NexRemote and Stellarium/stellariumscope Question

[ncwolfie]

 I just finished work on my new roll off roof observatory. A nice sturdy 12" pier supporting a Celestron AVX 8 HD.

I am now at the point of getting my alignments and calibrations set. In the past when the scope was on a tripod, I had just started using Nexremote, with Stellarium and Stellariumscope and BYEOS with some success.

However its been a little while and my knowledge was never that great about all the intricacies. So here is my question.

I understand I have to do my star alignment first. I do this with the hand controller, but when I start Nexremote on my computer, it appears that the software version wants me to do another alignment, like the scope has just been started, and vice versa if I do the alignment on the software, then the hand controller thinks I should start alignment.

Is this normal behavior and should I leave one controller completely out of the loop somehow? It's my understanding that the software version has to be running so that the virtual port will show in Stellarium/Stellariumscope.

My second question has to do with stellarium/stellariumscope. The one time I did get an alignment completed, I started stellarium/scope, then stellarium. I slewed the scope to Jupiter by cntrl 1. It slewed perfectly to the icon representing Jupiter. However Jupiter was not centered, so I used the controller pad in stellarium/scope to center Jupiter in my eyepiece. Now looking back at the stellarium screen, I see that the cross hairs are slightly off the Jupiter icon. Is there anyway for me to adjust the crosshairs to Jupiter refined true position? I though maybe the sync command would lock the eyepice view and the screen view together but it did not. What am I missing here.

Thanks in advance for your help.
ncwolfie
 

[xtreemchaos]

hi mate i cannot help you with your problem,id just like to say thats a nice observatory you made and you have got a cool setup.all the best...charl.

[Cornelius Varley]

I'm not sure that you need Nexremote, Stellarium and Stellariumscope to control the mount. Stellarium has it's own Nexstar mount drivers so they should be no need to drive the mount through third-party software (Nexremote / Stellariumscope} I'd probably just connect to the mount through the handset and Stellarium and keep it simple.

[ncwolfie]

Thank you xtreemchaos!. It was a real effort to get all the details worked out. But it actually turned out better than I expected. Now if I can just get all the networking done, I will be set.

Cornelius, that was my original intention, just leave out stellariumscope. But I was under the impression from another one of the astronomy forums, that stellariumscope used ascom drivers which allowed multiple connections to the mount, (phd etc).

I just use nexremote or the hand controller for alignment then stellarium. But even if I leave stellariumscope out of the equation, how do I sync the stellarium crosshairs to center on the actual object once I have centered it in the telescope eyepiece?

[Thalestris24]

Hi

FWIW I use Stellariumscope/Stellarium + celestron drivers with my AVX plus the Ascom platform. Additionally I have APT, PHD2 and Astrotortilla. Using Astrotortilla I have no need for star alignments with the hand controller but the PC is connected to the mount via the hand controller. The time and scope setup info in the handcontroller is set and agrees with Stellarium info. I don't use Nexremote - it seems superfluous.

Louise

[philj]

If your running the PC to the handset then ignore the handset calibration and just do the Nexremote calibration. e.g. use the handset as a port only.

I use Nexremote on my CGE without handset, been doing it for years, the PC connects direct to the mount. Does your mount have a PC port if so Im sure you will be able to run it direct as well.

Then you just select a virtual port in stellarium and Nexremote so they communicate. I use Nexremote and Skymap Pro this way

[ncwolfie]

Just a quick update and a lingering question that continues to puzzle me.

First, all the advice here and on other forums has been very helpful. Thanks! I now have nexremote, setllariumscope/stellarium and BYEOS all communicating and playing well together.  I do not touch the hand controller now, but only use nexremote on the pc screen and have also added a wireless gamepad as was suggested. That one addition has really helped real time adjustments at the scope. I have been concentrating on getting the best calibration/alignment that I can get. I use hibernate mode and this cuts down on my realignment time. Next on my  list is to learn about astrotortilla and how to incorporate that into the system.

But here is what still puzzles me. I do a two star alignment in nexremote first thing, and I always add 3-4 calibration stars. I will usually do a polar alignmenet thru nexremote as well. The thing is, during the alignment, the scope slews to the first star, its a little off so I center it as directed, it slews to the second star, a little off so I center it. The same with the calibration stars, always a little off, so I center. I am using a 12mm illuminated reticle, so I am very careful when I center the star.  After alignment I slew to an object, always off by just that little mark. In a 40mm eyepiece it is fairly close, but obviously not centered and even more apparent in the 12mm. So my question is, am I asking to much for the the alignment to be so precise with nexremote? I mean my pier is dead level, facing north and I am being very meticulous. If I was just being sloppy I could understand, but I thought that was the point of an alignment with additional calibration stars...to get it spot on.

Of course I tell stellarium to slew to an object, it thinks its dead center on it, I adjust the object to center and the stellarium crosshairs are just a tad of. I can use cntrl 3 and the crosshairs sync to the center, but on the next object is off slightly off again.

Am I missing something or just asking too much of the alignment?

Thanks in advance.

[philj]

Does this happen only with nexremote or does it happen when you use the handbox on its own (no nexremote)

With my set up, cge, running nexremote or handcontrol, the centreing of the calibration stars improves as it progresses until its more or less bang on, however sometimes it does throw a wobbler and go off a little. For alignment if Im imaging I use the ccd and by the end of the calibration process the final star is pretty close to centre BUT my scope is a shorter fl than yours f7.5.

However for visual I use a 13mm eyepiece sometimes or a 8-24mm zoom.

Not really answering your problem im afraid but your set up should do the same in theory.

[ncwolfie]

Gonna try the physical hand remote next time just to confirm or rule out that part of the equation.

Seems when I used it on a tripod with the just the hand control, i don't remember having alignment issues. That's been a while though and I may be remembering incorrectly. Makes no sense that it would be different than nexremote, but worth looking into.

[philj]

Ive never had any luck with hibernate, i use last alignment, seems much more stable and repeatable. Sometimes after wake up from hibernate all would be ok for a few slews then all of a sudden the mount would just slew off. Last alignment is far more stable i find. Ive heard others have had this problem.

My bugbear with nexremote at the moment is that it will not run reliably from my win 7 machine. Xp fine, dead stable but win 7 nothing but problems

[ncwolfie]

Ok results from last nights testing.

Updated nexremote to V1.7.23

Confirmed findersope is aligned near perfectly to main scope.

(Side note) I recently purchased a duplicate 11lb counterweight to balance out having a camera on the scope. Extra counterweight stays on the scope even when no camera like tonight. Normally balanced, tonight I used  a slight east heavy side balancing.

1st alignment test, used Nexremote only, did 2 two star alignment with 4 calibration stars. 12.5mm illuminated reticle eyepiece, made sure all last adjustments were up and right.

Alignment seemed to be a little better than the previous night, Stars in the 12.5mm were still not quiet centered but a little better overall. I noticed that stars in the south and west seem to be very near centered and spot on in some cases. Stars in east, Vega for example tended to be off the most. Powered off in prep for new alignment test.

2nd alignment test. Used physical hand control only, no nexremote. Same eyepiece same alignment and calibration stars. Results were nearly identical to alignment with nexremote. Noticed the same south and west closer alignment than in the east. Started stellarium this go around, it did not slew or recognize scope was aligned for some reason. Could have been a fluke. Was not of real concern since this was test of nexremote vs HC anyway. Powered off in prep for new alignment test.

3rd alignment test, Decided to do another nexremote only alignment to make sure the issue with stellarium was just a fluke. Same eyepiece etc, Used a couple of different alignments and calibration stars this time due to the skies advancement. Alignment seemed to be a little tighter this time but still off some. Same west and east anomaly. Slewed to some stars some dead on, some others off but still visible in 12.5mm eyepiece. Popped in 40 mm and checked out a few more stars and couple of deep sky objects. Determined that everything was acceptably centered the in 40 mm.  Fired up stellariumscope/stellarium and slewed to several objects with no problems. I can live with that if it doesn't vary anymore. This is all mainly for astrophotography so that is why I am be as picky as I am about alignment.

Conclusion: Not really sure what is causing the worse accuracy in the east. The reason I brought up the comment about the additional counterweight is I wonder if that could be causing an issue?

Thoughts and ideas are welcome.

[kalasinman]

Dumb question , but do you have the ASCOM platform installed?

[ncwolfie]

Yes I do.