Quote:
Originally Posted by xelasnave
Sometimes I think astro photography is there to build your character by extending your patience beyond that of other humans.
Last night I started on the long road to pulling it all together.
I have three mounts and scopes in the observatory ( four actually but one is not standing so I wont count it at the moment) and rather than starting at the top in the hair pulling game on the RASA I thought to start small and build skills with doing the 80mm set up first..It has been more than 12 months and I have forgotten most everything ... Simple stuff like what this cable is for and where the cables attach to the roll off roof after the resort due to the storm damage..my goal last night was simple..polar align the 80mm sitting on the HEQ 5 mount...cant take more than 30 minutes  then off to bed ..with the cloud imaging was not going to happen but even with the cloud this was the best night for ages..
Happily the roll off roof now opens smoothly thanks to my mate grinding the tracks and taking off the "BHP" humps... note..need fittings to hook cables onto..mmm yes I remember buying the bits but where are they now..ok later. So happy that it opens smoothly as before it was worrying the way it lurched side to side due to those little bumps.
I had the HEQ 5 mount pointing in the general direction but cause of cloud coming in and out off the sharpcap screen and the Moon light I just could not get a long time exposure to show those arcs that help me narrow in...in the end I used the live view blew up the image by 600 and looked at the stars, now very pixilated, in each corner...finally I could see the direction to move the mount and where I should find Octane 
So now open Polemaster ... I could get the first part done but when I got to the second part the clouds gave me white out...so I would start over while waiting for them to clear and again got thru the first step but a white out preventing precision...
OK close enough will do at least that is something ..the mount does not have to be moved which was my concern...I can at least try each of the new cameras..the one shot colour zwo 2600 was to go on this rig so open sharp cap to play around...after trying a relatively short exposure I get a message saying the camera has disconnected..so I go through my usual routine..restart the computer..mmm no..try another cable..mmm no..ok lets try the mono camera..mm same problem...do a goggle..Cloudy Nights happyily has a thread..you need to power the camera as usb power is not enough..but I thought that was for the cooler and as I didnt not need the cooler I didnt add power besides which damn power box is it..I have a few a box full and reading amps near impossible in the available light..why cant they put that on in huge letters..I will as I am sick of going through the damn things with a magnifying glass..anyways adding power got things going... reasonable and at least I have the power sorted.
So lets take a snap something..no star alignment yet (no goto) or finder scope ( maybe I should have done that but no too much of a hurry) but it cant be too hard to frame up M42 just point the scope and watch it appear on screen...well it was not so easy cause I could not get it on screen... lets add a finder scope..now which one? This one ok but then the cloud played with me again...it must have taken an hour setting up the finder scope..unbelievable..
Seeing I have the mono camera with its filter drawer lets change the filters...damn it all the filter drawers except one are the wrong size...by now it was 1 am and all I had captured was 20 subs of 8 seconds using iv cut filter...but that will be helpful as I am using a new computer so I can go through the motions.. inspection, stack even run the image thru Startools and see what unexpected problems I find...I like to tidy up but last night I could not I was near colapse. I only pushed it because earlier I had a good blood pressure reading ..there are open boxes of cables, power boxes, finder scopes, cords, ropes bed sheets ..you name it...BUT it was fun..I felt so happy to be doing something..just playing around adjusting etc made me just so incredibly happy...and if I get a sharp image of M42 core to show a result from the new camera it will be great...oh I could not find my focuser mask cause it has been do long...ironically the thing I opened the observatory to do, namely do a polar align on the HEQ 5 mount, was not achieved but close enough in this case is a big deal as next time getting precision will only take minutes..the mount will not need to be moved..
I have so much to do I am near overwhelmed but I take the approach to just keep on keeping on and at least I am busy and interested in getting out of bed.
Alex |
Alex
With a any new set up as you know, issues are part of the deal and yes it’s a pain in the butt. However once resolved you forget about them very quickly
In regard to the 2600MC and 2600MM they do require separate 12V power supplies. Relying on the USB just doesn’t cut it
I just made up my own 5m lead with 2 core 1mm black flex from Jaycar, 2.1 mm centre positive plug , cigarette plug and Powertech MP3575 12v to 230v power adapter. The camera has ran perfect and cooled for 18 months
Just address and tick each problem off and in no time you’ll be up and running
Wishing you clear skies up there at Tabby
Best
Martin