EQMOD Goes !

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Kinda pleased with myself. Haven't been having much luck with computers and stuff lately, nothing seems to work as it should. PHD fails to guide and a while ago I also partially broke my Hand Controller so have half a screen to navigate with. ( Also the clouds have NOT been very cooperative ).

So decided to try and get computer control going although I have been confused with the variations, options, terminology and mixed advice I have been reading while trying to understand it all.

Built a 'new' computer, loaded CDC, ASCOM and EQMOD sw. I used the PC Direct connection through the hand piece because I had one I made for Firmware upgrades. Kept all the connections short, no hubs involved and bingo, it worked first time.

Just did some Solar imaging (BIG sunspot + friends !! ) and the sky is looking possible tonight ( fingers crossed ) so a new 'toy' to play with.
Hopefully the ASI120 will autoguide through FireCapture and PHD will become a thing of the past.

It's been AGES since the weather and the technology actually all worked at the same time.

[torsion (Bram)]

Well done Brent, yes it can be a pain sometimes.

If you use the ASI120 for guiding be sure to check out Metaguide.

cheers,
Bram

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Cheers Bram, FireCapture has guiding inbuilt, soon see if it works.

[2stroke (Jay)]

PHD has being working great for me since i ditched pulse and went gpusb though ill get back to it one day for PEC. Eqmod is the bomb and we never use the handset anymore. You should get a eq-direct cable and loose the hand set totally, using alignmaster with eqmod is great.

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Did you get to take some pics lat night Brent? I noticed the seeing was the best I've seen in a long time! I had crisp pinpoint stars all night and left the scope running till morning.

[Peter.M]

Originally Posted by 2stroke

PHD has being working great for me since i ditched pulse and went gpusb though ill get back to it one day for PEC. Eqmod is the bomb and we never use the handset anymore. You should get a eq-direct cable and loose the hand set totally, using alignmaster with eqmod is great.

+1 for all of these things, alignmaster and eqmod all the way!

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Originally Posted by SkyViking

Did you get to take some pics lat night Brent? I noticed the seeing was the best I've seen in a long time! I had crisp pinpoint stars all night and left the scope running till morning.

Yeah, awesome night for sure. I was up till 12:30 am, could have stayed longer. Still ironing out bugs Rolf, but some moonage as you have noticed, Jupiter, NGC2070, M42 experiments. Not all great pix but something to learn from.
I need to sort guiding and chill the camera.

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by 2stroke

You should get a eq-direct cable and loose the hand set totally, .

Ditto to that. The only time I ever pull the hand control out of the drawer is if I've loosened the axis locks for some reason. After that I use the SYnscan automated find home position routine. After that, the HC goes away again and the EQMOD comes back on. I should add that this is on a pier so re-aligning is something only once a decade.

Peter