david_taurus83

29 minutes ago, 900SL said:

I ran the numbers on this very issue over on CN

This analysis assumed 4 bolts, M16, 150mm between plates, 10 kg lateral load

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/610052-for-those-using-rat-cage-design-for-those-selling-them-got-vibrations/?p=12694158

I went for M16 bolts but 3 of them, as you day, 4 is difficult to level without warping the base. Also using a round brake disc and have left only enough room underneath to get a ratchet wrench in to tighten up the mount.

24 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Have some DN100 but it’s a 2m length so going to chop it half and weld a plate onto it. 

I used DN100 as it was the perfect length for what I wanted and free! Perks of working in construction 😉 

Good old DN80!

Thanks Bryan. I'm just curious I suppose. I've seen plenty of threads/posts from people who use an Air to control their Skywatcher mounts and the guide figures always seem to be a bit better than those quoted by others who use Windows based control with the same mounts, hence my suspicions. I could be wrong. Most people with an AM5, including myself, all appear to use it with an Air. If like to know how it performs with a normal Windows setup. I suppose there's only one way I'll find out!

You shouldn't need a filter wheel with a colour camera. I have virtually the same setup BTW

Enjoy whenever the clouds part!

On 25/10/2023 at 15:50, bdlbug said:

I have both mounts that you mention, AZ EQ6 GT and recently bought a AM5. The AM5 is amazing, I also bought the carbon fibre tripod, you can lift mount and tripod with one hand, so will put very little strain on back and knees moving it around.
One point that I found out is that harmonic drives in general require to be driven (pulse guided) a lot more than the traditional GEM mounts, there is a really informative thread on the ZWO forum, the expert is Chen @w7ay that explains the way harmonic mounts need to be driven to get best guiding, but in summary you need to use PHD2 (or equiv) multi star guiding and use 0.5 - 1.5s exposures and use small guide pulses <100ms with very little aggression <40%. I have used this and achieved  <0.5" RMS regularly and sometimes down to 0.3" RMS.  A colleague in our astronomy club put a C11 on his AM5 and got guiding of 0.5"  RMS.

Been thinking about your connectivity - so you will have power at the bottom of your garden, as in mains power ?
If you do the perhaps a Wireless Ethernet bridge system would be very effective that would connect via the ASIair ethernet port and link into your home network so you can connect to the ASIair anywhere in you house where you have your home network..  This is an Amazon link - may give you some ideas as to how this may work.

https://amzn.eu/d/hOsyCdC

 

Bryan

 

Hi Bryan,

Do you use your AM5 with an ASIAir or through EQMod and PHD2? My AM5 guides around 0.4/0.5" RMS according to the ASIAir mini I have but I suspect the Air gives optimistic graphs and figures. I have wondered what the AM5 would by like if I swapped it onto my pier and ran through EQMod. Since taking my OAG off and going back to a guide scope my AZEQ6 guiding has suffered a little and I was wondering if I should have the more expensive AM5 on the pier. Does it punch above its weight and guide like a mount more than twice its price?

I have a a Bahtinov mask for a 80mm refractor I no longer have. I'm sure it will also work with your 72ED so if you pm me your address I will send it to you FOC as I have no need for it. I get what Elp is saying above about using the Air but that can be time consuming with a DSLR. Best method I found for manually focusing my 6D is aim at a bright star, stick it in Liveview and focus with a Bahtinov mask. 

14 hours ago, Mr Green said:

Evening All,

I've decided to go with the SW 72ED, GTi mount, field flattener and a few other accessories including an ASIair bundle.

Order arrives on Saturday therefore fingers crossed we have clear skies.

I think that this will do me nicely to start with although went over budget.... whoops 

Good shout with a small refractor to start with. I tried a 200P at first and quickly downsized scope and upsized mount!

Have you factored in guiding? It's a must imo if you want good early results. The ASIAir will take care of it for you so it's not as complicated as it used to be.

There's a bit of residual gradient left from LP so here's a central crop.

First image since May for me. Lost interest there for a while due to weather, tired after work, the TLC needed for Newt imager etc Recently trying to get back into it so switched out the 200P for the Esprit 100 on the pier again. Despite the rain we had Friday the clouds cleared for an all nighter! Managed just over 6 hours of data once M33 had cleared the Birmingham light dome and the Sycamore at the East end of the garden. Processed in Pixinsight, DBE, Blur X, Noise X, manual stretch, Curves, Saturation. That's it. It's good to be back.

74 x 300s Esprit 100 and 2600MC, no filter.

On 10/10/2023 at 23:49, Yawning Angel said:

You might be able to find a CCTV dome with the Starvis technology. I grabbed an old Bosch one 2nd hand for about £40, and it works quite well without IR

 

 

 

I really like that! Have you got a link to it or similar?

I usually see mine running at around 0.4 RMS as well. Has anybody used their AM5 with EQMod and PHD2 to see if the figures tally up? I've long held the belief that the ASIAir gives optimistic guide graphs.

36 minutes ago, gorann said:

Yes, in my experience as long as you keep the obsy laptops off the internet they do their jobs quite well. Never saw the reason why I should spend a lot of time and effort on setting up a system that would make me stay inside on clear nights when there is a great sky out there to now and then keep a look at.

It keeps the wife happy?! That's how it works for me anyway! When she leaves the room for something I take sneaky peaks through VNC to see how my subs are doing! 

You can set the updates to happen during your PC inactive period which you can choose. For example, I have set me imaging PC's active period as 18.00 to 07.00 so any updates occur during the day when it's not in use (it is left running 24/7)

I'd sell the USB ones and get 12v ones with the RCA plug. FWIW I also have the USB ones on my portable setup and they are very good despite my initial scepticism when I decided to try them. 

Have you tried removing the EAF and plugging directly into the Air and see if either camera or EAF disconnects? The USB hubs on the cameras have been known to be flaky. 

7 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

I assume now you are NOT using any ZWO supplied USB cables as they are complete junk…also have you tried the camera on other software like Sharpcap or NINA on a PC, to rule out the ASIair being the issue…as at the end of the day it’s just an RPI inside and they can fail too…

To be fair, I've never had an issue with the flat ZWO cables and I prefer them for their flexibility. 

Guidescope for refractors, off axis guider for reflectors/mirrors

9 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Is DBE in PI the same principal as Light Pollution Removal tool in Astro Pixel Processor?  I’ve not moved that step over to PI yet but with a sense star field it’s hit and miss. 

Yes it's usually pretty good (once you get the hang of PI) For narrowband I usually place 4 squares in the corners and that does the job by enhancing contrast slightly.

11 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

I would advise against large numbers of sample points. What you are trying to remove is a broad gradient and the more points you put in, the more you are likely to pick up local brightness variations - or create them. I rarely use more than 8 and, sometimes, half that.

Olly

I'm the same. I find less points works better most times unless I have a difficult gradient or residual flats issue where I need to place more specific points. If struggling with DBE you could also try the free software GraXpert. It has gotten me out of a jam a few times when DBE proves difficult.

I haven't used my pier setup for a while and I have decided to put my Esprit back on these in place of the 200P. Took the cover off yesterday and found an infestation of earwigs! All crawling around inside the cover and loads hiding in nooks and crannys around the mount! Some even took up refuge in a couple of USB ports! A lot of insect dirt as well. I brushed them all off and brought my scopes indoors to swap over accessories and by the time I went back out last night to remount the Esprit the buggers had returned! Any ideas on how to keep the critters away? My wife suggested eucalyptus oil and I was thinking of putting a small pot under the pier plate but I'm not sure if this will leave a residue on the scope and mount under the cover. Appreciate any ideas!

38 minutes ago, badhex said:

There's a 70mm Altair ED F6 refractor just popped up in the classifieds. I can't speak for the quality of optics in that specific scope but as previously mentioned my William Optics ZS73 is the same class of scope and I love it. Great WF views (and surprisingly good planetary), and it only requires a small lightweight mount. I personally use a Scopetech Mount Zero primarily for travel, but I'd imagine one of the smaller Skywatcher alt-az options would work very well too. 

I've had 3 Altair scopes. Absolutely no problems with the quality, they're as good as the TS and WO equivalent. I've always regretted selling 1 scope and that was an Altair 70 EDQR quad. 

Agree with alacant, remove the SD card from the camera. I'm sure I read on one of the ZWO pages that this causes issues for some people.

So what is the average ADU value of the single frames with filter and without filter? My point is the frame without filter has more signal so will be masking the horizontal banding. The 600D is well known to produce banding, there is even a specific script in Pixinsight to remove Canon horizontal banding!

The banding won't be the filter. It's narrowband so far less signal getting through from the background (space) of the target so when you stretch the image you are also stretching the noise. Really, 2 and a bit hours with a narrowband filter on a 600D is not enough signal. Without the filter you would have less emphasis on the target but I think you would still have a nice image with less noise.