Having spent the whole day trying to set up the new camera (zwo) on the eight inch and getting tangled in the leads I thought of how I would like it all to be at some point in the future.
All wireless.
No leads.
The mount should have auto polar align built in☺
The camera should focus automatically as well.
Honestly for an old guy like me its all very confusing...I set it all up and still have leads left over I think☺
So if you had a magic wand what would you change or do you like the challenge of it all.
Heck just getting all the cables in a satisfactory place was harder than a major chess championship.
My main problem is with this old eq6 mount I dont seem to have the necessary stuff to add the mount in the picture.
I need a drink I think or maybe I should have wated until all done before taking a sip.
Is it just me or do you find it becomes rather challenging?
Alex
I go through phases Alex. I hear you with the challenges. Some times I think I should just get my self a fast newt and then other times I'm loving the challenge of achieving what I'm achieving with the 5" f10.
Re: cables...... I'm avoiding them like the plague for that exact reason. Power, camera, guide, laptop..... the list goes on and I hate messy cables !
So in answer to your question..... All I want is .... Consistency. i just want things to work the same way every time. I enjoy challenges, but when I solve problems I want them to stay solved.
I have a fall back approach as something always seems to play up.
So far....
The solar panel didnt work so no power as expected battery failed to charge...bring in the genny...change plug in the dark.
Polar align did not present as perfect...drop back to 30 second captures.
And this cabling is a nightmare.
I have velco and ties but to me it is so messy....and during a imaging session I spend so much time checking that nothing is hanging up.
I know folk sit inside at the lappy but the worry about hang ups has me in attendance.
On the positive I think it has been helpful for me both mentally and physically.
I have to push past the burning legs to concentrate and stop being a cranky old man and be patient and work through things step by step.
I am not that bright so it is a great challenge.
I am just having a break now before I try again but I think its all good...if it is all good the clouds will arrive if not all good it will be nice and clear...that much I know☺
omg Alex you actually beat your cables? could you come sort mine out please? everytime i get it right i get my rig outside and get tangles and pulls etc. The power socket on my mount is damaged and if I slew to align it just turns off, so frustrating and cant try to disassemble to resolder so I put the jack in and add silastic to it to hold it in a "good" position, but still slight bumps anywhere cn shut it down. so bgot to try to achor the cable as best i can but its above the az axis so there has to be mvement and play for the cable. Would love mounts to require NO cabling above the swivel points at all.
Hi Sil
I am sure it was you who said be prepared to have the lap top bounce a few times☺
I have not forgotten those words.
I set up with it in the middle of a large table with a fair bit of excess lead and have those blue tacked at various places so I notice any tangle before something unplanned can happen.
I hear you Alex , cables are a bain of us , especially at night when it happens and you don't know until its too late , just like this .
This happened about 2 weeks ago when using my sweet Vixen SP , all was going well until I heard a noise and the DEC stopped ?? .
Yes the dreaded cable hang up and it pulled the old ' DIN ' plug sideways and loosened a wire or 2 inside and stopped , pack up time .
Last saturday I found time to check the damage and yes of course Vixen fill the empty inside of the DIN plug with resin so there is NO WAY ! to get inside , bugger , but luckely Jaycar had some on the shelf for $3.75c so I grabbed 2 of them .
One hurdle down .
Man on cutting the old plug off I found 8 , yes 8 !! wires in the cable about as big as phone line wires , out with the multi meter , pad and paper to do a diagram and trace which wire goes where , not to bad doing this , BUT !! .
Look at the photo of the inside of the new DIN plug , its tiny and even with a luminated magnifying glass on stand , wife's reading glasses , soldering stand , 5 clips , etc , etc this was a hard ( fiddly ) job for an old Boilermaker who is used to a ball pein hammer , but I got it in the end .
And it worked perfect first time ,, yea beer a'clock .
I dont think that the hook up on the night caused the wires to break inside the plug , more than likely a combination of 20 years of hook up's caused them to finially give up the ghost , yes Alex ,,, its a right PITA .
Brian.
ps. note the ' Zip ' tie holding the cable to the DEC motor housing ,,, this ain't gonna happen again on my watch .
Hi Bojan
I certainly agree.
The cube is working very well but each time I go North which is each month or two I have to pull it all down and load the car and reassemble it pull it down etc.
At least I am up to being able to leave stuff set up until the next move.
I am becoming overwhellmed by too much stuff so much now has no need...for all the cables on the mount there are five fold laying around...useless but I cant throw stuff out.
And there are scopes that are never used old mounts etc.
Next trip North I hope to line the ceiling of the shack I have mentioned, and start on the deck to house two cubes in the future.
I hope your observatory is going well.
I have the timber and a nail gun in mind and even have some folk to help...but it is a big job.
I would get someone to build it but so far cant find a builder who is looking for work.
Still stalled... Because I still work full time so no time for finer things in life (like obs..)
Currently I have two setups - one permanent in Melbourne (EQ6 on pier, under small, removable watertank) and another one in Ballarat (EQ6 + 10" Newt on dobson mount, I move them in/out of the house as needed) so I do not have to go though full assembing/dissassembling every time I move to and from Melbourne... Only thing I move are Rubinar or Canon lens and DSLR camera(s).
I can relate to being overwhelmed by imaging to the point that I lose interest. That kept me away from imaging for many years until I figured out my current simple, easy and reliable setup.
Advanced VX mount with StarSense auto alignment
ASPA polar align routine
MGEN II stand alone guider and camera control
DSLR on a refractor
It's far from the best setup but it's easy, fun and it always works. I calibrate on each object and don't lose any subs from poor tracking.
One day I might move to a laptop and astro-cam but I'm in no hurry.
Clearly it is holding you back from important stuff.
I will let you in on a secret.
We wont live forever and on ones death bed I doubt if ones regret is that they did not spend enough time working.
And I expect you think health will be always great...well sometimes health gives out...
Anyways I hope you have a date set for your last day working...
What frustrates me is the auto updating on laptops. I turned off the auto update feature and left my gear going overnight only to see that my laptop decided to update itself 1 hour into the 5-6 hour session I had planned on NGC256 on my new RC8, leaving me with only 53 minutes of the 5-6 hours of luminance I wanted, and now it is cloudy and raining all week.
Super disappointing, and as a young person I thought I had all the technological kinks in the bag.. Bloody technology
I will forward your opinion to SWMBO... maybe it will have beneficial effect
As to health.. well, I am still young at 68, but cracks are appearing here and there already... so most likely the date will be set sometimes around New Year, or end of this FY.
Hi Tony
I would say not so long ago that I wanted to keep it simple but things got out of hand.
I am glad really as I am now forced to work very hard to make progress.
Before I got back into it I would lay on the bed watching crap on tv feeling sorry for myself.
I now have a note that I read first thing each day...you must get things done irrespective of how bad you may feel.
Thar works.
Today I felt like staying on the bed but pushed thru it...and even spending time here for a break I have got so much done.
I am building a dedicated wide field set up by pulling off the dec assembly on an old mount and fixing a tripod top.
So hopefully next trip I can have the zwo on the heq5 thru the eight and the nikon taking short exposure wide fields.
For me getting to this current level has helped me work on problems above my pay grade and look forward to getting up and completing whatever is my latest project.
I have spent a small fortune but really it is much cheaper than the woodern boat.
I worked it out...on a per week basis it is not that bad...
Heck I would drink more once in my life and end up with nothing to show...
Anyways back to work.
Alex
In a couple of years we'll be empty nesters Alex. I'll have a lot of time on my hands (and more disposable income) so maybe that will be the time to go deeper into the imaging black hole.
Daytime photography (my Wife's hobby) offers a good excuse to travel to interesting places and some of those places will be away from city lights.
I now have a note that I read first thing each day...you must get things done irrespective of how bad you may feel.
Abso-effin-lutely!!! When I had my stroke, my entire left half of the body was 100% paralysed. Being awake was bein in pain from the strain of tthe right side muscles trying to compensate for this dead body basically wanting to flop under gravity constantly. To break through the paralysis I had to constantly consciously move what I could to force the brain to find neural routes to get left side muscles working again.
My internal slogan to myself was "its all exercise". No matter how small and insignificant every single thing I did helped train the brain to figure out getting the left side doing the unconcious things that we arent aware our bodies constantly do. Bit like putting on noise cancelling headphones we arent aware of the hum thats around us at all times. Paralysis suddenly hits home how much our brains and body are working constantly. And 42 was too young to be stricken such, and nowhere near able to retire.
Plus being alone i have no choice regardless, stuff needs doing i have to figure out how to do it on my own. I saw so many type of people in mytime in hospital and those who sat around feeling sorry for themselves or were dependent on their spouses for help with everything these were the ones who failed to improve at all. So their short term comfort is a bit better but long term their spouses pass on etc and they are prisoner to their dependence.
So Alex "you must get things done irrespective of how bad you may feel" is so very correct. "it's all exercise" too and thus gets easier to stick to in time. Having the strong willpower I feel is important to your quality of life to the end. Theres lots of personal satisfaction knowing you "did that", etc.
Ending up in my situation wasn't planned or anything and certainly not a way I wish to live with. But don't sit by in life assuming you know where you are headed, the universe may have other plans. If you want to take the lazy route thats fine but when everything hits the fan and you're ingrained to not do stuff for yourself that you know are the right things to do, dont assume anyone will be there to help when you face being constrained from doing them yourself. Life can very easily become so difficult no matter what you think, what your worth, etc, none of that really matters. Alex is i think doing the right thing, persuing his interests at his own level in his own way as circumstances change. As Ive had to do, and one day it'll be a personal choice you all will face as you grow old.
What would be cool is a retirement village for astronomers / astrophotographers. Paid for with our gear, containing maintained permanent observatory setups for imaging around the clock for all aspects of observations and shared by all for use. So as we age and start downsizing our personal setups we could be pooled together for the help and likeminded companionship.
What would be cool is a retirement village for astronomers / astrophotographers. Paid for with our gear, containing maintained permanent observatory setups for imaging around the clock for all aspects of observations and shared by all for use. So as we age and start downsizing our personal setups we could be pooled together for the help and likeminded companionship.
There was a thread about that topic a few years ago. As someone pointed out, dark site living can be restrictive for those expecting a Westfield, Bunnings, coffee shops, not to mention a good full service public hospital with a "Cath Lab".
Hmm....astro retirement village; slightly ASD elderly astronomers heading for dementia all crammed into a small area - could be a powder keg. Phantom thefts of eyepieces, homicides over lighting issues, I'm not sure it could work