The thread on the back is 117mm x 1mm right? Has anyone come up with a set of adapters for these to mate the takahashi collimating scope on the back? Or a moonlite?
I actually don't know the thread size but Precise Parts makes adapters up for all those pieces of it. I have an adapter from the atlas to the Tak collimation scope. Works a treat.
Yeh, thanks for that Paul. I hear you were partly responsible for the RC12" rear cell redesign. I also heard why ;-)
Here's what I think I'll use: Moonlite AT RC 10 flange -> Moonlite -> 2" Nosepiece (yes, it's not threaded but what can you do with a 2" moonlite?) with T-thread adapter -> Precise Parts T-thread to tak collimating scope.
( ! ! ! )
Unless I've got the wrong idea and the collimating scope should just go straight on to the rear cell with a Precise Parts RC 12 flange -> tak collimating scope attachment?
Yeh, thanks for that Paul. I hear you were partly responsible for the RC12" rear cell redesign. I also heard why ;-)
Here's what I think I'll use: Moonlite AT RC 10 flange -> Moonlite -> 2" Nosepiece (yes, it's not threaded but what can you do with a 2" moonlite?) with T-thread adapter -> Precise Parts T-thread to tak collimating scope.
( ! ! ! )
Unless I've got the wrong idea and the collimating scope should just go straight on to the rear cell with a Precise Parts RC 12 flange -> tak collimating scope attachment?
I did have a small hand in the redesign as it turns out, putting that much weight on the back of the scope lead to errors showing up.
You should definitely have everything in place up to and including the focusor. So you are on the right track.
You would need to get a threaded draw tube on your Moonlite to run a thread off that to the imaging train. Possible but it depends on your need for a threaded assembly. If you camera is light then it might not be necessary at this stage.
I use a non-threaded standard 2" setup on my 12"RC. Optec TCF-Si. To connect my Tak Collimation Scope, I simply thread it into part no. 13 in the attached pic. Works for me, and infinitely cheaper than a PreciseParts adapter.
Do you know if this is the same thing or something different?
Thanks
Simon.
Your new RC12 already has the collimating ring as well as the primary collimating on the actual back plate. This was part of the development that I had a hand in last year. The website has not been updated I suspect.
I finally got enough time and clear weather to put everything together, do some Tpoint runs, correct and do that again, then re-do PEC. Funny, no change in the result - although there is a change in the curve.
I need to see if I can get PEMPro working, which at the moment I'm having problems getting to communicate with the mount. It starts up ok, I can get past calculating the pixels/arc second but cannot get past trying calculating angle, rotation and direction. Something weird going on there. I've got 60 days to figure it out because at the moment, I don't want to pay $ for some software that will not do what I need.
HI Simon, don't bother with the SkyX PEC. It is garbage and does not work correctly. Use Pempro. Your values will be correct then and you will see real results.
HI Simon, don't bother with the SkyX PEC. It is garbage and does not work correctly. Use Pempro. Your values will be correct then and you will see real results.
+1 For this, Pempro is king. Both my MX and ME are flat lines on guide history after using Pempro. With native SkyX PEC, there was inconsistency and it just wasn't quite right.
It's a terrible night for it tonight, the high level cloud keeps on blowing in and away again, but I'm going to give it a shot. I know when measuring you turn off PEC corrections in TheSkyX, but do you also turn off pro-track?
It's a terrible night for it tonight, the high level cloud keeps on blowing in and away again, but I'm going to give it a shot. I know when measuring you turn off PEC corrections in TheSkyX, but do you also turn off pro-track?
I hope I'm not misquoting Patrick Wallace, but I believe he has said on the SB Forum that it ought to not make any difference if Protrack is on or off. The advantage of on is that the star will stay in the guide box window longer. With PEMPro I don't think it really matters as PEMPro will just follow the star anyway.
I probably said this before as well, but PPEMPro has been the only way I could correct PEC in both my MX and MEII. I never could get TSX to work properly (and I have tried a zilion+ times).
Fair enough. I tried it the other night - just before it clouded up and now need to wait for a clear night to see if it made any difference or if I need to invert the curve. I think I'm getting a bit more relaxed about this though, given the way a curve seems to be applied and then you can re-apply a different curve, the worst that can happen is the curve is inverted incorrectly which will double the error and you re-do the PEC to compensate, which then corrects the error and so on. Sounds simple!
I finally managed to get PEMpro sort of working with my Paramount the other night and gave a shot at recording and setting PEC. I'm not sure I'm getting this right at all.
After 45 minutes of recording, about 10 or 11 cycles, I created a graph and it now tells me I'm correcting at +-0.1 error. After applying the graph, I get slightly better guiding through TSX, but certainly not phenomenal guiding which you would think was the case at +-0.1
I was as close to 0 Dec that I could get, was on a magnitude 6.8 star, told PEMpro I was in the southern hemisphere and was west of the meridian. About the only thing I couldn't do was calibrate fully in PEMPro because a)TSX is not ASCOM compliant, b) I am using the main camera for PEC which does not have a guider relay port for moving the mount and c) do not know what 'other' means when telling PEMPro how to move the mount about during calibration.
Am I missing something here? Any ideas why PEMPro would be saying such a small error?
Like I said, +-0.1 was the final curve but only a slight improvement in tracking once the curve was applied. My resolution is about .65 arcsec/pixel.
Hi
If you haven't calibrated fully in Pempro, I would not trust the results you got. I connect to my cameras in Pempro via CCDSoft (the STi and Atik). I'm also using a plug-in from the ASCOM site,
"CCDSoft™ ASCOM Camera Plug-In for CCDSoft" which lets CCDSoft control my ASCOM camera directly (the Atik - but I've also used a QHY to collect PEM data before).
Otherwise, try using only your SBIG STi. Calibration will be tougher on that small chip - but it can be done. I've calibrated Pempro and collected PEM and PA data via STi and MMOAG in the past! Not ideal, but it can be done.
A question here is whether you had the camera at 0 degrees? If not then you need to do a full calibration in Pempro. You only need to be a few degrees out and your results will be affected.
