Fellside

Hi Dan Thank you for the screen shots. I will be rearranging my rig soon, I will try out your method and settings. Hopefully I to will get a more accurate model. Many thanks Graham

Hi Dan. Would it be possible to share some screen shots of your Sitech Config page where you Reduce the acceleration. Supervisory threshold page in Sitech. Regards Graham

Hi Dan, Very interesting. Thank you for taking the time to do this. Can I ask what load you have on your Mesu. I have about 35kg plus balance weights. I will soon be adding a second scope to this (9kg) I have never had to my knowledge any slip on the drive. I run all settings as supplied by Mesu. As you found balance can be done by feel along and I find it gives acceptable results. If you make any changes to you image train you will need to resemblance and in theory redo your mount model. I usually do a plate-solve sync and slew to the object. Great Mount Regards Graham

Hi Rattler You could give Voyager a try. Its free to setup and and then when you think you a ready you can activate your trial period. Very fast focus routine and has never failed to find focus on my NB filters (Baader). Very impressive, very stable. Automates to whole Imaging process and from Roof open to Roof close. http://www.starkeeper.it/software.htm Just a satisfied user Graham

Adam Thanks for your reply. I thought surely somone uses filters with OSC cameras. The reason I mentioned A filter wheel is it is already fitted to the scope. All I need to do is screw on the OSC camera and no mucking about with getting the spacing correct. I have read about the Duel Narrow band filter and Quad band filters and the results users are getting. I just thought I would use the existing filter wheel. Then of course you are only imaging through a single filter at a time. Narrow band of course. Have you used a Dual band filter or are you strictly Mono? Regards Graham

Hi I have been thinking about using a OSC camera with a filter wheel. Narrowband imaging seems quite successful with OSC now. Tri-band dual narrowband filter are available for this use. Wheel has LRGB 36mm filters. I would like to move to a larger sensor but Mono is not available in ASP-C. So it OSC only. The QHY268c is not going to be available for some time so the camera I was going to use in the ASI071. What are the Advantages and disadvantages of this setup? Regards Graham

Hi Steve, Easy little project to do. I have been using it in Voyager. The software changes the light setting and the exposure length to get the ACU reading that has been set. You have to get it near in the ballpark or it takes a while. Anyway my question. I have been using paper sheets to dim the panel. What have you used? There were plastic films mentioned in your thread which may be better in a damp winter observatory. Regards Graham

Hi Anyone who has or is thinking about bulding this simple project. ArduinoLightboxhttps https://github.com/jwellman80/ArduinoLightbox/blob/master/LEDLightBoxAlnitak.ino https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/536533-diy-alnitak-flat-panel/ You may find it useful to read through the following thread. There is additional code for switching a relay and operating a Servo to move the Flap. Veiw in Chrome to get a translation. https://www.webastro.net/forums/topic/172634-un-flip-flat-pour-4-sous/ My Flap is using the method show in post 4. Relay operated by the Dragonfly and geared DC motor. (Flap is to big for a servo) For a smaller scope I will go for a servo operated flap incorporating the flat panel run by the ArduinoLightbox software in the above thread. The ArduinoLightbox can be operated directly from Voyager and SGP. Hope this useful. Graham

Ian See pictures of my limit switches. They have been working with no problems or maintenance for just over a year. Left-hand assembly is in the closed position. Blue magnetic switch is for indication only. The physically switch is wired in series with the close relay coil. That way it should stop the motor in the event of a software failure. If you use the magnetic switches to indicate to the software that the roof is closed then the software opens the relay. Thing could go wrong. I like a physically switch in the relay control circuit. The right-hand switch is for open. (middle picture is with the roof open)There is an actuating skid at the other end of the moving part of the roof attached to it is the open position magnet. (shown in right-hand picture) This way both sets of switches are at the open end of the scope room and no wiring has to go the other end. I use two relays on a DragonFly to control the roof via Ascom from within software or scripts direct from the DragonFly. What software are you going to be using to control the Observatory? Regards Graham

Hi Ian, I used FH Brundle V form track and 6 wheels to match. My roof is quite heavy and leaves dont get in the way The V wheels sit on the track. FH Brundle wheels are definatly the way to go just fit and forget. Are you going to use the Ebay soft start. If so all I did was replace the forward and reverse switch with two relays. Touch wood it works well. I have added a limit swich at either end and also a magnetic switches that tells ascom where the roof is. I used the Vauhall Wiper motor and it only takes about 4 Amps when running. The motor has two speeds. I have it set to the slowest. Also the soft stat is set to slowest speed. The problem with the Vauhall Wiper motor and most other types I have seem is that the output shaft is verry short, so fitting the pully can be a problem. The original design in this thread used two idler pullies and one fitted to the motor. I have only used one idler and one on the motor. I may have the originl three pully picture, I will have a look. Hope this helps Graham

Hi Robin. You have obviously put a lot of effort in this instruction guide. Well done? I may have missed it but do you mention the importance of the correct mirror spacing and how to achieve it. With all the adjustments to both mirrors the spacing may is sure to change, Many thanks and again well done. Graham

Nebula The Mesu is pretty accurate without a Sky model and a lot of users just do a plate solve, an offset init then get on with there imaging. Once you have run the PointXP script a few time and you know what to expect it pretty easy. You do need to generate a horizon file for you site. This only needs to be generated for use by Sitech.exe. You can generate a file for use by your Planitarum software so you can "see" where the scope is in relation to the local horizon. Only the Sitech horizon file is required to run PointXP. Hope this helps graham

Hi I got fed up with the very nicely turned and knurled Mesu Alt/Az adjusters and replaced them with Stainless nuts. Easy to do micro adjustments with the leverage of a spanner. There is no need to "take the weight" off the nuts to adjust the Dec either. Almost had the skin off my fingertips with the originals. I used the double greased washers as mention here. That helps a lot. I will have a look a retrofitting the Dec motor protection bars. That could save a lot of expense? Graham

Just as a follow up to my post on PXP Sky model. I gave AA4 trial version a try but I could not get it to work so I would recommend the trial version of Nebulosity. as mentioned in the Sitech manual. I now have a model with 58 points? I have found that when Nebulosity drops out of listening mode I was restarting from the beginning with a new run. This is not necessary. Hit the abort button in Nebulosity and restart the Script to go back to listening mode. Then in Sitech move the cursor on the list of pxp points (its small and I missed it at first) to the next point in the list after the one that failed. Then hit the Courser Play button and the mount should move to the next point and the sequence should continue. As with most thing its easy to do once you've done it. Hope this helps Graham

Tom Yes the jumper is pushed onto one pin, not bridging the pins. For a remote/automatic setup I decided to sell my Pegasus and go for an industrial powered USB hub on the mount and run Switching, Weather etc with the Dragonfly which I already had. At the time it wasn't possible to control the features of the Pegasus using scripts (it may be possible now) so I didn't see the point. Maybe the Eagle is different. Keep it Simple St!!!! (as you Can) ? Hopefully SiTech may have an answer. Graham