Equipment suggestions for live viewing

[shirva]

13 minutes ago, stash_old said:

Notice no one really answered your question on CN about running astrotoaster etc on the Stick - note The Stick is gen 2 (there was a stick gen 1) and gen 3 costs £400 quid - well it is from Intel . The old saying you "don't get owt for nowt" is still true.  True about the SCB2000 but it still works every time I get it out of the box unlike my ZWO 120mm USB camera   

Can't knock old school lol

[shirva]

27 minutes ago, stash_old said:

Notice no one really answered your question on CN about running astrotoaster etc on the Stick - note The Stick is gen 2 (there was a stick gen 1) and gen 3 costs £400 quid - well it is from Intel . The old saying you "don't get owt for nowt" is still true.  True about the SCB2000 but it still works every time I get it out of the box unlike my ZWO 120mm USB camera   

Can't knock old school lol,,

thanks for the information on what generation there on,, few different makes on the bay,, 

It's one if those bits you probably just need to get and try and hopefully get it right,

It's a great concept,a small cheapish stick that acts like a pc,, hitting the £300 mark I would rather just buy a cheap laptop from ebay,, but it's the compact beauty of the stick that we crave.

Having about four usb port,good WiFi and Bluetooth connection,, plug n play connection to an other PC and a large hard drive ,,as usual we don't ask for much ?

[London_David]

I thought I’d do an update on the equipment I purchased after a few weeks of ownership. The short version is: it's been great. I’ve been very happy with everything and it’s been lots of fun putting everything together and getting stuff working.

The longer version is the rest of this post, which is a bit of a debrief. I’m going to go through everything in some detail for anyone that is interested in a similar setup. Basically this is the post I was looking for when I started researching what to buy, so it will be a long one!

As I said in my first post in this thread my priority was to build the most lightweight, portable solution for seeing DSO's within a certain size bracket. What fits your needs is quite personal, so someone else will have different priorities. Everything is a tradeoff.

So first I'll describe my experience on this set up, then the specifics of what I bought.

The EEA Experience with this Equipment

To navigate around the sky and control the mount I use SkySafari Pro native on the iPad. This is a real pleasure to use and is a night and day compared to any handset. I even prefer it to laptop control since it feels snappier and more immediate when you are exploring around or star hopping with the GoTo. Now it even has the Celestron voice narration tours built in, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Sky Safari on iOS connects to the Compute Stick using WiFiScope, which then talks to the scope using EQMOD.

I use MS Remote Desktop (standard Windows 10 RDP) on the iPad to control the Compute Stick - it essentially turns the iPad into a Surface Pro (with a fraction of lag that is barely noticeable for most use. I wouldn’t try and play an FPS over RDP though…). When at home I sometimes use my laptop in the same way.

For viewing I use SharpCap (and sometimes FireCap for planets) on the Compute Stick. This software is not nearly as slick as Starlight Live but it's pretty good. I decided that I wanted to go with the low noise ASI290 over the Lodestar. I chose better specs over ease of use. SharpCap is good though and has a lot of great features.

I’ve tried AstroLive USB a few times, but it doesn’t format to the screen properly over RDP. FireCap on the other hand, reads that it’s on an iPad retina and makes everything super small. It looks crisp and is pretty much useable, but you need decent eyesight and a stylus! FireCap is easier on a laptop. 

SharpCap has some issues on touchscreen RDP in terms of interface too. Mainly it’s okay though. I tested it with an iPad Pro with a Pen and that was much easier. Finger control is a bit less precise than the mouse it was designed for and there is a technique to getting it right. You do sometimes fight with the controls, but it’s not too bad. Occasionally I use the laptop at home for SharpCap control. iPad Pro is very good though!

Images are recorded to an microSD Card in the Compute Stick that I can then physically remove and move files to my Mac for later processing or archiving to HDD. Sometimes I just copy images to a USB stick which saves fiddling around with the tiny microSD card. 

Before Sky Safari I attempted to use Starry Night Pro via the iPad on the Compute stick for mount control, but it’s too laggy and mouse oriented to be useful. It doesn’t work well with touch at all. I had similar issues with Stellarium, though it was better. Anyway — native Sky Safari Pro on the iPad is really great for touchscreen mount control. 

Indeed -- if there’s one thing I'd recommend -- I’ve found it’s really great fun to explore the sky using Sky Safari on iPad/iPhone to control the mount. It's the best mount control I've used.

Once you’ve bought the app it’s free to connect using WiFiScope and EQMod on your PC. You could alternatively purchase SkyFi or SkyBT from Simulation Curriculum. I’ve used the official SkyWire and the EQMod based WiFiScope, and wireless is much easier and more fun. 

I use a small gamepad to move the mount manually. Touchscreen control for direct movement is annoying and laggy on any of the multiple bits of software I tried. So in keeping with everything else I looked for the smallest gamepad I could find and came up with the 8BitDo Zero. This is a tiny but functional (8cm x 3.5cm x 0.5cm) gamepad that can control the mount through ASCOMPAD. I use the shoulder buttons to increase and decrease slew speed and the direction pad to move the mount itself. Then I have buttons for sidereal tracking, lunar tracking, spiral scan, align, unpark and emergency stop. 

You can move the scope using the gamepad and see the scope crosshairs move on Sky Safari. So it’s super easy to get around, even without using goto. The live updating crosshairs on the screen in Sky Safari are one simple thing that makes it particularly easy to move an equatorial mount in the right direction.

For quick keeping-a-record-of-EEA-observation and sharing snaps I just take screenshots on the iPad of SharpCap and of Sky Safari (pressing power button and home). That shares quick note pictures easily across devices. 

In terms of mobility, it all fits into a small backpack, and a hold-all for the OTA. It takes exactly 15 minutes to be unpacked and set up for polar alignment. Breakdown and pack is just under 10 minutes. Polar alignment takes as long as you want it to…

My biggest issue has been with polar alignment. Since I can't see Polaris I had to figure out another way to set up each night. I have gone into detail in another thread here: 

 

Equipment List 

Core
- Skywatcher Explorer 150PDS
    - This was the largest aperture for the weight class I could deal with.
- EQ 3 Pro
    - This is a great portable mount — the smallest, easily packable one I could find.
- ZWO ASI290
    - 2MP and very low noise.
    - Low noise allows for short exposure stacking. This is a very interesting thread:

- Intel Compute Stick STK2m3W64CC
    - That’s the Core m3-6Y30, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB eMMC, Intel HD Graphics 515
    - I know Rob in this thread said that the Atom was fast enough, but I watched some clips on youtube comparing the m3 and the Atom and I up-sold myself because of the general system speed. I'm sure the Atom is fine for most use -- and cheaper. 
    - Also, I went for the m3 because I wanted a powered pass through USB-C hub. Unfortunately that didn’t work. The m3 is very flaky in terms of power and USB plugs. 
- iPad
    - This is the main control interface. I leave the SynScan hand control at home.
    - Not going to lie, but the iPad is a bit fiddly with fingers only.  I’m mainly using a regular iPad but the iPad Pro is the way to go. I tried it using my iPad Pro from work and the experience was much better with the pen, because it’s designed for the small button precision control of a mouse.
- 8Bitdo Zero Bluetooth Wireless Controller
    - This is my direct mount control interface because often just pressing a real button is better!
    - It’s very small and wireless and you can keep it in your pocket or let it dangle from your wrist. 
    - There are more reliable gamepad controllers (official Xbox and PS4 to star with!) but they are all much bigger. I went for small size and portability above all. 
    - The Bluetooth is a little flaky but I think it is to do with charge, and connection dropouts. It is generally reliable within bounds. 
    - Make sure you turn on the PC first. Then turn on the pad using right shoulder and start together for a couple of seconds. It should auto-connect if the PC had paired before. If not, pair on windows. Turn off by just pressing start. Don't walk too far away to loose the Bluetooth connection or it will drop and get confused. You may have to remove the device and re-pair, as if for the first time. 
    - I think I was confusing it by trying to pair each time, I don't know. It seems to work fine if I'm careful about not dropping the connection. 
    - The controller mapping is a little odd to set up since ASCOMPAD seems to read the buttons differently. I cleared the ASCOMPAD preferences and only used the main EQASCOM settings window.
    - You can of course redefine the keys, though I couldn't find a way to redefine the joypad because ASCOMPAD sees the direction pad as a joystick not separate keys like on the XBox or PS4 controllers.
    - For a non mobile setup the official controllers are the best made controllers, and easily run on PC. Xbox using standard windows drivers or DS4 on the free DS4 PC drivers.
    - I had no flaky Bluetooth, or key mapping stuff using the PS4 Dual Shock 4. It was rock solid. 
- TPLink 5Ghz Wifi Hub
    - This was the most frustrating part of the experience and a thing to note for any computer user: USB 3.0 and 2.5Ghz WiFi interfere.
    - This isn't a compute stick issue but a hardware specification issue. Intel have a paper about it here (http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/universal-serial-bus/usb3-frequency-interference-paper.html).
    - If you are using any USB 3.0 devices (camera, HDD, camera) with a hub or wires that are not shielded enough you must use the 5Ghz wifi band to avoid interference. 
    - I know people have had issues on the Atom Compute Stick but I though I might be ok on the m3. I was -- if I didn't use a hub. Add in the hub and it was too flaky to use. I wasted a few nights just trying to figure out why my RDP connection was dropping signal while getting my camera working. At first I thought it was a hub bandwidth issue but I narrowed it down. The hub generates interference -- is my guess. On reading the intel paper it's probably too small to be shielded properly. A more shielded hub may be okay, but I am happy with this tiny one, even if I need an extra WiFi point in the field (at home I can use my home network which is 5Ghz anyway) and don't want to purchase yet another USB hub. 
    - Bottom line is to RDP in over wifi you need to use 5Ghz. Ad hoc networks are turned off on Windows 10 and the network adaptor on the compute stick doesn't want to allow hosted networks, preventing command line launching of an ad hoc network. There's probably a way to fix this and I might at a later date but I got bored wrestling with windows. This means I needed to set up a separate wifi hub to connect the iPad and the compute stick on the same network. Seems crazy to me but that's the only rock solid way I've been able to connect if I want to use the camera.
    - You can use any network connection for RDP of course: so long as your main computer and your remote computer are on the same network RDP is easy.
    - Since I am focused on being mobile, I have the compute stick set to automatically WiFi connect to my TPLink and my iPhone, nothing else. Since there is no monitor except over RDP if it connects to something else  I’d never be able to see anything because I couldn’t connect in. The TP link is primary and the iPhone is the backup in case something happens. I know I will always have my iPhone with me, and the iPhone personal hotspot is totally reliable I will always be able to get in.

 

Power
- Quick Charge 3.0 RAVPower Portable Charger 20100mAh
    - I bought this because of the USB-C power, which I wanted to plug into a USB-C powered USB hub. The idea was to cut down on cables using USB-C passthrough. Unfortunately, the Compute Stick is a little flaky with power needs. I haven’t quite got to the bottom of it, but USB-C wouldn’t power the Compute Stick and an inline hub (despite that is what it is supposed to do!).
    - But -- it turns out however, the Compute Stick is very happy using QuickCharge 3. (Using a standard USB to USB-C cable). 
    - The RAVPower can also power the mini USB 3.0 hub. So unfortunately an extra (small) wire but not a deal breaker. 
    - I can probably get 8 hours out of the compute stick and camera with this battery.
    - All that said, there's noting particularly special about this battery -- the important thing is the Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 to supply the Compute Stick. 
- Poweradd Pilot Pro2 23000mAh (12V DC out)
    - This is for the mount mainly.
    - When needed I also plug in the 5Ghz nano WiFi hub.
    - I occasionally charge my iPhone with it too.
    - I found it actually to be quite a small rage of lithium ion batteries at 12V DC. This was the best bang for buck for me. It was similar in price to the TS 10Ah one, and more than double the capacity. I can get about 12+ hours mount control out of this, and that’s with quite a lot of slewing.

Software
- Sky Safari Pro for iOS
    - Makes mount control really easy and fun
- WiFi Scope
    - Wirelessly connect (over your standard WiFi network) the Sky Safari on iOS with the Compute Stuck ASCOM control. 
- EQMOD / EQASCOM, using ASCOMPAD
- SharpCap
    - For viewing almost everything.
- FireCap
    - For video of planets.
    - It's a bit too frustrating to use on the iPad though it makes all the text and buttons super small. You really need a mouse.
    - It does work though, and I have successfully taken planetary videos which are the best representation of what you see looking through the eyepiece. 

Additional

- 28mm Skykwatcher Plossl Eyepeice
    - Comes with the 150PDS. 
    - Nice enough wide view eyepiece, I have no basis of judgement on quality. I've not used it much. 
- 8mm Baader Hyperion Eyepiece
    - Even though I’m most interested in imaging, I like checking things out on visual. 
    - I got this because it was flexible, changing magnification.
    - I also like that I can stick the camera on it and experiment with the adjustment rings as well as use it for visual.
    - I've had some great views of Jupiter through it when I've been unsuccessful with the DSOs. 
- MicroSD Memory Card for storage on the Compute Stick
    - For storage of images. The internal drive on the Stick is only 64Gb.
    - It allows me to transfer images to another computer very easily.
- Anker 4-Port Ultra-Slim USB 3.0 Data Hub with 10W Power Adapter / USB Wall Charger Included
    - The USB-C pass-through power hub I tried didn’t work, so I switched to this. This is reliable, even if it adds an extra wire to the battery. 
- Rii K28C 2.4Ghz Mini Wireless Keyboard, Backlit
    - Sometimes you just need a keyboard. This one is responsive, reliable, has a touchpad and is backlit. I’ve tried a lot of small keyboards over the years for HTPC and this is one of the best. 
    - Most of the time, I leave this at home. iPad RDP good enough. 
- Digi-Pas DWL 80 Pro 0.05 Degree Mini Pocket-Size Digital Level/ Angle Gauge/ Protractor/ Inclinometer
    - For polar alignement.
    - They say this is 0.05 degree accurate. I don’t know if its’ true, but it’s the most accurate inclinometer I could find without being ridiculously expensive.
- Bahtnov Mask
    - This is a great invention! Utterly essential. Makes focusing easy. 
    - I don’t understand how anyone got anything in focus before? 
- Lynx Astro EQMOD cable
    - Compute Stick to SynScan mount control. Good quality thick cable, nicely finished.
- Anker PowerLine USB-C to USB 3.0
    - RAVPower to Compute Stick 
- USB 3 cable
    - Compute stick hub to ASI290
- RA/DEC/Control Mount Cables
    - These came with the mount, and connect the motors and the control unit.
- Collimation cap
    - I was tempted to buy a fancy laser thing, or a nice Chesshire one, but I figured I’d start simple and crucially -- small. It was cheap too. 
    - I’ve found it easy to collimate using this on the 150pds. Put the cap on he eyepiece, point the scope at a bright wall (or put wither paper over the front and shine a torch on it), get the circles inside arch other.
- 3M Command Hanging Strips
    - Everything snaps onto the tripod legs using these 3M velcro like strips: mount controller, batteries, wifi hub, stick... etc. Everything. Some small additional velcro cable ties tidy any dangling cables. The only cable is from the camera on the OTA to the USB hub.
    - I have 2 strips on each leg, and all the elements stick on and off with these, one strip on the mount, one on the element.

Bags
- Veevan Portable Electronic Accessories Organizer Travel Carry Case(Grey)
    - Everything except the eyepieces, mount and OTA fits in here — L26 x W20 x H9 cm
- Kaboodle and Co Neoprene Lens bags for the camera and eyepieces
    - These are nice soft padded camera lens bags.
    - I keep the ASI290, filter wheel and eyepieces in these.
- Nike SB RPM Backpack (http://m.nike.com/gb/en_gb/pd/sb-rpm-skateboarding-backpack/pid-10883087/pgid-10958155)
    - Nicer than needed but it fits the mount and electronics perfectly, has lots of pockets and is comfortable.
    - Best of all: you can strap the mount tripod onto the back using the velcro straps.
    - It fits a large iPad or a laptop too. 
- Skypak 90L folding travel bag black
    - This takes the OTA easily, I wrap it in padding, since the bag is super thin. 
    - It folds away into a small square pack about the size of a small vinyl record.

I also have the two chargers at home for the two batteries. But they never come into the field. 

Everything fits into the back pack, except the OTA which goes in the hold-all. Everything can easily be carried by one person.

Finally, I haven't purchased these yet, but I will as a reward for getting a galaxy image on screen that isn't smudgy.

- ZWO 5 Space Filter Wheel
- Baader LRGBC Ha Filters

 

Conclusion

In terms of ease of use, the mount has been great so far, for visual it has already been excellent, for imaging the proof is still to come. The initial results are very promising though. 

I will admit the computer control side has been fiddly to figure out. Various things didn’t like talking to each other. I blame a combination of cutting edge tech, unusual voltages, home brew software and a lot of Microsoft. However, once things were figured out, the experience is very good. My biggest issue has been polar alignment at home because of my restricted view. 

I’ve not managed to snap great galaxy images to compare with anything usually posted here on SGL (I will post one when I at least get something crisp). This is user error and lack of time rather than equipment issues. Jupiter images seem about par for this kind of setup.

On the other hand, I have seen several galaxies - smudgy -- almost like visual viewing -- but most definitely there. I've tracked along Markarians Chain. I've seen Virgo A (though not the relativistic jet... yet -- this is one of my big initial goals). All of which is more than I thought I would ever do in Zone 2 London. I’ve also had some great views of Jupiter and the moon. There's lots to explore, and too much cloud!

So I'm very pleased so far and look forward to exploring the deep sky! I hope this detailed breakdown is helpful to someone thinking of doing something similar.

 

[stash_old]

"

Conclusion

In terms of ease of use, the mount has been great so far, for visual it has already been excellent, for imaging the proof is still to come. The initial results are very promising though. 

I will admit the computer control side has been fiddly to figure out. Various things didn’t like talking to each other. I blame a combination of cutting edge tech, unusual voltages, home brew software and a lot of Microsoft. A lot of Microsoft. However, once things were figured out, the experience is very good. My biggest issue has been polar alignment at home because of my restricted view. "

I dont have any connection with Microsoft and I have 40 yrs experience of numerous operating systems but I think its unfair to shoulder M/S with the majority of  the blame. I have had no problems with Ascom/EQmod running on Windows Vista,7 or 10 and I am totally remote access . Sharpcap I agree is a total pain with touch screens but then its free so I don't mind!

Problems with hardware drivers yes (ZWO 120m drives me round the bend) but M/S is more open than Apple and drivers are not,on the whole, written by or tested by  M/S .

So I accept  you had problems but blaming M/S with the major share  is a bit unfair.

I am glad you are now sorted and enjoying your new set up - clear skies 

[London_David]

Hahaha. 

I don't mean to blame Microsoft for all my problems. I will remove the double emphasis if that's the impression it gives.

Either way my Microsoft problems were largely OS setup based. I don't want to get into a Mac/PC discussion, but it was less drivers and more things like random updates, or the way Edge search almost gave me a virus. Yes it was user error, but Bing shouldn't put virus filled software at the top of paid search results! Still, my fault I downloaded the wrong thing. I have also since learned how to manage automatic updates (essential if you have no monitor other than RDP). Or something I still haven't worked out: why wifi scope only seems to work properly launching from the desktop.

I like a lot about Windows 10 - and the RDP is great for ease of use. If you're comfortable and experienced with Windows 10 then your experience may be a lot easier than mine. But I haven't used windows regularly since Windows 7, so there was a lot to catch up on.

This has no bearing on whether or not Windows is a good operating system or not. It's just that in my experience it was that it has been fiddly to get it set up working smoothly. Someone else may or my not. I was not intending to unfairly blame Microsoft. 

[Martin Meredith]

Thanks David for your informative feedback which I'm sure will be helpful to many people considering entering this area. Looking forward to some pics!

Martin

 

[London_David]

Thanks Martin. As soon as I get something decent I'll post it as an example.

Annoyingly there's been no clear nights for a while here. The best I've had recently has been some (good) glimpses of Jupiter in between clouds on the 8mm Hyperion.

To add to the complications, we're almost into astronomical twilight season in London. I don't know how much that will actually hinder EEA, since there's so much light pollution anyway, but I do get the feeling that my opportunities to explore the Virgo galaxies this year are dwindling.

 

[London_David]

Another follow up on this equipment. A problem this time. This was on the EQ3 Pro.

But I found a solution, so I thought I'd add it here.

I'm quite fond of how portable and quick the EQ3 Pro mount is to set up, I've seen many people talk it down because it's not heavy and sturdy. But I really don't mind that it's light (and therefore a bit wobbly) since that makes it portable, and I'm doing everything wirelessly so it can settle itself quite happily. It might be different if I were moving things manually, or had a DSLR with a physical shutter or something to make it wobble on an exposure. I'm happy to stand a meter away (or in a warm room) and control everything from a small distance. Even when I do look visually on the 8mm eyepiece I just don't touch the telescope and it's fine.

Anyway, I thought it was properly broken last night. 

The problem with the EQ3 mount was that it stopped tracking in RA on the first clear night we'd had in ages. Typical! I haven't found much in detail on the internet (except a few people who have taken the whole thing apart for a tune up and I didn't want to do that). Nor is there much in the manual. I could hear the motor spin, but the mount wouldn't move. I thought there was something strange when a few GoTo slew's I did were way off. Properly aligned they're usually off by less than 1/2 a degree or so.

I didn't know what had caused the RA motor to stop moving the mount, so I was concerned the whole thing might have to be sent back. 

What I discovered was that the motor cog wheel had disengaged from the mount cog wheel. I thought this might be serious at first, but I took a chance and opened the thing up and it's a simple mechanical fix.

• First, remove the black casing on the EQ3 drive box. There are 2 small black Phillips screws that hold this in place.
• This will reveal the cog drive system and some wires. Be careful not to pull the wires too much. They're not going to be super fragile, but you don't want to strain them. I taped the box to the side of the mount with masking tape since you don't want to disconnect the drive, but want it out of your way to work.
• Loosen off the bolt below with an Alan key. This will allow the cog drive system to move along the mount, closer and further away from the cog wheel that moves the actual mount itself.
• Move the drive box closer to the cog until you can turn the other side with your hand and it moves the motor cogs.
• I spoke to a couple of people and read around -- closer and tighter may seem to give you less backlash, but it risks damaging the mount and seizing everything up. The correct amount of give is the turn test. Backlash is inherent to this mount and drive. It is a trade off for being light and portable after all!
• Once it's back working and engaged at the correct distance do the reverse: tighten the Alan key as tight as you can, put the black box cover on, put back the little screws, don't over tighten those.   

All in all it took about 10 minutes (after several hours of internet searching to see what might be wrong).

 

 

[London_David]

Finally a clear night! 

Unfortunately, we’re also into astronomical twilight time in London so it never actually gets that dark now. I was also too late in setting up to attempt my highly optimistic goal of imaging the relativistic jet in Virgo A from a bad location: a bathroom window in zone 2 London that gives about an 18 degree view over some houses, street lights and the rest of London. You work with what you’ve got.

This post should give a sense of what's achievable without any experience (at least only the experience described in this thread) in a terrible location with this rig. Also, everything here is without darks or flats or any calibration images. These all direct screenshots off the iPad Pro RDP into the Compute Stick. The exception is the M5 image that I mention and the inverted the NGC 5248 image, which I cropped and inverted in Photoshop when processing these down to web uplaodable images.

First I set up and got in a quick look at Jupiter just to make sure everything was working, I also use Jupiter for polar alignment and achieving focus with the Bahtnov mask.

 

The other evening when it was too cloudy for DSOs, I attached the ASI290 to the Hyperion eyepiece and got a great full screen video of Jupiter. Now when I see it without the Hyperion I think it looks tiny!

I went over to Virgo A, but unfortunately I realised that the mount had gone too far round and the scope was now pointing into the wall, not out the window, so the relativistic jet will have to wait. In fact, really the only Virgo galaxy I could get aim at was NGC 5248 (Caldwell 45) an 10.97 apparent magnitude galaxy between 40-75 million light years away in the Virgo Supercluster, most estimates put it at 50 something million.

 

 

Unfortunately you can’t see a lot of detail in the structure. It’s a little clearer on the inverse.

This was the first galaxy I’ve imaged so I’m hopeful that with better conditions I can see crisper structural detail. That I can see anything that’s maybe 75 million light years away out my bathroom window I was pretty pleased with. There's definitely some odd noise in there. Note the multiple right angled jumps. I'm not sure what those are -- it looks to me like some kind of mechanical tracking error. Also, there is definitely a top left to bottom right patter to the image, which suggests that I wasn't totally aligned correctly or something. I did knock the mount at one point and had to re-align. So that might have something to do with it. 

Since everything was up and going, I bounced around and caught a glimpse of the Box Nebula NGC 6309. No picture though — it was a small overexposed square blotch and was not that exciting. I didn’t spend much time on it since I figured it would be very tricky to get any detail.

Eventually, some globular clusters came into view. First up was M5:

 

On the ASI290 you barely even need to stack to get some pretty cool images. I played around with exposure settings, to see if I could get good images stacked from very short exposures (half a second or less) and picking the best ones. I stacked these in post, rather than live viewing because I’m still not quite sure about all the features on SharpCap. Post-stacking helped, but not worth the hassle really, I’m just thrilled to be able to find and see this stuff.

Post process stacked:

Then M10. I tried here on the ultra short exposure run, with the gain too high really. Only a stack of two in this image — the image did improve on further stacking better but I didn’t take a screenshot. 

 

and M12, here I was playing around with the FWHM filter to see if I could get some lucky clear shots through the atmosphere with the 1/2 second stacking:

 

 

Something I learned last night (I'm sure this is not news to most people...) from reading the info on Sky Safari is that all globular clusters actually orbit in the galactic halo -- above the plane of our galaxy and not inside it. There is a diagram here:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/globular-cluster

So that’s the first proper run through I’ve had with everything working as it should on a clear night.

No galaxies here to compare with other posts in this forum, but looking forward to exploring more with this now it’s all working properly.

 

[Bill S]

Good to see this. As you say you work with what you've got and you got some good results with this. Thank you for sharing.

[williamnohair]

Is the C6 Hyperstar compatible? I have a C 6 and also a C 9.25, the 9.25 has 'fastar' compatible printed on the secondary and it can be removed via a screw thread, the C6 on my Evo mount however has three screws to take out the secondary. 

I contacted Celestron and did not get a positive response although the Starizona Hyperstar mod is marketed for a C 6 and FLO also quote the C6 it as Fastar compatible.

 

The only other info I found was that Telescop express will mod a C6 but the price plus the Hypestar makes it really expensive. I would really like to get mine modded if anyone has any information on this I would be very grateful. 

 

Cheers

[HiloDon]

7 hours ago, williamnohair said:

Is the C6 Hyperstar compatible? I have a C 6 and also a C 9.25, the 9.25 has 'fastar' compatible printed on the secondary and it can be removed via a screw thread, the C6 on my Evo mount however has three screws to take out the secondary. 

I contacted Celestron and did not get a positive response although the Starizona Hyperstar mod is marketed for a C 6 and FLO also quote the C6 it as Fastar compatible.

 

The only other info I found was that Telescop express will mod a C6 but the price plus the Hypestar makes it really expensive. I would really like to get mine modded if anyone has any information on this I would be very grateful. 

 

Cheers

I believe all Celestron C6 scopes are HS compatible.  Look at your secondary and it should have a smooth ring that can be unscrewed.  Make sure the scope is pointed upward if you remove the ring to prevent the secondary from falling out.  I had to put a piece of electrical tape on the outside of the secondary face to facilitate removing it because there's no holder to get a good grip like the larger Fastar scopes have.

Don

[williamnohair]

12 hours ago, HiloDon said:

I believe all Celestron C6 scopes are HS compatible.  Look at your secondary and it should have a smooth ring that can be unscrewed.  Make sure the scope is pointed upward if you remove the ring to prevent the secondary from falling out.  I had to put a piece of electrical tape on the outside of the secondary face to facilitate removing it because there's no holder to get a good grip like the larger Fastar scopes have.

Don

Cheers Don!!

I had tried turning the smooth ring and the whole secondary just revolved but having re looked at it and tried again you are right it does unscrew which means the mirror is removable. So much for Celestron support, they told me that the 6 inch was not compatible, these are their replies:

Thanks for the email. Unfortunately our 6" OTAs do not come Fastar compatible. This is because we don't have a 6" secondary mirror developed for any other telescope.
We developed our removable Fastar secondary mirrors back when we released our Edge HD telescope, which is available in 8", 9.25", 11" and 14" sizes. After a couple years, we started including this upgraded mirror in our standard XLT optical tubes, however since we had never developed a Fastar 6" secondary mirror, it continued to include our standard mirror that is not designed to be removed. Eventually, when we released the Evolution telescope, we included this Fastar mirror in the compatible models as well but like before, we did not have a 6" Fastar mirror, so we could not include it with 6" models. Sorry for the inconvenience here.
 

And after  some more questions such as why do Starizona market a 6 inch Hyperstar

Hi Ronald,

Although we don't include 6" scopes with a fastar compatible secondary mirror, I believe Starizona offers the adapter for those who have converted the telescope themselves. My guess is that these users have permanently removed the secondary mirror in their scopes and attached the hyperstar adapter. The advantage to Fastar is that it allows you to easily remove and reinstall the secondary mirror.

I also now realise the 'three screws' are for collimation something I have never done before. So now for the big decision a small round sensitive camera plus the Hyperstar unit and some clear nights? currently its raining hard here and cloud and LP are a big problem.

Many thanks for your help!

Ron Bailey

(Williamnohair)

 

 

[stash_old]

IMHO - Maybe its because Celestron's marketing department pull the strings ,to persuade you to go for a large AND more expensive OTA - they are a company after profit after all !

[HiloDon]

Hi Ron,

Good to hear your scope is compatible.  I have an Evolution 6, but had an SE before that, and my friend has an SE.  All are HS compatible.  From what I can find, Celestron introduced Fastar in 1997 for their C8.  They actually sold a Fastar unit similar to Hyperstar by Starizona.  Dean at Starizona would probably know the history of compatibility, but the Celestron story about the Edge doesn't make sense.

The turning of the secondary on the corrector plate is a common problem.  It is more likely on the larger scopes though.  Starizona makes a special gasket to prevent this, but if you just make sure it's oriented correctly after HS use, you should be ok.  The corrector plate would have to be removed to replace the gasket.  I think the serial number on the C6 should be aligned so it is parallel to the earth.  There is a notch on the secondary holder that positions the mirror properly.  The orientation of the secondary to the corrector plate is important to maintain.

As for cameras, it's hard to beat the Lodestar X2 for near real time viewing.  It has an ideal form factor for HS and is great to use for near real time viewing with Paul Shears' Starlight Live software.

Don

[williamnohair]

Hi

 

thanks for the replies, stage one completed Hyperstar on its way, stage two is now in progress. I own an Atik infinity and have done some live viewing and image capture on my Evo mount and I was quite impressed. However the physical body of the Infinity will interfere with the C 6 light path so I am looking at the Ultrastar as the body is a nice round shape and should give good results, I will give the Lodestar a look as well

Many thanks for everyone's help!

 

Williamnohair

[HiloDon]

10 hours ago, williamnohair said:

Hi

 

thanks for the replies, stage one completed Hyperstar on its way, stage two is now in progress. I own an Atik infinity and have done some live viewing and image capture on my Evo mount and I was quite impressed. However the physical body of the Infinity will interfere with the C 6 light path so I am looking at the Ultrastar as the body is a nice round shape and should give good results, I will give the Lodestar a look as well

Many thanks for everyone's help!

 

Williamnohair

Ron,

This issue about form factor came up on CN a ways back.  I actually ran comparison tests with my Ultrastar where I placed a cardboard cutout of the shape of the Infinity in the light path of my Evo 6 to see what difference I got.  The exposure appeared to be about 3/4 of a stop less with the Infinity, but the image quality was the same.  The Infinity is usable, but the Ultrastar would be better on the C6 with HS.  I'll see if I can find the CN thread.

Don

I found it!  Looks like it was more like 1/2 stop difference.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/533670-evo-6-and-hyperstar/?p=7188993