Ian McCallum

I had noticed that it seemed to hang around the 4.5 sec mark, after repeating the test a lot of times.

Yes, it's plugged directly into one of the RPi's USB2 ports. I've tried all the ports including the USB 3 ones, but still getting the same problem. It's like PHD2 on RPi doesn't like exposure times of over 3.5 seconds. I have tried to increase the timeout timer on the advanced settings upto over a minute, but it makes no difference. I've not attached any imaging cameras at this time, only the ASI120MM mini as the guide camera.

Here's two PHD2 log files, one from the RPi and the other from my laptop... PHD2_DebugLog_2022-02-02_112400.txt PHD2_DebugLog_2022-02-02_130836.txt

I liked the simplicity of the layout, plus I'd used it on my laptop successfully (as in no dropped camera connections).

I've had it working previously, it's about a month old. I'm using 8 bit with PHD2. I've tried the half metre supplied cable, the two metre supplied one, plus one I use for charging my smartphone - all with the same results. I ran the dark library set up on PHD2 on my laptop, with exposure lengths from 1 second to 30 seconds - it worked fine on that! 😮

I've run a new equipment profile on Astroberry, with PHD2. I've plugged in the ZWO ASI 120MM mini guide camera to the Raspberry Pi and have run the new profile wizard in PHD2. It detects the camera okay, but disconnects from the camera when I'm building a dark library. I'm using the default min time of 1 sec and max time of 5 secs. It seems to throw a wobbly doing the longer exposures. I even tried another micro SD with a fresh install of Astroberry on, but was still getting errors. I tested PHD2 on my laptop and it worked fine. Any thoughts, please? 🤔

The man from DPD delivered this, from Auntie @FLO.

Can I do house dust, because I have astronomical amounts of it?🤔🤣

Here's what I've found... Firstly, that RA knob was slipping on the shaft a bit, as it appeared to be a bit bent. Looking at the rotation of the shaft, it looks okay. I think the knob was partially rubbing against the bearing adjustment nut during it's rotation. I sorted that out and it's turns more freely now. I also found that the two grubs screws holding the brass cog to RA motor shaft had came a bit loose. Again, that was soon sorted. The Dec was also sorted to make it more free running. If you compare the video below with my previous video, you can see there's less play in the shafts. I now hope that helps solve the problems, somewhat. 🤞 20220201_102604.mp4

The Dec clutch was tightened. The wind had dropped off, that evening, but guiding was hampered by passing clouds. There was no cable snags or anything like that. The only thing lose was the play in the motors and gears, even though they are tight on the shafts. 20220131_142953.mp4

Yes, I'm using ST4 guiding. Can gear slop cause or contribute to backlash? 🤔 Here's a video I made earlier. The first one is the Dec and the second one is the RA. Judge for yourself which has the greatest amount of play in it. 20220131_142953.mp4

I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking about giving up, before I spend any more money on it. I'm not getting the chance to do any experiments with it or experience, due to the very poor weather we've had recently! ☹️

I did align it on the target and calibrated it. Regarding your other comments, I can't answer them as I simply don't know. ☹️

I'm not sure exactly where to post this, so apologies if it's in the wrong place... There was a couple of hours of clearish sky, promised last night. I bought out the EQ5 Deluxe mount with Enhance dual axis motor drives (mouthful), used a spirit level to get the tripod level and used a compass app on my phone to get a bearing of due North. I polar aligned the best I could, through the polar scope and added the mount. Once I got everything attached and the ZWO ASI 120MM mini guide camera attached to the guide scope, I then set up the RPi (with Astroberry loaded). I focused to tracking the Orion Nebula, but it was a bit hit and miss with clouds rolling by. I don't think my guide was good enough, perhaps due to polar alignment. Could someone take a look at these screenshots and logs and let me know what you think, please?🤔 Please be gentle, I'm new to guiding and AP.😛😂 PHD2_DebugLog_2022-01-29_200609.txt PHD2_GuideLog_2022-01-29_200609.txt

I'm drawn towards the ZWO ASI 224MC for planetary photography. My two telescopes are a Sky-Watcher Classic 200P Dobsonian and Evostar 120 achromatic refractor. Based on their focal length, it looks like I'd need either a 2x-2.5x Barlow. Any suggestions that isn't going to break the bank? 🤔

My interest is mostly planetary and lunar, so I'll be using a SW Evostar 120 achromatic refractor on a EQ5 Deluxe mount, with Enhanced dual axis motor drives. I'll be using a ZWO ASI 120MM mini camera for guiding. My budget is upto £250, so either the ASI 224 MC or ASI 462 MC. What I'm trying to figure out is what the graphs below mean for me, as a beginner in planetary and lunar astrophotography?🤔 Shamelessly pinched from Auntie @FLOwebsite.😉

I'm finding the choice of ZWO ASI cameras somewhat bewildering. There appears to be different sensitivity to certain parts of the light spectrum, depending on the model. That's even amongst either planetary or DSO types. I'm focusing on the colour models here, so excuse the pun. How do you choose what you need in regards to this difference in wavelength sensitivity? 🤔

We're catching up with Venus.🙄

I'll try to avoid jokes about needing a personal methane filter!🤣

I've just reread your reply, I really should put my reading glasses on more often!😂 You mentioned an IR pass filter, but the one I've got is an IR cut filter. 🙄

I bought one of these, when I bought the ASI 120MM mini - will that do the job? https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astro-essentials-filters/astro-essentials-uvir-cut-filter-125-2.html

Apart from the price difference, can someone explain to me in layman's terms, the difference between these two cameras please? 🤔

Another option could be a spare finderscope and adapter. I had a spare Sky-Watcher straight through 9x50 finderscope and added an adapter to the back of it, to use with my ZWO ASI 120MM mini camera.

Don't how useful this may be to some people, but you can turn off the LEDs on the Raspberry Pi. I suppose it's one less source of attention to your expensive astro gear? 🤔 https://youtu.be/DnDhUFRhFvQ

My mistake, it wasn't missing!🙄 It doesn't appear on the Astroberry desktop on the monitor, but only if you use a web browser on the remote computer (laptop, in my case), if that makes sense?🤔 Because I'd gone from using the web browser to VNC Viewer, that's why it 'disappeared'... Newbie mistake.🙄 Here's a screen shot of the Astroberry connected through my laptop browser, to show it's 'back'.😳