SupernovaF1

I live near Oxford and I have only used my astrophotography rig twice in the past four months. From memory, I missed less than five nights because moon was full or I was busy. Looking through my folders, in 2022  I managed to get at least 15 sessions in the same period (unsure of sky quality).

One of the differences though, and probably a very important factor, is that I need a full clear night from setup to sunrise, eg: i dont bother setting up if its good at 10pm but rain/heavy clouds are forecasted at 4am. This might have to change...

But in my experience, 2023s last trimester has been a write off.

Thanks so much both of you. Definitely lots of food for thought.

I do indeed have a nevada psu, though the bigger in size but smaller amperage version, 8A only. Looking at FLO, it confirms my concerns that such units need to be well ventilated.  Is that not a concern? I was thinking on a (smaller) laptop style PSU for that reason.

Thanks again

Hello all

Just finished pouring concrete for my Altair steel pier and im patiently waiting for the concrete to cure before installing the pier.

Its going to be left permanently with a telescope (most of the time will be an 8 inch newtonian) as I want it to be always ready for usage.

I have a telegizmo cover and another cygnus cover on top of it for the time it's going to be on standby. I plan to leave the intel nuc PC on to aid condensation. Uncertain if the PC will be left at the OTA (as currently is) or at the pier.

I have a conduit cable that arrives near the pier and will finish it with a waterproof outdoor plug.

I was wondering now how to permanently power everything.  

I have a pegasus powerbox that is fed powered a small PSU, and the powerbox feeds the mount, cameras and focuser. 

Would like to hear ideas on how to power mount and telescope in  a neat way from other users.

For the time being was thinking on just using the pegasus powerbox PSU on the side of the pier. Does anybody know any waterproof enclosure just big enough to host a 240v to 12v PSU? Or ideally any alternative to neatly power the pegasus powerbox?

You all are always full of great ideas so all feedback is very welcome!

Thanks!

Hello mods,

would it be possible to delete the first picture with the incorrect drawing please? Or at least made it clearer. I wasted yesterday's night imaging as i set it up in the wrong config for not reading the whole thread, and couldnt figure out what caused it...

Definitely my mistake but better to make it clearer for other future users who land on this thread.

Thanks.

Hello

I haven't been using my EQ6R and AZ GTi for a while as I was moving house and weather hasn't been very kind.

Yesterday I stupidly connected the AZGTi cable to the handset and mount and ended up burning the V5 controller (see pics attached). Thankfully mount works OK (through ASCOM) but the hand controller writes a message "Caution: both axes... No response!" and all menu work but it can't slew anymore - unsurprisingly.

I am now looking into susbtituing the handset and was wondering if I can use the V4 handset on my EQ6R and AZGTi and if so, what features would I miss. 

Thanks!

2 minutes ago, Nugs said:

Was thinking of trying one of these, but you haven't sold it to me...... you sound a bit 'meh' about it?

 just discovered this post by chance 

mine arrived last week and im pleased. fits a lot of stuff. only the eaf focuser is a bit big and might need to place it at the front pocket but lots of compartiments and looks well padded for my usecase.

On 24/09/2021 at 17:36, pahgo said:

Hey there! I've read on this thread some people are using the SW EQ6R-Pro with pretty big OTA's, some without issues some with a few issues... Would you say using it with a f5.9 8'' tube at 11kg is a safe bet for AP? I am trying to find a sufficient mount to move from my dob while keeping the tube. 

Thanks a million!

I use it on a 200pds with equipment (two big and heavy dovetails, nuc, pegasus powerbox, etc) without issues.

The problem with these similar newtonians isnt generally weight, but wind. 

Edit: in my case also helped to add a third counterweight and keep them closer to the RA axis.

It did work in terms of getting rid of the play but i didn't think it was acceptable for a brand new mount so I returned it.
Couldn't get a replacement  as it was in the middle of the first lockdown and there wasn't stock, so got a second one from RVO for less that didnt show the problem and works fantastic (<0.5" RMS @1200mm FL). 

If you cant return it, try the tape. You could start with PTFE or some thin packaging plastic (~0.5mm).

I did my own LiFePo4 36Ah battery for not a lot of money condieringthe costs of these batteries.

All you need is a battery box like this 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trolling-Motor-Battery-Power-Box-12V-output-USB-and-Lighter-socket-/133497906091?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286

And connect it witha screwdriver to the battery.

https://www.batterymasters.co.uk/li36-12-12v-36ah-lithium-iron-phosphate-lifepo4-high-capacity-deep-cycle-battery-charger-included.html

If 36Ah is too much or not enough  you can replace it with a battery that suites. 

On 14/10/2020 at 14:52, Adam J said:

Depends on the sensor and the F-ratio of the scope. Not all 4/3 sensors are exactly the same size. So the ASI1600mm pro works ok down to F4 with 1.25 inch filters but the ASI294mm pro is likely to only work down to F5 with 1.25 inch filters as its a little bigger. Any faster than those and you are looking at 31mm unmounted. 

Adam

There is a good post in CN about this. OP has 36mm filters so looks like he will be fine.

Another thing to consider is the pixel size in both bin 1 and bin 2. Bin 2 would be rather big for my SW 80ED but great on the SW 200pds. Bin1 is a better alternative for a smaller refractor but looking at the graphs, DR isnt anything special compared to the ASI1600.  The great side is that you can choose which ones suites you best for different scopes plus it has much better quantum efficiency.

Guess also depends on your seeing quality so worth a play with the CCD suitability calculator

It is curious to see how different other people do things. I generally do focus first, polar align (I target less than 1arcmin), slew to target (takes usually 3 iterations to get within 15arcsecs), activate guiding and then take pictures with focus for each filter. No plate solving at all.

Regarding your issue, how far off is it? And how far off was it when you were doing it initially?  5 to 10arcmin differences should be normal. If its more and you already checked that date, time and GPS are accurate, it could be cone error. Cleaning the mount model helps.

I would suggest in any case, mot parking the mount indeed. Keep it tracking at sidereal rate. Dont switch off either. 

For visual, i would also suggest using the guide camera on your scope, make sure its aligned so both scope and guidescooe point at the same target and use that to plate solve / slew to target in EKOS. Should be less than a minute to get spot on.

Hi all

I have bought a 400mm WO losmandy universal dovetail for my 200PDS to use in combination with the original SW Vixen 335mm dovetail to improve stability and also to piggyback my guidescope and RaspberryPi + Pegasus PPA to the top.

I have some issues finding how to use it right and was wondering what other people have done with a similar dovetail and telescope.

If I use the SkyWatcher dovetail, the losmandy ends up in an M8 bolt, the 1/4 threads are too far away.

I ended up with one solution that has one of the holes protuding from the flat face which isnt perhaps too bad, as it might help to stop the losmandy falling downwards on the telescope mount, but its not neat.

Has anyone experience with this dovetail bar?

Cheers

Both dovetails side-by-side

Temporal solution

Drawings

Thanks @han59 Unfortunately, I think I have accidentally deleted them with MaxSelector!!
The same has occured with other set of pictures but thankfully I had a backup of those. Not sure how that happened to be honest. 

I repeated the same experiment with another set of pictures, this time M33. 

I have found that with CCDInspector, Tilt in Y axis has been greatly reduced from previous nights and the aberrations more concentrically distributed, which is encouraging.
The difference in tilt and curvature percentage is significant, plus the plot distribution. Thought it seems to be indicating that the periphery has indeed more curvature.

Edit: For completion here is the FWHM and eccentricity distribution in Pixinsight.
I used the same arcsecds per pixel in all 3 software: 1.63"/pixel for my SW 80ED with 0.8x flattener on a ZWO ASI 1600 (3.8microns pixel size)

Out of curiosity, repeated the CCDInspector plot for 10subframes.

And here the negative of M33:

This time the top left corner doesnt look as great (Zoom120%.)

And the bottom left very acceptable (Zoom120%)

I Attached the FITS file for thesubframe 001 (analysed above). Hope its helpful
Thanks!

M_33_Light_Blue_300_secs_2020-11-22T21-06-32_001.fits

Hello all.

I have had some troubles in the last observing night with elongated stars. I think I have found what a couple of weak spots that I fixed (namely unprecise backfocus and both flattener and guidescope not very tight).

On the meantime I was having a play with CCDInspector and I was quite impressed by it, but even more impressed with its price.
I am convinced soon I will buy the PixInsight license after a very satisfactory trial, but on the meantime I decided to give Maxpilote's MaxSelector a try as it's now free.

I was surprised by seeing a significant different for the same picture. Not only in distribution but in curvature and tilt percentages as well. 
Does this match anyone else's experience? 

I think I will stick with MaxSelector as I will soon buy PixInsight (the FWHMEEccentricity script is good enough for quick check IMO).

Find an example  below. Its a 300" guided exposure with Red filter of the Elephants Trunk Nebula.
ZWO ASI 1600 MM-Pro & Altair x0.8 flattener/reducer & SW Evostar 80ED on a SW EQ6-R Pro.
Guiding error was ~1 arcsec. 

CCD Inspector

MaxSelector

See below a negative of the stars on the Absolute Bottom-Right corner magnified at 210%

And here the (much worse) Top-Right corner:

I was having a similar issue and found this topic. . Its quite a faff to dissassemble everything so I can put my telescope into its case.

Have you found a solution to it? I wouldnt leave it wall mounted, its very expensive equipment and you might accidentally not lock it secure... The big losmandy dovetail I use is quite stable so I usually leave it on top of my work desk (not on the floor as pictured lol).

If it helps, I plan to buy some ADM clamps so I can easily detach the vixen dovetail and store each thing in its own box. 

I would like to know what other people do to get inspiration

Wow! Thanks so much for such a detailed analysis. It makes total sense. I wasnt expecting PE to be so visible.

I have to say that the scope also needs a field flattener adequate for its focal ratio but that shouldnt affect how the stars move, as you mention.

The mount has indeed PEC learning and will give it it a go. Thanks @vlaiv

Hello all

I would like to know what your thoughts are on this. 

According to EKOS, I have what I think its an excellent Polar Alignment (4arcsecs).

The following video is a composites of all the exposures in ~1.5 hours of red, green and blue filters.
There is quite a lot of movement and I couldnt get more than 120" subs unguided as I lent my guiding camera to a colleague.

I dont recall much wind. The only suspicion I have is mount balance as in the DEC axis it isnt great. Has anyone thoughts on this?

Thanks

WizardNebula.avi
WizardNebulaZoom.avi

Hello

I have bought two dew straps that are rather long. I have seen many posts regarding cutting them short but I couldn't find anything regarding rolling them over if they are too long.

Besides not being very efficient, is it Ok to just overlap the dew strap so it sits snug against the telescope?
I am worried about damaging the strap. I would imagine the risk of fire is negligible.

Thanks!

Ah thats a clip filter. Mine is a threaded one. I wouldnt like to use blue tac anywhere near the sensor of my brand new camera, but thanks for the help!

Thanks but ive already solved with some gaffer tape.

Jokes apart, the zwo comes with the necesary filter.

Perhaps this two solutions would work
https://www.astroshop.eu/other-adaptors/ts-optics-1-25-filter-holder-for-t2-threads/p,62114
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p9003_ZWO-Filterhalter-fuer-1-25--Filter---kurzbauend-mit-T2-Gewinde.html

The first one is an spacer, seems identical to the T2-1.25" adapter that comes with the ZWO 1600. Is that enough?

The diagram below says it needs a M42 to 1.25" which is optional.

Hello all,

I have recently adquired a ZWO ASI 1600 but wont be receiving the filter wheel until later.

I do have 1.25" filters that I could use on the meantime but I was wondering how to connect them.
I would like to avoid buying a cheapish manual filter wheel though SvBony does one for £40.

I havent seen filter drawers for 1.25" but I cant find any cheap solution, so any help will be appreciated.
Cheers

On 15/07/2020 at 09:04, Endolf said:

I had exactly the same issue, I found a "solution"....

 

Glad it worked. Increasing friction should indeed help.

What worked best for me and another person who contacted me was using thin tape on the walls to remove the clearance. As in this video suggested by @MarkAR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKnZLn-xz1k
I ended up returning it as it was brand new though and hopefully the next one doesnt show the same issue. 

Cant wait for the youtube video.

Sundays dont usually work well for me but I am very thankful for the youtube uploads. 

45 minutes ago, billhinge said:

I ordered a new top plate for my Berlebach from Germany, just arrived this afternoon. Very nice as you would expect

Fitted to the bottom of the EQ6-r. No swivel with just bottom bolt tightened

Much easier to fasten as well

 

Very glad it all fits well and without issues @billhinge! Those Berlebach seem to be worth their weight in gold