Confused with EQMOD

[Gino Arcari]

Been a while since I've posted on here! Last night I decided to set up my astrophotography rig with the guidescope (which I havent done since 2016) and ended up not taking a single image, just packed up and headed to bed stressed ?.

I have always just used to hand controller but I'd like to get into guiding more with PHD and using cartes du ciel.

I set it all up, PHD was using QHY CCD with guidescope and seeing stars, EQMOD was connected to my mount and I could move the mount with the controls. I got confused when I got onto cartes du ciel...

I tried to slew to an object and it took me to the wrong part of the sky. I guessed this was alignment? I am used to aligning through the polar scope then going into the controller and aligning with 2 bright stars. I have no idea how to align a scope via EQMOD?

In the end I tried to manually slew the mount to M51, but then it stopped tracking and said LIMIT? I turned limiting off but why was it telling me I was going past a limit? the scope were above the weights?

I am very rusty at the moment as I havent done it properly before via EQMOD, I bought the equiptment ages ago but never set it up fully. Any help it greatly appreciated! ?

[Anthonyexmouth]

best thing to do is rough polar align with polar scope then use something like sharp cap to get a more accurate polar alignment. I star align through APT with plate solving and it syncs to EQMOD. 

[alacant]

23 minutes ago, Gino Arcari said:

I guessed this was alignment?

My vote would be that the date and time are incorrect or -easy to do- entered in the incorrect format.

[Ibbo!]

Also read up about setting the home position adjusting the limits.

The You Tube guidesexplain better than I can.

 

[Z3roCool]

I used to get this sometimes. Trying to get Star Alignment after PA would be hit or miss. Could be 2 min job or an hour!

I now PA via SharpCap and then use APT to Plate Solve to a target. I then use Stellarium and use the CTRL 3 (?) to sink the location once APT has Plate Solved on target. 

Do not really need to Star Align now as APT does all the work. So easy.

Had a few issue with Plate Solving in APT to begin with but seemed to have worked through that and know how to get round the odd error. Highly recommend it.

[Anthonyexmouth]

4 minutes ago, Z3roCool said:

I used to get this sometimes. Trying to get Star Alignment after PA would be hit or miss. Could be 2 min job or an hour!

I now PA via SharpCap and then use APT to Plate Solve to a target. I then use Stellarium and use the CTRL 3 (?) to sink the location once APT has Plate Solved on target. 

Do not really need to Star Align now as APT does all the work. So easy.

Had a few issue with Plate Solving in APT to begin with but seemed to have worked through that and know how to get round the odd error. Highly recommend it.

APT will sync for you, you dont have to do it in stellarium. 

[RayD]

Did you set your correct observatory location in CdC, this is very important?  You would also need to check the time, and can tick the box to use PC time which makes it easier.

[kookoo_gr]

After you install EQMOD and CdC make sure that at both programs the location is set up. After that make sure you disable the limits on the mount, i have them disabled but they exist in case you want to protect your equipment from any accidental hit of the scope to the tripod, also the mount will stop in case it hits the meridian, i think this is what happened at your case the scope slew past the meridian and then the limits kicked in and the mount stopped. The way to reset is to park the mount, and then unpark. EQMod has a polar alignment tool. The way this works is to have the limits disabled and through that tool first set a home position for the polar scope and then perform a polar alignment, after that you can sync and slew to your target via CdC.

 

When it comes to CdC you can select a target via the program for the mount to slew and then perform a sync action via the icon in CdC. What i do is first is via EQMod to reset the sync data and then go to a star, center it at my camera and then sync at CdC.

[Gino Arcari]

Thank you all very much, forgot how helpful this site was! So am I right in saying I shouldn't need to star align the mount like you do when you use the supplied controller? Should my location and time be the only things CDC needs to slew to an object? 

Also what is APT and what is plate solving? 

6 hours ago, kookoo_gr said:

When it comes to CdC you can select a target via the program for the mount to slew and then perform a sync action via the icon in CdC. What i do is first is via EQMod to reset the sync data and then go to a star, center it at my camera and then sync at CdC.

3

Is this similar to when you hold ESC on the synscan controller when looking at an object to re-centre the mount and to tell the mount that's where it's looking? How would I perform this in CDC?

Cheers

[kookoo_gr]

from the moment you establish a connection to your pc via the hand controller it becomes obsolete, you have control of your mount via CdC and EQMod. In order to center the star at your FOV you use EQMod with the help of a joystick/gamepad, once you center the star at your FOV, CdC has a button at the toolbar that says sync, before pressing that button you must first click on the star you are centered so the program will select that star as an alignment star.  CdC only needs a location and the time for slewing to a target.

 

APT is short for Astro Photography Tool a software for capturing images via DSLR.

Plate Solving is a method where using software the computer calculates form a captured image the celestial coordinates and syncs the mount, it is a very useful method at astrophotography for pointing and framing.

[Gino Arcari]

On 01/09/2018 at 04:13, kookoo_gr said:

from the moment you establish a connection to your pc via the hand controller it becomes obsolete, you have control of your mount via CdC and EQMod. In order to center the star at your FOV you use EQMod with the help of a joystick/gamepad, once you center the star at your FOV, CdC has a button at the toolbar that says sync, before pressing that button you must first click on the star you are centered so the program will select that star as an alignment star.  CdC only needs a location and the time for slewing to a target.

 

APT is short for Astro Photography Tool a software for capturing images via DSLR.

Plate Solving is a method where using software the computer calculates form a captured image the celestial coordinates and syncs the mount, it is a very useful method at astrophotography for pointing and framing.

Thank you buddy I appreciate it!

[don4l]

I use EQMOD, CdC and Elbrus and I find them brilliant.   However, it did take a while to get it all working properly.

 

My set up sequence is as follows:-

The first two items  only need doing once.

Check that the polarscope is aligned properly.  Mine was out a bit. 

Set locations in both CdC and EQMOD.  Make sure that the EQMOD "Simulator" is also set up the same way.  Also set the epoch.  (I have everything set to J2000.  The Epoch was very important when I started plate solving.)

Polar align the mount using the polarscope.  Make sure that the OTA is parked and pointing towards the NCP, and that EQMOD knows that it is pointing North (Dec about 90).

I then click "Unpark" and set the tracking to "Sidereal".  I  get CdC to slew the scope to a star in the meridian that I will be doing my imaging in.  I've been using Beta Cephus for the last 8 weeks. ( I use something that isn't too far from the NCP on the basis that it will be easier to find.)

 

Now I take a 5 second exposure.  At this point you have two choices.  You can hunt around until the chosen star is in the centre of the photo and then "sync" in CdC.  Some nights this used to take a couple of minutes, but it often took up to an hour.

 

These days I just get Elbrus to analyse the image, and then I click "Synchronise the scope" in Elbrus.  Some people upload their image to Astronomy.net

 

I only use one sync on either side.  It is tempting to do another sync very near your target, but I ended up with too many sync points and EQMOD got confused.  It started jumping about!!!!

 

I leave the mount out on the patio all the time.  I use an old golf bag cover to keep the elements at bay.  This way, I don't need to do a sync for weeks on end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As others have said, it is important to set your location correctly.  It is set in both EQMOD and CdC.

[scitmon]

Plate solving is a god send.  I do it with APT and it saves so much setup time.

[Gino Arcari]

Gave it another go last night, no luck. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong!

I polar aligned it, set it to park, plugged everything in, connected Ascom, unparked it and set to siderial tracking then opened CDC. I made sure time and location were correct.

I then slewed to a star in Ursa major in CDC and it went the opposite way to where I wanted it to go.

I thought that maybe I mounted my scope the wrong way on the dovetail and that maybe if I rotated the DEC axis 180 that, that might help but no luck, I just got even more confused and stressed so I gave up and did some widefield.

[Anthonyexmouth]

2 minutes ago, Gino Arcari said:

Gave it another go last night, no luck. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong!

I polar aligned it, set it to park, plugged everything in, connected Ascom, unparked it and set to siderial tracking then opened CDC. I made sure time and location were correct.

I then slewed to a star in Ursa major in CDC and it went the opposite way to where I wanted it to go.

I thought that maybe I mounted my scope the wrong way on the dovetail and that maybe if I rotated the DEC axis 180 that, that might help but no luck, I just got even more confused and stressed so I gave up and did some widefield.

so was it 180 degrees out? is it in the home position before you switch it on? scope pointing north and weights down?

[Gino Arcari]

1 minute ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

so was it 180 degrees out? is it in the home position before you switch it on? scope pointing north and weights down?

No, it wasn't, silly thought on my part but I thought I'd give it a go. Yes to both the next questions.

[Anthonyexmouth]

Does it turn the right way if you use the manual slew buttons on eqmod?

when you say connected ascom do you mean eqmod? 

[Gino Arcari]

1 minute ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Does it turn the right way if you use the manual slew buttons on eqmod?

Hmmmm....im not too sure mate ill give it a go tomorrow and let you know! thank you ?

[Anthonyexmouth]

Just now, Gino Arcari said:

Hmmmm....im not too sure mate ill give it a go tomorrow and let you know! thank you ?

yeah, get eqmod controlling it in the right way first, then start adding other software

[don4l]

I don't think that the CdC settings are that important. 

 

Have you checked that the location in EQMOD is set correctly?

 

Don

 

 

 

[adyj1]

The other evening I had EQmod 'forget' my location and start slewing oddly and hitting the limits when it shouldn't. Even platesolving (in APT) didn't help. 

Pleanty of headscratching before I found it had changed my location... Lord knows why - and it is the first time I'd had it happen. 

Everything worked after selecting the right location. ☺