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Old 29-10-2020, 05:14 PM
bluesilver (Peter)
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Trouble with Stallerium and EQMOD (numbers not matching)

Hi, I have a few dramas that i am hoping a few might be able to help me out with.

So I have Stallerium and EQMOD

Mount is a Skywatcher EZ-EQ6, the newer one with the USB B port on the mount.

The first issue is do do with Stallerium.

When i go to connect telescope, i get the connected, so all good there,
Close off that window and try to find where my mount is pointing.
50% of the time the mount icon is pointing in the grass roughly SE, the other 50% of the time it appears to be pointing at the SCP
So not sure what is going on there.

I have set my location as spot on manually as i can, ( am i best just to select a town from the drop down list instead ?)

I changed the time to UTC +10:00 as this is what i believe is the correct time zone for Australia

Dose any of this sound incorrect or explain why the telescope icon is showing pointing into the grass at roughly SE once connected?

I have the telescope set up so that home position is pointing at the SCP

Now in EQMOD tool box,
I have the Baurd set at 115200
I have entered the location as it is on Stallerium so that both are the same
For polar star i selected Sigma O ( i think this is correct ?)

Now this is the interesting part i guess.

I took note of the RA, DEC, AZ, ALT numbers on both Stallerium and EQMOD and noticed that they were all different.
I am fairly sure this could be part of my drama.

Also noted on EQMOD that the LST ( i am not sure what this is, maybe local standard time ?) This didn't match the time in Stallerium or the laptop



This is what i had from EQMOD and Satllerium

EQMOD---------------------------------------------------------Stallerium

LST 18:09-----------------------------------------------------16:51 ( on Laptop )

RA 3.47:19---------------------------------------------------3h 47 14.89s

DEC -74:04:50___________________________ ________ -74 10' 32.8"

AZ 169:30 :30 ------------------------------------------------169 32' 20

ALT 27:51 :50 ---------------------------------------------------27 57:00

Note: this is not the home position numbers, i selected a star slightly away from the SCP to see if i could get some better numbers to try and make it easier to understand what is going on.
( telescope slewed to this star)
Also when i click on LST in EQMOD, it changes to AM 1.568

Sorry for the long post, but any advice or information on what might be going on would be appreciated.
I do have APT but don't want to confuse the question with this as APT settings did match EQMOD .
All advice and information is appreciated.

Thanks.
Peter.

Last edited by bluesilver; 29-10-2020 at 06:48 PM. Reason: Easier to read
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Old 29-10-2020, 05:45 PM
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Wilsil (Wilco)
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I am not an expert, but I can think of the following.

Be 100% that the location is both Stellarium and EQmod are the same.
The time is very important as well.
Do you start with the scope in the home position? Stellarium gets the position of the scope from the scope.
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Old 29-10-2020, 06:48 PM
bluesilver (Peter)
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Thanks for the reply,
Yes, i believe i have both Locations are the same, I should look into getting a GPS dongle to plug in.
That will eliminate any errors
Maybe something like this:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BU-353-S...75.c1#viTabs_0

But the LST in EQMOD has me thinking.
I could be wrong here, but i think this should read the same time that is on my laptop?
Yet to figure out how to change this yet though
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Old 29-10-2020, 07:23 PM
Startrek (Martin)
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Peter,


First things first


Is you tripod and mount nice and level ?



Are you accurately polar aligned to below 1 arc minute ?


Is you mount set to the "home position" ? ie pointed at the SCP



Is you mount and Tripod facing the correct way ie Front leg facing true south or SCP



Do your location settings in Stellarium match EQMOD ASCOM Set Up Window ( Not EQMOD Control Pad ) when the Ascom driver launches it
Are you on Daylight saving time ? If so Time Zone should be UTC +11 and Daylight Saving box ticked
For non Daylight saving Time Zone should be UTC + 10
You should also tick Use "Current Time Zone"





You shouldn't be touching anything in the "Mount Position' window on the EQMOD control pad other than Slew Controls and Site Information. Site information should have been set in the Ascom EQMOD Set Up Window previously



You shouldn't touch anything in Stellarium Configuration F2 - Time

Only tick the System Date and Time radio button


In Stellarium Date and Time F5 is the date and time correct ?



Have you gone through my procedure accurately from A to Z


Is you Laptop set to correct time ?


Does your time in Stellarium match the time on your Laptop ?



Other than that when you run Stellarium and connect your Telescope, EQMOD should launch and be flashing Parked , the target symbol ( your telescope ) should appear and move on to the SCP ready for your first slew

In the EQMOD the Mount Position "Alt" should match your Altitude set in Stellarium and EQMOD for your Location


If you mount is not polar aligned, and your Mount is not pointed directly at the SCP then when you try to slew to a Star from the Home Position the scope will end up pointing along way off and you cant correct this by nudging it into the field of view. Your first slew should be close if not in the FOV



I cant think of anything else which might be your problem



Anyway check all of the above



Good Luck


Martin
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Old 30-10-2020, 05:33 PM
bluesilver (Peter)
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Thanks for the replies,

Yes i had the date incorrect in Satllerium, overlooked the daylight saving bit.
Should of been UTC +11

But changing that didn't effect the numbers i am still getting for some strange reason.

Everything else is setup as it is suppose to be.
The only thing is that i am not outside, leveled or polar aligned.
Just trying everything out inside first to get the feel for it first.

Might just have to set it up outside when we get clear skies and see what happens when i star selecting stars to slew to.

Appreciate all advise
Thanks.
Peter.
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Old 30-10-2020, 07:54 PM
Startrek (Martin)
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Peter
I noticed one very important procedure missing in my document
When you enter your Site Location information in the Ascom EQMOD Set Up window make sure you press the “Save symbol” otherwise when you shut down and start another session on a different night EQMOD will default to whatever was there before you set you location details
Picked it up tonight wondering why the driver wouldn’t connect to COM port

Cheers
Martin
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Old 31-10-2020, 07:19 AM
bluesilver (Peter)
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Appreciated,
Thanks for the updates.
Every little bit helps when learning this new setup.
Only if the clouds would disappear for a few nights i will be able to put it all in to practice.
Appreciated,
Peter.
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Old 31-10-2020, 09:04 PM
Startrek (Martin)
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Another important item to check is make sure you have the latest driver installed for your USB to Serial Port on the mount
I checked my Prolific USB to Serial port driver for the EQ6-R mount ( USB2B port socket ) in Device Manager , USB COM Port and it was dated 2015.
Updated the latest driver which was dated July 2019
As I don’t connect my Laptop to the internet to keep all my Astro software stable , I’m not receiving Windows updates which include Windows driver updates
Anyway all updated now manually and EQMOD and Stellarium running swimmingly
Cheers
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