OJ87

Hello everyone,

I have a problem, which I thought for long it's normal: after 2-star alignment I enter an object, after the EQ6 finish moving, I should center the object manually ( I do all the process using my phone via synscan WiFi adapter). If I go to observe other object (which I should again manually center it) and come back to the first object I was observing before, I should again center it as first time!.

Am I skipping anything? Shouldn't the mount be saving my correction and call the new coordinates back if call the object again (at least in the same observing session)? Anyone can help me with it?

Best regards, 

7 hours ago, PeterCPC said:

Shine a torch into it to check the primary mirror for defects, check the corrector plate for scratches or other defects. Make sure the focuser is smooth in operation and just generally look at the overall condition to see if there any dents etc which would indicate a hard life. Look through it at night if you can to check on the collimation.

Peter

Thanks Peter

Hi everyone, 

I'm planning to buy a used C11 Celesteron, I'm interested in more focal length than what my actual telescope has, plus lesser weight. The used telescope is in very good condition and the price is very good.

Any one can give some buying tips to check if the telescope has any failure or issues? What to check? Any advice would be helpful.

Best regards 

Seems like a dirt on the chip .

21 hours ago, discardedastro said:

Clutches might be the answer - I am running 15 kilos of stuff on the mount, and being a Newt it's got plenty of sail area.

I set up a couple of tests in the living room to explore the software tracking issue angle, with no kit on the mount - just a fairly precise marker on the RA axis (scalpel-cut piece of tape to form a nice pointer), set to 0 on the setting circle. I ran the mount for a couple of hours on the hand controller with tracking set to sidereal.

I repeated the same configuration with INDI's EQMOD driver doing the tracking instead but otherwise identical. A quick bit of maths gets me an averaged arcseconds/second value for both configurations. I got answers within 0.5 arcseconds per second of each other, both within 1 arcsecond/second of 15.04. I reckon my measurement precision with the setting circle and pointer is probably +- 2-3 arcseconds/second.

I'll repeat the same with the full load on and see how it fares. I could also point a big fan at it for the duration 🙂, but one thing at a time.

Then I think the only thing I can do is wait for clear skies and do two 1-2 hour sessions where I track something nice and high altitude, once with PHD2's guiding output disabled, once with the guiding output enabled, with the clutches very firmly engaged. Recording both should give me a good A/B comparison that will at least tell me if the problem is guiding related or not, and if not, might give me a hint as to what it is with some FFT analysis.

Hi, 

Looks good. Let me if it worked also for you.

Best regards, 

Hi discardedastro, 

I see in your two images that star lines are going different directions, I had this problem and I suffered a lot ( RA were not guiding at some points)  it turned out that clutches were not good fixed, they seem always to be solid, try to tighten them more and your problem will be solved. 

Best regards, 

On 28/07/2019 at 19:42, Stub Mandrel said:

Has anyone got a Toupcam to work with Sharpcap and Toupcam drivers?

I can only get mine to work with the 'GPCAMAR0130C' driver and the results are disappointing.

Hi, 

actually I got a lot of troubles running Toupcam too.. 

After a lot of pain I got it work fine in Toupsky , but it makes a lot of problems with PHD 2. It keeps disconnecting from PHD 2. The drivers are there, even after the last PHD 2 version, which supports Toupcam cameras. I tried the development version, it also didn't work. I'm regarding that day, in which I bought this cam.. I hope I could sell it and buy ZWO.

Hi masacco,

It depends more on Viewfield also, not only magnification. To get andromeda in your EP you'll need a 2" EP with panorama view (about 100°), just take a look on this photo: 

Best regards, 

2 minutes ago, alacant said:

AFAIK it's the same; the one bundled with the cd. BUT...

I thought we were talking about getting the camera to work with PHD2. If so, the best way to focus is using a short exposure loop in PHD2. The advantage being you don't need to look at a star on a screen, rather the hfd value which is given in a large font that you can see at a distance specifically for focusing purposes:

https://openphdguiding.org/man-dev/Visualization.htm

HTH

 

Thank you for the link, 

The main subject was making the camera work with PHD, but I couldn't resist my self asking you about liveview, cause it's a lot (really a lot) of pain and time consuming to get some close focus on this came, even using short exposures.

Best regards, 

On 14/07/2019 at 14:05, alacant said:

Hi

Live view is available using ToupView which may make initial focus easier

 

The Programm in which I operate my camera is ToupSky ( it came with the CD). The program you mentioned Toupview, which is ( in description) for microscope camera. Does it works also with Astrocamera?

Best regards, 

2 hours ago, michael8554 said:

Are you absolutely sure about that.?  I've never seen such a short focal length guidescope before, loads of 60mm aperture ones . But yes, you put the guidescope FL into PHD2. 

That would present quite a challenge for PHD2, with such a huge difference in guiding and imaging image scales. 

Michael 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, gajjer said:

I think that 60mm would be the diameter. Can you tell us the make/model of the guide scope?

cheers

gaj 

Hi, you are absolutely right! It was the diameter, I always thought it was the focal length, here the link, it's in German, But I think You'll get what I mean..

https://www.astroshop.de/guidescopes/omegon-microspeed-guidescope-60mm/p,49756

the focal length is 240mm, it makes more sense now 😅.

Thank you guys, one problem is solved ,

Best regards, 

1 hour ago, alacant said:

If not, post the logs to the developers. It will not be long before you get a fix.

Cheers

Thanks for the link, very useful one, I see some of my past problems are solved here 😂. 

I'll report it if it c continues to come.

45 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

Update to the latest PHD2 dev version.

Try connecting the camera with one short non-active USB cable to the same port on the computer. 

You can do that during the day, you don't have to get a focused correctly exposed image, just see if you get any black images amongst the white ones. 

 Hmm. Quattro focal length is 1000mm, guidescope aperture might be 60mm, but focal length maybe 200mm? That's what you put into PHD2. 

Michael 

Hi Michael,

60mm is the focal length of my guiding scope. 

My 10" Quattro is 1000mm, but I always thought I have to put the focal length of guiding scope, but the imaging scope, right?

8 minutes ago, alacant said:

Hi

There are more recent versions. Always worth a try when things are not working. Please see this post.

Cheers

Thank you alacant, I'll try the latest development version, I hope it could help.

Best regards, 

7 hours ago, michael8554 said:

So if you connect to PHD2, start exposing but DON'T guide, at times the image goes black for one exposure.? 

Then yes, the latest PHD2 re,lease may cure this, or your USB connection may not have enough power, or is shared with a bandwidth hungry device.? 

Second problem, what pixel size and focal length did you enter that gave a 2500 step size? 

Michael 

Hi Michael, 

Exactly, that's the problem... Random completely black image come without any stars after 5~15 good  images, the phd 2 stop guiding because star lost then the next exposure come again so it start guiding  for 5~15 exposures until next black image.

I have the last PHD2 version 2.6.6 , or there's a newer beta version?

Maybe it's  a USB problem? I use USB hub ( not the best quality) and share it with dslr  so the images come directly to my laptop. I'm using a best quality 20m-USB cable with signal booster every 5m. Picture downloading speed is similar as the original USB cable. I think the USB power supply is definitively lower , but in this case the camera wouldn't run at all I guess. 

Focal length is 60mm same as my guiding scope, pixel size is 3,75. I'm pretty sure there is something wrong here also, but those black images where more irritating.

Best regards,

Alan

Hi everyone, 

Thanks for your answers,

10 hours ago, Freddie said:

Did you complete calibration? You don’t mention it.

This does happens also during calibrating, the image comes complete black, but sometimes it Calibrate before this happens,  sometimes it stop it and tells me that exposure time is long and it phd2 must be stopped to prevent other problems.

9 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi

Live view is available using ToupView which may make initial focus easier but...

...PHD2 doesn't use live view, it takes images at given intervals. To focus using PHD2, choose say, 0.5s exposures, loop and rack the focuser (or the camera) in and out until you see stars.

Touptek support was added only recently. Make sure you have the latest development release of PHD2. .If that fails, post a link to the logs.

Cheers, good luck and HTH

I use Touptek to focus ( I wasn't aware there is a liveview function there, I have to check it out again. I believe it's a camera driver problem with phd2. Wanted to check if anyone else had the same what I has here

2 hours ago, michael8554 said:

You spent a lot of time getting focus, which suggests you have a solid connection to PHD2 that is lasting for more than 6 to 10 exposures.? 

Did you set up PHD2 using the New Profile Wizard.? 

PHD2 takes your guide pixel size and focal length and then calculates a Step Size for Calibration. 

Have you previously Calibrated PHD2? 

If not , when you press the guide button, PHD2 will start to Calibrate. 

It will move North 10 to 15 steps, but if you have the wrong values entered in the Wizard, it may move the star out of the box and give you the Star Lost message. 

Michael 

As I mentioned above: I use Touptek view to focus.

PHD could once calibrate, but in really big steps: 2500, I checked all other setting are correct. 

The problem is when this "black/blank image" comes out of nowhere and stay till next exposure finish then the guiding star will be in the same place. 

Best regards, 

Hi everyone,

As clear nights comes more in summer, I decided to try auto guiding using phd2 and my Touptek mono guiding came. This cam has no live view, so focusing was a painful process, after PHD started and selecting the star it begins to autoguid. After about 6~10 exposures I noticed phd get a black image and then it tells me the star is lost? same problem with different exposures time. (1-7secs). What could be the problem? I tried restarting and reinstall the software and updating it. 

Thanks,

Hi, ich you can afford it, buy a WiFi adapter, works perfectly for me, no need to enter date or coordinates, you can run it from your phone/ tablet or laptop. But never use it with iOS .

Best regards 

Thank you very much, very useful topic. I know what I'm doing now, modifying my 77d ✌

Hi, I would like to share my experience with EQ6-R , I have SynScan WiFi also and I use it for aligning.

first I have this problem sometimes after aligning with 1 or 2 star too, I can't say why, it's just happens, I fix it usually by home positioning , which means telescope heading north  AND the counterweight in the lowest possible position. After it you must align again.

If you are considering buying a WiFi adapter: it's a relief cus you don't need to give you coordinates and time every time you turn the device on, you can can find dso fast. But manually aligning the device is a pain, since you have only your phone's touch screen, but no physical buttons to feel and operate in dark. Also if you're planning to use it on iPhone, don't bother your self buy this,  you will have a lot of problems operating it since iOS doesn't allow it to operate in background.

Best regards,

Hi Ken, 

Very nice photos and processing, hope you keep us updated with coming images.

You said that you made images using your unmodified dslr and Ha filter. That is a very interesting topic for me, could tell me how huge the difference is using Ha filter on modified or unmodified DSLR? I'll really appreciate it if you put some pictures also.

Best regards, 

Alan

14 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

As above, PIPP will also let you center and crop the the output file making it quicker to stack. Try the barlow too.

Alan

 

Thank you Alan,

I will buy them, do you know any good adapter (DSLR - telescope) for such combination (eyepiece with Barlow)?

best regards 

5 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

Download PIPP and use that to convert the mp4  into avi format.

Thank you Cornelius, I'll try it.

Hi everyone, 

I want to try planetary imaging with my current equipments. My problem is making images out of video file: Canon makes MP4 format, which isn't supported in Registax. Is there any free mp4 to AVI converter? Or any staking program which supports mp4 files?

Would Barlow lens improve the quality of video/ end image ? I have currently 12mm, 8mm and 5mm eyepieces.

Thanks

Hi,

Two days ago I tried to image the NGC 188 . Near Polaris I tried to move the mount (which were in home position) in Dec axis, I could hear the moving sounds, but there were no move at all. RA moving were moving without any problems. Anyone had such issue? Any ideas? 

Best regards