Its the little things...

[tomato]

A couple of days ago I had a clear night and with just 2 hours of astro darkness remaining I thought I could finish one more galaxy image but...

My Atik EFW2 wheel refused to connect to NINA, or anything else. I tried the usual, swapping leads, restarting etc but no joy. In the end I gave up and lost the clear night, grrrr.

The next day the wheel connected fine when plugged directly into the laptop on the bench but again refused to connect when put back out onto the scope. On closer inspection I noticed that a couple of years back I had glued some black flocking material to the base of the wheel housing as I was worried stray light was getting inside through the USB and power connection ports. At the time I just cut a slit in the felt so I could plug in the connections but I noticed the felt was compressed around the USB port where the plastic plug moulding  was pressing against it. I cut this away around the port and voila! A good connection every time. I think the felt had swollen a little bit over time, sufficient to stop the plug going all the way in to make a reliable connection, even though if felt like it was clicking into place.

Now I just need to wait for another clear night which no doubt will see the end of astro darkness when it finally happens.

[happy-kat]

I've yet to get clear night and early enough to meet, with your mention of astro dark perhaps I'll have to do IR as a try instead on bright stuff as it doesn't get dark early enough