M40

I have read through most of the topics in the eeva forum but I haven't found anything about planetary eeva other than a post about Neptunes moon Triton. Is planetary eeva not done? I have recently landed a Lodestar x2 and I have been looking to use it either as a guide or as a stand alone mono camera initially solar system until I get to know my way around the software. So a quick question, can starlight live handle planetary stuff?

Strange, I am definitely walking in your footsteps plus we have some of the same family members. There is not yet a Stacie although I am hoping for an Ed in the future 🤪

Hello and welcome, ask away with any questions, there are some very clever people on here so someone will definitely be able to help. 👍

Hello and welcome, as PeterCPC said, I bet you get clear skies but dust on the eyepieces must be a nightmare 😜

I literally didn't understand any of this. Sorry, my bad for not explaining properly. The Baader Hyperion Zoom has a thread where the eyecup is, by removing the rubber eyecup the thread is exposed. Option 1: You can fit an adapter (A) to the zoom eyepiece which in turn connects to the EOS T2 adapter. End result is eyepiece projection with the DSLR bolted to the eyepiece. Option 2: there is yet another adapter (B) which goes onto the threaded end of your canon ef or efs lens. This adapter (B) then connects to adapter (A) and subsequently the Baader zoom..... phew With option 2, byeos can control the camera focus, with option 1 you will need a motorised focuser which byeos can control. Alternatively, you can simply use byeos to show you the "Live View" from the camera and focus that way.

Not sure what a FWHM value is so I have either not got to that bit yet or I've missed it and got to start again 🤦‍♂️ I took the Baader zoom eyepiece route deliberately due to the options it provides; byeos can focus the camera lens but by adding an adapter the lens can be connected to the Baader eyepiece for afocal imaging or alternatively by using a T2 adapter and M43 adapter, the camera body can be fitted to the eyepiece and byeos can then focus the telescope using an ascom focuser for eyepiece projection. Another option would be to maintain focusing by hand and then look at the laptop screen to see what it actually looks like. Being new to byeos, I can only say that it is very impressive and as a freebie for trial purposes is well worth looking at. HTH.

Hello Stuart, the pictures are great and much better than most of mine 👍 I try eyepiece projection and have the same focusing issues particularly as the lcd screen on my dslr does not flip out. To try and adapt, improvise and overcome, I have started to learn backyardeos which is able to focus the camera from the laptop in real time with the end result no wobble or fingers to mess things up. Its a freebie to try, so might be worth a go.

I can help - ish...... I currently have a 10M powered startech usb3 lead and a powered startech four port usb3 hub. This is where the ish comes in; I have got as far as trying it with backyardeos and it works a treat, I havent got as far as trying it with ascom stuff yet. I am still working my way through the 2.5hour backyardeos intro but ultimately the plan is to move to ascom in line with backyardeos on a focuser. The next aim is to achieve exactly the same as you. Looking at the startech cable info, you can put upto three powered usb leads in series so you "should" be able to achieve your 15M with two 10M leads.....allegedly. Hope it helps.

Over the years, we have stuck up lots of weatherproof boxes, both plastic and metal, very few had fans so I wouldn't worry about that. As Stargazer33 said, don't make the box too snug. If you get a box with plenty of room I can't see overheating being a problem. As it goes, we had to consider the opposite problem so we did install anti-condensation heaters in some instances. I can't see you needing one of those either but if you do get signs of condensation, just leave the lid open when you have finished your run.

In no way an expert as I just take single snaps, but I see no reason why you can't do both as you will be using the same dslr adapters anyway. I do think it's all about focus and whichever you use at the time, as long as it will focus then it works 👍 I deliberately bought the hyperion zoom for eyepiece projection and I think it's great having managed a few keeper snaps, at the same time I have also managed a few keeper snaps with prime focus. The only challenge with using the eyepiece projection adapter, is that you will be limited to the size of the eyepiece that will fit the adapter.

Hello and welcome to the site 👍

Hello Stuart and welcome to the site 👍. I understand the rules to be two weeks....... you buy something - you wait two weeks for the clouds to clear 🤦‍♂️

Hello Gavin and welcome to the site. Having similar conditions, my favourite observing position is a shaded area in the garden which does make a difference; If you can find or create a shaded area it might help. You have chosen a good telescope to start with as the primary mirror is already down the bottom of a tube, maybe something to consider in the future would be a dew shield which would have the effect of lengthening the tube, but unfortunately, as Jiggy67 says, not much is going to help the sky glow. Enjoy

Plus 1 for the larger diameter pipe. I have been looking into remote operation of my telescope and there are so many options it's mind blowing, malc-c I know links two pc's with a network cable, the ends of a network cable are easily added so you are just pulling a small data cable, but, if you choose an alternative route which uses usb connections you will struggle to get the moulded plug through a small conduit particularly if there are other cables already installed.

Hello and welcome to the site 👍. I am going to echo what others have said in that whatever you buy now you can keep as and when you upgrade (notice I didn't say "if you upgrade" - you are now doomed like the rest of us). Also a plus one for the Baader Hyperion zoom rather than the set, it's an excellent eyepiece and the only problem with it is, with the exception of one other eyepiece, it's made all my others redundant. One thing I would suggest you get unless you already have one, is a moon filter like this... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/moon-neutral-density-filters/astro-essentials-nd96-0-9-1-25-moon-filter.html Enjoy

Hello Dan and welcome to the site 👍 As time goes by and you get more into the hobby you will find as we all do that no one telescope does it all. One of my favourite places here is to use the first light optics field of view (FOV) calculator, look for the resources - astronomy tools tab at the top of the page, input the startravel 102, pick a few eyepieces and have a look at different objects by adding each to the view to see what to expect. Hopefully I haven't worn the software out as I use it...a lot 🤦‍♂️ There is also an excellent topic in the "Getting started with observing" section called "what can I expect to see" thats well worth reading. As did I, a lot of people start with a 150 or 200P dobsonian, amazing bang for bucks, add an app to your phone to locate a star and away you go. Only challenge is they are quite large and not very portable so there is always the option of the heritage type which use far less space and are far more manageable. Moving on to the goto type is a learning curve but once you are there, tremendous. Tracking is a massive bonus as you have time to change eyepieces and spend time looking. So, as Peter_D says, think of your budget, add a few pennies for things like power tanks, leads, eyepieces etc and enjoy 👍

Thanks for getting back to me 👍 I was going for all usb 3 as far as poss. As to equipment, not fully sure but a start off was focuser, DSLR, mount and in the future a guide cam. Reading backyardeos the camera may get a bit iffy with a hub so was toying with the idea of a single powered usb cable between laptop and camera but was going to initially try it through the hub. The hub I have is a startech 4 port powered usb 3 device so allegedly should be ok. As for the gps......... I never thought of inputting the data manually 🤦‍♂️ I will be packing it all away each night so not a fixed install, but it will always be set up in the garden so the data will always be the same .... doh 🤪

Many thanks discardedastro, you used two words I really like, very and simple 🤪 I have a powered usb 3 hub and a motorised focuser so eqmod fitted the bill. I will look at sharpcap 👍

Amazing how you think you have things more or less there and then you lose track of where you are, so... My thoughts were an eqdir usb cable into a windows laptop running eqmod ascom as I quite like the interface and it "appears" straightforward. It also covers everything I need. I was also going to use backyardeos. Now the spanner is well and truly in the works with a RPI networked from the mount to a remote laptop running Kstart and Ekos which to be honest I wasn't aware of...... so..... whichever direction I go, it's a learning curve, which would you say is easiest to use? I can't see me at the moment doing many hours of processing so it'smore for visual and some playing at stacking

Thanks for getting back to me 👍 I already have a startech usb 4 port hub so my thoughts were to use what I have as far as it goes, I was looking at a startech active usb 3.0 cable to link between laptop and hub. It's a similar price for an active usb cable and a raspberry pi so some thoughts are needed.

Many thanks 👍 so your powered hub is 5M from your observatory PC then the devices connected to the hub are a few meters from there and all is good, that works for me. You have done me with this though......NUC?

Thanks for getting back, does eqmod work on a Raspberry Pi? I thought it was windows only. Scratch the 10M active usb 👍 It's not a permanent set up at the moment, I just want try to take first steps to get things working remotely from the mount. Because of the layout of the garden I can get the telescope to about 8M from the shed/summer house so a 5M cable into a hub would work as long as the cables from device to hub are about 3M.

Hello all, couple of questions for you guys on initial eqmod setup as I am trying to get my mind around things and I do seem to be going around in circles; Has anybody used eqmod with a usb hub local to the mount and then an active usb 10M cable to laptop? Has anybody used eqmod with the synscan wifi adapter to laptop? I have very poor wifi in the garden so the laptop will not be able to connect to the home network so what do you use for gps when using for example stellarium on a remote laptop? Many thanks for your help Les

That I never thought of, I will be trying that. Welcome to the site 👍

Hello Steve and welcome. I shall be following this thread closely to see how you get on and what you choose as we will be moving soon and I have similar plans albeit I have already built everything in my mind 🤦‍♂️ Just to satisfy my curiosity, have you tried remotely controlling your EQ5/150P?