|
Post by Dragon Man on Nov 20, 2016 14:31:35 GMT
FINALLY!!!!! The Maiden Voyage of the new Observatory (see here) To make it hard for myself for the Obs first night I grabbed a look at M31 Andromeda Galaxy which is extremely low from my location down here at the bottom of Australia Yeah, I know, you lot up in the Northern Hemisphere can see it any time, but here it is under 9 degrees altitude Meade SN10 Astrograph, EQ6 mount, modified Mintron, UV/IR cut filter. Home-made 0.58x Focal Reducer. Single 20 second 'Live' screen grab in Miloslick capture software. No stacking or post-processing. Just the raw view on screen And clear skies for the first time in almost 8 months
and here's NGC 253 on screen with everything running nicely Same deal. 20 seconds.
|
|
|
Post by davy on Nov 20, 2016 15:04:52 GMT
fantastic news ken,,control room looking good,,room for another couple of screens lol
|
|
|
Post by Dragon Man on Nov 20, 2016 17:45:45 GMT
There's only 2 screen that actually operate davy, even though it looks like NASA The 2 up top are running from the laptop, and the laptop screen won't work with both of them on. It's just a split screen from the laptop. The little TV on the left is for the finderscope.
|
|
|
Post by ChrisV on Nov 20, 2016 22:35:42 GMT
M31 is really low in the sky down there. It nearly reaches 15deg in Sydney.
That's one sensitive camera Ken. NGC253 is screaming. I'd have to stack a few to get near that
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2016 23:24:59 GMT
Very nice!!
Do you have a model no. for the camera?
|
|
|
Post by Dragon Man on Nov 21, 2016 12:49:49 GMT
No Robert, no model number.
|
|
|
Post by fondofchips on Nov 22, 2016 9:04:43 GMT
What is the advantage of having the mount controller on your desk?
Mine is still with the mount and the lead runs fronm there to the PC.
|
|
|
Post by davy on Nov 22, 2016 11:20:15 GMT
I'm positive ken uses only the handset without PC control
|
|
|
Post by Dragon Man on Nov 22, 2016 11:34:47 GMT
What is the advantage of having the mount controller on your desk? Mine is still with the mount and the lead runs fronm there to the PC. Harry, my hand controller isn't connected to a PC. I use it as a standard hand Controller, just with a longer cable
|
|
|
Post by howie1 on Nov 22, 2016 11:52:53 GMT
Harry, don't know whether Ken's reason is the same as mine?
My own reason was I don't have an observatory and so have to setup my HEQ5 every time. And that means I lug all the cables and batteries and stuff everywhere. For me cable control with a PC (when I tried it), meant more cables and connections and installing drivers. Then, updating things or installing something new on the PC inevitably blew up Stellarium or something else and I had to reinstall it every time. Then I tried WiFi connection, and there were most often problems if you didn't connect it in the same order each time, and dropouts of connection or SkySafari simply said there was no mount connected even though it was! Plus more batteries to carry for the wifi unit and so on. I just wanted reliable simplicity, so I just got a long handcontrol cable and have never had a problem since. Less to carry around and setup and go wrong. I lookup an object on the iPad (which lasts at least 3 times longer in-field when not running via cable to run the scope, or 5 times longer than when connected via WiFi), and then type in its NGC or IC or M number into the hand control and away it goes. No biggie.
|
|
|
Post by Dragon Man on Nov 22, 2016 12:52:19 GMT
My reason is also simplicity. I did try to go the EQ-mod route, but it failed miserably. I was quite happily plodding along using my simple hand controller but was talked into connecting EQ-mod. I bought the necessary cable, and to make sure it was all done correctly, one of EQ-mod's Beta Testers drove 3 hours to my place to supply the necessary adaptor and set it all up for me. He spent several hours at what should have only taken about 30 minutes but still couldn't get it to work. He contacted the writer/creator of EQ-mod for further suggestions. None worked. He left late that day for his 3 hour drive back home again. The following weekend he drove the 3 hours back here again with a new cable and new adaptor, put in another 3 or 4 hours. Nothing he tried would work. Then, after some mind-boggling code changes he managed to get it to connect and talk. YAAAY! Well, temporarily No matter what he tried and how much he re-set, re-boot, re-scratched his head, tried different programs, etc, it would not GoTo the objects selected. On some objects it was only a few degrees off, on others it was on the other side of the sky! For a couple it pointed at the ground!!! He contacted me days later and said that he had discussions with the creator and other beta testers in the EQ-mod group and none of them were able to solve my problem. So, to my pleasure, I reverted back to my simple directly connected v2.05a Hand Controller and haven't regretted it, and prefer it. All I use to extend it is a Cat5 cable. As Howie says: "type in its NGC or IC or M number into the hand control and away it goes. No biggie".Ahhhhhh, simplicity Just one note to make. The 15+ year old version hand controller I have is the v2.05a. The small 'a' stands for Australia, denoting the GoTo firmware in this model controller is written for the Southern Hemisphere. BUT! the dopes at Synta (the makers of Skywatcher/Orion Mounts) in their efforts to update Star and DSO co-ordinates for the Southern Hemisphere totally forgot to update the Solar System Objects co-ordinates, so as accurate as this mount is, it can't find a planet or the Moon It was corrected in following versions. All I do is find a DSO near the Moon or the planet I want to look at and go to that, and then just hand slew that last little bit. It doesn't really bother me as I'm not a Planet or Moon observer anyway, and saves me having to fork out $600 for a newer version hand controller. I like it the way it is. Simple and it works.
|
|
|
Post by fondofchips on Nov 23, 2016 9:06:13 GMT
Thanks Ken & Howie, as I have been able to get EQMOD working OK, I make small slewing corrections that way. So Ken needs the controller on his desk as the mount cannot be slewed from the PC?
|
|
|
Post by Dragon Man on Nov 23, 2016 9:42:53 GMT
Thanks Ken & Howie, as I have been able to get EQMOD working OK, I make small slewing corrections that way. So Ken needs the controller on his desk as the mount cannot be slewed from the PC? Yes Harry, exactly. Not only because I 'need' to, but also because I ' want to' control the mount from my desk. I could leave the controller on its original short cable and go outside to it every time I want to GoTo an object, but where's the fun in that? Or pay heaps for a newer version hand controller and use EQ-mod. No thanks, I'll stick with simplicity
|
|
|
Post by fondofchips on Nov 23, 2016 12:03:45 GMT
Thanks Ken, I can't say that EQMOD is a walk in the park, in some ways it adds to the complications of Video Astronomy. I would settle for something simpler to operate too.
|
|
|
Post by Dragon Man on Nov 23, 2016 12:48:44 GMT
Thanks Ken, I can't say that EQMOD is a walk in the park, in some ways it adds to the complications of Video Astronomy. I would settle for something simpler to operate too. Easy fixed Harry. Don't use EQ-mod LOL! Just use a cat5 cable as an extension lead to the hand controller Easy-peazy.
|
|