going in blind, chronicles of a noob...

[Pepper]

hey all.
thought id make a thread about being a noob to this, maybe it will help other noobs, maybe not.
Anyway, I got my scope at Christmas time from my lovely partner. A skywatcher ED100 on a eq5pro mount.(yeah, she wouldnt spring the extra bucks for a bigger mount but beggars cant be choosers and all...)
thus far i love the thing. It truly is a magnificent sight some of these things that lurk up there, the goto works really well and sure makes what could be a difficult thing easy.
Took a couple of nights to get the goto to work properly and get my poor little brain around it, and then polar alignment for a beginner like me is a bit of a trick too. I seem to have that bit worked out pretty good though, can get it to stay on a star for long time without drifting away now using the synscan polar alignment.
Up until a few days ago i spent most nights outside just gazing and using the synscan library to get around and get familiar with different things. Had a zoom eyepiece and a barlow come in the mail a week ago.
the moon when its been around has been great, got a couple of good snaps with my iphone which left me wanting more.
Enter cameras and computer...........eats up the bucks quick this hobby!
ordered a couple of cameras,(asi224mc and 120mm and a zwo guidescope from John at bintel (very helpful guy and got it posted out to me asap), they turned up on friday and ive spent a few days getting accustomed to them and the software required to work it all.(im not a computer nerd by any means so im new to that side of things too)
took some snaps of the moon which i reckon look great but probably unlookable for most of you more experienced chappies..
have to get the guidescope and camera sorted out yet, need to see me engineer mate to make me a nice aluminium mount to fix it to my tube rings.
ill put a couple of pics up soon so i can have you guys pick em apart and let me know what im doing wrong.
i apologise for grammar and whatnot in advance too... im a shocker .

[Pepper]

Spent today organising all this stuff into some cases.
Went to Bunnings and grabbed a hard case and a toolbox for the mount head.
All the other bits went into the hard case.
Bloody foam was near 70 bucks though.
Much better.

[multiweb]

Well it look like you're well underway. :thumbsup: Looking forward to the first pics.

[Pepper]

Still not sure how to add pics yet. I’m on it

[Ukastronomer]

Simple, go to advanced and manage attachments

[Ukastronomer]

If you want cases for gear get ally ones (large) from Amazon and "foam board"

easily adjustable, NOT block foam, once used that is it

[Camelopardalis]

Congrats Steve, ED100 on an EQ5pro is certainly not a beggars rig, your partner must think the world and the stars of you :thumbsup:

[Pepper]

Haha, yeah, sometimes she does, other times she don’t!

[Pepper]

ok i think ive managed to be able to upload a pic..

here is the moon from last night.

to me, looks grouse, but what can be done to better this?

[Pepper]

and just for practise, while the moon was behind my roof, took a snap of this nebula. thats as small as i could get them stars to go.. look prety fat to me.
how, if possible, can i make em nicer than that?

[RyanJones]

Hi Steve,

Firstly let me congratulate you on your new scope.

Secondly welcome to the world of Astrophotography or as most of us like to call it " empty my bank account "

The image you've taken of the keyhole nebula is really good for a first go. Don't be hard on your self and don't look for instant perfection. It will only serve to discourage you. I'd like you to take a look at my recent Keyhole nebula.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment_browse.php?a=238727

In particular note the double stars to the right side of the ball shaped bit. Your stars in your image are better resolved than mine.

What are you using to focus ? If it's sharpcap or similar I can't help because I haven't gone down that avenue yet. If not, a bahtinov mask is the thing to use. The shaper your focus, the sharper your stars.

Don't forget that you're using a reasonably long focal length, things are going to look big. I compare my 560mm images with my 1250mm images and in the shorter ones the stars look like beautiful pin pricks. Once you over double the focal length, everything looks big. Also the longer the focal length the more faults it will find and the more smooth and well balanced and aligned everything has to be.

You've done a great job Steve. Well done :thumbsup:

[Pepper]

Thanks for the input RJ.
As for focus, I just be using the focus knob while watching the image in firecapture. Can’t use Sharpcap. Can’t download it from the site.
Talk about a money sponge. Me missus is up me for spending 1500 bucks so soon after she bought it for me!

[RyanJones]

Ok, first thing is first and this one is a good one. Get/make a bahtinov mask. Doing your focus by eye will suit your eye but not anyone else's or you camera sensor. This one is a good one for the missus because if you buy one, it's cheap, if you make one, it's cheaper. That is going to make your images instantly sharper. A quick Google search will show you what they are and how to use them. It's dead simple.

[Outcast]

Have a look on eBay; there is a guy in Melbourne who will 3d print you one & mail it to you for between $12 - $16 depending on what size you need.

Or, you can get one through an astro shop for about $30 - $40... the ebay one is good, he made me one for an 8" SCT recently & I echo Ryan's comment, very simple to use & makes for perfect focus...

What problems are you having downloading Sharpcap?

I downloaded it recently with no problems at all, Windows 10 64bit...

Cheers

[Pepper]

Sharpcap won’t let me past the Captcha screen.
I need the windows xp version

[Outcast]

Steve,

I've just successfully downloaded the file.. pm me your email address & I'll see if I can email it to you..

I'm not sure what the file size limit is for my email though... otherwise, do you have a drop box?

[Pepper]

File worked ok on my poor little Eee pc.
However I’ll be receiving a new computer this week.
i7 8GB 256gb ssd and a couple of usb3 ports.
Should get me out of my computer doldrums.

[Outcast]

Glad to hear it...

[Pepper]

New computer finally turned up after the long long weekend holdup.
Haven’t had a chance to get outside though as it’s been quite cloudy in the evening. Early am has been nice though to watch Jupiter, Venus and the moon come up together, before I head off to work.
Anyhow, just testing the new computer inside has revealed just how tough the eepc has been toiling. So fast!
Nice to be able to have the latest softwares too.

[Pepper]

Had a bit of a storm this arvo but cleared up by about 930pm.
Got setup and at first I was experiencing the same issues as last time. I was ready to blow my lid and then I think I got it aligned properly.
All seems well now. Minimal movement.
I’ll give it a few more nights and then give phd2 a go to see if I can iron it out a bit more.
Took some pics but I really think I’m gonna have to eventually get a proper camera for dso for when there are no planets to do.
What would be a decent camera to look at bearing in mind $1500 bucks will be a hard sell to the accountant when we are meant to be saving for another house..... bit more budget orientated.

[Pepper]

from last night
I really don't know what this object is? I wandered around till I found this.

[raymo]

Its a hugely under exposed image of the Homunculus Nebula which is
embedded in the Eta Carina Nebula. Here's an image I took years ago.
raymo

[Pepper]

That’s a beaut raymo. Really shows the miles and miles I have to go before I’m gonna get something that good!
ues I realise it’s under exposed to the max, it’s just getting the time to figure out what the f I’m doing. there are some things I’m still trying to wrap my poor feeble brain around. Gotta get using sharp cap down first then try guiding and longer exposures when I’m a bit more knowing. If I can’t make it second nature to do the first steps, there is no point moving onto the next step.

[raymo]

The last sentence is the most important in your post. Get a foolproof basic
imaging routine up and running before moving on. For various reasons most imagers start off with a DSLR, and some, who are not after perfection, stay
with one.
In your case, get your polar alignment routine second nature, same goes for whatever method you are using for focusing. With your ED100 you should
be able to routinely get round stars using subs of around 40-60 secs, and
sometimes longer. Forget guiding until you master the basics, especially,
and most importantly, basic processing, which is as important as gathering good data in the first place.
Incidentally, my image is a JPEG taken with an 8" Newt, 10 X 30secs
unguided using a DSLR; close to as basic as it gets.
raymo

[Ukastronomer]

You are getting there

Get a T2 mount and attach a DSLR

[infomorph]

G'day Steve, great thread!

I'm just about to splurge out on a scope and mount myself, and am also keen to have a crack at astrophotography. I'm blown away by the shots you're getting as a beginner. Inspiration to dive in and give it a crack!

[Pepper]

Thanks Sean. I’m pleased my meagre offerings provide some inspiration.
I’d like to have updated this thread but I’ve been so busy with moving house and 12hr days lately.
And now I got a couple of days spare it looks like we may finally be getting some rain out here.
Fingers crossed it will be a clear night for the worm moon.

[tvandoore]

The best thing I ever did was to put one full setup together, zip tie a powerboard and all the adapters etc to the mount legs, and get some caster wheels so I could wheel it in and out while all set up. I have a set position marked on my deck for each tripod leg so I can get it close to a polar alignment (which is then quickly nailed down in sharpcap). This reduced my setup time from, say, 45 mins to 5 mins. It let me just wheel it out when things looked OK, and in doing so I then used my rig consistently every other night for a few weeks. In those few weeks I learnt more than I had since I started a few years ago. Now I know it all works, so just have to wait for the moon to go away again.

It isn't that inspiring to think "I'm going to spend 1.5 hours in set up and pack up time, just to get my autofocus working", but if you're straight to working on your next issue within 10 minutes it gets a lot more tolerable (ie no three month breaks from the hobby because you spent night after night trying to get the one issue resolved).

I'll see if I can take some pictures so you can see what I mean.

[Pepper]

Wow. Haven’t posted in here since March.
Life has been busy lately with moving house. Good news is I’m out of town now where things are much darker at night.
Plans to start an obs now I have the room.
Went to the local auctions last weekend and picked up a 6inch skywatcher dob for 60 bucks. Eyepiece is munted, and mirrors are a bit dirty but still works quite well. Pleased with that.

Also managed my first pics of Jupiter over the last couple of nights, pretty happy with how they came out. I’ll try to post a pic of it when I can.
Anyways, I’ll try to keep the thread updated a bit more now we are settled out here.

248630

[Ukastronomer]

Stop showing off :) :)

[Pepper]

Haha. I wish I could show off. !
I’m sure there is plenty to be done to improve

[JeniSkunk]

That photo of Jupiter is a heck of a lot better than I can manage, Steve.
All I can do to try to take photos, is hold my cellphone near the eyepiece, and hope I can see something on the screen, to take a photo of. So far I've had a marked lack of success at that.
Because of the design of my scope, the max weight the focusser will support is 250g. Any more, and the plastic plate the focusser is on, will start to sag. Most cellphones are well over that by themselves, without counting the weight of an eyepiece, and a cellphone holder. So all I can do is hand hold the cellphone above the eyepiece, with the camera looking at the eyepiece.

[Pepper]

pic of Saturn from the other night
I reckon it came out ok. was experimenting with a heap of captures with different settings so I could see how things were affected. this is prob the best from the night

[Bobbyoutback]

Wow ' that Saturn photo looks great to me , well done Steve !

Bobby .

[Pepper]

thanks bobby..
thought id post up a new capture of Saturn from 2 nights ago
came out a bit better than the last.

[Bobbyoutback]

They both are tops , I'm having trouble deciding what one I like best ?
Take another please .

Cheers & Beers
Bobby .

[N1]

Hey Steve, nice shots of the planets there. the 2nd Saturn is more detailed but I like the colour balance of the 1st. The nebula is the Keyhole Nebula if I'm not mistaken, and the pic nicely approximates what can be seen visually (stars are sharper usually though). Catching the Homunculus is not easy with a 100mm but might be possible - just. You need good seeing and some idea of what you are looking for. It's a tiny object with a huge dynamic range, and it's actually in your image, along with Eta Carinae (the bright orange star).

[Pepper]

Tried my hand with the dslr last night on trifid neb.
Result is below!

[Pepper]

thought id better update my goings on since I have a spare day with sick kids.

ive sorted my guiding issues I was having dramas with.
although having done a few things at once I cant really put my finger on what the fix was.
basically, I totally stripped my mount down. degreased the whole shebang and washed with distilled water.
that factory grease is as thick as axle grease and im sure the mount breathed a sigh of relief when I got rid of it.
all the metal on metal contact areas I sanded with some wet and dry paper, I did notice a couple of burrs here and there.
the big main bearing in the ra axis was replaced as it was showing a fair bit of slop. the end caged bearing was all good so it was left.
got some good quality lithium grease, greased it all up and reassembled.
the end ring nuts were carefully tightened so as not to make them too stiff.
all reassembled the mount is now super smooth to turn in every direction.
adjusted all the worm meshing and motor gear meshing.

another step I took was to not have both guide cam and capture cam on the usb3. chucked the guide cam on the usb2 side.

doing all this seems to have removed the funky dec jumps I was getting while guiding.

next step is to build a belt drive for the eq5 to get rid of the backlash generated by the spur gear setup.
got a 3d printer last week and have just finished printing the first of my gears.

bojan, if you read this id like to ask a few dumb questions about gear ratios if you don't mind.

[Pepper]

Before mount refresh

[Pepper]

After

[Pepper]

made some progress on my belt drive last night, got most of the prototype gears made. tested the grip and meshing with a length of gt2 belt I have spare. fits way better than I thought it would.! this printer is amazing.
ordered a pair of 130mm belts from Brisbane, paid handsomely for shipping so I can get em before the weekend.
will then be a case of sorting out an idler wheel to tension the whole setup.

[Pepper]

Ordered my belts on Tuesday afternoon and they arrived this morning.
Australia post would normally take a week from Brisbane so it was nice to have the express bag option albeit pricey.
They appear to seat in the gears really nice.
Tomorrow I’ll be off to the bearing shop to buy some tiny bearings to make an idler wheel to get the belt onto as many of the small primary gear teeth as possible.

[Pepper]

So I’ve hit a roadblock. I can make a 9 tooth gear but it just isn’t strong enough. Just keeps snapping. So I’ve ordered a pair of 9tooth gears from Rowan engineering in uk. About 18 pounds a piece. I’m on holidays as of Thursday so hopefully they get here before I go back to work in a month.
In light of this setback, I’ve constructed an Arduino based electric focuser. About 90 percent done. Just a bit of mounting and should be sweet.

[Pepper]

Only realised after ordering the 9 tooth pulleys that they are a t2.5 not a gt2 like I was going to use.
Got onto Minature bearings Australia again and they just happened to have 2 of what I needed in stock.
They turned up today and they fit the 2 new 44 tooth pulleys I made nicely.
Hopefully the 9 tooth gears will be here soon.

[Pepper]

Rowan pulleys turned up today. Time to reassemble and test.
Going to have to sort out a couple of tensioners though. I have a bunch of small bearings and some idlers I printed out before.

[Pepper]

Aaaand it’s finally back together on the ra axis. Printing final gear for the dec axis now. Covers don’t quite fit back on but it’s a matter of millimeters. Some refinement of gear thickness and maybe a wee shave with the die grinder to take a bit of meat out of the mount.
Helluva lot quieter now. Be interesting when I get it in action to see how it goes. Been constantly Smokey here for weeks now. Can’t see any stars at night.
I printed a t2.5 version of the 9 tooth gear. Seems fairly strong compared to the gt2 gears I’d previously printed. Can’t snap it off with my fingers like the first version. Maybe I didn’t need the Rowan gears after all. Oh well.
I have a couple of t2.5 gears for one axis if anyone would like to give em a try. Have to supply ya own t2.5 belt though.

[Pepper]

Both axis done.

[Pepper]

Christmas night we had the smoke blow away for the most part so I was able to test the belt drive out.
first thing is the noise. you really don't realise how loud the stock metal spur gears are..
the goto is 100% unaffected. if anything its even more accurate after a single 2 star alignment..
obviously the backlash has been seriously reduced. still some there but its a lot better. I notice when centering a star it is more spritely changing directions in dec.
all in all cost about 100 aussie bucks.
tonight is looking superb. the smoke has blown off to the southwest and looking at a nice clear night for the first time in a while

[Pepper]

bit of an update.

had a bit of strife with the grub screws on my printed gears cracking around the radius of the gear when tightened. using a different material to print with will probably be the way to go (carbon fibre or something), instead I just bit the bullet and ordered a pair of aluminium gears.
they are all now installed and working fantastic. just printing the second half of my new covers now and it will all be finished.
Hopefully we will have a clear night tonight.

[Saturnine]

Not sure if I've read this thread before, interesting reading your journey in astro. Not sure why you didn't go for Aluminium sprockets in the first place, easily obtainable from many sources as you have probably found out.
3D printers are an interesting invention and can do amazing design work but I find it hard to trust printed plastic for mechanical work where there is some load placed on the printed gears, or whatever. Metals are much more durable for most engineering applications, but I'm old school too ! I have machined many items from industrial plastics and they do their intended job but not for things like gears.

[Pepper]

Yeah the tension on the belts is a bit tough on them.
However, for my focuser they work just fine.