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NickK

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Posts posted by NickK

  1. I found that using a finder scope aligned with the scope was faster - even with the goto setup. The reason being is that you get a wide field, so although you may not be massively precise, it will get you set up faster. It means that when you look at stellarium and at the sky you're not looking a microscopic portion of it to navigate.

    I too found that that most systems assume a perfectly flat (hence constant rate for alignments). 

    My setup goes:

    1. Pull out the Garmin Gekko GPS - get the GPS position, elevation and accurate north.

    2. Position EQ6, I'm lucky my spirit level in the EQ6 seems to be pretty good.

    3. Sit gekko on the top and align with the gekko.

    4. Mount kit and rotate about to align - this simply means the entire kit isn't going to cause a [removed word] in alignment.

    5. Polar align (if nighttime)

    Now for AP this gets more complicated.. but basically that will get me into a good visual accuracy. I was doing solar at 6700mm with minimal movement just doing steps 1-4. However using alignment tools for EQMOD I've done 20 minute exposures (at 1340mm) on the EQ6 BUT and here's the but.. this is usually without a merdian flip at which point the mount alignment usually needs checking and redoing.

  2. I think the weather might be having second thoughts about this evening's clear spell however :(

    James

    There's a point, a brave point, when you make the switch to use your own software to capture with the precious clear nights..

    First you find all the awkward defects, then the missing functionality, and slowly it becomes more robust.. and finally you start getting annoyed at 3rd party software. 

  3. And definitely make good use of any multi-core CPU's. A bit of a must when doing any sort of real time image processing etc.

    I also nearly always use openGL for image display, it saves a lot of CPU cycles which can be used where they are needed.

     With OpenCL you could simply render the ouput texture direct to OpenGL that makes it even faster (all on GPU processing & display) :D

  4. I'd do a simple pipeline that's extendable with a common interface between each processing function/class so it becomes plug and play.. 

    1. Capture & store raw

    2. Serial algorithm processing (ie mean/min/max and histo)

    3. Parallel algorithm processing (ie do SSE/OpenCL etc)

    4. Display processed / store processed

  5. Aha!  Just discovered that the kernel driver is returning an ENOSPC error which means it can't allocate sufficient bandwidth on the USB bus.  No idea why that should be, but I'll have to look into it over the weekend.

    James

    I see the driver is using interrupt transfers - the downside is they fail if the requested reserved bandwidth isn't available.

    Check that the hub isn't multiplexed with internal devices.

  6. I just wanted to give some fact based feedback on ATIK's repair service!

    Saturday - post via royal mail, insured & tracked.. <£20 for the domestic delivery!

    Monday 11:38 - royal mail shows signature on arrival

    Monday 16:30 - get a message that my 383L+ is in the post!

    Now the non factual: I'm impressed with that turnaround! :)

  7. It's probably worth explaining why they have odd names - Oxygen is O2 right? Well the 2 here is chemical bonding, not emission, but in it's native earth state however in the vacuum of space, the atoms can perform state changes that can only occur in vacuum we can't recreate here on earth. This is when "forbidden lines" appear where the atoms in the nebulae are excited to states we can't get here.. so OIII appears for example!

  8. Just for illustration - bundled Vixen Plossl Eyepieces (20 & 6mm) with the A80Mf vs Baader Hyperion (3.5 & 13mm) and Baader Aspheric (31mm) which is natively 2". They need a bit of a clean ;)

    You can actually see the difference in quality in the last 'through the EP' photo. On the right is the bundled 20mm and the image is both not as detailed and not as contrasty. Also you can see the slight fisheye of the 31mm.

    So for my two scopes..

    Vixen A80Mf - 80mm aperture, 910mm focal length, f11.4. This has really taken a backseat with the Pentax below:

    910 / 3.5 = 260x, in your face lunar! However touching the EP, scope with the Porta mount makes the image bounce around!

    910 / 6 = 151x, you can just make out M42 stars and through averted vision just see the outline of the core nebulosity. Very dim!

    910 / 13 = 70x, good - this is my workhorse with the vixen. A good upgrade - can see more of M42's stars and nebulosity and still separate the core stars.

    910 / 20 = 45x, this EP is 1/2 as bright as the 13mm!

    910 / 31 = 29x - not tried it, although the 31mm has a 1.25" adaptor - the Pentax's 105mm aperture brings in more light for a better image!

    Pentax 105SDP - 105mm aperture, 675mm focal length, f6.38. I only use the Baader with this:

    675 / 3.5 = 192x, great for lunar and planets

    675 / 13 = 52x, great all around workhorse for lunar, planets and finding DSOs

    675 / 31 = 22x, big sky and DSO view with a mass of stars. I need to switch focus adaptor here (the Pentax will take up to 63mm! :o)

    post-22611-133877604609_thumb.jpg

    post-22611-133877604617_thumb.jpg

    post-22611-133877604624_thumb.jpg

  9. M81 - my first DSO using Pentax 105 SDP and ATIL 16ic (659x494 pixels) as the imaging camera.

    singleframe.jpg

    Same target from SGL6 taken a few weeks later, it's amazing how much you learn in a short period time - more so from a star party!

    m81.png

    So if you're just starting out and have a hesitation about attending a star party - don't, I was gobsmacked by how much I learnt in a very short period of time!

  10. M81 - my first DSO using Pentax 105 SDP and ATIL 16ic (659x494 pixels) as the imaging camera.

    singleframe.jpg

    This is a raw single 5 minute frame, no guiding, no filters, bad alignment, by-eye focusing, targetting using an eyepiece before replacing the camera and refocusing then pulling the ciggy connector out and having to realign the EQ6.

    Using nebulosity 2 demo, hence the diagonal lines.

  11. EP focal length and the selection is one thing, it would be good to answer the question "which is better 1.25in or 2in eyepieces?". Perhaps expand this into an "All you wanted to know about Eyepieces but were afraid to ask" type of post :)

    I couldn't answer this authoritatively however I get the impression that the longer EP sizes (ie 30+mm) behave better with a 2". Is that the case?

    Vixen A80Mf 910mm, f/11.4 comes with vixen no-name 6mm (151x) and 20mm (45x) EP. I found that the 20mm was good for an overall picture, the 6mm is good for getting into things but it's missing a ~12mm (75x). Additionally the f/11 and budget optics means that there's not much light getting to the smaller EPs (6mm) so I'm hoping the Baader Hyperon at 13mm (70x) with it's better optics will pass more light.

    Not yet tried the 670mm f6.38. The vixen no-name 6mm (111x), 20mm (33x) and the Baader Hyperon 13mm (51x). As the optics are better quality I may get a barlow/EP to give ~175/200x.

    edit: the Hyperon 13mm has just arrived.. I think the article should also make a point about the wieght of EPs!! It weighs a ton!

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