Workflow.

[Stu Wilson]

I seem to be having problems lately getting everything to work.

What is the correct pattern/Workflow for connecting the following?

NEQ6PRO mount

Eqmod with eqdir cable (also use this for PA)

Starshoot Autoguider with cable to mount

Qhy8l camera

Ezcap

Phd2

Cartes du ciel.

 

Cheers for looking/help

 

Stu

[Stub Mandrel]

Plug in everything.

Start all the software.

Close/open unplug/plug in things at random.

When it works stop fiddling.

That's how I do it...

Seriously, I'm commenting because I'm interested in the answer although I have a slightly different list that includes APT, EQmod, PHD2 and Cartes du Ciel.

I really am working at random at the moment, so looking over your shoulder at some advice on the most stable order would be welcome.

 

[Adreneline]

I am no expert but this is what I do:

• Take the mount, scope and box containing the power supply, NUC, focus unit and dew heaters outside.
• Connect everything up making sure I always connect mount/camera/focusser/filter wheel to the same usb port - everytime.
• Connect the network cable to the hub inside the study - via a convenient hole in the wall.
• Switch on the mains power and power up the mount and NUC.
• Polar align using the polarscope and my iPhone app - and right eyeball.
• Come inside and connect using Remote Desktop to the NUC from my laptop.
• Start EQMOD and connect to the mount and 'unpark'
• Start CdC and connect to the scope/mount; make sure I am using Equatorial coordinates and J2000.
• Start Artemis (Atik software) and track to nearby, easily identifiable, star; nudge to bring star to the centre and fix with CdC.
• Start focussing software and carry out my initial focus by aiming to achieve the lowest FWHM figure I can get.
• Track to another easily identifiable star on my way to my initial target; nudge again to bring star to the centre of the image and fix with CdC
• Repeat previous step once more making sure my last alignment star is near my target.
• Start PHD2, connect everything, pick a star and start the calibration process; allow the tracking to settle - how well things settle seems to be directly proprtional to the FWHM figure I get when focussing the main scope - the lower the FWHM the better it tracks - at least that is my perception.
• Stop the guiding.
• Finally move to my target location, check the focus once more in Artemis - refocus if necessary.
• Close Artemis and start SGPro, set my sequence up, plate solve if I'm feeling lucky otherwise I just take a longish 2x2 images and hope there is something I can centre on.
• Once I am happy I am on target I restart the guiding, let it settle, start the sequence and go and make a coffee.

If my luck is in the clouds stay away, Windows doesn't update, the neighbour doesn't put his outside light on and we don't get a momentary power interruption.

I've tried focussing with SGPro but it never seems to go well and I just waste imaging time so I use Artemis; this is especially so if I am doing NB and have the Ha filter in the holder.

It's great when it works and seriously bad for your blood pressure when it doesn't.

HTH's

[Scott]

There are as many ways of getting started as there are astronomers so I'll let others share their methods.
One thing I will add is, try and get everything you can connected and working IN THE DAYLIGHT. That way, when it's dark, there will be far less things to sort out such as plate solving and guiding.

 

[Stu Wilson]

5 minutes ago, Adreneline said:

I am no expert but this is what I do:

• Take the mount, scope and box containing the power supply, NUC, focus unit and dew heaters outside.
• Connect everything up making sure I always connect mount/camera/focusser/filter wheel to the same usb port - everytime.
• Connect the network cable to the hub inside the study - via a convenient hole in the wall.
• Switch on the mains power and power up the mount and NUC.
• Polar align using the polarscope and my iPhone app - and right eyeball.
• Come inside and connect using Remote Desktop to the NUC from my laptop.
• Start EQMOD and connect to the mount and 'unpark'
• Start CdC and connect to the scope/mount; make sure I am using Equatorial coordinates and J2000.
• Start Artemis (Atik software) and track to nearby, easily identifiable, star; nudge to bring star to the centre and fix with CdC.
• Start focussing software and carry out my initial focus by aiming to achieve the lowest FWHM figure I can get.
• Track to another easily identifiable star on my way to my initial target; nudge again to bring star to the centre of the image and fix with CdC
• Repeat previous step once more making sure my last alignment star is near my target.
• Start PHD2, connect everything, pick a star and start the calibration process; allow the tracking to settle - how well things settle seems to be directly proprtional to the FWHM figure I get when focussing the main scope - the lower the FWHM the better it tracks - at least that is my perception.
• Stop the guiding.
• Finally move to my target location, check the focus once more in Artemis - refocus if necessary.
• Close Artemis and start SGPro, set my sequence up, plate solve if I'm feeling lucky otherwise I just take a longish 2x2 images and hope there is something I can centre on.
• Once I am happy I am on target I restart the guiding, let it settle, start the sequence and go and make a coffee.

If my luck is in the clouds stay away, Windows doesn't update, the neighbour doesn't put his outside light on and we don't get a momentary power interruption.

I've tried focussing with SGPro but it never seems to go well and I just waste imaging time so I use Artemis; this is especially so if I am doing NB and have the Ha filter in the holder.

It's great when it works and seriously bad for your blood pressure when it doesn't.

HTH's

Thanks.

Things are really up and down at the moment. I think the main 2 issues are going from dslr to ccd and cloudy skies. Oh and 3 gain and offset not set properly. The information everyone provides for the qhy8l seems to be different and I went on their website only to be answered once in very bad chinglish and that was that. No more replies to me. I've had a couple of good images since getting the camera but more lost night's and I mean losing 4 hours every time trying and trying. Don't give up is my philosophy but it's taking it's toll lol ?

[vlaiv]

Usually very similar process to one mentioned above, except I do couple of things that I believe are important / time savers, namely:

- I polar align by using EQMod helper to do so, prior to putting the scope on. It does a good job so I don't drift align or anything after that.

After scope balancing, I don't have precise "home" position to return scope to (probably need to add some markers as that will make next step more easy), so I just rotate it close to (eyeballed) home position and tighten the clutches. I fire up EQMod (actually Stellarium scope brings both Eqmod and Stellarium) - I slew to bright target, and it usually won't be in the center of the frame (nor in the frame for that matter if I'm using long focal length scope). Then I undo clutches and slowly move scope so that star is as close to center of frame as possible - I don't use scope controls to do it - just rotate scope like when balancing. When star is close enough to center I tighten the clutches back and park to home.

Then I do another slew to bright star to check if it is in fov - close to center (I usually is) - center it via controls and add first alignment point. This star is usually east of meridian as I tend to start east of meridian 2 hours prior to meridian flip (depending on target) and image 2 hours past meridian flip (not strict rule, in summer there is less than 4 hours total of astronomical darkness).

After that I start to cool main camera in SGP, and slew scope near equator to do PHD2 calibration / building of dark lib (I do this each time since my guide cam is not cooled, and exposures are short, I usually use 4 dark subs of each exposure length I plan to use for that night - and that might be 2-3s if seeing is good, 4-6s, and sometimes even up to 8s if seeing is not so good). It takes roughly the same time to both cool main camera and do calibration.

After this it's off to target (I don't plate solve yet, so its usually slew to bright star near target - center / add alignment point, then move to target), few frame and focus exposures to center and make sure focus is spot on, and after that it's acquisition time

 

[tomato]

Once the run is underway, keep an eye on the SNR number of the PHD guide star, it’s a good early indication that some cloud is about to show up. Of course you could just keep looking up but then that tends to distract me from following the imaging run and instead focusing on the Wonders of the Universe....

[wimvb]

Here's my workflow:

set up mount. Roughly polar align with polar scope, or by just pointing the north leg of the tripod towards Polaris and setting Alt to the proper latitude.

Attach scope and balance

Use synscan to do a 2 star alignment, with reticle barlowed eyepiece. Note and correct Polar alignment with the synscan routine

Remove synscan and attach eqmod to mount and computer (I use a Raspberry Pi with INDI)

Attach camera to scope

start Kstars (equivalent to CdC)

Focus using a Bahtinov mask

Create an alignment model in Ekos/Kstars (usually a few alingment points)

Unless you know your way around PHD, I would wait with guiding until familiar with the other bits.

Adhere to the KISS principle.

 

Good luck

[Thalestris24]

I would recommend using APT for image acquisition, together with the qhy8l ascom driver, rather than ezcap with the native driver.

Louise