PHD2 and QHY5 big big issues.

[spillage]

So last night I thought I would setup and grab some lights...polar aligned scope all easy connected all the gear make sure it was balanced well. Laptop took an age to fire up...ran phd ran cdc ran apt. All systems go. Then I started phd drift align...adjustment east adjustment west getting closer then major issue with phd loosing the star..changed all the setting I could think off then went back to the start and even rebooted the laptop..all went well and started to drift align..first few minutes great then losing star issue..now after about a good 1/2 hour I thought enough is enough let pack up..stood up from the floor and looked up to the gods for an answer...

 

Do you know what ....they answered my questions...the cloud had rolled in and it was a white out not a star to bee seen...advise to you all at the beginners stage. Sometimes you really need to start from scratch and even then you can miss the issue that staring you in the face..or not as was my case.

[ecuador]

Another pro tip: it is impossible to reach focus with the telescope cap on. I seem to be forgetting that every now and then...

[alacant]

41 minutes ago, ecuador said:

Another pro tip

Also highly recommended: connect the lead to the guide camera. Works a lot better...

[RichLD]

Another tip: When setting up a sequence in SGP and choosing Deneb as your focus/sync star, always remember to slew to your intended target before starting your imaging run if your excitement of being out in the field for the first time in 4 months allows. I now have 4 hours worth of HA data which is probably overkill on a single star.

Isn't age a wonderful thing...

[ecuador]

Ooh, ooh, also note that setting an exposure of 05:00:00, gives you 5 hours, not 5 minutes... I have a very pretty 100% white frame for anyone interested in that sort of stuff

[alacant]

1 minute ago, ecuador said:

100% white frame for anyone interested in that sort of stuff

Absolutely. Stick it on top of a pile of bricks, call it 'impression cygnus' and sell it to The Tate Modern for ten thousand dollars.

[ChrisLX200]

6 minutes ago, alacant said:

Absolutely. Stick it on top of a pile of bricks, call it 'impression cygnus' and sell it to The Tate Modern for ten thousand dollars.

Definite contender for Astrophotographer of the year competition!

ChrisH

[spillage]

Also please try to not catch the mains lead with your foot and kill the power to the scope after spending a lifetime setting it up.

Although getting caught up in the moment and running of hours of subs before realizing you forgot to check the focus can be hard to swallow.

[wimvb]

... or setting your dslr camera to X (flash sync time = 1/180 sec) in stead of B (bulb), to get a nights worth of black starless images, perfectly guided. That would be the other end of the exposure scale.

[geordie85]

6 hours ago, spillage said:

Also please try to not catch the mains lead with your foot and kill the power to the scope after spending a lifetime setting it up.

Although getting caught up in the moment and running of hours of subs before realizing you forgot to check the focus can be hard to swallow.

Or starting your imaging run of 15 min subs. Check back later to realise your focus is perfect, you can tell this because you left your bahtinov mask on your scope.

I'm ashamed to say that I've done this on more than 1 occasion 

[wornish]

Makes me feel a lot better having read this thread.  Nice to know its not just me that does these things.

[SonnyE]

I had fun last night. I kept entering my password to TightVnc join my desktop and laptop computers to no avail. Then tried Teamviewer11 and they connected, whew! So it must be something else...

After deciding to forget about it because Teamviewer11 reminded me why I don't use it anymore because it shuts itself down to ask me to buy it.   I pulled in my equipment and spent the rest of the evening checking things. (It was windier than the chimney of hell here anyway... )

Did you know that using the right password often works?

Well, I do now.

 

PHD2 dings and blinks when it loses it's star.

I scratch my head and wonder, until I look up and can't see a star.

 

Sometimes I just feel like a dill weed.

[ecuador]

On 12/20/2016 at 06:41, SonnyE said:

After deciding to forget about it because Teamviewer11 reminded me why I don't use it anymore because it shuts itself down to ask me to buy it.  

Teamviewer doesn't shut down, I have instances going on for days at a time and they only terminate if there is a network issue, which is when it advertises the paid version. I've never actually have it terminate on a local network, it is very resilient even with slow remote networks in my experience, so there's probably something going on with your specific setup.

[SonnyE]

4 hours ago, ecuador said:

Teamviewer doesn't shut down, I have instances going on for days at a time and they only terminate if there is a network issue, which is when it advertises the paid version. I've never actually have it terminate on a local network, it is very resilient even with slow remote networks in my experience, so there's probably something going on with your specific setup.

Oh, it must be a figment of my imagination then.

I guess I am so inexperienced that I don't know when I have to restart and sign in to a program.

Maybe you need to rethink your reply. And remove your rose colored glasses.

Why then, in your ex-spirt opinion, does Tight Vnc never have an issue? Where Teamviewer has many?

As far as my LAN, I can do everything else in my laptop from my location. Only Teamvirwer11 has an issue.

[ecuador]

1 hour ago, SonnyE said:

Oh, it must be a figment of my imagination then.

I guess I am so inexperienced that I don't know when I have to restart and sign in to a program.

Maybe you need to rethink your reply. And remove your rose colored glasses.

Why then, in your ex-spirt opinion, does Tight Vnc never have an issue? Where Teamviewer has many?

As far as my LAN, I can do everything else in my laptop from my location. Only Teamvirwer11 has an issue.

I don't see why you have to give a sarcastic and mean spirited response. I am just saying that Teamviewer does not normally has such a behavior, of terminating a connection to give you a nag screen. Which is true, it is a program used by millions of system administrators worldwide and it actually offers several advantages over VNC if you are not on a local network, and it is generally known to keep connections for a very, very long time. So, I just said it is something specific with your setup, it is not normal Teamviewer behavior. 

[SonnyE]

6 hours ago, ecuador said:

I don't see why you have to give a sarcastic and mean spirited response. I am just saying that Teamviewer does not normally has such a behavior, of terminating a connection to give you a nag screen. Which is true, it is a program used by millions of system administrators worldwide and it actually offers several advantages over VNC if you are not on a local network, and it is generally known to keep connections for a very, very long time. So, I just said it is something specific with your setup, it is not normal Teamviewer behavior. 

Excuse me?

" Teamviewer doesn't shut down, I have instances going on for days at a time and they only terminate if there is a network issue, which is when it advertises the paid version. I've never actually have it terminate on a local network, it is very resilient even with slow remote networks in my experience, so there's probably something going on with your specific setup. "

You made the blanket statement that Teamviewer DOES NOT SHUT DOWN. It does, in fact. It does even in my normal setting where the the two computers are on the same desk. So I highly doubt that it is a LAN issue.

I've tried several issues of Teamviewer as well. (11 thru 14) Same sort of misbehavior by it.

You infer it is my fault it shuts down. It isn't. My other programs stay operational. And I can do anything at my "remote" location LAN oriented EXCEPT Teamviewer. (Ie: Internet, email, LAN sort of activities) And thankfully, Teamviewer misbehaving doesn't interrupt my Laptop's operating at the telescopes location. It just keeps on running as programed. I've even uploaded images hot off the cameras sensor to the web.

I like a lot of things about Teamviewer actually, file transfer comes to mind. But it shutting itself down, and displaying its ad screen wanting me to shell out $800+ USD for it, is not worth me wasting my time with it. I keep it in my computers for instances where I might need to test something between the two machines.

As I did in this instance.

But, by God it does shut down, and then goes to it's nag screen. Whether you would like to admit it or not. So I looked elsewhere and found TightVnc. Free, open source code, no nags.

But one must remember to use the correct password regardless. And that is the bottom line.

[ecuador]

1 hour ago, SonnyE said:

Excuse me?

" Teamviewer doesn't shut down, I have instances going on for days at a time and they only terminate if there is a network issue, which is when it advertises the paid version. I've never actually have it terminate on a local network, it is very resilient even with slow remote networks in my experience, so there's probably something going on with your specific setup. "

You made the blanket statement that Teamviewer DOES NOT SHUT DOWN. It does, in fact. It does even in my normal setting where the the two computers are on the same desk. So I highly doubt that it is a LAN issue.

I've tried several issues of Teamviewer as well. (11 thru 14) Same sort of misbehavior by it.

You infer it is my fault it shuts down. It isn't. My other programs stay operational. And I can do anything at my "remote" location LAN oriented EXCEPT Teamviewer. (Ie: Internet, email, LAN sort of activities) And thankfully, Teamviewer misbehaving doesn't interrupt my Laptop's operating at the telescopes location. It just keeps on running as programed. I've even uploaded images hot off the cameras sensor to the web.

I like a lot of things about Teamviewer actually, file transfer comes to mind. But it shutting itself down, and displaying its ad screen wanting me to shell out $800+ USD for it, is not worth me wasting my time with it. I keep it in my computers for instances where I might need to test something between the two machines.

As I did in this instance.

But, by God it does shut down, and then goes to it's nag screen. Whether you would like to admit it or not. So I looked elsewhere and found TightVnc. Free, open source code, no nags.

But one must remember to use the correct password regardless. And that is the bottom line.

Wow. Just, wow. I never inferred it is "your fault". When someone says there is a problem "specific to your setup", in regards to software, the meaning is that it is not a common problem and it is usually not the user's fault, it could be anything e.g. a rare incompatibility. WTH do you get upset like that? I am simply saying Teamviewer doesn't shut down by design in its free version, free and paid version are no different in connection persistence. If it shuts down, it is not working as it should.

Also, from your description of the ad screen with the $800+ USD, I am starting to suspect something else is going on. Are you sure you downloaded Teamviewer from teamviewer.com and not another source? Because I've never seen such an ad that you describe - the only thing I see when a session terminates (by myself, it doesn't self-terminate unless my net goes down:

Which is what I thought you were referring to originally. That's what I get on OS X and Windows.

I used VNC (mainly RealVNC) 10-15 years ago, and would probably still use it at least for local networks, if Teamviewer had not worked out that well...

Anyway, enough off-topic. I'll go back to my 5 hour exposures...

 

[SonnyE]

Closes like a clam.

Enjoy your imaging.

[richyrich_one]

3 hours ago, ecuador said:

I've tried several issues of Teamviewer as well. (11 thru 14) Same sort of misbehavior by it.

This is meant purely from a diagnostic point of view, but pretty sure they are only up to version 12, where did you get version 14 from? The possiblity of it not being genuine could be a valid one.

If it is genuine and the 14 was just a typo then this might be helpful.

http://handshake.co.za/2016/teamviewer-commercial-use-suspected-fix/

[spillage]

I have always found tight vnc to work well.

@ecuador do not forget to post up your finished image. How many 5 hours lights have you got so far? 

I am going to go for 6 hours the next chance I get...might only stack up 30 subs though..will this be enough?

Hope the misses doesn't go and trip over extension lead when putting out the washing..(or block my view with clothes).

[ecuador]

50 minutes ago, spillage said:

 

@ecuador do not forget to post up your finished image. How many 5 hours lights have you got so far? 

Yeah, like I'm stupid enough to post it here for others to copy. It will go directly to APOD... or more likely on a modern art museum with captions like: "Billion of photons collected from the farthest reaches of the universe (and local street lights)".

[Guest]

My contribution to the Hall of Stupid....

Plug your Belkin cable into your ST4 port on a ZWO ASI120MC and try to connect the camera....then notice that your ST4 cable is wanging around in the breeze...try to plug it in on the camera and realise you're new invention.....Belking to ST4 adapter kit required for the doofus market LOL

Also, two thumbs up for Teamviewer, been using it for at least 10 years and never had a compatibility or crash issue so it will be interesting to see what caused SonnyE's crashes - could be a dodgy download if its version 14? And the ad that appears doesn't appear in any of the last 4 versions I've used - sounds like it might be forcing a shutdown to get you to click on the ad? Its good that you shared that SonnyE as others might be experiencing the same.

David

[SonnyE]

12 hours ago, richyrich_one said:

This is meant purely from a diagnostic point of view, but pretty sure they are only up to version 12, where did you get version 14 from? The possiblity of it not being genuine could be a valid one.

If it is genuine and the 14 was just a typo then this might be helpful.

http://handshake.co.za/2016/teamviewer-commercial-use-suspected-fix/

Right you are Richy, my error on Version Number.

Suffices to say, I've moved on from Teamviewer due to it misbehaving for me. As I said, I keep it around for troubleshooting, but it's shutting down, dropping out, or by any other description while in use is intolerable to me.

It did help me to realize I was using a wrong password for Vnc, before reminding me why I stopped using it. It use to work fair, and I liked being able to transfer my images to my desktop computer from the outside. But the dropping out to the nag screen has gotten worse and worse. So no sense putting up with that.

Not to mention that their pricing is obscene... https://www.teamviewer.com/en/pricing/

YMMV