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Post by Rick in NWArk on May 24, 2016 19:41:45 GMT
Live view from the Universe/SSI Software No Stacking, Processing, or Adjusting... Just a crop of a screenshot (CTRL+PRTSCR then Paste) Celestron 9.25 Evolution Celestron 2x Barlow SSIc Camera No filters. Exposure: 80 milliseconds at f/20
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Post by howie1 on May 24, 2016 22:47:34 GMT
Rick, wow! You must be pleased as punch with your new kit. Impressed with the SSIc too. Great shots of Jup and Mars.
cheers
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2016 0:14:55 GMT
Nice job Rick. My planetary efforts have thus far been thwarted by poor seeing. Planets move around in the FOV making focus difficult, but I'm a patient man and I'll keep after it. One day perhaps I'll figure it out. BTW I see you got a new scope, congratulations. I'm curious to hear how you like it. I'm considering getting a similar scope for travel to outreach and star parties and leaving my 10" RC on the G-11 in the observatory as a permanent setup.
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Post by Rick in NWArk on May 25, 2016 13:18:25 GMT
Howie, thanks!
So far so good... I have not been able to get it fully aligned yet - my first attempt with the iPad failed because (I think) my iPad does not have the cellular to be able to get accurate info that the program can read. I've at least read that on CN.
This night, my 2nd, I did a 1-star alignment because there were clouds hanging around when I was starting with Jupiter - but that was good enough to allow me to broadcast Jupiter on NSN.COM for about 20 minutes with I think only 1 or 2 re-adjustments of position.
On Mars, it was a bit of a hole in the clouds vs rising over the trees, but I'm very happy with it. The focus might not be spot on, but it's pretty close. I like the knobby focus adjustment so far in this scope vs the 10:1 rack and pinion focusers and the lock knobs that I am used to in other scopes.
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Post by Rick in NWArk on May 25, 2016 13:21:04 GMT
Tim, I really like this so far and I did primarily get this scope for outreach. It was just so time consuming to get polar aligned with an EQ mount that it took away from the experience of the guests. Since its live viewing, I dont need to do long tracking and I like having the long F/L for planets - AND I discovered that this scope is hyperstar compatible too! Our timing was just a bit off - if I had it earlier and didnt have family commitments, you could have seen it in-person at the Scrimmage
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Post by Dragon Man on May 25, 2016 13:24:46 GMT
WOWIE WOW WOW!!! Look at the surface detail!! Top job Rick
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Post by Rick in NWArk on May 25, 2016 17:38:39 GMT
Thank you Ken!
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Post by howie1 on May 27, 2016 5:13:04 GMT
Rick, so are you selling some of your other gear now you're a happy evolution camper .... I get jealous everytime I see the list of your OTA's, mounts and cameras ... what a great collection of quality kit. cheers
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Post by Rick in NWArk on May 27, 2016 15:50:07 GMT
Howie, thank you... Yes, the plan is to sell some of my gear, but I'm still trying to decide what to sell, however.
Scopes: I really like the EDT80 APO... I've had the most success with it -- on the AVX mount. I'd really like to keep this. If not, I could replace it and the AR152 achro with a bigger triplet APO for wide-field views. I just found out the other day that the Evolution is also hyperstar compatible, so it can cover wide-field too!
The largest % of my problems have occurred with the Mallincam VRC8. Visually, this is a really really nice scope... especially on planets. If I could just get it working for video... The vast majority of my alignment problems have been with this scope on my AVX. Now that I have a 9.25" F/10 with my Evolution, I've got the long focal length covered, so this is definitely a candidate.
Mounts: I would love to get my AVX fixed or eventually get a new one - great for small scopes with large fields of view. I went with the Evolution because of outreach and time to align an EQ mount. So far very happy, but I wouldn't mind having an EQ setup that works.
My old Synscan EQ6 is basically not operational. I'm trying to get the Polar Scope adjusted, but its way out of whack. I've also ordered the PHY Polemaster and adapter sized to this mount. I've been waiting for a month now and I have no ETA from Woodland Telescopes - even tho their website said they ship the adapter in 2-3 days. I'm about ready to pull my order and demand a refund - thing is, no one else has the adapter either. If I can use that to get polar aligned, then outside of planetary work I can use this mount as my 2nd setup. I can't do planetary because my firmware is old and is not upgradable. I am not sure how well this thing tracks, honestly, because I've never been able to get it polar aligned. If I decide this mount is totally bunk, I would transition to an Orion Atlas probably. I don't think I could sell this.
Cameras: SSI is a very good planetary camera. Have not tried it with smaller bright DSOs.
AGc is a fun "quickie" camera that can do some DSO work and heck might do some planetary as well. I got it for guiding, and have yet to get that going. It's also so light that I hope to have it in the 102 for my son to use. He's 11.
DSm I'm very tempted to try to sell. For me, with alginment/tracking problems, the dual exposure requirement makes this almost worthless. I have a narrowband Ha filter, and I wanted this mono cam to do live Ha - but it has never worked out for me. The software has gotten better, but I believe that if they ever go to single exposure that the dark field correction will not work and the image will be awash in warm pixels.
Speaking of warm pixels, my Jr. Pro has been sitting unused the longest. During warm weather, its pixel soup time. I don't use Miloslick or any other kind of live image processing, so I've never been super happy with this camera. I am really on the fence on selling this. I need a good DSO Camera and I like that its not USB so if I wanted two setups, I wouldnt need to deal with two laptops.
Decisions, decisions!!
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Post by davy on May 27, 2016 16:24:32 GMT
Hi rick. On the topic of the eq6 firmware,why not bin the handset and use eqmod and caryez de ciel software.
I bought the heq5 as you know,but the constant punching in all the stuff into the handset was a pain in the backside,as I was also connecting lead to handset to laptop( usb to serial adapter) The hitecastro usb lead laptop to mount is brilliant, you have to download ascom platform,eqmod and I use cartes de ciel software..start cdc click connect scope ,and thats you in control of your mount..slew it to the stars you can see and click sync..job done.only one snag ..lenght of hitecastro cable I put a usb extension cable on to make it longer,,didn't work,,have a new extension cable for rj connection side on route hopefully this should work
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Post by Rick in NWArk on May 27, 2016 16:46:33 GMT
Davy,
I was under the impression that the control codes need to come in from the handset, so the ASCOM control has to come into the handset. The mount does have an additional 9-pin serial, I believe
If this is wrong, then that could definitely open up new possibilities for the planetary side of things. Of course, I still have to get the thing polar aligned and the assess the tracking because this is an older model that I got used from someone who failed to mention the mount's shortcomings when I purchased it.
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Post by davy on May 27, 2016 17:11:28 GMT
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Post by howie1 on May 28, 2016 3:56:44 GMT
That's a great article very well done with looks of photos. Thanks Dave
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Post by davy on May 29, 2016 10:46:41 GMT
Thanks howie I can across it about a week ago on first light optics website while I was drooling over a 8" dual speed astrophotography Newtonian,,,
Rick did you get a look at the article,think it will solve a few problems mount wise for you,a lot of folk ditch the hand controller and just go eqmod,,I had seriously thought about getting the eq6 syntrec mount was a hundred quid dearer if I remember correctly,and just buy the hitecastro usb cable for the eq6..im glad I went the heq5 route its a big mount and ive went through the old interweb and some amazing set ups using this mount..
Been not well from Thursday,severe throat infection and its been killing me,worse at night,,going to set up scope today and try new cable i got.
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Post by Dragon Man on May 29, 2016 11:03:52 GMT
Davy, I was under the impression that the control codes need to come in from the handset, so the ASCOM control has to come into the handset. The mount does have an additional 9-pin serial, I believe If this is wrong, then that could definitely open up new possibilities for the planetary side of things. Of course, I still have to get the thing polar aligned and the assess the tracking because this is an older model that I got used from someone who failed to mention the mount's shortcomings when I purchased it. Rick, I have the old black EQ6 with the stupid 2.5 hand controller that can't find planets (what a dud). Whenever I want to look at the Planets or Moon I simply go to the nearest object in the data base (NGC, IC, Messier, etc) Almost all the time there is an object very close or right on whatever Planet I want to look at. If not, there is usually one just outside the FOV and I simply slew to the Planet. In all the years I have been finding Planets and the Moon this way I think it would only be a handful of times there was no NGC, IC or Messier close by. O those occasions I was about 3 degrees out and simply star hopped So, until you get EQmod sorted, you can find the Planets this way.
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