Here’s a couple I took in Ha Saturday night with my 5” newt. Was wondering why it couldn't keep collimation. At first I thought it had caught the same disease as my C11 then I saw that the secondary was moving in the spider vanes attachements. Some loose screws over the years. Unusual...
Collimation test field tracking and focus on Alpha Crux [20min], Cat Paw [3h20min], Tarantula [55min]. Bit noisy in some. I also used the lodestar exclusively that night. Went sort of ok but dropping in and out in PHD until it packed it after midnight so the tarantula planned for the rest of the night got cut short. I worked it out this morning on the bench. USB conflicts with the lodestar drivers. Nasty... Doesn’t want to play nice with other devices connected to the laptop so it disconnects them or disconnects itself. I think I have worked around it but I’ll wait to see next session to be sure. I hate the little thing. Just when you think you’ve got everything working ...
There are bigger versions here and here. Thanks for looking
The Ha really does bring out the detail that you simply cant get with RGB alone. Nice one Marc . Re you dropping in and out. This was happening to me last night. I had a USB cable extension lead that was playing up. Replaed it and all is well now! But took ages to figure it out!
I particularly like the way you've covered the dynamic range of the Cats Paw.Getting the structure in that fainter detail can sometimes results in blowing out the toes but that looks well balanced.
I feel for your dramas - I just spent all weekend trying get some Ha of the fainter parts of the helix to add to a LRGB i've been trying to finish and had nothing but dramas all weekend - firstly tracking went west and then some form of intereference in the data download resulted in me closing the roof and watching the footbal and then the Gold Coast lost a wasted weekend really.
The Ha really does bring out the detail that you simply cant get with RGB alone. Nice one Marc . Re you dropping in and out. This was happening to me last night. I had a USB cable extension lead that was playing up. Replaed it and all is well now! But took ages to figure it out!
Thanks Paul Tell me about it. This one took me a little while to figure out because it's not a clear cut. The guider works but not at full sensitivity/capacity. Hard to explain. Never seen that one before. As if you didn't have enough gain or your exposures were too short. So you couldn't pick up any faint stars. That's why I couldn't see s||t with it in the OAG. So hopefully now I can.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolts_Tweed
Nice Marc
I particularly like the way you've covered the dynamic range of the Cats Paw.Getting the structure in that fainter detail can sometimes results in blowing out the toes but that looks well balanced.
I feel for your dramas - I just spent all weekend trying get some Ha of the fainter parts of the helix to add to a LRGB i've been trying to finish and had nothing but dramas all weekend - firstly tracking went west and then some form of intereference in the data download resulted in me closing the roof and watching the footbal and then the Gold Coast lost a wasted weekend really.
Again nice Ha mate - well done
Mark
Thanks Mark. Yeah I have re-shot that one. First time I did it I didn't put enough time in it. Still looks like it needs a lot more with that kind of aperture. Maybe 10min subs and over.
Quote:
Originally Posted by batema
I love the Ha shots and these look great. I can't wait for the moon to go so I can have a crack at the Tarantula.
Mark
Thanks Mark. Another Mark?! They're everywhere. But you guys are spelling your names wrong. It's got a 'C' at the end. I wish I had been able to finish the night on it. It would have come much clearer. Everything else was working.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidU
Nice series Marc, that 5" is a real gem. What make is the mirror?
Thanks David. It's just a stock mirror I think. It's my Celestron 130-SLT. Off the shelf newt. Nothing special.
Pity about the Lodestar. I have found mine to be very reliable so far. I have it in the Prolines USB hub along with the filterwheel and there does not appear to be any conflict.
I too could not find any guide stars initially. I think also with the nearly full moon it wipes out your view of the guide stars unless you are quite in focus and even then I think it can wash them out.
That was my explanation anyway for how come I could not focus the thing last week yet I could the other day. I was pointing well away from the moon when I did it to focus.
I wonder if it is more of a PHD issue. I am using CCDsoft and the SXV CCDsoft plugin and that works great.
What amazed me last night was it was clear all day and as soon as it was really the entire sky went cloudy. There was smoke from backburning and I wondered if that formed the nucleus for cloud to appear once the temp dropped. Of course this morning it was clear again!
Pity about the Lodestar. I have found mine to be very reliable so far. I have it in the Prolines USB hub along with the filterwheel and there does not appear to be any conflict.
I too could not find any guide stars initially. I think also with the nearly full moon it wipes out your view of the guide stars unless you are quite in focus and even then I think it can wash them out.
That was my explanation anyway for how come I could not focus the thing last week yet I could the other day. I was pointing well away from the moon when I did it to focus.
I wonder if it is more of a PHD issue. I am using CCDsoft and the SXV CCDsoft plugin and that works great.
What amazed me last night was it was clear all day and as soon as it was really the entire sky went cloudy. There was smoke from backburning and I wondered if that formed the nucleus for cloud to appear once the temp dropped. Of course this morning it was clear again!
Greg.
Thanks Greg. In my configuration the lodestar created havoc. I have verified and reproduced the problem. I use a Toshiba Satellite Laptop, WinXP pro 2GB ram, 3 USB ports (2x2.0 and 1x 1.1). On the mount I have two hubs. 1 unpowered 4 ports which connects to the GPUSB, the Gemini RS232, the QHY5 and the QHY8. One 5m line from the laptop to the Hub USB2.0. That's what I have been using since day one. Never had any problem.
Recently I go the SX lodestar. Pluging it anywhere on that hub will drop the GPUSB and the QHY* randomly. If I disconnect the GPUSB the lodestar will run at let's call it 'half capacity'. You get a picture but very faint as if the subs were too short or no gain. You have to push to 2s on a bright star even at the zenith to see anything. Eventually it drops and crashes whatever program is used for guiding.
If you plug the lodestar direct (no hub) you get any faint star no worries even at 0.01s exposures.
So what I did was getting a second hub. So I left the original config as is and run another 5m line USB2.0 to another unpowered hub to the mount. Again same thing. Although it's a completely separate USB port as soon as the f'er is plugged in it drops the GPUSB and only displays a faint picture, then eventually drops itself. Last night I was ready to throw it over the fence as far as I could. So I tried different things in the morning on the bench and the only time I got it working was to power the second hub. I then got full sensitivity and it run for a good 10-15min both in PHD and the SX-software. So that was a relief to rule out hardware fault as I was worried for a sec I had a very expensive dud.
PHD, Maxim, SX-software behaved the same way. PHD viewport was actually the brightest display because you can tweak the screen gama. Other than that they're all similar.
I am loving the spider shot, that is some serious Tarantula going on there.
You have picked up all it's friends really well and super sharp, gotta love a shot like that when everything including focus is spot on, nice work mate.
I am loving the spider shot, that is some serious Tarantula going on there.
You have picked up all it's friends really well and super sharp, gotta love a shot like that when everything including focus is spot on, nice work mate.
Kind Regards
Shane
Thanks Shane. Focus is critical in that area. It's so convoluted and stringy. I plan to get a lot more data though. I'd like to do a tri-color version of it, so plenty of Oiii and Sii too.
That's interesting Marc. So the Lodestar is greedy for the USB bandwidth?
You know also what it could be - it uses the USB to power itself so it may not be getting enough juice unless the hub is powered.
The Proline USB built in hub is powered so that would make sense why I haven't seen that behaviour. In the right setup it would show itself.
I had a problem with the Starfish. It was also powered off the USB cable.
It would freeze the screen randomly and unpredictably. Perhaps a similar issue. Fishcamp brought out an updated driver but I was using a Vista machine and if I tried to upload the driver I got some weird loop happening in the computer that I would have to pull the battery to stop.
That's interesting Marc. So the Lodestar is greedy for the USB bandwidth?
You know also what it could be - it uses the USB to power itself so it may not be getting enough juice unless the hub is powered.
The Proline USB built in hub is powered so that would make sense why I haven't seen that behaviour. In the right setup it would show itself.
I had a problem with the Starfish. It was also powered off the USB cable.
It would freeze the screen randomly and unpredictably. Perhaps a similar issue. Fishcamp brought out an updated driver but I was using a Vista machine and if I tried to upload the driver I got some weird loop happening in the computer that I would have to pull the battery to stop.
Perhaps a weak spot for USB powered guide cams.
Greg.
Power seems to be one of the reasons yes but it's not the only thing. I still can't have the lodestar on the other hub with the rest of the devices even if I power that one up. Go figure Anyway, it seems to work in this configuration now so touching wood until next imaging session to confirm.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tlgerdes
And you were poking fun at Smersh for having lots of laptops
I feel another laptop coming on Marc
Hehe... no more laptops. More potential points of failure (and headaches). Simple is good. I remember Mike couldn't guide one night because the 'guiding' laptop packed it. Or was it the generator that run out of petrol?
I had similar power issues with a cheaper usb hub. It was starshoot autoguider/qhy5 clone and gpusb. Even with a powered cheap 'computer market hub' I had random issues and drop outs. I bought another cheapo, made no difference. I got really ticked with it and bought a belkin powered hub.
All issues stopped immediately.
My current usb setup uses 2x self power 5m extenders, 1 of them goes to a fcusb, the other to the belkin hub which supplies fli focuser, st4000/ao, ssag camera and sometimes dslr.
then I saw that the secondary was moving in the spider vanes attachements. Some loose screws over the years. Unusual...
. Re you dropping in and out. This was happening to me last night. I had a USB cable extension lead that was playing up. Replaed it and all is well now! But took ages to figure it out!
But you guys are spelling your names wrong. It's got a 'C' at the end. 
