Astrokev

Brilliant. Thanks Dan, these are really helpful - thanks so much for taking these. Now to digest them and cherry pick 😉

So, after a whopping 8 months without an observatory post (or many other posts on SGL for that matter) I'm trying to get back into it ….. First of all, I need to bring my obsy thread up to date, not that there's been much change in the intervening months, but enough to warrant a post or two. I'll do this over the next few days, but to wet the appetite, I've finally got my electrics installed, which is making life a lot easier, but more changes are in the planning. I'll post a few pics to show my layout. Pleasingly, the obsy is in regular use - or at least as regular as our crazy weather has allowed over the last few months - but it's far from perfect, so I probably need to do more work. My imaging "skills" are moving forwards at a snails pace, but it's all good fun. I ought to start posting some images in the relevant sections to hopefully accelerate my learning! Stay tuned....

Haha. Sorry James - I didn't know you cared! 🤣. Life just got in the way I guess. I've been quietly active in the background, but unintentionally let my SGL presence lapse. Trying to get back in now. A few upgrades to my kit are in the pipeline, which I've covered in another thread. I also plan to bring my obsy thread up to date. Not that much has changed, but I'm not sure I actually tidied up the loose ends. Anyway, keep an eye out on the DIY- Obsy section soon..... Kev

Thanks James. I'm interested in your mention of dew controller. What model do you use? I wasn't aware that these (or some of them) needed a USB port. I've no plans to get a filter wheel, but focussers are a possibility in the future, so I guess planning for the future is the right way to go. Can I ask what you've done for power supplies to the mount and other kit? D'you use a power box at the mount, or are these supplied separately from your warm room. PPB's are hugely expensive and I'm trying to avoid needing one of those! many thanks kev

Thanks for the quick reply Dan. A few pics of your current setup would be helpful whenever you've got nothing better to do. Thanks. In the above pics, do the PPB 12V outputs power the mount and the Hub? What is connected to the USB hub - the ASI cam, the PPB, and what else? many thanks kev

Thanks Alex, this is useful. I'm not sure I need 7 ports but I'm guessing they do a version with less USB ports - I'll take a look.

Interesting pics Dan, I'm trying to design a new cabling system for my rig and this is helping, but I'm finding it a bit tricky to trace which cable goes where. Is it possible to post a simple diagram that shows the connections, or label the pics? thanks kev

Thanks for replies so far. Browsing the forum, Startech USB hubs seem to get lots of mentions. Would this be a good solution - at least for my data needs? Any particular models (USB2 or 3 ?) that I should consider? thanks kev

Thanks 'stash'. Loads of ideas there. Will have to go through it a few times and consider the way forward. I'm leaning towards the pier hub idea if I'm honest. Sounds neater. My lappie has USB 2 & 3. I presume USB 3 would be better for speed? I also have HDMI ports so the second screen idea is sounding attractive. No network as yet in the obsy. The other thing I forgot to mention in my post is that I could probably benefit from getting some anti-dew bands, as I'm fed up blasting my expensive objectives with a hairdrier whilst balanced on a slippery stool in the dark 😖. I guess I may need to consider a hub that has power outputs aswell, or get a Pegasus box (though these seem very over-priced for what they are?). Options, options....

Thanks Julian. Some good suggestions there, although going the Raspberry Pi route sounds like a whole new learning curve. I've got an old laptop kicking around but not sure this is up to the job as the screens hanging off 🙁, but something to think about.

HI All My current cabling layout is shown in the diagram below. My scope etc is housed in a small observatory, with a warm room, and the cabling layout is quite simple (not unlike myself!). As shown, I currently have my laptop next to my pier mounted EQ6 for EQMOD control of the mount, and for easy access to the guide cam and imaging cam (I don't yet have a separate imaging cam, but this is rising to the top of my wish list). So, my question is - how do I most simply change my layout to be able to move the laptop into the warm room? Challenges as I see them - 1. The ASCOM cable is too short (warm room desk is about 4/5 m away from the EQ6, via underfloor conduit.) 2. The CMOS cam cables are too short. 3. With the laptop in the warm room, manually focussing the cameras is very tricky without being able to see the screen. I've considered possible solutions - longer USB cables for the cameras (but is 5m pushing it?), buying a USB hub to mount on the pier/scope to plug cameras into. For focussing - electric focusser or second screen on the pier linked to the laptop? I accept that to some this re-design may appear rather basic, but I'd really appreciate a few pointers, ideas and general advice on which solutions would work best. Ideally I'd like to keep further outlay to a minimum but recognise I'm going to need to give the moths an airing! Many thanks Kev

This was a quick set of 2 minute exposures taken with my Esprit 100 and Nikon D300 @ ISO 800, just before packing away my stuff at silly-o'clock the other morning. I just wanted to see what I might be able to capture with this combo as a reference for a future more dedicated imaging session. Processed in APP and PS CC. This is a slight crop of the original image. It was great fun trying to identify individual galaxies!

Thanks Terry. It looks good. Have you had any problems with it? I've heard / read that some wireless controllers can have a small delay before the motors start to move? Also - does it hold it's calibration between sessions? Again, I've heard that some require re-calibration every session, which sounds a bit of a faff. Thanks

Yes, the weather has been diabolical over the last few months. Last imaging session I had was Dec 1st. It's beyond depressing now!

Yeah. I've been sitting in it watching the clouds drift by Been off SGL for a while as you say. Need to raise my game! Obsy still not fully finished (are they ever). I should revisit my obsy thread and tidy up some loose ends. I assume yours is up and running now?

Hi All Please could someone advise on a good wireless gamepad to control EQMOD using a Windows 10 PC ? Had a quick look on Amazon but there's loads of different types and I'm a little unsure what to get! I had a cheap wired version, which has just failed Many thanks

Hi I'm hearing good things about APT and am considering giving it a try. I have a Nikon D300 which I believe is supported, but I've seen on the APT site that it requires a serial cable to connect the DSLR to the PC. But, it also suggests that the serial cable is not commercially available, with some instructions to make one. I'm a bit surprised and confused by this. Does anyone else use a Nikon (ideally a D300!) and please could you advise what cabling I may need, where I can get this, and how it all connects together? Many thanks

Looking really good Shane. Good luck with the rest of the build kev

Thanks Michael and sorry for late reply. Yes it was reporting a 78 min error! No idea why it was so bad. Any ways, I’ve re done the PA using SharpCap and my guide camera and it’s now just about spot on. I’ve also increased my guiderate in EQMOD to 0.4 and my calibration is now fine. This hasn’t improved my guiding (still achieving between 1 and 1.5 arcsecs, so I need to look elsewhere. Balance is the first thing on the list. Even though I can’t get under 1 a-s, star shapes are perfectly round and not large, but sub a-s guiding may make the stars smaller.

Thanks Paul and Craney. Good polar alignment is obviously a good thing, but could poor PA be a cause of the poor PHD calibration, or is it more likely to be caused by backlash? If it's backlash, how can I remove this before doing the calibration? I tried using the Manual Guide buttons, but couldn't tell if the mount was moving. The image in the camera image screen is too small a scale to show any movement (although I've seen a YouTube video which clearly showed this movement - it looked like the image screen was zoomed in as the green box around the star was quite large. Anyone know how to zoom in on this image to more easily see movement using Manual Guide?)

Thanks Paul. That needs SharpCap Pro I think? To use Guide assistant, isn't this done after calibration? It's the calibration that I want to improve, and then go from there.

Hi All I'm trying to better understand how to improve PHD guiding, and am having a few calibration problems. Can anyone please offer some guidance? I have an NEQ6 mount and am using an Altair 10 x 60 RACI finder with ASI 120MM mini to guide. Following the calibration instructions in PHD I've selected a calibration star near Dec 0 and just east of the meridian, using Auto-star selection. The Review calibration graph is attached. The West and North lines at not quite at 90° and the return East and South lines are not superimposed over the West and North lines. My mount was polar aligned using the polar scope and I think is OK. That said, PHD guide assistant suggests my alignment may be nearly a degree off, which is huge and I'm not sure is correct. Guiding after completion of calibration was all over the place, giving a Tot RMS error of > 3-4" So, please can anyone suggest what may be causing the poor calibration chart? Backlash may be part of the cause - I tried to reduce this using the PHD Manual Guide buttons, but this doesn't seem to have made much difference. Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated

Mmm, that's a thought....

Yep, sounds unlikely now I think about it! Not a major problem in the grand scheme of things. I can always try and pick up a used short FL scope. An achromat should be OK due to the narrow band I'll be trying to image, so shoulen't be too costly.