AstroArgy

Lovely evening of clear skies yesterday here at Pencelli.

Thought I'd leave you with a few subs acquired yesterday, would be lovely to meet more members of the SWAG group, yet very happy to have met the present peeps here now!!

Hello all,

After cowering away to the March Star Party due to this everlasting COVID situation and considering that Pencelli is not on lockdown through these new measures.... I'm going!!!  just hoping the weather allows us some clear nights 🤞🤞🤞

Can't wait to meet you all and have a nice old geekout, whiskey at the ready to warm the cockles 😁

Hey Macavity,

Well at least I see your post as intentionally constructive!!! 

I admit to have only started this line of enquiry to see what people here thought....

I dont see MIDI as a protocol that ONLY deals with music instruments.... in this day and age that assumption would simply be daft!!

Ask Video Jockeys, Disc Jockeys, 3D Visual Artists and large concert touring to not work with MIDI as a way of ONLY triggering things with absolutely no link to musicality whatsoever.... Perhaps this resurgence of the protocol and its modern use by many industries, still evades some older users that are tied to the original protocol concept?

My core questions remain though:

Anyone here can suggest any good pages to get introduced into the whole developer side of ASCOM? But to be fair I actually was looking to develop something entirely as a 'stand alone' that doesn't NEED to engage with any other protocols other than windows?

My main objective would still be to make something that simply interacts with a given space of the desktop screen, MIDI was thought simply as a reliable protocol that is already used in such a way through many aspects of the live performance industries but with no link to tone or musicality... ie: no link to its original intended use other than to create a physical 'relay' or 'switch'

Hello there peeps!

Got an itch that needs scratching and thought I'd better throw the question here, perhaps someone has tackled something similar before already?

Some Context:

I own a Losmandy mount, quite oftenly I will place it to use, with a very good Polar Align but won't necessarily bother with a star align (to my knowledge this then disables the use of the rather archaic remote pad, which only becomes available once the mount 'knows' where it is). But would still love to have access to a remote as I'm allowed to have directly on the Gemini software on the PC without the obligation of being 'tied' to the computer.

Coming from a live music background the notion of programmable MIDI Pads seemed like a very well tried and tested way of at least controlling this.

What I'd like to achieve:

I was thinking of creating a per say 'mapping surface' that you can then pin or place over the softwares window you want controlling and assign commands relative to the screen position (pxl position) of each executable request. For example up/down/right/left or varying slewing speeds as well. 

My thinking behind this approach would mostly be based on, if it aint broke dont fix it, in as much as I would like to interact with something that already works well and have little or no intent of changing, only looking to interact on the PC Desktop side of things by then applying a very simple midi map to respond to the requested commands.

How I was thinking this could work:

Thought it could be simple enough to create a window on to which one can then add different sizeable shapes (circles, squares, triangles) to be placed within the created window that overlays onto the original command response sections of the software we want controlling. Pretty much mimicking what the mouse does when we tell it to press somethere. Just enabling MIDI notes to be the remote desktop engagers instead of the mouse.

As much as I've been tinkering with astronomy for a few years now, every day is a school day and I'm very keen to hear what ideas thoughts other people have had to tackle similar issues..... somehow I find it strange to think i'm the first geek looking at these options to control rather archaic systems in a modern way.

Things I have considered partially but am relatively unfamiliar with...... ASCOM, could I achieve an easier point of access to this control I'm looking to achieve, through directly engaging with ASCOM?

All thoughts and help greatly appreciated 

Thanks

Andrew

Hello lovely peeps,

Well I just spoke to them and swapped my dates from the previous SWAG Star Party (to which due to COVID I didn't attend) to these new dates, so looking forward to meeting you all 🥳

Amazing tutorial!!! helped to make a complicated subject easy and accessible to many!!

Thanks

Hello there lovely peeps,

As to get the best out of my mount and AP I've invested in a PoleMaster and I'v very happy with it!!

Has anyone noted how inaccurate the polar align software they offer is??

I mean, SharpCap, using the polemaster camera, seems to do a way more accurate job at getting it spot on!!

With that said and out of the way, my question is, from the experience of you very experienced souls out there, could someone explain why my polar alight would be in the 'Excellent' range on one side, but shift to 'Good/Fair or even Poor' as I slew my scope?

I've been having this issue on a Losmandy G-11 mount on a heavy duty tripod on solid ground and with no evident give or play through my setup and I'm baffled. I took no pics to show this but I get a 12 arc min difference from East to West 😓😥

Any suggestions or thoughts welcomed!!

Thanking you kindly

Argy

On 02/05/2020 at 01:19, Xiga said:

Imaging small galaxies at short FL is not something i've done a lot of myself, but it can certainly be done, so definitely have a go!

All shot with a D5300 and an 80ED. None more than 2-3 hrs each:

Leo Triplet:

M81 & M82:

And a 100% Crop:

M101:

NGC 4565:

Nice work Xiga!!!

Question when you say 2-3 hours you mean of total integration time?

How long do you run your exposures / ISO and so on? 

I'm curious to understand what it takes (other than post-prod) to achieve such lovely pics 😃

On 27/04/2020 at 01:13, StargeezerTim said:

Here is a couple with a Star 71 and 100D dslr. Not ideal for galaxies at all but you can get some nice results.

 

 

 

 

 

Hey Tim,

With DSLR's and Galaxy season what kind of exposure time & Iso do you find works best as to get the level of detail you are getting?

Hope you dont mind me asking 😊

On 23/04/2020 at 23:01, JamesF said:

I have more data for this and need to brighten the colours up a bit as it looks quite dull compared with my laptop, but this is my M51 with an ED80:

And whilst I haven't processed the data yet, this is a crop from the same rig:

Tonight I am working on NGC2403, which also occupies the frame quite nicely.

James

Hey James,

Could I ask you what camera are you using to get these results?

Ta

You are right!!

it's not only a matter of killing Mel Brooks, it's more about being considerate and mindful towards others and it remains entirely being a personal choice on how seriously to respond to this pandemic!!

On this light and also looking at the poor weather we are most likely to get, it saddens me to say I won't be attending this weekend.

Have fun one and all and hope to meet you sometime soon!!

Chau for now

I really don't want to be a party pooper.... but

is everybody choosing to join happy with the maybe unprobable? I personally don't care, assuming that through my age my probs of death are low, happy to move forward and not care.... are you? just wanting to make sure everyone that goes is FULLY aware of probable consequences.... 😘

I hear rumours milling around that might suggest Monsieur Boris might be forcing a compulsory lockdown from Friday onwards for 15 days...

4 minutes ago, stuy said:

Hi all is this still on ????

Not heard anything official against this....

Some mad fools are still heading there, me included 🥳

I got all my work in the forseable future cancelled due to the virus.... to me that means I need to find more things to do with all this generated free time (being sensible of course). So the more time in an open field, the better!!

I will definitely be attending, in fact I was originally planning to get there Saturday, looking and the weather, im really considering if I can make it there from Thursday but that is still TBC

Looking forward to meeting all the intrepid peeps that make it, if we are allowed to gather by the campsite that is.

8 hours ago, noah4x4 said:

I find Starsense brilliant. Once accurately calibrated and (up to 10) additional alignment points are added I enjoy pin-point alignments and a first accurate GoTo. 

Subsequent GoTo accuracy depends upon the quality of your mounts tracking capabilities. Starsense is merely an initial alignment tool.

I was asking because, since I’ve learned how to use it correctly, I’ve been very happy with it’s performance, but then again I’m only on my first steps and wondered what people’s opinions were 🙃

14 hours ago, barkingsteve said:

Hi,

It does not track stars, it auto aligns your telescope. Once it aligns your scope it does nothing else.

That’s what I thought... thanks for the feedback

Hi,

Quick question, before getting out there and trying it out (I already own one), when the weather finally opens up a bit.

Just wanted to know peoples general opinion about this bit of kit, when used to track stars for some begginer imaging.

Good enough to start playing?

Looking forward to see peoples opinions.

Thanks

Argy

Hello Rob,

I'm also Bristol based and would really be interested to team up with other Amater Astronomers to do informal stargazing excursions myself!!

I'm sort of new to the world of Astronomy, or at least new to the notion of leaving my own backyard and interacting with the forums 🙃

If you think of planning any future escapes, I'm in, work dependant that is...

For now, don't know if you've seen it or not, I've already booked myself on this event, it's not far from home and it too promises dark skies, if the heavens do allow it that is...

All the best,

Andrés

Hello all,

Although I've been into Astronomy since my teenage years, it's only in recent years that I've been investing and getting into it again and loving every freezing minute of it!!!

Bristol based and keenly looking forward not only to leave my backyard but also to mingle with like minded people and learn from the experience of others whilst building up my own!

I've gone and booked my space already (pitch 12 I believe) so will be seeing you all from the Saturday to the Monday.

Can't wait for this and will be dancing to the Rain Gods for them to be clement and allow some clear skies for us all, hope you do the same 😛

https://gph.is/1NZh185

All the best,

Andres 'Argy' Atkinson