ZeroID
17-01-2013, 01:04 PM
Weather hasn't been all that flash lately cloudwise but I spent some time last night in the Ob simplifying the various components and making it easier to work in.
Threw out the dodgy desktop PC, too slow and bulky, Dropped in another small form laptop to run Stellarium and Webcams if required. The other runs PHD for guiding. This gave me more desktop space and storage underneath with a lot less wires about the place.
There were gaps in the clouds so opened up and targeted M42 since I'd also rebuilt the optical train for the 80mm and 7D and wanted to test it. Surprisingly I got PHD guiding going through intermittent clouds and managed a few 30 sec shots before the gaps went and it all went grey.
Proved two things though.
1. The simpler it is the better and more reliable it is. I use minimum cabling, connections or other USB etc hardware. Less to break or fault find even if it does fail.
2. My optical train is not robust enough to maintain accuracy, back to the drawing board. I'm thinking of mounting the scope and it's extras on a long single mountable rail so it can be managed as one unit and maintain it's integrity at any position.
Don't you just LOVE this DIY hobby ....:D
Solar charged batteries for mount power works well though :thumbsup:
Threw out the dodgy desktop PC, too slow and bulky, Dropped in another small form laptop to run Stellarium and Webcams if required. The other runs PHD for guiding. This gave me more desktop space and storage underneath with a lot less wires about the place.
There were gaps in the clouds so opened up and targeted M42 since I'd also rebuilt the optical train for the 80mm and 7D and wanted to test it. Surprisingly I got PHD guiding going through intermittent clouds and managed a few 30 sec shots before the gaps went and it all went grey.
Proved two things though.
1. The simpler it is the better and more reliable it is. I use minimum cabling, connections or other USB etc hardware. Less to break or fault find even if it does fail.
2. My optical train is not robust enough to maintain accuracy, back to the drawing board. I'm thinking of mounting the scope and it's extras on a long single mountable rail so it can be managed as one unit and maintain it's integrity at any position.
Don't you just LOVE this DIY hobby ....:D
Solar charged batteries for mount power works well though :thumbsup: