Frustrating night

[LewisM]

Decent cold night up here, so got the gear out... I learnt a few things.

1. DO NOT TRY a Lodestar with the Orion mini autoguider scope - firstly, you need a fair few spacers to get a focus, and when you do, the focus is really soft and NOT accurate. Result = crappy guiding.

2. The Vixen GPD2 is a SERIOUSLY UNDERESTIMATED and IGNORED mount! Prior to guiding, I used it visually for alignment etc (I installed a 2nd hand EQ5 Goto kit on it). I slewed to Peacock to use it as my focus star, when nightly Miss 4 year old bedtime duties called. I was gone for 37 minutes. When I returned, Peacock was STILL dead centre, and that was NO AUTOGUIDING - just tracking. Admittedly I had tuned the worm a little and polished things somewhat, and made sure there was negligible backlash when I installed the Synscan kit, but seriously, 37 minutes unattended and it had tracked PERFECTLY. If I tried that with the NEQ6, Peacock would be somewhere other than the EP after 37 minutes (Kunama is a witness to that one - I texted him when it happened)

3.The Synscan motors when guide correcting on the GPD2 are almost silent - probably because half the time they aren't doing anything but tracking! The whole 4 hours I was out there, not a single beep from PHD, and that was at either 2 second guiding, or as low as 0.5 sec guiding. The seeing varied a fair bit tonight, and 2 secs was best to average it out (though earlier on, 0.5 secs was better)

4. For some reason, DSS decided to reset my debayer matrix. Now got to fiddle again. Grumble grumble... after loading in 3 hours worth of data, now got to start the stack again.

5. Do not guide on a GX central core... yes, the Lodestar is so damned light sensitive that I could see GX cores with ease, and accidentally selected NGC 6744's core once OOPS! The choice of stars with a Lodestar is nothing short of INCREDIBLE, especially after using an Orion SSAG where I was always fighting to find one in my severe light pollution.

6. You MUST do Darks with the Lodestar. I could get away with not doing them with the SSAG (because all it saw was darkness ), but NO WAY JOSE on the Lodestar. DARKS, or else

7. Crocs are NOT very warm Even with socks. All that ventilation

8. Wolf Blass DOES keep you warm... got through my LAST 39th birthday bottle.... Bugger!

[DJT (David)]

Congrats on what sounds like a great session. I really like those ones where you learn loads.

Clouded out here.Staring lovingly at an AP900 but not a star in sight..sob

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

(Kunama is a witness to that one - I texted him when it happened)


Hope you are not a policeman who gathers evidence.

Texting someone to say something happened doesn't make them a witness to the event, the are only they have witnessed is your texting prowess.

[LewisM]

Yeah, I know.... and I was semi-inebriated All a bit of fun.

[hotspur (Chris)]

Yes the GPD2 is not well liked in Australia,I do not know why,I have never had a target slip out of view,it tracks perfectly.Had a few people visit my observatory,and seen what Vixen can really do,and they went away and ended up buying Vixen,one chap was not happy with with his Tak gear,sold it and bought Vixen-yes its seriously under estimated in the this country.I have the SS2K motors and controller,but might look at getting the skyscan set up you mention for my other Vixen mount-where did you get those,and how much?

[Kunama]

I set that same GPD2 up in my front yard with the Tak120 and a 22 ep on Omega Cent, then came back nearly 1.5 hours later and still had a near centred view of it. I guess it is the difference between Japanese and Chinese Quality Control.

[LewisM]

Originally Posted by hotspur

Yes the GPD2 is not well liked in Australia,I do not know why,I have never had a target slip out of view,it tracks perfectly.Had a few people visit my observatory,and seen what Vixen can really do,and they went away and ended up buying Vixen,one chap was not happy with with his Tak gear,sold it and bought Vixen-yes its seriously under estimated in the this country.I have the SS2K motors and controller,but might look at getting the skyscan set up you mention for my other Vixen mount-where did you get those,and how much?

Chris,

Steve Massey has them for about $595 by memory, and Sirius in Brisbane slightly LESS. Those 2 are the cheapest - BY FAR - in Australia. I have seen these Synscan EQ5 GOTO Upgrades go as high as a LUDICROUS $799!!!

I almost feel that guiding made the GPD2 perform WORSE, especially using a sub-par Orion mini guide scope. I will try exposures unguided next time out and see how long I get before significant trailing. I usually start guiding before I nail focus, so that I don't have to keep adjusting the star position (in days of NEQ6) as my focus regime usually is a 30 minute affair. Now with the GPD2, I don't even have to consider that.

Like Matt and I said to each other, one can only wonder how the SXD or GAIAX perform!

I am a true Vixen aficionado.

[LewisM]

Originally Posted by Kunama

I set that same GPD2 up in my front yard with the Tak120 and a 22 ep on Omega Cent, then came back nearly 1.5 hours later and still had a near centred view of it. I guess it is the difference between Japanese and Chinese Quality Control.

Indeed Matt, and it was the best decision I ever made. Thanks for selling it to me!

Next time out, I am measuring the PE. I am guessing it's gonna be pretty durned flat!

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

Originally Posted by LewisM

Decent cold night up here, so got the gear out... I learnt a few things.

1. DO NOT TRY a Lodestar with the Orion mini autoguider scope - firstly, you need a fair few spacers to get a focus, and when you do, the focus is really soft and NOT accurate. Result = crappy guiding.

2. The Vixen GPD2 is a SERIOUSLY UNDERESTIMATED and IGNORED mount! Prior to guiding, I used it visually for alignment etc (I installed a 2nd hand EQ5 Goto kit on it). I slewed to Peacock to use it as my focus star, when nightly Miss 4 year old bedtime duties called. I was gone for 37 minutes. When I returned, Peacock was STILL dead centre, and that was NO AUTOGUIDING - just tracking. Admittedly I had tuned the worm a little and polished things somewhat, and made sure there was negligible backlash when I installed the Synscan kit, but seriously, 37 minutes unattended and it had tracked PERFECTLY. If I tried that with the NEQ6, Peacock would be somewhere other than the EP after 37 minutes (Kunama is a witness to that one - I texted him when it happened)

3.The Synscan motors when guide correcting on the GPD2 are almost silent - probably because half the time they aren't doing anything but tracking! The whole 4 hours I was out there, not a single beep from PHD, and that was at either 2 second guiding, or as low as 0.5 sec guiding. The seeing varied a fair bit tonight, and 2 secs was best to average it out (though earlier on, 0.5 secs was better)

4. For some reason, DSS decided to reset my debayer matrix. Now got to fiddle again. Grumble grumble... after loading in 3 hours worth of data, now got to start the stack again.

5. Do not guide on a GX central core... yes, the Lodestar is so damned light sensitive that I could see GX cores with ease, and accidentally selected NGC 6744's core once OOPS! The choice of stars with a Lodestar is nothing short of INCREDIBLE, especially after using an Orion SSAG where I was always fighting to find one in my severe light pollution.

6. You MUST do Darks with the Lodestar. I could get away with not doing them with the SSAG (because all it saw was darkness ), but NO WAY JOSE on the Lodestar. DARKS, or else

7. Crocs are NOT very warm Even with socks. All that ventilation

8. Wolf Blass DOES keep you warm... got through my LAST 39th birthday bottle.... Bugger!

Thankyou...not....for leaving us with that visualisation.

[LewisM]

Hey, it wasn't THONGS with socks THAT is YIK (or Japanese )

[Steffen]

Originally Posted by Kunama

I set that same GPD2 up in my front yard with the Tak120 and a 22 ep on Omega Cent, then came back nearly 1.5 hours later and still had a near centred view of it. I guess it is the difference between Japanese and Chinese Quality Control.

Out of curiosity, does this depend on polar alignment accuracy (like with Skywatcher EQ mounts and SynScan)? Or can the GP mounts track using both RA and Dec (like an Alt-Az goto mount)?

I'm curious because I'm considering an Az-EQ6 mount merely for the capability of tracking without polar alignment. I'm a visual guy and my HEQ5Pro carries more that I can throw at it, but the absolute dependence on accurate polar alignment for good tracking of objects slows down the setup and makes me use the scope less than otherwise.

Cheers
Steffen.

[LewisM]

Steffen, if you use the ra and Dec motors with dual axis hand controller from Vixen, you fit motor gears with hand release so you can manually slew etc. then reengage and the mount resumes tracking. I don't think encoders are available for it.

I can get a dead accurate polar alignment using the GPD2 EVERY time - Vixen actually bothers to make the sides of the mount parallel with the polar axis scope, facilitating good compass alignment of both the RA and then the dec head aligned south as well. Without doing drift alignment the other night, the Synscan told me I was a bee's willy off in RA and 1° off in Dec - I then ran their improved realignment procedure, and I was flea nuts off in both, first run. Total less than 10 minutes. I then imaged for 4 hours, with no trailing apparent with round stars.

If anyone has a little used SXD or similar, give me a bell