Getting back into imaging after a long break

[Gina]

Work on the ROR automation is proceeding apace now though still lots to do.  But I'm also thinking ahead a bit to future astro projects.  In particular the micro dome and DIY fork mount for widefield imaging which would free up the main full sized observatory for narrower field use with telescopes rather than vintage SLR lenses.  I have two ASI1600MM-Cool cameras which would lend themselves to a dual rig or two independent rigs.  Unfortunately I only have one set of Astrodon 3nm NB filters which is a little limiting.

I have a micro-dome half built which is a standard design with shutter but another of my projects is the Giant 3D printer with which a larger dome would be feasible.  Another thought inspired by another thread is a clamshell type dome - something I have thought of in the past but not made much progress on.  My greater experience in designing and making 3D printers and printing techniques leads me to believe I could do a lot better now than I did with my other little dome.  The advantage of a clamshell design is that it doesn't need rotating and also I think a clamshell may be easier to automate than a standard shutter.  The advantage of a standard dome is shielding from wind and stray light, of course.

[Gina]

There would seem to be a possibility of imaging tonight as long as I stay away from the rising moon in the east.

[DaveS]

Good luck Gina. hope it holds on.

[DaveS]

And it's looking promising here too. Fortunately I can sleep in tomorrow, no dratted blood test to go into Portisham for!

[JamesF]

Yes, a window seems to be opening up here for the hours around midnight.  I have pretty much given up enumerating domesticated egg-laying avians, however.

James

[Gina]

I've just set up for imaging tonight.  Opened observatory roof and connected up all the power.  Back indoors run the remote RPi indiserver from Terminal and set up KStars/Ekos.  Everything looks OK but only a dark sky full of stars will confirm that and that will be another couple of hours or so.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

I wish you luck, it was forecast to be clear here (Surrey), but there's loads of high cloud rolled in grrrrr

[DaveS]

Opened up here, but as I don't yet have remote access, I'll have to go out to keep an eye on things, at least occasionally.

[Gina]

[JamesF]

I am still working this evening, though I'm near done now but for a bit of tidying up closer to 10pm, assuming it's all gone well (and if it has I can do that from the observatory).

I haven't opened the roof as the dew is very heavy here this evening (the grass is absolutely soaking despite quite a warm and sunny afternoon), but I did open the end flap and switched on the red lights in the scope room on the way out to shut the chickens in for the night.  With the end flap open it should cool down a fair bit.  I don't have that much of a plan for this evening anyhow, as I need to sort out my guiding and so on, which means doing a bit more learning about Ekos.  I might get some more unguided subs of M27, just for fun.

James

[Gina]

Lost the text...  Polaris of hot pixel, I wonder.

[JamesF]

1 minute ago, Gina said:

Foggy around your way is it, Gina?

James

[Gina]

Might be dew but no - not foggy.

[Gina]

I have stars.

[JamesF]

I guess your hot pixel was actually Polaris then?

James

[Gina]

Yes.  I've taken a previous image containing Cygnus, solved it and it's supposed to be slewing to target except that I can't see anything happening.

[Gina]

It has worked - sort of - not quite right.

[JamesF]

Which scope/lens is this with?

James

[Gina]

55mm f1.8

[Gina]

astrometry.net online solver is very slow.

[JamesF]

5 minutes ago, Gina said:

astrometry.net online solver is very slow.

I found that when I was trying to use it.  Didn't help that my connection from the observatory wasn't exactly fast so uploading the image took time, too.  In the end I went for local solving.  What was sometimes taking over a minute now takes a couple of seconds, if that.

James

[Gina]

I couldn't get the offline solver to work.  Maybe I'll try again.

[Gina]

Solved original star field but not new capture.

[JamesF]

On Mint I installed astrometry.net and then the index files astrometry-data-2mass-04, astrometry-data-2mass-05, astrometry-data-2mass-06, astrometry-data-2mass-07 and astrometry-data-2mass-08-19 at which point it "just worked".

I did need to install astrometry-data-2mass-03 later to solve for a 600mm focal length with the ASI174MM.

James

[Gina]

Solving from part of Cygnus produced the right FOV.  Why it doesn't work properly I don't know.  Anyway, I can capture some data.