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I don't expect any replies - think I'm just braindumping for the mental wellbeing aspect of a frustrating night. --- Having been ill through the week, Saturday found me feeling well enough to get outside and see if I could hook some things together and try to get FirstLight through some of my recent purchases. I've been using my Star Adventurer mini-rig [SA non-wifi, Canon 200D (unmodified), >30yr old Tamron 200mm f3.5] but knew things were going to be very different, and was keen to get going. So the kit was all lined up: > Laptop (Win10), Raspberry Pi4 with Astroberry > EQ6-R Pro > SW 80ED-DS Pro (Kit), SVBony SV106 190mm/50mm Guide Scope > ZWO ASI 224MC, Canon 200D, SVBony SV205, 7TC ASI 120MC clone > USB GPS Dongle (G72 G-Mouse Glonass Beidou GNSS) for location and mains power for all via various PSUs with enough USB cables to circle the planet --- Didn't take too long to get both Win10 (ASCOM) or Astroberry (INDI) talking to the mount and progress was being made - RA/DEC all seemed fine so onto the cameras. Found a distant object and SharpCap gave me images for all three USB devices once I had the SVBony as a Windows WebCam (RESULT!) and the same through INDI on the Astroberry, all three displayed images when enabling Streaming. Settled on EQ6-R, SW 80ED, ASI224MC for imaging, SV106/SV205 for guiding That's it (I thought!) and I broke down the rig and moved it to the lawn - I say lawn, more like a mossy bank but serves the purpose - and wait until dusk where a simple Polar Align and I'll be grabbing images of M51 Whirlpool in no time ............... (I must cut the lawn, even if just to get rid of the blue from spray-painting a new table a couple of weekends ago) (please ignore the middle dew heater, was there to remind me to put it on the guide scope later) --- PA on the Star Adventurer, 30mins (5mins for the alignment, 5mins for remembering which phone app has a PA Clock and the obligatory 20mins to find the flamin' polar illuminator!) - this has been giving me consistent 5min exposures with no trailing. PA on the EQ6-R is 'interesting' - I have a QHY PoleMaster but am waiting on the adapter from FLO (stock issues) so it was SharpCap alignment. Wait for it to get dark enough, then get focus, then wait for platesolving in a "change exposure, gain, star threshold, black threshold, platesolve again" loop for over an hour. Woohoo, plate solved ..... oh, rotate around RA ..... and perform the same operation again ..... ARGHHH! Over two hours later (probably more like 3hrs+) I've got polar alignment to within 12 seconds (wishing I'd screengrabbed that now). I really don't like the adjustment mechanism, the thread pitch is far too high for minute adjustments of alignment! --- And onto guiding ........................ or maybe not. PHD2, Nothing through it at all .... then remembered I'd not refocused the guide scope, then it was taking the Darks library. Still nothing. Opened the SV205 via SharpCap and got focus, switched back to PHD2, still nothing ...... hmm, is this just an unsupported camera (windows 'webcam'). So switched out for the 120MC copy - Amazon 7TC special. Repeated the SharpCap for focus, then PHD2 Darks library and BOOM I have stars showing up in PHD2 - RESULT ...... I'll leave it at that for a moment and try looking at something, see what I get from the 224MC main camera and what PHD2 gives me in the guide scope. So onto the next 'learning opportunity' - target selection --- Erm, how do I select a target for goto with just two camera apps .... aha, Stellarium No Telescope selected, easy - it went something like this: "Open Stellarium, select telescope, select ASCOM ... there we go ... nope, it won't connect ... restart everything (twice) ... redo settings (twice) ... check ASCOM diagnostics (all passed) ... quick google search, aha I'm not the only one, you have to select the scope within the options pane ... what options pane .... oh, scroll down ..." And I now have Stellarium control of the scope - again a RESULT - it's taking time but I think I'm making progress here .... hmm, it's getting bloody cold, wow, it's midnight! --- So I now have an in focus 224MC, an in focus guide scope and control over the mount, here we go ... I'll be stacking images in the morning and making millions from selling prints online NOPE! Easy targets for testing were below the horizon (basically M42) so I'll just pick Vega and make sure slewing works, imaging works and can see how guiding works. Nothing, no bright star at all - okay, bigger target - the moon. Again nothing, no bright screen - so switched out the camera for a 26mm LER EP and a diagonal and manually aligned the moon - then, and here comes stupid, refocused (!) for the moon. --- Stellarium wasn't syncing with the mount - I was 'off' on any selected target and by a lot Quick google search and I'm no the only one - no sync points on my clean build so wasn't that, but use of the GPS dongle for location and TIME might be the problem. --- And at this point it as 2:30am - prime viewing time last night with the moon disappearing in the West behind me - the garden slopes due-West to due-East so I only get Partial-North>East>Partial-South viewing. Time to give up, have a small glass of Red and look for more things to buy on SGL/Astro B&S. --- Today - well I had to break everything down to get it into the garage (too heavy to carry as one with current health) - I'll try to get the ASCOM/GPS element sorted out and maybe this evening try some targeting/lunar rate tracking so see if that major element is resolved. And, if you've made it this far, please accept this for your perseverance, you've earned it.

Its always the every size under the stars, but the one you need! Wanting 121mm for my 120mm Equinox per https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/products_id/1070 And 112mm for my 100 Equinox per https://khanscope.com/products/equinox-100-100mm-refractor-telescope-ota-11030-3 I have been unable to find any rings that size online. Really I want identical pairs to those that came with my scopes, but largest/nearest T-E sell are 116mm, 114mm before leaping up to 140mm. I guess the 114mm would be OK for the 100, but would 116mm be too small for my 120?

Well 2.5 hours and not one image couldn't even find a camera let alone take a pic couldn't find a mount . Had enough back in a few days

So frustrating!