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Eq mod

vince 66

By vince 66
in Discussions - Mounts

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vince 66

vince 66

Posted
Posted

I have been trying to set up my NEQ6 to run with EQ mod. Much to my suprise i have got alot further than i thought i would. I have managed to get the mount running from my laptop using stellerium but the problem is that when i send the mount to a star lets say Rigal it goes the wrong way but the curser on the screen shows the scope centering on the object with out any problems.Perhaps I have missed somthing when putting in the parameters. I would like to try and get this running for SGL 8 so that I can have a play.

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earth titan

earth titan

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I have to say, I would not use Stellarium with EQMOD. Its been a long time since I looked at it but I don't think the program is fully ASCOM compliant.

You might be better off using Carte Du Ciel, which is fully compatible.

I'm sure Chris from the EQMOD project will be along in a while to help futher, but Carte Du Ciel, although not as pretty as Stellarium, is a far better program anyway.

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lukebl

lukebl

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I think it might be doing a meridian flip.

Depending on which side of the meridian the target is, the mount can slew off alarmingly in apparently the wrong direction to enable it to do a meridian flip. For instance, if you are pointing just to the west of the meridian, and the object you are slewing to is just to the east, then the mount will do a complete contortionist-like flip just to move a few degrees, rather than taking the shortest route.

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chrisshillito

chrisshillito

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Always worth a read if your not aware of it http://www.welshdragoncomputing.ca/eqmod/doku.php

A hard copy of the wiki is also installed along with EQMOD and start menu shortcut added.

The direction the mount moves will depend on where it is starting from. If it is moving in totally the wrong direction to where you know an object to be then it is most likely that either you didn't start with the mount powered up in the home position, your site details are incorrect or your PC time is incorrect.

Chris.

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earth titan

earth titan

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I have to say, I would not use Stellarium with EQMOD. Its been a long time since I looked at it but I don't think the program is fully ASCOM compliant.

You might be better off using Carte Du Ciel, which is fully compatible.

From reading the wiki, I'm partially right and also partially wrong. It would appear Stellarium does work but you need to install a bridge program. I would stand by what I did write above though. CDC is much better.

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earth titan

earth titan

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as above chris mentioned

the "parking" position should be the start position,

the "parked" mount should point the scope in the direction of polaris,

And once parked the initial slew from home to the first star is best corrected by undoing the clamps and manually moving the mount to the first star and locking down once there. This corrects any errors in home alignment. This give much better alignment models in my experience.

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chrisshillito

chrisshillito

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From reading the wiki, I'm partially right and also partially wrong. It would appear Stellarium does work but you need to install a bridge program. I would stand by what I did write above though. CDC is much better.

Yes, Stellarium itself doesn't currently support ASCOM because it is designed to be platform indepenent and ASCOM is heavilly reliant on windows technologies.

You can however use the separate stellariumscope application that provides a bridge to the ASCOM world and enables goto, sync and stop mount functions to be triggered from stellarium (via ctrl key combinations).

Stellarium and stellariumscope work fine but because it is one more thing to setup I would agree that folks looking for a gentle introduction to mount control via ascom should consider starting with CDC.

Chris.

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George

George

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And once parked the initial slew from home to the first star is best corrected by undoing the clamps and manually moving the mount to the first star and locking down once there. This corrects any errors in home alignment. This give much better alignment models in my experience.

Which is what I do if I've done any work on the mount, I'll also delete the alignment model and re-do.

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tonedeaf

tonedeaf

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And once parked the initial slew from home to the first star is best corrected by undoing the clamps and manually moving the mount to the first star and locking down once there. This corrects any errors in home alignment. This give much better alignment models in my experience.

this i didn´t know...

have to try that, as soon as the sky clears.

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vince 66

vince 66

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I've not had a chance to set the mount up today to busy getting ready for SGL8. I will give stellerium one last try when I get to Hereford. I heard some where that they have wifi on the camp site is this true or can I download CDC now and still keep stellerium for now.

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vince 66

vince 66

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I should have mentioned at the start that the scope is shown as being on Polaris at the start position and when parked it will slew back to Polaris. So on screen all seems ok it's just the mount moving in the wrong direction.

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George

George

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I've not had a chance to set the mount up today to busy getting ready for SGL8. I will give stellerium one last try when I get to Hereford. I heard some where that they have wifi on the camp site is this true or can I download CDC now and still keep stellerium for now.

WIFI coverage is basic and slow, I'd do any downloading b4 you go :)

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Spikey

Spikey

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Can I down load CDC and keep stellarium as well or will it confuse the ascom platform?. I ask this because I am still not sure which planetarium program to use?

It won't confuse ASCOM as it;s not part of either application. CdC will happily install alongside several other planetarium programs. Stellarium is pretty but you will be far better off using CdC to control your NEQ6.

Post a note up in the SGL8 'need help with' for CdC and someone (might even be me !) can help you set it all up with the mount.

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vince 66

vince 66

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Ok thanks for that I will down load CDC tonight and post for help when I've set up camp tomorrow. At least then I will have a few days to work with the mount I've had it a couple of months now but SGL 8 will be the first proper use weather permitting.

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earth titan

earth titan

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Ok thanks for that I will down load CDC tonight and post for help when I've set up camp tomorrow. At least then I will have a few days to work with the mount I've had it a couple of months now but SGL 8 will be the first proper use weather permitting.

Go fir it. CDC is actually fairly easy. The only difficult bit (and it's not too hard) is getting all the bits if software installed and finding the serial port for the mount.

Typed by me on my fone, using fumms... Excuse eny speling errurs.

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