Quick set up tips

[MartinB]

For those of us without observatories a quick routine is pretty vital. I have been working hard on bringing my time down and there are a few things I've learnt by trial and error or by accident. With winter here we often have to set up in the dark and every minute of set up time is imaging time lost. So I have been doing a bit of obsessing over this and now have a routine I'm pretty happy with. Here are my tips.

Forward planning - check your target with planetarium software. What time will it be in a good position, what scope to use for best image scale and WHEN WILL IT CROSS THE MERIDIAN having to flip the mount during the capture is a time consuming exercise when imaging.

1) Think it all through and write the whole sequence down if necessary. It is quite a complicated business and it's easy to forget things which can then set you back

2) Be able to set the mount up quickly so that it is close to alignment without any further adjustment - I line up with a couple of plants! If you can mark the position of your tripod from a previous alignment.

3) I have a side by side set up and have marked with tipex exactly where everything should go to be properly balanced - this alone probably saves 10 mins

4) Keep all the wiring taped to the mount. I used to let the wires trail everywhere. It took me ages to plug everything in, it was dangerous in the dark and the weight of all the cables dangling off the camera was significant. The cables now go from camera along by the rings and are taped just above the counterweight shaft. Even the dew heating cables are included. There is much less chance of cord wrap. The dew heater control is taped to the tripod leg. With the wires permanently taped to the mount set up becomes much quicker.

5) Forget dark adaptation and plug in a desk lamp. Flood the area with light. No more fumbling for that focal reducer with a red light and a nearly flat battery. Just remember to turn it off before you start imaging.

6) Align the finder scope or telrad with the scope before doing the alignment. Just manually slew to a bright star and get it sorted. You should then be able to get the star onto the chip when running the alignment routine. If you are happy that your finder is pretty close already skip this step and just fine tune when on your 1st alignment star.

7) Balance the scope with all the imaging paraphernalia in place. I do the alignment with the camera hence the need to get the finder scope aligned.

8) Work out what the orientation of the mount is going to be and make sure that the RA is slightly off balance with the weight over to the East. This way the motor will be pushing against the gear all the time and give a smoother track. Also - if you have problems with backlash offset the dec balance slightly so that gravity keeps the gear meshed in the same direction regardless of the direction of movement of the motor.

9) Refine your polar alignment technique - polar scope if good enough, software/drift if not - you can use the goto or better still try Polaralignmax which is quick and very accurate once you get the hang of it. Drift aligning gets much quicker with practice but is still SLOW.

10) Plan your alignment - just do a one star align on the nearest easily identifiable star to your target BUT MAKE SURE IT IS THE SAME SIDE OF THE MERIDIAN if it is a gem, if its a fork mount it doesn't matter. If in doubt use planetarium software to display the meridian (the alt az rather than the celestial meridian). If you can, control your scope from planetarium software, it is much quicker than flicking through a handset.

11) should have mentioned this earlier. Mark off the focus position on the focusser so that you are very close straight off. Have a good focus routine - Hartman mask might speed things up, I use maxim, a magnified view of a bright star off a very short exposure and FWHM.

12) When you get to your target SLOW DOWN. This is the critical quality bit, framing, checking focus, getting the guiding sorted - not to be hurried!

If everything runs smoothly I can be up and away in 40 mins. Still too long but better than the 2 hours it used to take!

Would be very interested to hear about other peoples top tips.

[jcm]

Excellent set of tips , Martin.

Instead of marking the focuser , ( too many possibilities for this ) , I have some strips of card with the equipment on it ( ie extension tube , 0.8 focal reducer , 350D ) cut to length , from the fixed part of the focuser to the back of the camera. For each arrangement I have a different strip.

John

[barkis]

Some good advice there Martin. I'll bet there is a few, ("Why didn't I think of that" ) comments on reading this.

Ron.

[CELESCOPE]

excellent Martin, it just goes to show although you have taken 40 Min's , where it used to be 2 hrs , its the importance of the set up ,which can only produce quality images , here is a lesson for sure , why rush , why do a quick and dirty alignment , after all surely the end target is an acceptable image which we can be proud of.

I take my hat off to you guys out there having to do all this ,don't think i could be bothered, so take heed everyone , this makes good sense

Thanks Martin for some good info

Rog

[cygnusx1]

7) Balance the scope with all the imaging paraphernalia in place. I do the alignment with the camera hence the need to get the finder scope aligned.

I have lightly marked the dovetails on both my scopes, so i can just slip them on to the side by side plate w/out having to redo balancing. Of course this assumes, as in my case, your'e using the same image/guide scope setup, camera,any other accessories that hang off the scopes.

Saves me a good 15 mins each time.

8) Work out what the orientation of the mount is going to be and make sure that the RA is slightly off balance with the weight over to the East. This way the motor will be pushing against the gear all the time and give a smoother track. Also - if you have problems with backlash offset the dec balance slightly so that gravity keeps the gear meshed in the same direction regardless of the direction of movement of the motor.

N.B Take this into account when balancing all the equip for the first time.

[MikeP]

Buy a laminator and laminate any notes that you take outside.

Mike

PS I'm pleased to hear that it used to take 2 hours to set up and that drift alignment is slow - I thought it was just me.

[jcm]

Buy a laminator and laminate any notes that you take outside.

Mike

Good idea , Mike.

I sometimes use plastic wallets.

John