This is a landmark image for us because it was taken by remote control from the house!
We now have a 350 metre wireless bridge between the observatory and the house. Starting up is still rather manual: fuel for the generator, remove the dust caps, that sort of thing. After that, all is done in warmth and comfort.
(In the more distant future, we'll have generator backed solar power up there, and Wake on LAN, so we can start the beast from the house. That is being investigated).
M22, or the Crackerjack (presumably because of it's resemblance to the eponymous firework), RGB, 15 minutes per channel in 5 minute subs, squeezed in between dark and moonrise.
Original image here is 0.55 sec arc/pixel, approx 35 min arc across, north on the left.
I recently went remote control from the house as well and I feel your joy......best thing I’ve found with it is the ability to roll over in bed at 3am, close down the imaging run, equipment and computer then roll back over and go to sleep without having to get out of bed.
Definately get the wake on LAN thing happening....really makes life easy. I use TeamViewer to switch the remote computer on then switch over to Microsoft Remote Desktop so I’m not chewing through the data on my limited plan
How are you controlling power? I’ve grabbed a USB 8 x relay board which works an absolute treat......switches everything on/off and even closes my roof. I just had to make/wire a control box up. It gives me 4 x 240v double gpo’s and 4 x 12v circuits that can be independently controlled.
That’s a very nice rendition M&T. Nice colours and pinpoint stars. Congratulations on the remote advance.
Thanks muchly, Geoff.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Imme
Great pic guys.
I recently went remote control from the house as well and I feel your joy......best thing I’ve found with it is the ability to roll over in bed at 3am, close down the imaging run, equipment and computer then roll back over and go to sleep without having to get out of bed.
Definately get the wake on LAN thing happening....really makes life easy. I use TeamViewer to switch the remote computer on then switch over to Microsoft Remote Desktop so I’m not chewing through the data on my limited plan
How are you controlling power? I’ve grabbed a USB 8 x relay board which works an absolute treat......switches everything on/off and even closes my roof. I just had to make/wire a control box up. It gives me 4 x 240v double gpo’s and 4 x 12v circuits that can be independently controlled.
Hi, Jon,
At present we run off a Honda EU30iS generator with a 2-wire remote start/stop. I designed and built the microcontroller boards that work the scope and all the observatory control software. I've included a scripting facility where we can select multiple targets, filter changes, exposures, etc.
A few typical lines might be:
Open dome
Start cameras
Synch to Alphard
Goto M83
Filter cycle RGB
Shoot M83 12 prefocus shots 30 min unbinned
Goto Trifid
Filter cycle Ha
Shoot Trifid 3 prefocus shots 60 min unbinned
The "shoot" line manages changing filters and refocus between frames.
The last 3 scripting lines are almost always:
Park
Close dome
Shut down Windows and kill generator
The Kill Generator part is done using a solid state relay with 6000 volts of isolation at the observatory end, and a self-latching relay at the generator end.
Instantly on executing that last line, the microcontroller is on it's own, running off the UPS. It waits 30 seconds to allow Windows to complete shutdown and for the generator to stop. It's last (necessarily suicidal) act is to shut down the UPS.
This all happens while we sleep on obliviously.
Now that we've got the wireless bridge, we use Windows Remote Desktop back at the house to write the script on the observatory machine. Thereafter, everything happens as usual, with the advantage that we can see what is happening, and the additional step that when the UPS powers down, the link to the house is lost and the virtual desktop shuts down.
Once we have solar, the plan is to have the last line of the script tell the observatory computer to hibernate, rather than shut down completely. The generator will be transparently controlled by the solar battery controller, not by me.
Although I've been writing (mostly medical/scientific) real time and embedded device control software for almost 40 years, I'm getting out of touch and the wireless and ethernet parts are very new to me, to the point of bewilderment, so I'm going to have to ask for a lot of help from obliging mates who like that sort of thing and don't mind my cooking Trish is helping with moral support and logistics.
That’s great news that the remote control is coming together. I can definitely vouch for the advantages and comfort to be had. Goldilocks zone is a good way to describe your M22 as well with the colour and resolution being spot on.
Thanks Bart. Oh, to have an observatory atop a high desert mountain. Hard to raise chooks cattle veggies there though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryderscope
That’s great news that the remote control is coming together. I can definitely vouch for the advantages and comfort to be had. Goldilocks zone is a good way to describe your M22 as well with the colour and resolution being spot on.
At present we run off a Honda EU30iS generator with a 2-wire remote start/stop. I designed and built the microcontroller boards that work the scope and all the observatory control software. I've included a scripting facility where we can select multiple targets, filter changes, exposures, etc.
A few typical lines might be:
Open dome
Start cameras
Synch to Alphard
Goto M83
Filter cycle RGB
Shoot M83 12 prefocus shots 30 min unbinned
Goto Trifid
Filter cycle Ha
Shoot Trifid 3 prefocus shots 60 min unbinned
The "shoot" line manages changing filters and refocus between frames.
The last 3 scripting lines are almost always:
Park
Close dome
Shut down Windows and kill generator
The Kill Generator part is done using a solid state relay with 6000 volts of isolation at the observatory end, and a self-latching relay at the generator end.
Instantly on executing that last line, the microcontroller is on it's own, running off the UPS. It waits 30 seconds to allow Windows to complete shutdown and for the generator to stop. It's last (necessarily suicidal) act is to shut down the UPS.
This all happens while we sleep on obliviously.
Now that we've got the wireless bridge, we use Windows Remote Desktop back at the house to write the script on the observatory machine. Thereafter, everything happens as usual, with the advantage that we can see what is happening, and the additional step that when the UPS powers down, the link to the house is lost and the virtual desktop shuts down.
Once we have solar, the plan is to have the last line of the script tell the observatory computer to hibernate, rather than shut down completely. The generator will be transparently controlled by the solar battery controller, not by me.
Although I've been writing (mostly medical/scientific) real time and embedded device control software for almost 40 years, I'm getting out of touch and the wireless and ethernet parts are very new to me, to the point of bewilderment, so I'm going to have to ask for a lot of help from obliging mates who like that sort of thing and don't mind my cooking Trish is helping with moral support and logistics.
Very best,
Mike
You're a lot more advanced than i am! Sounds like you definitely have it under control.
You reckon you could run a CCTV system up there to see what the scope is actually doing?
We'd probably catch it up to no good.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atmos
Really great cluster MnT
Thanks Colin!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Imme
You're a lot more advanced than i am! Sounds like you definitely have it under control.
Jack of many trades, master of very little. A tiny step forward today: got an Arduino Mega talking via Bluetooth to the laptop. The Arduino will manage the synchronized opening and closing of the dome shutters without them banging into each other, reporting back via Bluetooth from the revolving dome to the rest of the system and thence to the house.
Beautiful image!
Very interesting story re the remote and automation you have done.
Fantastic to have the knowledge to write your own code for device control.
Being 3.5 hours drive away from our totally unmanned systems, I am always trying to think of better and safer ways to automate and control everything.
Congratulations!
Cheers,
Tim
Not sure how I missed this one. Nice image with great resolution and colour. I had heard that M22 had a planetary but I can't seem to see it in your image. Am I wrong?
Beautiful image!
Very interesting story re the remote and automation you have done.
Fantastic to have the knowledge to write your own code for device control.
Being 3.5 hours drive away from our totally unmanned systems, I am always trying to think of better and safer ways to automate and control everything.
Congratulations!
Cheers,
Tim
It was useful the other night. We could see from the house that the roof shutters were still open in the morning. (A problem that occurs mostly if we have guests watching). I guessed that the problem was that the copper contacts that deliver power to the roof were grubby. I rotated the dome off the contacts and back on, and the roof closed itself in an orderly manner.
I've finished writing the code for the "new" roof shutter controller based on an Arduino. Now it's time to design a very simple Arduino shield to interface it to the rest of the system.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
Not sure how I missed this one. Nice image with great resolution and colour. I had heard that M22 had a planetary but I can't seem to see it in your image. Am I wrong?
Thanks Paul! Wikipedia says that the planetary was discovered relatively recently (1986) by IRAS, and is "point-like". That sounds difficult for mortals. Perhaps one could find it using an OIII filter and blinking between lum and OIII.
Very cool! Cheese and crackers imaging. 
