Just called it a night

[JamesF]

though it's probably better now than it has been since sunset.  The forecast was for a clear night and it's been anything but, so far.

Nonetheless very useful, as practising imaging has made me a new list of things I need to do.  Firstly, I really need to set up guide scopes as anything over 60s on either of the NEQ6s is a bit iffy unguided and some of the nebulae I was scooting around this evening need way more than a minute per sub even for luminance.  I'll either use the ST80 and a finder-guider or ST102 I think.  To do all that I really need to sort out USB hubs to go on the mounts.  Also because for some reason my 314L+ won't talk to the pier computer directly, though it's quite happy if I plug it into a hub.  I'll also need to make up some more power cables and find some way to fix the hub to the mount.

After many back-and-forth trips between the telescopes and the warm room I'm also now convinced of the benefits of remote focusers, so that's something to go on the list to think about   I swapped the cameras around this evening, so had to refocus each one.  I must have walked miles

Dew heaters are probably going to become necessary.  It wasn't as bad as a couple of nights ago, but it was still quite wet out there.  I have some, but nowhere near enough, and the control box is too bulky to go on the mount.

I've had a few niggles with Kstars this evening, too.  Most notably when entering co-ordinates for comets.  For some reason it kept jumping to a different place after moving the pointer to the location I'd entered.  And I still don't know why it's putting 168P in the wrong place according to everyone else.

Oh, yes, filter wheels.  I have a couple of filter wheels, but only one set of filters.  That's something that could get a bit expensive

I can't deny that it was quite fun however, sitting in the warm room and driving two separate telescopes around different parts of the sky and grabbing images with both at the same time.  For me, having multiple piers was definitely the right way to go.

Tomorrow I'll try to have a look to see if any of the data collected tonight is actually useful.  Another clear night is forecast however, so who knows if I'll have time to do anything with it?

James

[Dragon_Astro]

Yup I gave up too after only managing to capture 6 subs on the Elephants Trunk.

Forecast was “clear” all night and it was even mentioned on the news that it was going to be great for UK astronomers.

Like you did, I used the cloud time to fiddle with things. PhD settings and nail polar alignment a bit better for me.

[Gina]

I left my imaging rig running overnight but it was pretty much a waste of time or at least a waste of electricity.  Bands of cloud kept passing over and the power cable for the mount got hooked up on the weight and stopped tracking.  Just as well I didn't have the clutches very tight or I'd have a broken cable now!  Seems I have several things to sort out before I can say everything is ready for imaging...

[JamesF]

I guess if you wouldn't have got any decent subs anyway, at least the night hasn't been wasted if you've found issues that need sorting out.  Have you found the focusing issue yet?

James

[Davey-T]

Did get pretty clear skies all night here but had operator brain fade problems, lost contact with the main camera so turned it off and on again then forgot to reset the sequencer which had reverted to only I of each RGB but I'd gone for a cuppa so wasted half an hour, started over and forgot to turn on the camera cooler so took lot's of subs without it on, another hour wasted, started again from scratch, all running nicely keeping an eye on it now which was just as well as PHD decided to freeze, hey ho, by this time NGC7331 was heading for the LP so gave up and searched for some comets.
found Africano and took a few subs, no sign of Hergenrother, thought about swapping cameras and doing some lunar shots but needed to do flats first so didn't bother.

So Dave 0 gremlins10 

Dave

 

Edited August 24, 2019 by Davey-T

[Gina]

I know the feeling - oh so well!!

[Gina]

1 hour ago, JamesF said:

I guess if you wouldn't have got any decent subs anyway, at least the night hasn't been wasted if you've found issues that need sorting out.  Have you found the focusing issue yet?

James

You're right there - the trailing stars showed a fair amount of cloud.

Yes, found the focuser problem.  Brought the rig indoors this morning and set up on the work bench (A.K.A. living room table), connected to bench PSU, and set up on Mint desktop for remote focussing.  Checked the signals going to the A4988 stepper driver - fine - checked power to A4988 - fine - checked output to stepper motor - nowt!  Checked voltage on current adjuster pot - too low - so increased it from 0.003v to 0.3v and tried setting the focus - it worked.   Stepper motor was getting rather warm so halved the current - still working.  How that tiny trimpot got turned I don't know but that seems to be all it was!

While out in the observatory I rerouted the mount power cable so that it can't get caught up on anything. 

I still need to check the DC power wiring in the observatory - there a less than tight Gnd connection on the power distribution box.  Sometime I want to make a new one with more outputs/fuses and digital meters.  Might see about as next job.

Edited August 24, 2019 by Gina