, which gets clearer and  better the more exposures it gets. The good part is that with those short exposures you don't get star trails as you would with longer exposures so it can be done with the alt-az mount, you already own.

I know, that's why I suggested EEVA with the above specific camera. It works very well with your existing telescope, and will show you almost every object you see in an astro photograph , yes a lot noisier but it will show up with all the bells and whistles.

When I said that astrophotography is not for you (yet), I wasn't commenting on your economic status rather than the willingness to spend on a hobby, which might change (or not) the more you enjoy and pursuit this hobby.

1 hour ago, Mike Oliver said:

I'm not looking for anything super-professional - just something to get started

If you're on such a tight budget, then astrophotography is not for you (yet).

But if you can up your budget to £200, then you can get a second hand imx224 camera such as the zwo asi224. With this camera and your current setup you can do great EEVA (check the EEVA subforum) and very good planetary AP. Should you decide to venture to real AP later by aquiring another mount & scope, you can still use that camera for guiding, or stick with EEVA. Even if you decide to proceed as a visual observer, you can always sell that proven little camera with minimum loss.

A little background...

I've been happily using my AZEQ5 mount with my DIY wifi adapter for the past year now with my phone utilizing the synscan pro app and skysafari for visual.

Starting with AP, I still used the above method, only difference was using the synscan pro app to control my dslr via the mount's snap port with excellent results.

Then the AP kicked in for good, so i got myself NB filters which require longer exposures, hence the need to guide. So loaded up an older laptop with APT, PHD, EQascom platform, and the synscan pro app. Managed my first guided session where I controlled my main & guiding camera through usb connection and the mount through wifi ( APT -  EQascom  synscan driver - synscan pro app). Then it struck me that there is no need to control the mount wireless since I already had my lappy tied up to the rig with the camera's usb cables. Also the AZEQ5 mount comes with a usb port so no need for specific cables.

That's were troubles started.... I downloaded eqmod and could not connect the mount to the pc. It seems that the AZEQ5 has a prolific chip onboard. There are endless discussions on the net about genuine or not prolific chips, drivers, settings etch. I was struggling for hours with eqmod trying to configure COM3 port to recognize the mount, changing baud rates, trying every possible solution on the net, with no results and I really started to hate EQMOD.

Then it just struck me. I remembered that when I was configuring the synscan pro app  settings for  wifi connection under SETTINGS-CONNECT SETTINGS-NETWORK there was also another tab marked as SERIAL. So I tried that, had a com selection setting, set the COM port to 3 (where the device manager reported the prolific usb to serial) and... presto. The synscan app on the pc communicates through usb with the mount, and all the other apps (APT,PHD2) via EQascom  synscan driver do too seamlessly.

I really prefer the synscan app UI instead of EQMOD, and really happy that my mount's usb port works as it should!!

If I am getting James question right, it's about more about setting the mount in an accurate home position (weights down-scope pointing North), rather than polar aligning (which comes next).

If that's the case I've found this tutorial quite helpful: https://www.myastroscience.com/homeposition

I admire your dedication!!😜

But you know what the saying was in the old immortals film : There can be only one!😱