LaurenceT

Woke up early, about 04.00 as you do at my age lol and saw this lovely moon low in the sky. Too low for any of my scopes as there were pesky trees in the way. I've never seen a moon this colour before, it lightened considerably within a few minutes. I got the photo kit out and took a few hand held shots, like a sleepy fool I didn't realize I was shooting at 

350mm and not the full 600mm so it's quite a crop.

1 hour ago, chiltonstar said:

A bit of a change from the topics above....

Is there any way of expanding the rather limited list of doubles available via the Synscan app other than by entering data manually or by using 3rd party software like SS? I bought an az gti a few weeks back and I'm having great fun with it  but I need a much bigger doubles list.

TVM for any replies....

Chris

I'm a novice in these matters but would integrating an app like SkySafari into the process give you more choices?

2 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

I found this with my WO wedge Laurence and mine was very difficult to adjust in lattitude the more I needed to go up. Mine was all down to my set up not inline with the centre of the tripos extension. You've probably read my thread about this before. 

I'm not sure how your setup is loaded and not very heavy though line is only 2.9kg.

Now mine is more central to the are tension tube it's so much easier to adjust. 

Though this maybe completely nothing to do with yours Laurence. 

Cheers 

Lee 

 

I think you've got the solution there Lee, the little blue dovetail bar I was using to mount the AZ GTi was too short consequently the whole rig was pitched too far forward when compared to your rig in the photo and the WO wedge was fighting a losing battle against the weight of the kit. I read a post of your last month where you demonstrated how you attach your mount to the WO wedge and I've bought on from FLO. I'm not sure what hockey tape is but I'm sure I'll find out!

4 hours ago, RayWUK said:

Just a tip, start of with the latitude too high, that way you're not trying to lift the weight of the rig with the thumbscrew.

Once the penny dropped Ray I realised that's exactly what was happening!

Thanks to all for your help.

1 hour ago, RayWUK said:

Just a tip, start of with the latitude too high, that way you're not trying to lift the weight of the rig with the thumbscrew.

You would think that would work but mine works the other way, it's easier to start off with a lower latitude and raise it, lowering is impossible.

A short time ago I reported that I was having problems in polar alignment/plate solving with my William Optics wedge and my Asiair. I thought I'd overcome this problem so last night I thought the gods were with me and I could get actually get first light with my rig. Not so!

I stalled at exactly the same point as last time, adjusting the wedge in latitude. So this morning I did some further tests on the wedge and essentially found it was reasonable to adjust the latitude with zero load but became increasingly stiff the more it was loaded until it became jammed with my full rig, this rig being very light at 2.4kg.

I have contacted the vendor, I bought the wedge 10 months ago to use on my Skyguider Pro and had no problems. I searched the web for any other problems and found one identical to mine in a review of the wedge. It works just about OK using an M6 bolt from my collection and an Allen key, not ideal so I've sourced some M6 bolts with a large knurled head which may avoid the blistered finger from last night!

20 minutes ago, herne said:

Happier with this effort from my first light.  Still room for improvement but better I think.  Will hopefully get more clear skies soon to add integration time.

I also just bought this dovetail base from Amazon to attach the ASI Air (or guide scope) as I'm not overly happy with hanging the AAP off the top end of my dovetail bar as I have been.  Will let you know how it goes.  (FLO sell something identical made by William Optics for more than double the price + P&P, so I cheaped out 😅).

I'd love to see a pic of how you use that base to connect your Asiair.

10 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Changed dovetail on main scope. The bracket, which is 3D printed came with a supplied plastic one (see pictures above).

However it was slightly unbalanced and the green one allows me to address this and also looks sohhh much nicer. 

Your rig is very similar to mine, different guide camera. I'm sure you've mentioned it before but I can't find it, I'm intrigued by the silver plate mounted behind the guide camera for mounting the Asiair. Is this a home made plate?

Did you have any problems with balance on the declination axis with the Asiair mounted at the back?

Edit: just seen your comment about balance better with the new dovetail bar, was the imbalance due to the positioning of the Asiair?

11 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

There is (or was) an opportunity here for someone in the south of England.
The sale section has a 130PDS with modifications causing focus problems. Located Plymouth.
Then your scope with the distorted spider is presumably somewhere.
Perhaps one could be made from the two......

Sorry. It is just me who can't bear to see potentially mendable things go unfixed.

My 130pds has been dismantled and parts already repurposed but your right, it would have been an interesting project.

6 hours ago, faulksy said:

did you get this sorted ?

No Mike, I abandoned the project after a few futile weeks. I found the vanes of the secondary holder to be very twisted and the mirror slightly chipped. I decided life was too short to continue attempting the repair/collimation so I got rid of it. I was very lucky to source an excellent used 130pds from a local member of this forum who been very helpful to me in the past, I'm very happy with it.

Thanks for asking.

32 minutes ago, herne said:

All connected up and working.  At least it did once I realised (30 mins of scratching my head later) I plugged the OSC into one of the AAP power output ports I’d previously turned off…🤣

I also had to slightly rejig the position of the AAP down the dovetail (so nearer the AZ GTi) in order to use the shorter cables supplied, otherwise I’d be dealing with long trailing cables again.  The AAP will now touch the mount if rotated far enough, but it’s way past 90 degrees before that happens so should be fine with meridian flips.

Lovely sunny day here, rain forecast for tonight.  Hey ho.

Pics please......

Edit: In my ignorance about meridian flips I thought that the movement of the declination axis had to be 360 degrees😳 but your comment about the 90 degrees of rotation has made me revisit that. I shall now have to buy another ZWO asiair clamp to mount the AAP under the dovetail, it's unbalanced where it is now.

18 hours ago, herne said:

Power draw’s an interesting point.  At present I can happily run the AZ GTi and camera from the AAP.  Trying to plug dew heaters in as well feels too much, so would need their own supply.  Alternatively I could power the mount direct to power supply and plug camera + heaters into the AAP.  I‘ve seen that done.

So it’s either try out those those little adapters I linked above to power the dew heaters via the AAP, powering the mount separately; or get a USB hub to power the heaters direct with the mount running off the AAP.  Bearing in mind ZWO themselves don’t recommend powering mounts via the AAP then option 1 is probably the one to try out.

I'm going to wait until I get my dew heaters from dewcontrol.com before I make an assessment. People seem to talk about the need to control the power supply to the dew heaters but I'm not sure I understand why, if there's not enough power they won't work to keep off dew and they can't draw too much power AFAIK. If I control the power to the heaters from the AAP how do I know how much power to give them, will it make any difference?

I must admit I've still got the hots for a Pegasus Powerbox Micro if only because it has an environmental control that will actually cut off power to the heaters if not required which could be an advantage. Will making the AAP power (too) many devices impact on it's performance in terms of guiding or dithering. It does get pretty hot and in my many years of PC building it was always stressed that excessive heat affected performance and longevity of components.

12 minutes ago, herne said:

Yup 👍.

And trying to figure out my back focus to the field flattener.  Oh and how to actually use it of course 😂.  All part of the fun.

Excellent choice, I have one of those. What FF are you using?

2 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

My first evening out with the scope , this week ... a bit of high cloud that made viewing the moon a bit hit and miss at first but as the sky darkened the clouds seemed to disapear . What i did glean from last night is that maybe Zoom EP's are not for me as i found the SVBony 8-24 mm a bit , almost claustrophobic ... if that makes any sense to anyone . I now realise why most people use dedicated FL EP's as the views are brighter and in my opinion less restrictive ( due to the FOV? ). Mainly viewing individual and double stars last night as i have early starts during the week , so Late night astronomy is off the menu . Overall though a good session and a joy to set up and look through a scope . 

You could be right about the FOV. The Svbony zoom fov is 38-56 degrees while my Baader Hyperion Zoom is 48-68 degrees and I don't feel the view is too narrow.

There are some interesting points raised here and I'd like to develop them but I've got a baby granddaughter here who discovered walking yesterday and is intent on self destruction right now.

The stand out points for me are the power draw on the Asiair from the dew heaters and the regulation of that power. I did see some stuff yesterday that concerned problems experienced with using the Asiair to regulate power.

I'll put my mind to this when I get home and have a drink inside me 😆

44 minutes ago, RayWUK said:

First light with my new ASI533MC Pro and the AZ-GTI, M81/M82 (Bodes Galaxy). 320x30sec subs taken over three nights, guiding mostly around 1-1.5 arcsec. Quite a small target for my focal length (247mm) so cropped in to about 1/3. Just a quick process with APP and StarTools to get something out, im sure it'll clean up a bit with some more work.

Excellent image, and like @bomberbaz  pretty similar to my rig in specification. I've yet to make first light, keep tweaking the hardware and looking at Youtube for workflow, but I'd be happy if it is half as good as yours.

1 hour ago, Chefgage said:

Sorry, that wasn't as clear as I had hoped. No, I still use the asiair pro but this is now powered off the powerbox along with 2 dew heaters and the heq5 pro mount. So basically I have a jump start kit that powers the power box which powers the asiair, dew heaters, heq5 mount etc.. Making the whole setup portable, i.e. not mains powered.

I'm still considering the Pegasus box but I've got to get my head round the fact that while the Pegasus is a power device the Asiair is a power box and a computer. The way I'm set up is the Asiair powers the camera, guide scope, 2 dew heaters and a mini wifi router, my Az Gti is powered by a small power brick battery. What I need is for someone to explain why I need to add another power device, the Pegasus, into the equation. The only advantage I can see is that the addition of the Pegasus will take the "strain" off the Asiair in terms of power and perhaps the environmental sensoring for the dew heaters.

I'm still mains powering the setup after some advice on here, I'll get a battery device such as a Jackery if I find I want to travel.

1 hour ago, Chefgage said:

I used to use three different types of batteries. One for the mount, one for camera and one for asiair pro. The dew heaters were usb type powered between two of the batteries that had usb ports. 

I then got of that and got the Pegasus powerbox you have linked to. This is perfect as it powers everything. The dew heaters only come on when needed due to the power box controlling them. I power the power box from a car jump start battery system that has a 12v cigarette type socket on it.

Do you mean you got rid of the Asiair too?

3 hours ago, Budgie1 said:

Dew Control have a choice of connector, RCA, cigar plug, 2.1mm or 2.5mm. 

I've not tried their dew heaters, but it would save adding more kit.

Thanks for this link, I've just spoken to Tim who will change the connectors on the dew straps to fit my Asiair and will also cut the power cables down to a more suitable length. I've also ordered a usb light panel, a very pleasant and obliging fellow!

22 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

I use a Anker 20000 mAh/72wh power bank runs two dew strips easily for at least two sessions and wasnt that dear.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384293397266?epid=5035118538&hash=item5979abe312:g:YJAAAOSwja9g~Fh4

Thanks, have something similar to charge my phone, the problem is that the small dew heaters I'm thinking of are not usb powered.

I would like to use a couple of eyepiece dew heaters on my smallish setup. The imaging scope is the Evoguide 50ED and the guidescope is the ZWO mini. The Asiair is powered by on of these:

Nevada PS-08 6-8A Regulated Linear Power Supply | First Light Optics

with:

Quick Charge 3.0 Car Adapter, 180W 12V/24V 4USB Ports Cigarette Lighter Adapter with 3-Socket Car Splitter 6.6A LED Voltmeter Car Charger (Red): Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

and the Az Gti is powered separately by:

TalentCell Rechargeable 36W 12V/6000mAh 5V/12000mAh DC Output Lithium Ion Battery Pack for LED Strip, Tape Light, CCTV Camera and More, Black : Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

this is attached to one side of the Az Gti using this system:

Universal - Universal Adaptor - Quad Lock® UK - Official Store (quadlockcase.co.uk)

I know I could use a LynxAstro controller powered by the 3 socket car splitter but I don't really want to have to start connecting a laptop just to control the dew heaters but this one doesn't need that:

HitecAstro single-channel, dual-port Dew Controller | First Light Optics

Ideally I'd like to power the dew heaters from the Asiair but there is no way I can see to power a controller by the Asiair.

One "solution" might be to get a Pegasus Power box micro

Pegasus Powerbox Micro - Rother Valley Optics Ltd

Then I could power the Asiair, the Az Gti mount and 2 dew heaters using the environmental control system in the Pegasus, the Powerbox being powered by the Nevada power supply.

Criticism  gratefully received and ideas about how other people control power to accessories.

1 hour ago, JJPM-astro said:

Hi Laurence, yeh I suspected that was the case. I guess long term I might end up doing the same but I've just ordered the mgen and hope that improves quality a little. My main other photography interests are Milky way and wildlife so for now I'll stick with my 600f4 + 14mm and a1/a7iii......the 600 is an amazing lens if a little short still even with convertors for galaxy season, Jerome

Well you've got some good gear there. I had loads of Sony gear sitting around so I sold most of it to fund my astro hobby. I've still got the A9, 200-600 and the 90mm macro which covers all my photography needs plus the Tamron 28-75 for walkabout and family. What's an "mgen"?

2 hours ago, Lee_P said:

I'm actually using a better one now; this one to be exact. It's very good.

In that photo of the setup there is a white plug in extension lead socket, what's that for?

It was the inability to connect an astrophotography camera to my Sony fit Samyang 135mm lens that led me to cut my losses and sell all my Sony astro gear. I bought a ZWO osc camera and had an adapter 3d printed to a pattern designed by someone in the US.

Because there was no click stop on the adapter there was no way to secure the camera to the lens without using duct tape 😅, I managed to sell all gear and move to an imaging scope.

1 hour ago, Lee_P said:

For an example of a mains-powered set-up, check the section "Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G on a pier" on my website here. (I plan to do a proper write up how I power everything when there's time). I have one cable trailing to a mains socket, set up when I'm imaging, and everything else lives permanently in a waterproof box. It's good, but not portable.

That looks like a very economical and effective home based solution, where did you source the splitter?

12 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

I dont recommend the smaller Celestron power pack (the 7.2 amp one).

It can only supply power via 12v DC or the USB port, so no accessories like dew heaters off USB power at the same time. It also has some "smart" features like shutting off power if power consumption is too low, or too high. I found that it was not in fact enough to run an equatorial mount and during go-to it shut off instantly so its not really useful for much. The 12v output is also not regulated, or at least not that well, and will drop below 12v before power runs out. Build quality is also poor with the plastic covers just breaking off after one use. Terrible product and hilariously expensive!

The jackery sounds reasonable and future proof however. I have a similar product from another brand (ecoflow river 300) and its been flawless.

Thanks, my mind is pretty much made up about something like the Jackery, I'll investigate the one you mention.