Camera is arriving in about 13-14 houers, will I get it connected and working?

[Rocket Stars]

Hi! 

Happy as a kid, camera is arriving tomorrow before lunch!

Set up is avx Mount with wi-fi dongle, edge 8hd, Altair GPCAM 3 178c. 

Also have hyperstar and MicroTouch Autofocuser, wired. Couldnt resist the good deal on those to parts. But will hook that up later. When i got the basics figured out...  

Have installed both stellaruim and Kstars on my Mac. Tried to Connect 

both Stellarium and Kstars win wi-fi. But no luck. So I probably have to go for ethernet to start with. 

Du to some timeconstraints. And the need to carry it all, a fair bit. Id like a portable solution that is wireless. So the longer aim is a pi4 with preferably Kstars. But it seems a bit.. to be fair. Not stramt forward. If you are not used to creating imagediscs ect. Hav don that a cpl of year a go on a pi3 for 3d printing. But have forgot most of it. 😬

Anyway. Hoping for som good advice. So I can ”play” with the camera as soon as possible! 

 

Cheers! 

 

[Rocket Stars]

Ok Now I have the cam in my hands!  

It has a longer adapter. But with that it hits the bottom of the diagonal. Seems to fit better with the short, that is remounted on delivery. 

What to determine the right back focus in the diagonal assembly? 

Cheers! 

[alacant]

22 hours ago, Rocket Stars said:

right back focus in the diagonal assembly

Hi

Best to remove the diagonal. This should give you an idea of the distance you require:

HTH

[Rocket Stars]

On 09/08/2019 at 12:02, alacant said:

Hi

Best to remove the diagonal. This should give you an idea of the distance you require:

HTH

Thank you for you're response!  

I was able to at least get the cam set up and running. With no intention to capture great images. 

It was a bit of a hassle. Realized that I needed a looong usb 3 cable. Due to not owning a laptop. Hm.. So, I went in to the house and "stole" my wife´s old hp laptop. With a big promise that I would get her a new.. 

So, haven't fiddled much in depth with pc´s for many years.. It was a bit of a challenge.. Learning about ASCOM. What software to install.. Did decide to get NINA. With a reasonable good UI and morden look and feel. Doesn't feel like 90´s windows... No banting on other softwares. Im going to try them out too. Kstars ect. But many software developers forgets user-friendly interfaces and looks.  

Anyway, I did get the camera connected and running via Altairs original software. (on the wife pc) Got it outside with the scope. Flopped the cam in the diagonal. Just to get to captures a few frames. Clouds made it difficult, of coarse.. not to mention house, trees and street lights, was pretty much on my street.. Didn't care.. I was going to succeed with taking a few frames, and get some  knowledge of camera settings! 

I did! And it was fun!! 

My skyportal app didn't connect to the avx mount. So I had to use the hand controller to make star alignment (such a clunky device). Clods and poor seeng made it difficult, well impossible. I don't  have a polarscope, so made a fairly rough alignment in the finder scope. Was able to find Vega between the clods. But eventually just aimed the scope to polaris, to try to focus on a star. After an hour I had to quit, du to battery was getting empty on the laptop. In hindsight, It was probably for the best. Due to a lot of working projects the day after. 

How ever, got a cpl of frames of a star. Unfocused, elongated. A few shots with too much gain. But in the purpose of testing the camera. Im really happy. 

So what are my intentions next? I need to get a new pc for my wife.. (at some point  ) And something that I can have at the scope. Id like to have something at the scope that I can run remotely. Via Ipad and/or my desktop. I Like big screens, and not sitting on my knees too much.. human age is setting in..  Surrounding housing, trees, not having a Guidescope yet. I think setting up the Hyperstar, is the right thing to do. That would give me short exposures, that work good enough, with just  the avx mount tracking. So finding some sort of software that have polar alignment/ plate solving, with the ability to track the mount. Wold be great!! (most seems to just have Guidescope tracking?) 

Any suggestions are more than welcome!  

So far, Altair cam is installed and tested, SharpCap is installed, not tested. NINA installed, have had it connected to the mount and cam. 

Came home this morning, after a "thank you party". For a colleague that is moving on to new working commitments. Looked at the sky that was cloud free, bright stars and calm skies.. Did pondering about to get it all set up. But realized my "condition" wasn't the best.. Hm.. I think I have to schedule such things after seeing conditions, hereafter...  

Cheers all!! 

p.s

Going to a friends surprise birthday party in Edinburg, early September. Then we adriving to Manchester, to look at cricket. As a Swede, that looks like a peculiar sport... But it will be fun for sure! The question is of coarse.. If there is time, Id like to visit a good astro shop! Edinburg area. Or along the way to Manchester. (Have no clue to where and what in UK)

 If anyone can give me a few tips. It would be much appreciated!  

Edited August 10, 2019 by Rocket Stars
sweglish spelling...

[Rocket Stars]

Continuing the noob blog like postings.  

Last night it was fairly clear again. So out with the rig. Don't have a polarscope. But aimed it carefully to the correct angles. Polaris was visible. 

But in my excitement to get going. Id started with a star alignment with the hand controller. The controller is almost unreadable with its lowrez. scrolling text. Was getting clearly frustrated after a while. Getting cold, scope was not getting close to get aligned. Sometimes the scope went 90´off, from a selected star. Backed and selected another star. And it got closer. But not close enough.. Standing in on the knees, freezing and looking in that original Celestron finderscope. Didn't add to the evenings experience. So I decided to just find a strong star and check collimation. Went well. Nice round star. Focus was more precise, and easier,  with my "new" secondhand MicroTouch focus knob.. 

Hooked up the  soggy old laptop with 2gig ram. Loaded cart du Ciel and got it connected to the scope. It moved around at the directions it got from cdc. Not aligned, but success to get it working!  YES!! 

Fired up NINA, connected the camera. But couldn't find focus again. Fired up SharpCap, just to se if it was connecting to the cam. Yes, but no focus. Also started Altair cam software. But now I was getting to cold, tired and a bit frustrated.

Instead I went for manual observing. Mounted all my eyepiece´s at once! (just owning one 40mm plössel at the moment  ) Mercuris was up. But I realized it would be hard to find. But I tried.  Moon was up, but was in half haze behind trees, houses ect.  Looked at the clock.. hmm.. Hussled all the equipment back in the mancave. Went to bed 4am. Up to work and meet customers at 7am. 

Looks like there is going to be a fairly clear night again. I also decided that tiredness, is just a psychological phenomenon. So it will go away, if just ignored!  

Cheers! 

p.s

Note to self 1.. I have to remember to run over the streetlight with the car, when the right opportunity shows up..  

Note to self 2.. Astro equippment will never, ever be user-friendly! Get over it, and carry on! 

Note to self 3, Go shopping for a proper finderscope with a diagonal. Maby a polarscope? Oh yes!! And, or, maby a guidescope for polar finding ability? 

Not to self 4, be sneakier in the morning, don't wake the "government"  aka, the wife. And absolutely not showing any astroshops on the Ipad!! 

Note to self 5.   IM NOT TIRED!!!  (just to be absolutely sure) 

Note to self 6. Remote operation from a warm mancave is a part of the future! 

Edited August 13, 2019 by Rocket Stars
sweglish "autocorrect" spelling...

[alacant]

Hi again

Not sure I gave useful advice. Did you get any images in the end?

Cheers

[Rocket Stars]

Sorry for late reply. Working most of my time being aware at the moment. 

Missed 2 exeptional Nights. But, i couldn get focus in the diagonal. And dosent have the adapters to fit it in the rear. So I mounted the hyperstar and the camera. Was close to perfect backfocus. Have a few testators. But the hyperstar needs collimation adjustments. Hopefully, maby tonight I can try some more. 

[Rocket Stars]

Today I treated my self (or the scope), with a polmaster.

After som thinking about other options. Plate solving, polar alignment in SharpCap. Standing on my knee´s in the coming winters snow, bumping my head at the adjustscrews on the AVX mount. Freezing..

Decision was made. The scope needed a polmaster. So the crappy user (me) could make sure that we at least, have a good alignment in the direction Santa lives. ( roumours saying, santa is gearing up astrogear production this season)