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Post by Dragon Man on May 5, 2016 7:29:49 GMT
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Post by davy on May 5, 2016 9:50:43 GMT
Thanks ken.
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Post by Rick in NWArk on May 5, 2016 14:07:15 GMT
Fantastic Davy!
My Evo arrived yesterday too... but I spent the evening with my son doing a little co-op Minecraft instead of getting first light.
Cant wait to see your first light images!
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Post by davy on May 5, 2016 15:06:23 GMT
Fantastic Davy! My Evo arrived yesterday too... but I spent the evening with my son doing a little co-op Minecraft instead of getting first light. Cant wait to see your first light images! Cheers rick,will post them in August,,, 2026
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Post by davy on May 6, 2016 20:20:15 GMT
Fantastic Davy! My Evo arrived yesterday too... but I spent the evening with my son doing a little co-op Minecraft instead of getting first light. Cant wait to see your first light images! Hi rick, any news on the evo yet :-)
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Post by davy on May 6, 2016 20:27:38 GMT
Next step in the upgrade. Ordered the eqdir cable from hitecastro,this is coming from first light optics. This cable takes away the need to to use your hand controller, Connects your pc to mount.I will be using ascom platform ,eqmod and carte,s de ceil software to run the heq5,I have a bid in for a usb gps unit,when I get one,it will send gps data to eqmod,save a bit of time and hassel.
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Post by davy on May 6, 2016 21:05:48 GMT
So the next stage,in planning..is the balancing of the scopes,it has a droopy bum due to the weight of focussers,cameras ect. Will take spare dovetail in to work and make a bracket to add a weight on other end of scope to compensate..moving along nice the overall upgrade
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Post by davy on May 7, 2016 11:05:31 GMT
Ordered 1.8kg of lead ingots,,believe it will be 1kg bar and .8kg bar,this will be made into a scope weight,,the two allen bolts at end of dovetail will hold a bracket with threaded rod to hold the weight. Ebay..£7.50 1.8kg of lead
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Post by howie1 on May 8, 2016 7:10:46 GMT
Davy, I love to see you DIY'ing like this, but can't help being a negative-ninny. Why not start with that previously posted idea which I thought you were heading towards ... your main scope + a guidescope, but with Canon DSLR in one to get widefield/lower mag/big stuff and smaller chip camera in the other to get narrowfield/higher mag/small stuff. You could be out there at next good weather with that combo (yes have read your scottish propensity towards cloudy skies so it might be a while - so sad for you when you have such a passion for astro). But ... kinda learn to walk towards your goal of multi camera shoot everything without changing cameras idea ... rather than big-bang (excuse the pun!). I kinda think with the HEQ5 you are heading towards way too much weight n stuff. Not to mention flexure in all those scopes on scopes. I would love to see you succeed but do suggest take it in stages. Do hope you take the suggestion in its intended vein. Not criticizing the aim ... just maybe the path to get there. Whats that saying "How do you eat an elephant ... bit by bit". Whichever way you go ... continue Big Bang or starting with two scopes piggybacked ... I will continue to read with delight your continuation of this project!.
Cheers
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Post by davy on May 8, 2016 8:10:50 GMT
Lol,,all in hand,,the steps have been years in the planning,weights ect have been calculated for astrophotography and video,the only part is the physical fit of the scopes and balance.. Balancing the scope is the key,if the scope is perfectly balanced on both axis and the weight is close to the stated mount weight,,were good,,I done a lot of weight and scope test on my eq3 pro and proved a lot of folk wrong. I have tons of plans and ideas,that i have kept to myself. ive spoke in the past about ideas,because I hadnt the cash available to carry it out,ive seen others complete it and I have to look on.most of the guys that know me,,know I think out the box,,probably off my head to be honest..but im very calculated in what I do,I cant afford to destroy the kit I have with the,,,I thought it would work attitude..to be honest if I put up my full idea on here I would get laughed off the forum,, because im not a lottery winner I have to be ahead of things all the time,I have been on many forums and read more threads than had hot dinners and came to the conclusion that there are a lot of innovators but more intimidators in astronomy,I like doing it out of the box thats why I like it so much, my kit has been getting built up for six years and im in the planning stage of my observatory as well and every bit of my kit has been bought with this in mind,,,but im ten years ahead of my plan for this hobby,,its a retirement hobby lol.
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Post by davy on May 8, 2016 8:50:52 GMT
multi camera array has been a plan for years,capturing sections of the sky on video,WHY.because my weather here is poor so if I can capture a pile of data at one go all the better,, the initial concept was to use samsung scb2000,pd1 camera,scb2001 and watec 902h camera and a scb dome mount allsky camera,old school folk know these cameras well and what they can do,the idea was to mount them static and capture to a cctv four channel dvr with 1.5tb hard drive,,split the feed to monitor and capture to easycap usb grabber to a laptop,,,all this kit is in place,,now a couple of year ago it wasn't even thought about by other's ,,my problem... portability..far to much kit to carry up and down four flights of stairs,so next up ..a large toolbox,fitted inside is a 12v 22amp golf cart battery that runs the 12v cctv dvr,and 12v 15" monitor fitted inside the lid of the tool box,but due to weather and other projects its all been tested just inside the flat,modifications had to be made,, shotgun cable had to be replaced with quality 75 ohm co axial cable to stop phase lines in video capture.... now lets expand this concept and add a goto mount, four cctv cams on a goto mount.on different intregration times and lenses..recorded to a cctv dvr,,some intresting data I would think. So the grand plan.. davy with a new roll off roof observatory,inside is a control booth with a base station computer and two laptops,a heq5 mount carrying a ed80 with 0.85 sw focal reducer and canon 600d,a st102 scope running a second canon 600d and linked to a computer running backyard eos, guide scope with qhy5 camera..next set up eq3 pro with four modded cctv cameras linked to the four channel dvr an linked to a monitor and to a computer..third set up for tinkering with ,skywatcher allview with a canon 400d or an allview camera..now where is that box I keep hearing about ..lol..told you I was passionate and nuts :-)
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Post by davy on May 8, 2016 9:19:38 GMT
so all have seen a bit about my plans for the hardware side of things and my ideas for he kit,why.. i have believed for a while the key to getting it all together is getting the data or photons,so video astronomy has moved along again in its thinking,,before it was small fast scopes and long intregration low light cameras,now its any scope and usb cameras with short exposure stacking.....me i think you have to do both and if you can do it with one camera and control these exposure times and sensitivity were on too a winner,but a camera may do all these things at present,so it will be scopes that will change in the future we allways said no one scope or camera can do all,thats now changed so im trying to future plan. as usual lol.
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Post by ChrisV on May 8, 2016 9:55:50 GMT
Next step in the upgrade. Ordered the eqdir cable from hitecastro,this is coming from first light optics. This cable takes away the need to to use your hand controller, Connects your pc to mount.I will be using ascom platform ,eqmod and carte,s de ceil software to run the heq5,I have a bid in for a usb gps unit,when I get one,it will send gps data to eqmod,save a bit of time and hassel. I dont use skywatcher stuff, but why do you need the GPS ? Wont Cartes du Ciel get that info from your computer ? And how do you do the star alignment without the hand controller ? Just askin cause I might go down the HEQ5 route some day some time.
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Post by davy on May 8, 2016 13:15:48 GMT
I was going to get a gps to use,until i get observatory up..prob do some mobile stuff.
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Post by davy on May 9, 2016 22:11:07 GMT
i have been looking at the heq5 extension for the tripod,it adds 16" to the hight of the tripod before the head fits on,,,30 day delivery time on these.. wow
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Post by Dragon Man on May 10, 2016 7:03:30 GMT
Knock one up at work davy
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Post by davy on May 10, 2016 7:08:09 GMT
Lucky if I get a full half hour lunch break lol.
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Post by davy on May 10, 2016 17:29:10 GMT
Update. Hitecastro heq5 cable arrived today,took off hand controller and replaced with the cable,selected com port and away it went ,,brilliant.. so whats so good about it. Using the handset in pc mode,you require a good usb to serial cable then your cable to serial converter,you need to do your star alignment then go to pcmode on handset then connect it all through eqmod and cdc. Mosuch hassel with eqmod and hitec astro cable..pick out stars for alignment via cdc,send scope to it.. center..and pick as many as you want,,do it to your fied of view even better for me.. much faster using this method...not quicker than using just handset.. me I prefer my sky chart..happy bunny tonight.
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Post by davy on May 10, 2016 17:33:36 GMT
Laptop view..top of hill ,straight in front of flat 2 mile away ?? St102 80mm extension tube ,ir filter and moon filter on qhy5l11 colour
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Post by davy on May 10, 2016 21:23:40 GMT
Well thats more eqmod tutorials watched on utube,night off astronomy tomorrow, pipe band practice,,,guest drumming on Saturday with kirkintilloch pipe band ,playing bass drum at broadwood bmx track, one of the national events,,,last year I was playing with kilsyth thistle pipe band at it....so much for retirement :-)
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