well finally, after 5 months of having all this gear I finally managed to get it all set up and working, eventually.
I first decided to do an accurate drift align, thought I was doing well as I only needed to fix up a little, but I couldn't remember which knob turn which way and where it moves the mount, so I was turning it the wrong way obviously, after I'd finished setting up, I realized my mistake and quickly fix that back up.
I then attached all the cables and all was working, opened up PHD for the first time, selected camera, connected the scope, set the expose and selected a star, hhmm, that was easy, took a few shots and there was obvious PE, took about 3 hours to figure out I hadn't set up the program right, I have now learned how to do the PHD hookey pokey and first shot, perfect, I couldn't believe it, 3 minutes now streaks!, I was very happy indeed, although by this time the moon was up and washed out my images,
I did press on and took 24 x 2 minute exposures of the keyhole, and as I was disassembling everything I decided to take some darks, which work too.
All that is only half the story, ra calibration failure, laptop dying, dew settling on everything etc.
So here it is, my first autoguided light,
I wouldn't worry to much about that laptop, old, didn't cost anything, as soon as you plug the LPI into it it blue screens, that seems to be all it can do is just crash. I just use my new one, work a lot better.
anyway, tonight was horrible, couldn't get a star anywhere, I tried ngc 5128 and got a guide star but couldn't get focus because of the angle of the scope, thought, oh well, omega cent is close by, couldn't find a guide star, tried every part of the sky couldn't get one, so I think now my next purchase will be a new guide/ planetary camera, I even tried eta again but couldn't get one, I messed with the settings and I managed to get a clearer view but I could only get 1 or 2 stars in random areas.
Hey Vash, instead of running the computer with Windows why not try Linux. I'm fairly certain KStars can run the LPI camera (but I'm not 100% sure, so take a look) and your scope's drive, and I know it's not going to crash everytime you boot up and run anything. Might be the thing you're looking for??.
Ah sigh... having cut my teeth in arduous hand + eye guiding back in the 80's (Scott and Paul did it until very recently too - bloody heroes) I appreciate the euphoria of autoguiding that's for sure! Heck, I still get a stiffy just watching the star in the guide window of Astroart4 dance around the cross hairs with sub arc sec control
That's an excellent keyhole with a nice natural balanced look and the guiding is good too. You should be pretty happy with that
my equipment is the eq6 pro with a skywatcher 10" and skywatcher ed80 plus the canon 350d.
I haven't tried running linux on the old laptop, It's mainly hardware issues that cause it to crash but I could give it a go what distribution should I try?.
The issue isn't really about the laptop, the new one runs like a dream, it more of the sensitivity of the lpi, This will be upgraded in a short amount of time, just thinking which camera I should get, I was thinking a DMK and eventually get a filter wheel and filters for planets, but what other options should I consider?, I would like to be able to get guide stars just about anywhere I aim.
my equipment is the eq6 pro with a skywatcher 10" and skywatcher ed80 plus the canon 350d.
I haven't tried running linux on the old laptop, It's mainly hardware issues that cause it to crash but I could give it a go what distribution should I try?.
The issue isn't really about the laptop, the new one runs like a dream, it more of the sensitivity of the lpi, This will be upgraded in a short amount of time, just thinking which camera I should get, I was thinking a DMK and eventually get a filter wheel and filters for planets, but what other options should I consider?, I would like to be able to get guide stars just about anywhere I aim.
Firstly, what are the specs of your old laptop?? I'll need to know them before I can tell you what distro to grab....however if it was running XP, it should be able to run any distro out now. There are plenty of Linux magazines at the newsagents these days and they'll all carry a version of linux or two on the DVD that comes with the mag. You could try Ubuntu, SuSe, Mandriva or Fedora for a start. Debian is another, although you'll need some tech smarts for that distro. I'd go for Ubuntu....it's a good distro, it'll most likely be on the mag and it has plenty of software that comes with it. Including a great planetarium and chart software called KStars.
As far as your CCD camera goes, DMK are OK. You could also get a Meade DSI Pro (either II or III), GSTAR-EX are also very good. If you have money, one of the larger SBIG's or Apogee cameras would be a good purchase. Just depends on what you can afford and what you'd like to do with it. You can even get an Orion Starshoot camera, filters and filter wheel for about $1300. Goto BINTEL's website and have a look....
I'll download ubuntu thats now worry, I would rather keep my spending to a minimum if I can, a DSI 2 is at the very top of what I would like to spend for, as I want to upgrade to a new DSLR in the future, Once I get this autoguiding down that is.
