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AstroEQ for EQ mounts


Oily

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Hope everyone had a good Christmas.

A rare clear night here tonight, and I thought I'd get back out there and have another go at getting guiding going. I managed to calibrate quicker than last time, but the guiding was appalling. I've just come in after about 3 hours, shivering and having given up. I tried adjusting the various sliders in EQMOD in every configuration I could think of, and the graph is still all over the place. I was able to guide accurately using just phd previously, so I assume there's nothing wrong with the kit.

So, to repeat my previous question in a slightly different way, has anyone out there that has purchased an AstroEQ managed to successfully guide AT ALL using an EQ5, eqmod, astroeq and phd? I'm aware that Mark had some degree of success previously, but I've been unable to duplicate his efforts, and I believe he managed to successfully guide for only about 5 minutes (I couldn't manage 20 seconds).

AstroEQ is superb acting as a GOTO, but I need guiding as well. Having to revert back to phd, via the shoestring modified EQ5 handset, defeats the object a little when EQMOD is capable of so much more.

Thanks

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Just to keep this subject focused I have been sent a new alteration to the files in astroeq from Tom to test out that will allow the slower speeds in eqmods sliders next to the slew buttons to work.

My tests so far have allowed me to reduce the Dec rates down to 0.1 but I am only getting pulses from the Dec motor when I go past 1 to 0.9 down to 0.1. The RA motor is not pulsing if I move it past 1 to 0.9 down to 0.1

Doug is also testing this out so hopefully we will nail it down and improve the guiding side of things. It would also help to have 

some nice clear skies to test things out but hey ho.

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Ok quick update on the guiding managed to try it out this evening and my ra graph was pretty good but the Dec was up and down like a yo yo. So need some more clear nights to get a final view on it. However tried astro tortilla and that worked a treat getting my slewing bang on target so very chuffed about that.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

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Looking forward to your report. I have my observatory build underway and hampering any efforts to use my gear as the electrics are all disconnected at the minute. Hopefully won't be long before the roof goes back on though :) Not sure the weather here would permit any viewing even if the power was hooked up :s

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In the guest os I can see that the controller is com3 and that VMWare is taking control of it. I do have java installed too. Will have a further 'play' an report back.

Matt

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Finally had a change to play again and got the configuration application working in XP in VMWare. Toms configuration utility work fine once I had it actually in the VM rather than a share on the host machine. 

Now to move onto mount control in CDC and EQMOD. 

Just a QQ for Tom or anyone else who can answer. WHats the spec of the PSU require to power the controller and motors? Should the poewr pack that takes 8 D type batteries work or will the current demand be too high?

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Good to hear your observatory is coming along I could not bear to be with out mine now. To be honest I really hate guiding it has so many things that need to be right to get the guiding graph running smooth and takes ages to get up and running. Most times I would rather be taking short subs and getting enough of those to produce an image. Couple that with the fact that I am using a dslr camera to image with not a dedicated cooled ccd. Longer subs from guiding always mean more noise to deal with so I a happy to get subs of 5 minutes that is 4 times my normal exposure time for nearly 90% of all the images I have ever done.

Lets be positive though, with astroeq and now astrotortilla I am able to get to my targets and be 100 accurate in finding them this alone is worth its weight in gold for eq5 users. Tom has been very helpful in supporting all those using astroeq and eqmod and any issues about guiding can be sorted out as we continue to provide feed back.

Any way Im off out there to do some more field testing on the guiding. 

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Finally had a change to play again and got the configuration application working in XP in VMWare. Toms configuration utility work fine once I had it actually in the VM rather than a share on the host machine. 

Now to move onto mount control in CDC and EQMOD. 

Just a QQ for Tom or anyone else who can answer. WHats the spec of the PSU require to power the controller and motors? Should the poewr pack that takes 8 D type batteries work or will the current demand be too high?

I got a 12 volt power adapter for my astroeq following Toms recommendations here is the link for the one I got.. works great.

http://uk.farnell.com/ideal-power/25hk-ab-120a250-d5-fr/power-supply-ext-plg-in-2-5a-12v/dp/2334609

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Good to hear your observatory is coming along I could not bear to be with out mine now. To be honest I really hate guiding it has so many things that need to be right to get the guiding graph running smooth and takes ages to get up and running. Most times I would rather be taking short subs and getting enough of those to produce an image. Couple that with the fact that I am using a dslr camera to image with not a dedicated cooled ccd. Longer subs from guiding always mean more noise to deal with so I a happy to get subs of 5 minutes that is 4 times my normal exposure time for nearly 90% of all the images I have

The pier is finally going in this week wahoo! 5 mins guiding will be more than enough for me. I'm using dslr too and there is no budget for a cooled CCD lol

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A cooled ccd would be so nice but Santa was feeling very tight this Christmas, however I did get a very cool batman figure and a nice watch. :grin: Given the motors on the eq5 there not the best for guiding but I managed full ten minute subs last year with the shoestring mod on the skywatcher controllers so I cant see any reason why its not going to be possible to get the same results.

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The power requirements are dependent on your motors. 12V is recommended, but when testing I use an 8V power supply (I happen to have one lying around) and that works fine for the dual axis motors.

In terms of current, the higher the voltage, the lower the current draw will be. For a 12V supply, I recommend an absolute minimum of ~2A. With D batteries you could probably get around 4 hours or so with both motors running at full speed, longer if you are just tracking or guiding.

As a side note, I am currently developing a website for AstroEQ (http://www.astroeq.co.uk). At the moment that link just redirects to github, but will in the near future host its own site.

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I got a 12 volt power adapter for my astroeq following Toms recommendations here is the link for the one I got.. works great.

http://uk.farnell.com/ideal-power/25hk-ab-120a250-d5-fr/power-supply-ext-plg-in-2-5a-12v/dp/2334609

Thanks. I think I will have to order one. The standard battery pack that comes with the dual axis motor kit doesn't appear to be able to power the AstroEQ controller and the motors unless there is something else fundamentally wrong. 

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Greater than 2.5 amp. I'd stick to a psu. Power will drop off fast from the batteries in the cold plus the higher slew speeds that astroeq provides will kill the batteries compared to normal dual axis operation.

Understood. As per my last post. I will invest in the recommended mains PSU.

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Ok back to the guiding with astroeq and phd. I did a lot of testing out last night and the best I could get was a 5 minute sub after that it started to degrade but I think this is down to my set up which is a large 200p on the eq5 loaded with a camera and finders scope and webcam. My graph in phd was all over the show to start off with and after much trail and error I decided to move my mounts weights down by 2 inchs. Much to my amazement this resulted in a greatly improved graph in phd. This just goes to show that its not always the software at fault but the balance of your telescope and mount that needs sorting out. I think the guiding can still be improved upon but using astroeq with astro tortilla was just amazing getting my targets bang in the middle of the frame with very little time and effort is for me a massive improvement on what I used to do.

Any way after collecting about 80 subs at various exposure times ranging from 2 mins to 3 mins I was happy enough and was able to get this final image of the Rosette Nebula.

post-8732-0-25239000-1388513430_thumb.jp

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Great image :) I need to get astro tortilla downloaded and figured out.. Didn't even know it existed till I saw your mention! Astroeq is the best 90 quid I've spent upto now. Has anyone tried unguided imaging with astroeq yet? Just wondered how it compared to the standard hand controller sidereal rate.

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Unguided imaging works great with ASTROEQ and its what I do most times. If you have not tryed astro tortilla down load it asap. The main thing is installing the correct index files as your doing the install. I'm using a 200p with a canon 350d and installed index files 4210 for the wide FOV and index files 4204 for the narrow one. It is brilliant and corrects that first alignment in seconds.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

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Unguided imaging works great with ASTROEQ and its what I do most times. If you have not tryed astro tortilla down load it asap. The main thing is installing the correct index files as your doing the install. I'm using a 200p with a canon 350d and installed index files 4210 for the wide FOV and index files 4204 for the narrow one. It is brilliant and corrects that first alignment in seconds.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

I thought it would align with the guide scope cam rather than the dslr. I'm using an intervalometer instead of a direct link to my pc at the moment. Keep meaning get APT tool up and running. Is that what you use QM?

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Nice picture of the Rosette Nebula, really nice. It's funny as I was observing it through my Heritage 130P right this evening, ok, didn't see it like in the picture but I got all the center stars.

Can't wait until I get my astro imaging gear online.

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Hi guys, Happy New Year to all. I recently bought a SW Evostar 80 ED & EQ3-2 mount + dual axis upgrade as an easy to use pick-up & go set-up, as an alternative to my Celestron GOTO.

Then I came across Mark Casto's excellent video on converting an EQ5 Mount to GOTO & guess what?, yep, I've joined the club & purchased an EQ Astro  :laugh:, so I will probably be asking lots of questions in the coming months!!

I've managed an 'in-house' (spare bedroom actually) initial set-up of the system (with help from Tom) with one or two hiccups so far, but can now slew etc using EQASCOM_run.

Looking longer term, I am planning on building a small observatory so I can have a permanent set-up based around an EQ5 or EQ6, so this current system will be good to get me going with the various software etc.

Unfortunately I have got quite a bit on in the next month or two, but will try to spend some time learning the ins & outs of EQMOD etc.

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