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ZeroID
06-01-2014, 02:23 PM
Kinda pleased with myself. Haven't been having much luck with computers and stuff lately, nothing seems to work as it should. PHD fails to guide and a while ago I also partially broke my Hand Controller so have half a screen to navigate with. ( Also the clouds have NOT been very cooperative ). :shrug:

So decided to try and get computer control going although I have been confused with the variations, options, terminology and mixed advice I have been reading while trying to understand it all. :confused2:

Built a 'new' computer, loaded CDC, ASCOM and EQMOD sw. I used the PC Direct connection through the hand piece because I had one I made for Firmware upgrades. Kept all the connections short, no hubs involved and bingo, it worked first time. :D

Just did some Solar imaging (BIG sunspot + friends !! ) and the sky is looking possible tonight ( fingers crossed ) so a new 'toy' to play with.
Hopefully the ASI120 will autoguide through FireCapture and PHD will become a thing of the past. :thumbsup:

It's been AGES since the weather and the technology actually all worked at the same time. :P

torsion
06-01-2014, 02:46 PM
Well done Brent, yes it can be a pain sometimes.

If you use the ASI120 for guiding be sure to check out Metaguide (http://www.astrogeeks.com/Bliss/MetaGuide/).

cheers,
Bram

ZeroID
06-01-2014, 03:46 PM
Cheers Bram, FireCapture has guiding inbuilt, soon see if it works.

2stroke
07-01-2014, 04:51 PM
PHD has being working great for me since i ditched pulse and went gpusb though ill get back to it one day for PEC. Eqmod is the bomb and we never use the handset anymore. You should get a eq-direct cable and loose the hand set totally, using alignmaster with eqmod is great.

SkyViking
07-01-2014, 05:56 PM
Did you get to take some pics lat night Brent? I noticed the seeing was the best I've seen in a long time! I had crisp pinpoint stars all night and left the scope running till morning.:thumbsup:

Peter.M
07-01-2014, 06:10 PM
+1 for all of these things, alignmaster and eqmod all the way!

ZeroID
08-01-2014, 06:13 AM
Yeah, awesome night for sure. I was up till 12:30 am, could have stayed longer. Still ironing out bugs Rolf, but some moonage as you have noticed, Jupiter, NGC2070, M42 experiments. Not all great pix but something to learn from.
I need to sort guiding and chill the camera.

pmrid
10-01-2014, 12:41 PM
Ditto to that. The only time I ever pull the hand control out of the drawer is if I've loosened the axis locks for some reason. After that I use the SYnscan automated find home position routine. After that, the HC goes away again and the EQMOD comes back on. I should add that this is on a pier so re-aligning is something only once a decade.

Peter