Xsubmariner

Hi Scoobs767, Here is a picture of my redundant shed with both doors open. The door opening is 870mm maximum, and inside space is 1680mm. It isn’t the 1M you were hoping for.

The site shows my location as Bortle 4, so not too bad. Unfortunately imaging does suffer from Wye valley mist on some of the scarce clear nights.

Hi and welcome to SGL. You will always remember your first DSO image, be careful though imaging is addictive and will strain your wallet.

Hi Alan, I agree with Saganite and would cast the concrete base then fit a steel pier. For consideration; I built a concrete pier with rebar support and it worked fine, but the size and construction will depend on what weight you are loading it with. As people have already stated It is surprising what impact a small amount of ringing/flex will cause on a long focal length imaging setup. When my needs changed and I installed a heavy duty mount/system I had to cut off the concrete pier and fit a steel unit. When you move home you will probably have to cut off any concrete pier, if that is the way you decide to go. With steel you can unbolt and take it with you. Steel piers do appear in classifieds at a substantial saving so this may be an option, both of my steel piers were acquired used. Have you tried a wanted ad. If you decide to go for steel, don’t forget to shutter the top of your hole with suitable packing that you can remove when it sets. This will allow you decouple the pier base from the surrounding concrete base. I would then use a can of expanding foam to fill the gap. PM me if you wish to discuss in further detail my experience . Martin

Apologies, I just realised where I captured the Shed external image. I hope this doesn’t get me a red card.😲

I found the 6x4 plastic ketter Shed made a good control room for my dome. Very low maintenance and it was easy to glue 10mm floor insulation to the inside. With a low wattage (40W) dehumidifier it worked well and provided a dry environment. Quite a few people place them on a wood base board and turn them into a roll off observatory. There is an additional section next to the door that opens to create a wider entrance.

Hi and welcome to SGL, have fun learning your new scope.

Hi Adam, In my dome I ran conduit to the centre of the pier base and to the north side of the dome where the 12v DC distribution is located and to dome controller . You will want to consider what services the conduit will support to prevent mutual interference. My AC/DC supplies are separated from signal cables. Here is a list of the conduit/services/cables I have run: Here is a list of the conduit/services/cables I have run: 2x conduit from outside Control Room (CR) to Pier Base(PB), 2x conduit from control room to North side Dome (ND), 1x conduit from North side outlet to Pier base. 1x small conduit from control room to location of Dome Automation (DA) controller. Conduit 1 CR to PB; AC supply circuit cable (all RCBO for safety) to sockets on pier surround that support; electric wall heater on pier base with thermal control, AC PSU services at pier. Fibre optic cable x2 from CR to imaging system, supports Vhigh speed USB3 service via converters. Conduit 2 CR to PB; 3x 5M active USB 3.0 cables. 1x 5M active USB 2.0 cable. 1x Cat 6 cable for Ethernet. 1x 5M Serial cable (RS232). Conduit 1 CR to ND; AC supply circuit cable (RCBO) for dome wall socket services; PC laptop, monitor, Security camera PSU, dehumidifier, etc. 12V DC cable x2 (30A) to dome distribution board. Conduit 2 to ND; Cat 6 (Ethernet) x2 for; security camera, dome monitor (vga over Ethernet). Telephone cable. Conduit ND to PB; 8 x DC (10A) cables to feed DC out let’s on Pier surround. 3 M USB2.0 cable for Polemaster to monitor/PC Conduit CR to DA; 10M serial cable (RS232) to dome controller. Key dome environmental considerations: There will be some water on the floor in the morning due to condensation, the dehumidifier helps. I drape a breathable cover (old Motorcycle cover) over the equipment/pier and I find that the low wattage (40W) pier mounted wall heater sets a thermal layer under the cover that greatly reduces condensation on the equipment. All my processing equipment, AC distribution/UPS and 2 x 35A DC PSU’s are kept in the control room which is insulated and dehumidifier. Security- I have a fitted security system in the complete installation with door contacts and motion sensors which is connected to the telephone. In addition there is another seperate security camera in each dome, control and ROR compartment, these use Ethernet cabling to control room and underground cable back to the house (WiFi is too easy to jam) Don’t forget to run spare backup cables, just in case of failures. Obviously not everyone needs everything I have used but I have already utilised some of my spare capacity moving to a dual rig 4 x camera setup in the dome. I hope this helps in your thought process.

Hi tooth-dr, I had the same dilemma when I first installed my 2.2M dome, even with an equipment bay. Being over six foot, it would be cramped and not terribly comfortable when trying to image. Early on I decided to operate the system from a separate control room, so a Ketter (plastic) shed was installed next to the dome and flexible plastic pipe used as conduit to route the cabling. This worked great for a single user but as more friends wanted to experience the wonders of the sky I progressed to a second ROR with separate control room next to the dome. Now with a new mount (long counterweight arm) and dual scope setup installed in the Dome, I would assess the space as very uncomfortable for continued occupancy during observation/imaging. It is ok for short periods when I conduct alignment/setting up routines. I use a small wooden collapsible table and chair that can be easily moved to the best position for the laptop. With some minor modifications the 6x4 ketter shed worked well.

Hi, jaspalchadha, I have the latest SiTech controller software ver .94 NWin Hi Laurin Dave, your SiTech settings appear to be for the nonE MESU 200 with SiTech II controller. The new MESU with through mount cabling doesn’t have the shaft encoder so our Scope encoder settings are left in the default setting. Otherwise my settings reflect your setup. May I ask if you tick the Box “Declination axis has high-precision encoder (a few high-end mounts)” in the mount page of the PHD2 setup wizard? thanks Martin

I have been experiencing the same problem and reflect your current status. Occasionally after slewing to a new target and post plate solve alignment, SGP restarts PHD2 guiding and after initial settle the mount DEC runs away. The included image shows this and it can been seen whereby after manually stopping and reinitiating PHD guiding the DEC runaway is repeated. This was only stopped and stable guiding reestablished after forcing a PHD calibration. I need to investigate further to determine the source of the problem, but as I can manually overcome I am focused on resolving other problems with the overall system, post reconfiguration. I suspect it is a configuration issue between PHD and SiTech 1 controller. Will advise if I identify anything.

I have been experiencing the same problem and reflect your current status. Occasionally after slewing to a new target and post plate solve alignment, SGP restarts PHD2 guiding and after initial settle the mount DEC runs away. The included image shows this and it can been seen whereby after manually stopping and reinitiating PHD guiding the DEC runaway is repeated. This was only stopped and stable guiding reestablished after forcing a PHD calibration. I need to investigate further to determine the source of the problem, but as I can manually overcome I am focused on resolving other problems with the overall system, post reconfiguration. I suspect it is a configuration issue between PHD and SiTech 1 controller. Will advise if I identify anything.

I fully understand your statement Paul mcc. I have been slow to learn Pixinsight processing tools to improve my images and find I spend more time problem solving the observatory system hardware, connectivity and software issues than actual imaging. My early image successes (to me) seem a long time ago and my current productivity is poor. All that said, the wise responses offered above have allowed me to reflect on my own position and I agree a rest is probably best. Don’t sell your kit unless you need to. All the best for the future what ever you decide.

Hi and welcome, it is an amazing sky, shame I didn’t start until retirement. Martin

Hi Philip and welcome back, there is no doubt last year was the least productive for imaging but I was able to play with the kit a lot more.

Hi and welcome Wyvern, I have a WO GTF81 and it is a great scope. You have a good combination with the EQ6R and QHY to produce some excellent images, enjoy.

Thanks Laurin Dave your advice was correct. I found a lock nut on the ADM saddle elevation adjustment was loose and this appeared to cause the flex which ruined a nights imaging. Managed 6x 20 min frames on each scope tonight and no star elongation, great. Thank you everyone who responded.

Hi Laurin, tooth-dr, tomato and tomato bro, Thanks for the feedback, I haven’t fitted a top brace to the telescopes and perhaps that is worth trying. I will have to align images using the ADM adjustable saddle then then fit some form of top brace. One thought that comes to mind is the loss of adjustment points for balancing the rig for the Mesu. Here is a picture of the ADM saddle, perhaps my error was in believing this was adequate for the arrangement. Thank again Martin

I have recently set up a dual imaging rig consisting of 2x 130mm APOs, one with colour Atik 383L camera and the second with Atik383L mono + Lu filter. Now that I have SGPro configured to run 2 concurrent sequences on one PC. The dual SGP setup appears to be working ok, given the Atik drivers allow camera selection by serial number I have been able to configure each SGP sequence to the individual scope setup. The Colour camera rig (primary) includes OAG and ZWO120mm guider, the mono rig is slave and just runs capture using the Camera, Atik EFW and Pegasus focuser. The system appears to work well with the primary system managing guiding and mount control including plate-solving. Due to SGP inability to manage 2 imaging cameras, I am limited to this control setup and am unable to dither which I’ve switched off (plan to use bad pixel map). Last night was the first time I ran the setup with an OAG and 20min exposures. Previously I ran the system with a separate guide camera and 5min exposures. Please can someone advise why my mono image captures are elongated, see below. I watched several frames being captured and guiding was steady at 0.4 arc/sec. Without dithers there appeared to be no mount movement beyond guiding and yet the mono image is elongated on every frame. The images were aligned between the setups using a heavy duty ADM adjustable saddle to position the TS130 with the AA130 and platesolves were used to align image rotation. I am confused why the colour frames are ok yet the mono frames are elongated. Even when I ran the slave capture time at half the primary the image was elongated ( see second image). thanks Martin

Hi John, Great first picture post and excellent introduction. Welcome to SGL, there are many experts here who regularly provide help for aspiring Astrophotographers. Martin

Hi All, Regret to advise that I will not now be attending, while I would love to meet you all I have gone into cocoon mode. Hope to meet you next year.

Looks like a ZWO camera, if the look up the handbook for your camera (on-line) there is a connectivity diagram of the camera and filter-wheel to the telescope. It also gives the backspacing requirements. Good luck with your rebuild.

I enquired with most of the main name house contents insurers and most had a maximum value for outbuildings of £3-5k total. I hear there are concerns that the membership numbers for the main Astronomy Societies are dropping, how about they negotiate a good insurance plan for Amateur Astronomers as part of their membership. They might find there membership increasing.

I would avoid eBay for software, most is pirated and you will find PS will block you. Should you find and acquire a genuine older version you will have a devils job getting PS to accept and register your copy. Monthly PS is very expensive in the long term. Given you will be new to AP, might I suggest Nebulosity 4.0 is a very good value capture and post processing package. I found it was excellent for the beginner and will enable you to compile images quickly using simple functions. There are great tutorials online that will take you through the complete process. While I use Pixinsight now, I still use Nebulosity if I want to compile a quick image. At this stage I would keep it simple otherwise you will get disheartened. Good luck with your choice.

Hi Tutting, welcome to SGL, you will great support here for AP.