inFINNity Deck

Hi Gav, yes, that is as simple as it gets. Of course it is difficult to get it perfectly aligned, but with some effort you should be able to get the orientation better than 1 degree. I always use a digital cross-hair (from ZWO's ASICAP) and then run the scope indeed in RA-direction with a star at the horizontal cross-hair. Then turn the camera slightly and repeat that procedure until no significant deviation can be noticed. If you have an automatic camera rotator (e.g. Moonlite Nightcrawler) you should be able to get it better than that. You can test the orientation at night by plate-solving an image of the sky. Once the camera is aligned, the Stonyhurst disc can be used as an overlay on top of the image. Here are solar images of yesterday and today with the discs superimposed on them: Now it is easy to see how the spots follow the parallels of the Sun. What I did was to explode the animated gif (the one I linked to in my first post) using https://ezgif.com/split and then downloaded the separate frames using the "Split to Frames!"-button (below the animation). Finally it is just a matter of rescaling and dragging into position. Nicolàs

I have my camera aligned with RA/DEC. The rotational axis of the Sun can then be found using a Stonyhurst disc, see for an animated one: http://www.oasi.org.uk/Misc/Stonyhurst/Stonyhurst.php Nicolàs

Ad 5): AVI format only supports 8 bit resolution, with SER you can get up to 16 bit. Ad 6): just fill your histogram up to about 90%. The prominences will appear once stretching (see my point 17 below) Ad 7) and 8): I use the standard settings for my ZWO ASI174MM, they work fine for me. Ad 9): I usually limit the video to 120s. The Sun is quite dynamic, longer exposures may smear detail. Ad 16): best to use a monochrome camera, which provides more detail at the same pixel size. 17): Try using IMPPG for processing the prominences. Nicolàs PS: attached the Sun of last Sunday (Lunt LS80THA single stack, ZWO ASi174MM)

The latest version (MW4) is really nice and Michael is doing a fine job extending it with requested features like the lateral scope-offset in dome-control for my observatory. It is amazing to see the mount and dome moving simultaneously in a kind of ballet while modelling. The other nice thing is that it assists in uploading object data (i.e. asteroids, satellites, etc) to the mount for tracking/imaging purposes. Nicolàs

Hi Dave, MW4 is free and does not need any other software than a free plate solver (I currently use ASTAP and have used PlateSolve2) to create a model. Nicolàs

Hi Mark, the HPS models offer 2-stars, 3-stars and refine-stars alignments. The first two are dedicated options. About the 2-stars alignment the manual explains: About the 3-stars alignment it reads: Adding more stars is done using refinement-stars procedure, which can be done using any amount of stars (up to a total of 100 that is). Then there are free tools like MountWizzard and ModelCreator that allow automation of multiple-star modelling. In order to make that work you will need to attach a camera and design a model (i.e. a number of alt-azimuth positions in a some kind of pattern). The software can create these patterns for you (and save them for later use), but you can built it manually as well. The software then uses these model points to take images of the sky that are then plate-solved, resulting in up to 100 artificial stars, which are then sent to the mount for processing. I currently use a 74 point model, which takes about 45 minutes to complete, but being in an observatory I only need to do this once a year or after each alteration of the set-up. For visual observing and short exposures you may do just fine with a 10 or 20 point model, which should complete in about 5-10 minutes. I remember having reasonable visual pointing accuracy with as little as 6 stars. Then remove the camera and start enjoying the sky. :-) Modelling can also be done completely manual using a reticle-eyepiece, but my experience is that it is tedious and takes at least three times as long. Nicolàs

I use a ZWO ASI174MM in combination with my Lunt LS80THA single stack pressure tuner. For details I use a TeleVue 4x PowerMate in between, which results a bit in oversampling, but I had it lying around... Nicolàs

I noticed that NR are not always visible in individual stacks, but they do show up in animations. Here is a single frame of 5 March 2021 10:07 UTC, followed by the animation that includes it: In the animation they clearly stand out because they move over the surface. It is recommended to add a tilt adjuster to get rid of the NR, but I have not tried that yet. Nicolàs

Hi SkyBadger (is that your real name?;-)) I have written several ASCOM safety drivers, which all can be found on my website: http://www.dehilster.info/astronomy/astro-software.php and on the ASCOM site (but that links to my site): https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/SafetyMonitorDrivers.htm An environmental SafetyMonitor is one of them. Nicolàs

Here is a video that explains how to clean the four surfaces of a SCT: I found this quite useful and used it myself, only replacing the cotton wool by Kleenex. Nicolàs

Baader recommends Kleenex. Of course the plain version should be used (i.e. no colour or odour). I used that for my C11 EdgeHD and 300PDS, works like a charm. Nicolàs

Same for me, I have one ED150 which resides in an unheated observatory and have so far not seen any issue of this kind, even near freezing point. Nicolàs

Not every might is as successful, but it shows the set-up at night and due to lack of wind the background is interesting. This video was shot three days ago from 9pm UTC to 5am UTC, but I truncated the last few hours as those were completely white overhead). More night-time videos on my channel. Nicolàs

Hi Agnes, might you consider building a dome, you are welcome at InFINNity Deck to see how I built it, we live half an hour drive north-west of Schiphol in Castricum (or just click the supplied links). The sound of a dome should be no issue, ours cannot be heard at all. Only when standing inside the dome or sitting in the library below it, it can be heard, but you need to pay attention to do so. Downside may indeed be the height, you even may need a permit to build it (I needed it). An observing tent is a nice alternative, but takes time to set-up, which comes in addition to the time to set-up you equipment. A folding roof is an option, but you need to think about folding the panels completely over to at least horizontal, but preferably vertical against the sides. I think a roll-off roof is much easier to implement. Nicolàs

Hi Merlin, What time was that image taken? Nicolàs

Hi Steve, Here is the lower prominence using the same Lunt, but now in combination with a TeleVue 4x PowerMate: Sadly enough I had the framing wrong by which the prominence was not fully captured at the lower left. Both images were taken with a ZWO ASI174MM and FireCapture. Processing done in AutoStakkert3!, IMPPG and PSP. Nicolàs

But there were! 🙂 Here is what I captured with my Lunt LS80THA at 11:19am UTC: Here seeing was not terrific either, but still managed a few nice shots (more to come). Nicolàs

Hi Paul, may I first suggest to read my article as well (if you have not already done so)?: http://www.starry-night.nl/stap-voor-stap-collimatie-van-een-rc/ It is in Dutch, but should translate reasonably well in a browser like Chrome. Ad 1): I too have seen this discrepancy in barrel distortion at various sites and checked and double-checked it using the C8 I collimated. For what I have seen, figure 8 in above article is correct. I do need to add that the Ronchi test is not very sensitive, so the focal length of the RC8 was tested using plate solving and then adjusted again. We found a ratio of approximately 1:11 for this adjustment as explained in my article (so 1mm displacement of the secondary changes the focal length by 11 millimetres). Ad 2): I will leave this one to David to comment upon. Ad 3): this too is explained in my article. First get the primary mirror properly aligned with the OTA not using a focuser and extensions, but using a disc as close as possible to the primary mirror surface. Then add the focuser and extensions and mount a disc in that to see if all is still aligned and remains aligned when operating the focuser over its whole travelling distance. These steps (aligning the primary and checking the focuser) are checked on a bench with an external camera at the 'sky-end' of the telescope. I found this method to be quite sensitive, especially regarding the alignment of the primary mirror where the slightest adjustment directly shows. In the end a star-test is required to do the final collimation of the secondary. I used a 12" Newton for that (again in Dutch, but Chrome will deal with that): http://www.starry-night.nl/collimeren-met-een-collimator/ You can use any scope for star-testing your RC6 in that way as long as it has a larger aperture than 6" and a smaller diameter secondary mirror than that of the RC6 (but make sure their optical axis are properly aligned). HTH, Nicolàs

I use TeamViewer, which works quite well. The only downside of it is when I want to reboot the NUC, TeamViewer is closed before a log-off script (which waits 30 seconds to shutdown my mount) has been executed. If I want to stop that log-off script (in order to keep the mount up and running), I need to reconnect (yes, that is possible at that stage) and stop that script, after which the reboot commences without problems. A friend uses Remote Desktop, which disconnects after the script is executed (he uses that same script). I have configured TV to only accept local LAN connections, so that it is not possible to access the NUC from outside our home. Nicolàs

Hoi Peter, welkom vanuit Castricum, mooie opstelling heb je! Enjoy SGL forum! Nicolàs

Hi Nikolas, Just found out that the Ring LED is only featured on the 6 and 7 models (I have a 7): https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000023554/intel-nuc/intel-nuc-mini-pcs.html But I remember I could also change the colour of the power-button, so it is worth giving it a look in order to get rid of the blue light. Nicolàs

Oh yes, they are quite small. And the colour of the illuminated front can be changed in the bios. I made mine, which lives on my mount, red: Nicolàs

Did you use it at it's native f/5 or with an extender? Nicolàs

Hi Brendan, very nice capture of JE1! Which scope did you use? Last April I imaged JE1 myself. I found it a challenge to capture, being quite dim and my observatory being under Bortle 5-6 skies. So I ended up with some 46 hours of data. Seeing your result made me to reprocess my data, which turned out more pleasant now (here is the old version), so thanks for inspiring! Nicolàs

I never power up my NUC, it is always on. I just give it a reboot prior to imaging to ensure it runs smooth. Indeed my NUC uses 19V, never tried it at 12V, but in an observatory that is no problem. Nicolàs