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Penguin

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Everything posted by Penguin

  1. Thanks for all those hints. I redownloaded and installed the missing solvers and plate solving seems to be working fine again now. Currently imaging the Pacman nebula (I hope, can't see anything looking like a nebula in the raw images at the moment!)
  2. I've downloaded PS3 and ASTAP (there was already an installer for ASTAP in my downloads folder so I think it is what I previously used but it just seemed to have disappeared). I've also updated APT (from 4.2) to the latest version (4.3) while the laptop was online. I'll give it another go the next time the sky clears enough so I can see some stars. So that'll probably be in a few months time .
  3. Ah, now that I look, I see it doesn't have a 'Near' solver set. That's weird! It definitely used to have one. I set it to PS2 and it started working again, though slower than it used to. That worked for an hour or so and then started timing out on every attempt. So I've given up on that session (what a frustrating pastime this is!) and come inside to download a few more plate-solving options.
  4. Hi All, PointCraft in APT has generally been fab with my 450D and SW-250P on EQ6. A few months ago I acquired a 2nd hand QHY163C and this is the first night I've been able to use it. I entered all the configuration for the new camera into APT but after PointCraft has slewed to the target and taken it's first image, I get the error "PointCraft Error: Can't start solving". The only thing I'm thinking is maybe I need to download some different star charts for the different FOV etc? Or is there anything else I need to check?
  5. Now I've been offered a QHY163C for £300. I am very tempted by this, to my limited knowledge it seems like a bargain. Any thoughts?
  6. Yes, I take your point there. All I'm finding in my price range of up to £300 second-hand is planetary cameras, with a very small field of view. I'm not having much luck here! I may have to phone a retailer for suggestions, which I don't want to do since I'm after second hand.
  7. This is brilliant, thank you so much. I knew there were tools for this sort of thing but hadn't got to grips with them. So I think something from ZWO with a similar FOV to my 450D is what I want. I have a couple of barlows for smaller targets (assuming they'll still get focus), and now . I'll keep looking on AstroBuySell etc.
  8. I gather that the ASIair doesn't talk to Altair cameras, and as that's likely to be my next purchace, maybe I should be looking at the ZWO options.
  9. Thanks guys, I've now had another look on AstroBuySell and I see three OSC CCD cameras in my price range: ZWO ASI 178MC Altair Hypercam 183C Pro ZWO ASI385MC Which of these do you think would be a best match for my Skywatcher Explorer 150P? I'm most tempted by the Hypercam but to be honest I haven't even Googled the others!. I'm most interested in deep-sky: clusters/nebulae/galaxies though I know that even those three have different characteristics an one camera will probably not be great at everything!
  10. Thanks. I've skimmed a couple of review pages and I saw mention that the 183c is designed for refractors. I have a Skywatcher Explorer 150P, which I believe is F5, so is the 183c suitable?
  11. My unmodified 450D has recently died (camera is fine but the USB socket seems dead as the laptop can't see it. checked with multiple laptops and cables so its the port on the camera that's at fault). So I am looking for a new camera with a stingy budget of below £400. Fortunately, I'm quite happy with 2nd hand! I'm not sure if I should go for a dedicated Astro or another DSLR. I have no filter wheels so would prefer one-shot colour. I tend to image deep-sky, though I'm not very good at it and don't really want to specialise, which probably makes decisions harder! I have seen a used Altair 183c for £300 and a Canon 2000D also for £300. What would you knowledgeable people recommend? Is there such a thing as a reasonable jack-of-all-trades device in that price range?
  12. Thanks, doing a bit of Googling, which I should have done before bothering you guys, all the sites point out the longer focal length and smaller field of view and some say this rules them out for deep sky but other say they are quite versatile (possibly with a focal reducer). I currently have one of the small guide scope/guide camera kits from FLO so that would be going on it, so not an OAG. What is Differential Flexure? what is it that is flexing in this scenario. Likewise mirror shift, is this just the need to regularly collimate? I'm happy doing that with my 150P, is the process much different with a catadioptric? My imaging camera is an unmodified Canon 450D so pretty basic. I might go to an ASI colour CCD at some point. Sounds like they could be a good choice, I'd like to be able get in a little closer to the Crab and Ring nebulae for example, and the planets. But I'm not intending to rush into things!
  13. Hi guys, I'm after a little advice on what sort of OTA I should go for. TL,DR: Advice wanted on the best type of used OTA at around £500 to go an EQ6-Pro for mainly deep sky photography. I have recently bought a second-hand EQ6-Pro and am currently trying to sell my HEQ5-Pro + Explorer 150p to recoup some of the EQ6 cost / fund a bigger OTA. I fancy an 8" Schmitt or Maksutov but not for any good reason other than that they look cool! What are they each good for and what are the downsides of them? I don't think I should go for a refractor as they would be too long for the proportions of my observatory. I'd expect to have around £500 to spend and I am very much thinking of used rather than new. Should I stick with a Newtonian? I mainly do mediocre photography of galaxies, clusters and nebulae. but would also be interested in Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.
  14. I didn't measure the Dec axis at the time but I'm pretty sure it had a thin part at the top that the gear was on, then a shoulder and then a thick part, so the thick part was probably 4.9. I'm thinking that mine may have been the one where SkyWatcher ran out of the old stock of motors and moved to the new ones, hence why mine has one of each. I've sent the motor back to Rother Valley and they will pass it on to Rowan who say they will machine up a part to make it all fit, FOC. So top marks to both companies for customer support.
  15. Oh poop. Thanks, I'll see what Rowan Engineering can do for me.
  16. I have a possible issue when fitting the Rowan Belt mod to my early HEQ-5 Pro and I wonder if anyone can advise: It's an early mount, as evidenced by the silver setting circles and the fact that the motor fixing plate only has one grub screw for the middle cog. The issue is that the RA axis motor spindle is significantly narrower than the hole in the sprocket. There is nearly a millimetre of play there (see the attached video clip). The Dec one was nice and snug so I assume it is not supposed to be like this. Should I crack on regardless? I can tighten it up with the grub-screws obviously be then it will be off centre and that can't be right! The spindle is 4mm diameter and the hole in the sprocket is 4.9mm (see the attached photos) and I don't know which is at fault. I have emailed Rother Valley Optics who supplied the kit in the hopes that the sprocket is faulty and they can just post out a new one. 20220403_163048 - youtube.mp4
  17. Hmm, On the Dec axis, I drilled out the plate and the shaft was so snug I had to ease it in with a vice, so I've not bothered with any epoxy. We'll see how it goes. I now have another issue on the RA axis: the sprocket is really loose one the motor shaft, like there is nearly a millimetre of play! I'll start another topic rather than hijacking this one and I've emailed Rother Valley Optics who supplied my the kit in case they can advise.
  18. And it looks like I have the same issue. already had to fashion my own DIY spindle puller as I forgot to order one with the kit, now I have to drill out the plate as well! So glad I got a drill press for Christmas.
  19. Well, after trying it on a few targets of the last few months, I have come to the conclusion that it's now worse! I'll confess this may have been caused when, one night, I forgot to park before disconnecting the laptop and then also neglected to turn the power off before closing up the observatory and only realised a couple of days later that it had continued tracking, fouled a shelf and been stuck there all that time. Could that have forced things out of alignment or worse? Both axis are still free moving with the clutches disengaged so I have improved that aspect, but once the clutches are engaged, there is massive backlash in both. There is a few mm free movement of the ends of the scope in Dec and a similar amount at the end of the counterweight bar in RA. It's obvious to the eye, even from a distance. The slightest further tightening up via the grub screws results in binding. I have not done guiding before and had bought a guidescope and camera to try it out but PHD2 fails to even calibrate and I am suspecting the backlash is the cause of that. Trying to image targets unguided now leads to me having to throw away around 75% of my subs. Looking back at the history of this thread, you guys have said not to obsess about backlash so maybe it's something else that is wrong and I am barking up the wrong tree. I'm not sure what to do now. I could look for another 2nd-hand HEQ5-Pro or even an EQ6 but wasn't really expecting to be spending close to 4 figures right now and then what am I going to do with my exiting one? I'd have to inform any potential buyer of my troubles with it. I'm tempted again to send it to DarkFrame for a hypertune. I know people have concerns about their service but I'm hoping that was a temporary blip that they have since sorted.
  20. Thanks all, I think I may have broken the mount prior to getting the guidescope! Here's what happened: I somehow failed to park and turn off the scope one night when I put the roll-away observatory back around it and only realised a couple of days later. It had driven itself up against the observatory wall and presumably had been pushing against it for all that time. Afterwards, I noticed massive backlash in both RA and Dec which I'm sure is much worse than it was before. I had previously tried to service it, following a couple of YouTube videos and, although I had detectable backlash that I couldn't get rid of, I'm sure it wasn't as glaring as it is now! Would this cause PHD2 to fail? it can't even do an initial callibrate as it loses its star instantly. Should I strip and rebuild the mount again? I am suspecting that my cock-up has forced something out of position or maybe even bent or broken something inside.
  21. Thanks @Budgie1 and @malc-c, that's useful. I'll definitely run the guiding assistant to see if that improves guiding. I'll concentrate on that until I can get round stars in a 3 to 4 minute image. I normally use around 3 minute subs, partly because of star trailing but also due to light pollution. I'd really just like to get proper round stars in a 3-minute sub! Then I think I will try consciously moving to Malcom's workflow, substituting Stellarium for Cartes du Ceil. I had just got used to using plate solving in APT though so I may insert that for the Slew to target step. I can see the logic in keeping all these applications separate but plate-solving does justify combining imaging camera and mount control I feel.
  22. Ok, had a few goes again this evening and, after fiddling with a few things and finally creating a new profile from scratch, it calibrated and started guiding. Yay! However... The guiding accuracy seemed to be several arcseconds. Maybe there are settings I can fiddle with to improve this. Maybe my focus was out or something else like that. Maybe the mount could have been better balanced. Maybe there's just too much backlash (there is quite a lot in both axis but I get binding if I tighten it up any more) Bad guiding numbers wouldn't bother me if the images were good but the stars are very much not round in the 4-minute subs I took to test, so I definitely need to do something. I cannot get PHD2 and APT to work at the same time. It all seems as though the two should work together: I want to use APT to go to a target using plate solving and start guiding through PHD2 but I don't know how to do that. Only one of these programs seems to be able to talk to the mount at any one time. I do have PHD2 in server mode. I'm attaching tonight's PHD2 logs, in case anyone fancies having a look. PHD2.zip
  23. Thanks for the replies. I am not using the ST4 cable. I am also not using the hand controller. I have a USB cable from the laptop to a USB hub on the pier. From the USB hub I have a USB cable to the guide camera and an EQDIR cable to the mount (and another USB cable to the imaging camera). I was using StellariumScope and Stellarium as a test to verify what programs could talk to the mount and which could not. It sounds like I may need to update Stellarium but that's a side-task. I have not knowingly enabled Server mode in PHD2, I'll check that out. but even when the only software running on the laptop was PHD2, the mount still ignored it. I have created a Darks map in PHD2 and the star is definitely not a hot-pixel: none of the stars in the looped images were moving when PHD2 was trying to calibrate. They also didn't move when I tried the manual control in PHD2. There was a setting that was set to 0.1 in PHD2 that I tried to adjust. I think it was "Guide Speed, n.nn x sidereal". It didn't seem to make any difference and was always back at 0.1 when I went back into the settings. This is the only setting I have fiddled with in PHD2. I have not looked at the pulse guide settings in EQMod. It might have been those that the various videos I watched were referring to. I'll look into it.
  24. Hi all, hoping for some help here. I have a ZWO ASI 120mm and Astro Essentials 50mm guidescope from FLO and I'm using an HEQ5-Pro mount. Both StellariumScope and APT are able to talk to the mount and I've been using plate solving for a few months. I set up PHD2 using the connection wizard. It connects fine to the guide camera and happily finds a guide star. it also seems to connect fine to the mount but when I try to guide, it spends ages on the first calibration step and then claims the star has not moved enough. I tried using the manual control option in PHD2 and discovered that the mount is not responding to PHD2 at all. I am not using the ST4 cable so PHD2 should be talking directly to the mount. Any ideas what to do next? I am thinking of ditching the connection profile and re-creating it from scratch.
  25. Hi, all, I have a Skywatcher Explorer 150P (not a PL, as this post originally said) on an HEQ5 Pro mount and have been dabbling in deep-sky photography with an unmodified Canon 450D on and off for a few years. I think a lightweight autoguider might be the best next step for me as I rarely get round stars and would welcome your advice before I commit to anything. I see no point in trying to improve the camera setup with LP filters or anything like that till I can get round stars! I believe I am adequately polar-aligned on my pier as it's difficult to differentiate the out and back trails on an 8-minute DARV in both RA and Dec. The star elongation seems to be around the same amount with different sub lengths between 1 minute and 8 minutes so I am assuming this elongation is actually caused by something like periodic error, which I am hoping autoguiding can improve. Am I right in those assumptions? I have not installed the belt-drive mod to the mount though I have recently serviced it for possibly the first time in its life (with a lot of advice on another thread, thanks hugely!). Both axis are pretty free now. There is a small amount of backlash in both which I have not been able to get rid of without also causing binding. I am hoping this won't cause to many problems for guiding. Based on the above, would you suggest the Rowan belt mod, or autoguiding, or something else as my next step? For Autoguiding I was looking at one of these two options: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-cameras/zwo-mini-finder-guider-asi120mm-bundle.html https://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-cameras/sky-watcher-9x50-finder-adapter-zwo-asi120mm-bundle.html Thanks in advance, Alistair.
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