star trailing: used EQ5 with GotoStar

[silv (Annette)]

again, my brain sees an 8, not a circle.

in my picture, we see 36 degrees from level.
you say: "54 degrees from level."
but then, you also concur that 37 from level will be correct.

uhm.

what am I missing?

[MrB (Simon)]

I'm not sure why it is so difficult to understand my replies?
My first reply ("54 degrees from level") is in reply to your question "assuming it was a scale that had 0 at the zenith and 90 at level"

My second reply was to the photo you posted.

I'm not sure how I can make this any clearer

[silv (Annette)]

yup, me neither. maybe, someone else can shed some light

when 90 degrees is at level (and 0 is at the zenith as assumed) and I adjust the mount 54 degrees from level as suggested by you - it would sit at 54 degrees from level - or 36 degrees from zenith.

that makes it the opposite to what we see in my picture where it sits at 36 degrees from level.

which is exactly my question:
from where should I measure 36 degrees? from zenith or from level?

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

Brain Freeze..............:S
At 90 South (ie at the south pole, you'd have to be level @ 90 from Zenith) each degree north would mean you have to depress your OTA a degree to stay looking at the pole so at 37 south you would have to depress your OTA 90-37=53 degrees from Zenith or raise it 37 degrees from horizontal

[MrB (Simon)]

I'm not sure why you asked the question about the scale being 0 at zenith and 90 at level, as it is clearly not the case in your photo, so forget the 54deg thing.

Go with the 37deg with the scale set as per your photo.

[adman (Adam)]

Hi Silv,

if Aucklands latitude is 36.85 degrees south then you will need to set the altitude to 36.85 degrees from level. (The SCP will be 36.85 degrees above the horizon and you need the RA axis to be pointing at it.)

Similar to the bubble level, I would not trust the latitude scale on the mount. If you have one - use an electronic inclinometer, or even a protractor to get it somewhere close. Then when you drift align you can refine it from there. I spent days trying to drift align my EQ5 before I realised that the altitude scale could slide around.....it was out by nearly 10 degrees.

Adam

[silv (Annette)]

The SCP will be 36.85 degrees above the horizon and you need the RA axis to be pointing at it.)

oh, thank you for clearing that up for me, adam!

drift aligning sounds like fun next week will have many cloudless nights and I can practice a lot. yay!

and now off to Placemaker for a proper bubble scale and to the pharmacy for a pirate outfit.
ah, hang on, first, I'll wait for that sun noon thing at 12.22pm, of course.

ah, I feel very confident that I will tame my dragon soon.
big thanks to all of you!

[silv (Annette)]

wow!

aligning - using the solar noon method
(2 bamboo sticks used. gives me a nice long line on the concrete to visually align the scope's body in park position)

- my new mantra: levelling, levelling, levelling, oooommmm
don't trust the bubble in the mount.

- latitude setting via trial and error. (scope aims too high during initial star alignment? then back to park position and turn off controller. then down with the angle. star align again: now it's too low? scope into park, controller off, up the angle.)

after "all" this 3 star alignment was (almost solely) a matter of how fast the scope slews.

almost solely: I left myself a bit of fine tuning. because it felt like I had lost something when everything fell into place, all of a sudden....

128 seconds wide field overhead : no trailing on the camera display.
(on the 32" in full resolution: yeah, a bit. .. thank god. )

the moon was glaring. the clouds rolled in. the feeling of loss subsided and celebration mood kicked in.

yay!

[silv (Annette)]

2 new things, though

that the stars now show a pink cone to their right can't be helped, right?
the cone being more prominent on the image edges than on the centre. it's to do with the lens and I can't tweak that with existing gear, right?

fine focussing with the controller showed a new "feature" tonight.
whereas before, pushing the left-right-up-down buttons almost immediately reacted and moved the scope into that direction,
tonight, the scope first performed a tiny backwards circle before it then "found" the direction it should move to.
I wonder whether that is not only an annoying feature but could also be a sign for correct tracking being jeopardized.
it only happened today.
I had not taken off the mount head during levelling.
all I did was fine tuning the latitude setting while the mount was fully loaded ...

[NCC-2893 (John)]

Hi Silv, I feel your pain. This whole scp thing drives me nuts. Just wondering, have you thought of relaying your driveway?

[silv (Annette)]

I appealed to the landlord about it.
His reply: it's either fixing the power issue in the house or re-paving the drive way. your choice.


hope you were able to get your head around perfect SCP, by now?
(solar noon method is really handy.
and then of course the trial and error method.)

did you try drift aligning? I didn't have a chance, yet, but will give that a go next.

[2stroke (Jay)]

Trying out http://www.alignmaster.de/ here on our next clear sky will post back how it goes, you should be able to use this with your syncscan hand unit and update cable setting it into PC Direct mode ( or get a eqdirect cable for best result). Will post back results anyhow. What we have done is used some spray paint on each good drift alignment and sprayed around the tripod legs, so next time its a simple matter of placing the mount in the unpainted areas This is provide its a level surface.

Give this a shot http://www.cementaustralia.com.au/wp...ng-cement.html i wouldn't use it for a driveway but maybe a section in your backyard.

[silv (Annette)]

Thank you 2stroke! Please do post back your results and the obstacles!
That would be really helpful for all noobs, including me.
Maybe in a separate thread?

My system is called GotoStar, not Synscan. But I'm sure alignmaster.de would work by using Ascom and a generic system like LX200 or something.

Manual drift aligning it is for me in the next step.
following the famous yet simple Octane 15 rule
also mentioned with hands-on experience in this thread.

Doing it manually will give me so much more insight into all aspects.
Adding another few devices/cabling and software into the equation makes trouble shooting more complex. And for me as a beginner in all this I'd like to keep the probable mistakes to a minimum of devices involved. I learn more this way. And can apply that knowledge to an extended computerized environment, later on.

On the side: I'm also reluctant taking my macbook out into the dewy field on a regular basis. I think I'd buy a cheapish notebook when I come to the bridge of using Alignmaster and Phd.

How will you protect your laptop against moisture?
Foremost, once you depend on it and want to go to a dark site?

[2stroke (Jay)]

Originally Posted by silv

On the side: I'm also reluctant taking my macbook out into the dewy field on a regular basis. I think I'd buy a cheapish notebook when I come to the bridge of using Alignmaster and Phd.

How will you protect your laptop against moisture?
Foremost, once you depend on it and want to go to a dark site?

Yer its probably best to grab a cheap notebook for the job no doubt, nothing would be worse then stepping on a macbook pro. As for moisture you won't have a problem due to the heat the notebook puts off, it keeps dew in check most of the time. You can get protective sleeve's but we have never used them, it just hasn't being an issue. As for power we use a 1900 amp jumpstart so its no real issue with a 12volt notebook psu, how else would we guide with PHD lol. Will be putting this whole new rig into testing soon and prey it holds up You can also get extended 9-12 cell notebook batteries for most notebooks with rear mount batteries, 2 of them is a whole night nearly

[silv (Annette)]

yeah, the power issue... another thought to keep in mind. (and a reason not to use the macbook because that battery is a joke... no sign of the advertised 8 hour battery life)
re the dew: I read somewhere a simple card board box covering the setup would do, too.

amazing... how much gear I will have to carry at some stage...
the card board box would come in handy, then.

all these beautiful sky-scape images people are taking from remote sites... can you imagine their luggage?
and I bet they need to walk quite a while sometimes to get a nice tree or something into the foreground of their wide field shots.
uuuhahhhhhh!
and of course, they are taking also prime focal photos of the horse head nebula or something at the same time. with alignmaster, phd, multiple cameras, power, multiple scopes ....

I will find myself doing that - maybe in 5 years from now or later or earlier. anyway. I will be one of those people... can't imagine that now, really.

[2stroke (Jay)]

Got about 20 secs without trail tonight using alignmaster on one align, problem was i had to rotate the tripod which meant it was no longer level hence 20secs max with a f9 ed100. Next time it will be level and i think its should be pretty much perfect, using a guide cam so i can guide out a bit anyhow. I will say the program prefect, quick and simple to use, will worth $20 It does a very nice job and the only downfall is if you have to rotate your mount due running out of az adjustment leaving the mount non leveled then you can't get a perfect result. This is to be expect, so use a level surface It took no more then 5mins to polar align and 5mins for a 3 point + nearest in eqmod, giving a perfect platform for goto and tracking Ill never Drift Align again apart from if its for a perm obs

[silv (Annette)]

how boring is that??? only 5 minutes for aligning??? phhhh!

20 seconds at prime focal?
this is really good result! congrats!

Thanks for posting your experience.
I will definitely include that at a later stage, too.