New imaging setup

[Mikyg]

Hi folks, just recieved all this imaging equipment from my dad as he cant get his head round the imaging and has decided to stick with his dobsy.

Cant wait to get started, any tips are hugely appreciated.

[tooth_dr]

3 minutes ago, Mikyg said:

Hi folks, just recieved all this imaging equipment from my dad as he cant get his head round the imaging and has decided to stick with his dobsy.

Cant wait to get started, any tips are hugely appreciated.

What a brilliant setup for starting out. Pretty much ideal.  How much or little do you know?  Familiar with autoguiding? What software do you know?

[tooth_dr]

I notice there is a guide ring on the dew shield of the ST80. This is never going to be stable. A wee bit of reconfiguration will be needed.  I don’t think it will balanced like that either. 

[Mikyg]

Yes it did have a wide plate on it so i took it off until i can get something a little smaller. If i remember right the bar i want is called a losmandy bar but i could be wrong 

 

[wuthton]

I'd ditch the guidescope rings altogether, they're not necessary at all and can cause headaches. Hopefully your dad has the tube rings that came with the ST80, just use those. 

Enjoy it, that's nice setup and it's going to be clear tomorrow.

 

[spillage]

If you still have the original rings for the st80 then you just use a metal bar. Drill and bolt this to the guide scope and drill two more hole to bolt it down to the top rings of your imaging scopes rings.

That is a gift though. looks like a qhy5 guide cam which I find is bullet proof and possibly a 314 imaging camera?

If you have the ability and cash I would suggest belt modding the neq6 as this really will change the mount for the better. Not sure if you have one but a eqdirect cable to control the mount via a computer without the need for the handset.

Have a look here if you have never used eqmod before and here for the lead. 

Image capture software:

N.I.N.A

APT

Guiding:

PHD2

Sorry cannot provide links to recovering time wasted and lost hair after pulling it all out...or for that a fix to stop usb leads constantly failing.

Edited November 28, 2019 by spillage

[tooth_dr]

My ST80 didn’t come with rings (came with EQ1) so I bolted it directly to a vixen dovetail and then attached that to the ED80 rings. 

[ollypenrice]

I agree with the guidescope mounting advice. There is no need to worry about aligning it to the main scope. Make sure the whole focuser assembly is tight in the blue tube and that the focus is locked up hard. It's an excellent guide scope. We have two here.

Personally I love Atik's Artemis Capture software which will have come with the camera.

If you're new to imaging, read this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html

And this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/dark-art-or-magic-bullet-steve-richards.html

It's a nice setup.

Olly

[gorann]

Agree with most things said here. I never understood why guide scope rings are sold - you will always find a guide star wherever the guide scope is pointing. The important thing is that there is no flex in the system (those rings will introduce flex) so bolt it to the imaging scope as strongly as possible and naturally both scopes will point largely in the same direction. What I think you should not worry about right now it belt-modding the mount. Most likely it will work quite well as it is, especially at the rather short focal length of your imaging scope.

Good luck!

[Mikyg]

Thank you guys, it all started out when I built an observatory for my dad when he retired. He said he said he wanted it completely computerised so this is the equipment he purchased. After a year or 2 with the gear he just can't get his head round the technology side of things so has decided he wants to just use his 250pds on a don mount. His health hasn't been great as of late so told be to take the imaging setup as he was going to leave it all to me anyway. I'm chuffed to bits. I’ve used to set up pier mounted but haven't done much guiding and have only imaged little bits successfully but i’ve not had lots of time to learn the lot. I don't suppose anyone has the old driver for the qhy5 do they? Thanks for the pointers guys. 

[fozzybear]

20 minutes ago, Mikyg said:

I don't suppose anyone has the old driver for the qhy5 do they

https://www.qhyccd.com/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=lists&catid=164&pc_hash=YPE3Yh

[spillage]

I'm sure once you have it all up and running you dad will be chuffed to bits to watch it in action. One of the best bits of advice I can give is that if possible set it up an a permanent mount as this would remove the headache of having to set up and strip down every time its used.

[ollypenrice]

16 hours ago, gorann said:

Agree with most things said here. I never understood why guide scope rings are sold - you will always find a guide star wherever the guide scope is pointing. The important thing is that there is no flex in the system (those rings will introduce flex) so bolt it to the imaging scope as strongly as possible and naturally both scopes will point largely in the same direction. What I think you should not worry about right now it belt-modding the mount. Most likely it will work quite well as it is, especially at the rather short focal length of your imaging scope.

Good luck!

Exactly, and there is an irony in this. The original purpose of guide rings was to allow guidescopes to be moved off axis in search of a star, whether for manual guiding or via old, insensitive autoguiders. Now people buy them in the mistaken notion that it's important to align the guide scope on axis. In fact the only real necessity is to mount the guider rigidly and guide rings offer a very poor way of doing so, as you say.

Olly

[Adam J]

2 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Exactly, and there is an irony in this. The original purpose of guide rings was to allow guidescopes to be moved off axis in search of a star, whether for manual guiding or via old, insensitive autoguiders. Now people buy them in the mistaken notion that it's important to align the guide scope on axis. In fact the only real necessity is to mount the guider rigidly and guide rings offer a very poor way of doing so, as you say.

Olly

Yes people are always worrying about flex, I can never comment on it having never experienced it, I suspect that its because I use an appropriately sized guide scope (you really don't need anything smaller bigger than a 50mm guide scope right up to 1000mm focal length) and without guide rings. I really don't like the ST80 as a guider for those reasons and not least because the focuser is terrible and tilts with gravity even with only a guide camera attached. 

Edited November 29, 2019 by Adam J

[Mikyg]

On 29/11/2019 at 10:33, Adam J said:

Yes people are always worrying about flex, I can never comment on it having never experienced it, I suspect that its because I use an appropriately sized guide scope (you really don't need anything smaller bigger than a 50mm guide scope right up to 1000mm focal length) and without guide rings. I really don't like the ST80 as a guider for those reasons and not least because the focuser is terrible and tilts with gravity even with only a guide camera attached. 

Is there a cheap guide scope you'd reccomend?  Thank you all for the advice.

[fozzybear]

I use a 50mm skywatcher finderscope with my qhy5II-M see pic with an adapter from Bern at Modern astronomy

[Stub Mandrel]

My guidescope is currently fixed to a side by side bar with gaffer tape 😎

[fozzybear]

1 minute ago, Stub Mandrel said:

My guidescope is currently fixed to a side by side bar with gaffer tape 😎

proper diy'er  if it works don't touch it...

[Adam J]

16 hours ago, Mikyg said:

Is there a cheap guide scope you'd reccomend?  Thank you all for the advice.

Define cheap lol. 

I have used this for 3 years and felt no need to change it. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Orion-Deluxe-Guide-Helical-Focuser/dp/B00B1N7576/ref=sr_1_63?keywords=guide+scope&qid=1575289643&sr=8-63

For less money this will also work just fine. 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-cameras/astro-essentials-32mm-f4-mini-guide-scope.html

Adam

[bottletopburly]

I use a qhy miniguide scope 130mm fl fits on finder scope dovetail ,very light haven’t had any problems locating stars with a qhy5L -11c  though when funds allow should buy a mono cam .

[stash_old]

9 minutes ago, bottletopburly said:

I use a qhy miniguide scope 130mm fl fits on finder scope dovetail ,very light haven’t had any problems locating stars with a qhy5L -11c  though when funds allow should buy a mono cam .

Plus 1 - but I use asi120mm(oldest version) - but again no problems with the miniguide scope.  But it does need a anti dew heater in this weather even with a mini self built shield!

[bottletopburly]

4 hours ago, stash_old said:

Plus 1 - but I use asi120mm(oldest version) - but again no problems with the miniguide scope.  But it does need a anti dew heater in this weather even with a mini self built shield!

the newer version comes with a dew shield, my mk1 i have been using a dew band though a piece of insulation mt worked well .