Jerry Barnes

I recently was given a small gigabyte PC which I planned to use to control my mount and cameras. A long ethernet cable would let me sit in the warm and monitor the session via remote desktop from my laptop. I could not get the mount to be recognised by the PC, whatever I tried it would not create the virtual com port. Windows update, reinstall software and drivers, nothing worked. Then I tried adding a USB hub between the mount and PC, a cheap 4 port unpowered one costing less than £10. All was fine after that, though my MC2600 didnt like to be connected through it. It was a USB3 hub and I think the mount is USB2 so that might be some clue to why it worked though I think I plugged it into a USB2 port. I have found USB connections to be very picky and seem to be resolved by trial and error rather than deduction but this might possibly help somebody else with a similar problem. Cheers Jerry

I sympathise. I haven't managed to capture anything for two months now. I was hopeful of two or three hours at the weekend but I had issues getting the camera connected properly (dodgy usb?) Seriously wondering if I should sell up and start photographing clouds instead.

it makes sense, dont mess if its not needed. thanks Jerry

I was wondering if I should attempt to clean the mirror in my 200 PDS while the nights are still too light to do anything. Depending on the angle of the light reflecting on it its either perfectly clean and really sharp or has a very light layer of dust. I guess that means its a little dusty but not bad enough to make a signicicant difference to an image. Is it the right thing to leave well alone until I notice a problem? Cheers Jerry

My GEM45 seems quite happy with my 200PDS for what its worth.

The COG is over the centre on the trolly so its quite stable (I only move it on the flat) and the legs sit over the wheels so there is no real strain on the structure. I dont lower the tripod to the ground, just leave it in place, the brake on the wheels stops it moving. I plan to fit screw down legs for added protection against movement but havent go round to that yet. Definately home made!

I keep my set up in the garage and wheel it out and attach the camera when needed. It takes about 15 minutes to polar align using iPolar and connect the pc etc. Saves carrying it as well. My garden backs onto a public field so its a good compromise between ease of setup and security.

I've had some success with GraXpert when struggling with PixInsight. Could be worth a try. You need to give it a tiff so save the fits header info by dragging the triangle at the bottom of the PI onto the worspace then drag that process icon back onto the image when you read it back in. Took me a while to twig that one so I didnt loose all the useful info.

I like that, especially as it doesnt stay high enough in the sky for very long.

I wish I'd read this thread earlier, very helpfull and I realise I need to increase my back focus having essentially the same setup. Thanks for starting it.

My first attempt resulted in enough cloud to make tracking impossible so this is the first usable image. M33 or Triangulum, 5 hours of which I used 80% Stacked in DSS for speed and then pixinsight, I’ll add more data when the clouds go…. I don’t seem to have got much colour but I’ll look at that later, super pixel mode shouldn’t make a difference according to the documentation. I've probably also got a back focus issue so thats something else to look at. Anyway I’m satisfied enough for the first go. The scope and mount add up to a fair weight so I made a little trolly for it. Now I can wheel it out of the garage almost ready to go. The weight is all on the wheels so the frame doesn’t need to be sophisticated.

Just aquired a longer scope, 200 PDS and a comman correcter, so I can get sensible sized images of smaller targets. I hadnt really appeciated how big it is untill I took it out of the box!

I've just tried this out and liked it. I was able to remove a gradient easily which I was having problems getting rid of in Pixinsight. Good job and great price! A feature request to think about for the future would be to add support for xisf format.

Thank you, the point about offsets put me on the right track with my problem.

I've had another go at stacking using the suggestions. I did find I had to check CFA for the flats (so Pixinsight would debayer them), if I didnt do that the flats didnt show in the calibration diagram. The other thing I found was, I suspect, the main cause and that was user error! I've started to use NINA and that's really great for framing the images. I was using APT before and I still find it easier for flats and darks. I'd managed to get a mixture of camera offset settings. Lights at the default of 50 and flats and darks at 0. I've now redone all the calibration at offset 50. I haven't disturbed the optical train so the flats should be there or there abouts.