Anne S

Nice image, I've taken to reprocessing due to the horrid weather. 

If I get a 2nd travel mount at Kelling, I'm planning on running 2 widefield scopes in Portugal after Christmas. I need to take two lots of equipment in case of failures . We're going for 7 weeks.

Anne

I did prefer it in September, it's warmer. It was also clear most of the week in Norfolk, I see. We even had a few clear nights in Wales!

The issue seems to be the vintage day on the railway which has become very popular. Because we move weeks every 4 years we need their weekend!

The Spring starparty has the same problem with Easter and the School Holidays.

The last time we came to Winterfest we got blown away a couple of days before it started and broke my new Astrotent poles! Though the best astrophotograpy has been at Winterfest. Occasionally...

I've just invested in the t2 extension tube set. At the moment I'm trying the 7mm extension on the ASI533 instead of the 11mm one supplied. Mind it helps that my SX fw as a T thread female adapter. I could just attach the camera with no extensions but there's a screw that gets in the way!

I need 55mm backfocus so it's really tight if I use a OAG.

21 hours ago, RobertI said:

Were the electrical problems caused by the supply at Kelling or by the amount of dew?

Dew. It was coating anything not under cover.

Dew can be a real problem if there's no wind. One year a lot of people had electrical problems as well as dewing ones. Everything was dripping! Kelling also tends to be windy as it's on the top of a hill. A large scope can be badly affected with it so bringing a smaller scope can be a good idea.

Anne

That's true. When we started going in the early days at Kelling there was a lot going on. 

Now there are still some groups observing but you need to look for them and catch them at it. There are quite a lot of dobsonians of varlous sizes around the fields. I've not seen visitors but often there are first time attendees who are interested in seeing things.

You can see what some of the imagers are doing but tread carefully and don't shine a red light at them. I often go walkabout once I've set my imaging run to go. Incidentally, my husband sketches using a stacked view of various objects so is outside all the time. He's quite happy to show what he's doing. We've got a motorhome in the yellow field.

Anne

On 25/08/2023 at 16:10, Richard N said:

Just booked. I’m a Star Party Noob. Any tips? I’m in a motorhome. 

What's your pitch number?

We'll be on yellow T149, also in a motorhome.

Anne

I've come across Haw Wood Farm Caravans and Camping near Saxmunden, Suffolk. If you look for it in Googlemaps is has lots of pitches, both hard standing and grassy areas. They also have a cafe. It's around 3 hours from London, again according to Googlemaps.

A bit of a trek for FLO (and us) though.

The iPolar is very good but it's detachable on the HAE29 so could be bought later if needed. The altaz setup won't need it and you won't need it for visual in eq mode. For imaging you will need to polar align more carefully to prevent image rotation.

You save a bit of cash if you get the iPolar with the mount that's the only advantage.

I use a bench power supply bought from FLO a few years ago. At least at home. At starparties, it's possible to use campsite power by getting a multi socket strip that's ok for outside and an external extension lead. A 12 volt fridge adapter steps the voltage down to 12 volt. I also have a waterproof box to make sure any connections stay dry.

That's gorgeous.

Anne

We'll be arriving on 17th, pitch yellow 149.

There have been several other threads about Kelling so most will have answered in those.

Anne

We'll be there from  17th April. Has anyone ordered the clear skies?

The bottom of the page shows the page was edited this year. Also there's been conversation on fb about one of the speakers whose also having a stall....

I use an outdoor mains cable which is plugged in via a circuit breaker via an outdoor socket on the wall of the garage. I have a bench power supply connected to it convert it to 12 volt. Hitecastro or Pegasusastro Powerbox mointed on the top of the scope, or somewhere on the mount if available. I'm in an observatory so the bench power supply is protected from damp. It's also on a small table. If I don't have a Powerbox with usb ports I use a 12 volt powered usb hub. I then connect usb to mount wiring or direct to pc. I've got usb2 wired through the mount.

Laptop sits by the scope to control things. I can connect wirelessly to it but I don't often as I need to rotate the dome fairly often as its manual.

My starparty setup has a MINIPC mounted on it so I use wireless to connect and control everything. I plug the extension lead into a mains socket in my motorhome garage. 

Some use batteries when away from home to power everything.

Anne

You don't need bias frames with cmos cameras, just darks, dark flats and flats. Can't comment on the reflections though that's a nasty bright star. Perhaps more, shorter exposures? I have an ASI533 but mostly use ccd cameras. Attached is with a ccd camera, lots of artefacts around the star.

It's very frustrating in Carmarthenshire too. Just 2 imaging sessions this season.  One hour on the Ring nebula and then a usb issue a few nights ago.

Anne

Looking at Device manager in my old - working - laptop there is no COM port mentioned in the list.
 

You won't see a com port unless a device that uses one is plugged in. To find the com port number if your software doesn't find it automatically, open Device Manager, right click on the com ports, and go into properties.

I used Eqmod several years ago. In those days it didn't like a com port number above 16. Windows doesn't delete unused ones, though you shouldn't have this issue with a new pc.

Anne

We're not this time, we're in Portugal with some members of Swansea Astronomy Society.

Should have said arriving Monday, leaving on 27th.

I'm on yellow T149. We'll have amps Ioptron IEQ45 with a 152mm and 60mm refractors on and an Ioptron IEQ30pro with a 70mm refractor and Atik camera for imaging. 
 

Also a Ioptron tracking mount to capture wide field images.

Not all my equipment!

Anne

I've one too, also used with an ASI533 camera. I use it for travelling on an Ioptron IEQ30PRO. First image below, though I havent used if for a while as I'm going on a trip taking an Atik428 mono camera and filters. I also use a flattener or focal reducer depending on the focal length I want. Though I have a smallish ccd which isn't badly affected by field curvature.

Balance can be an issue but I use a long vixen dovetail with the focuser upside down so it can be mounted further forward. Wouldn't work if you wanted a finder though. I use a focus motor which can get in the way otherwise.

Enjoy your new scope.

Anne

I notice you've got dark ticked in the  calibration area. I remove the tick when I don't use darks. I always use bias. I'm using a SXVR694 that doesn't need darks. PI then warns me I don't have any darks but continues calibrating anyway. Maybe that's why you don't have a calibration folder. I don't think it's using your master flat.

7 hours ago, iwols said:

what camera and any examples please

I use an Altairastro Hypercam 174 which is a fan cooled cmos camera. It has 5.86 micron pixels and is suited to longer focal lengths. ZWO also do a similar camera. Not sure whether the fan does a great deal. It's a 1/2 inch chip. It's very easy to focus accurately.

Please excuse the processing, I need to work on it. This was taken during the previous sun cycle when there wasn't much to see.

We use our Quark with an Altairastro Ascent f7 80mm scope.

I'm using the Powerbox micro with the autofocus accessory and a Beelink U59 mini pc. My travelling setup. I'm also using a GLNet Mango travel router to create a hotspot at star parties so I can connect to the mini pc, no wifi available. I've a spare variable power socket on my Powerbox micro. The travel router is charged using a usb cable as it takes 5 volts.

Has anyone used the variable power socket to power the router using a micro usb to 2.1 mm jack? I've seen one on Amazon but it says it powers something else. I don't want to damage anything. The router only takes 1 amp and I'm nowhere near maxing out the Powerbox. At the moment I'm using a small battery pack. Thanks

(Sorry to hijack l the thread!)