pesa

Thanks for your responses both. What setting do you use under ServoSetup/Sensitivity? The lowest you get when dragging the potentiometer is 0.05, does that work for anyone? Feels like a mosquito landing on the tube would cause servo error then! pelle

My observatory is at site with several scopes. We actually have broadband there so no problem with access to my NUC. In your case you could either get a Line carrier as suggested or just get an access Point to the nuc in your observatory. Come to Think of it, Intel has a small wifi-card you can put in the NUC, might be the best solution if Line carrier does not work. (Both sender and receiver needs to be on the same phase for it to work I Think) Intel NUC used to have a very annoying bug, you needed to have a screen attached to it. That is fixed now. I dont have a screen at all for the nuc but instead use teamviewer from my IPad when I'm at the observatory. Works fine. Pelle

I use the smallest intel nuc I could find. Probably still overkill pelle

Hi Mike I use teamviewer. It works great. My remote observatory is about 30km away and I have no problem at all with controlling it with TW. Other things are more likely to be problematic, since USB was invented by the devil (apperently) you are more likely to have that kind misfunction. Like having to unplug/plug-in the camera if maxim looses Connection (common problem for me). For you thats no biggie since you just have to walk out in the near garden and handle it. (unless you live in versaille castle) I handle it by having a networks switch for camera Power (tellstick, works great). So not a major problem for me unless I try to do a pointing model,then typically maxim hangs when theres 4 stars left. pelle

Hi As I wrote above, is that possible ? Specifically for me, I have hard to understand tracking error - usually in dec - and I have no servo error reported in autoslew. Shouldnt ANY pointing error caused by inbalance or Cable drag result in servo error reported? Put it this way: could misbalace or Cable tension cause pointing error WITHOUT autoslew reporting servo error? Setup is extremely ridig, Concrete filled pier that is on solid rock. Tube is N10 so that should be very stiff as well. Secondary is firmly locked. Pole error is 1.0'/0.3' rec/dec. Small camera/filter Wheel on ok3Z. same tracking error with/without MLPT. pelle

Thanks Mark/Christer for your relies. My trying fix ovals/drops turned out to be akin to stearing a car with the rear view mirror. The tube was astigmatic which led to ovals/drops of different orientation depending on which side of focus I was on. Even a small deviation from ideal focus resulted in ovals/drops. No wonder collimation couldnt fix my problem. Perhaps depending on non-ideal seeing (never below 1.5',often 2.5') and possibly astigmatism Sequence's AutoFocus doesnt work well. The Misfocus then resulting in oval stars. ASA has taken back the tube for adjustment without fuss. Kudos for that! Now I'm praying for a Quick return since theres really good weather now! pelle Edit: I use the latest beta of sequence, 208

Program thougt I still had 0.75 reducer, I forgot to change to 0.95 wynn. pixel scale is 1.04'/pixel. So fwhm shown in attachment is too pessimistic. pelle

The big TIFF is actually a raw fits just saved as tiff. so no gamma. Why isnt fits allowed, would be more practical IMO.

I've been zooming in on forum users images taken with 10N/12N. All of you have better collimation than me. Do you get that good collimation only with glatter and eventually tublug? Sofar I've recentered center marking (was 1.5mm off) I use a perfectly collimated glatter laser and tublug.EXTREMELY CAREFULLY) I will also use catseye autocollimator soon. I would appreciate any tips any of you can give me because I'm nearing desperation. Mechanically I Think all is appropriately tight. My collimation error is pretty much constant over whole sky and does not depend on mount-error (same error even with 0.5s) Sharpness isnt spot on either I know ( an 41cm RC at same location got seeing of ~1.5') that night. Here is an example, pixelscale is 1.36'/pixel. ASA N10+atik460 bin1, 0.95 wynne As you see there are 2 errors, all stars are drop formed and the big star at lower right has double diffractions from spider vanes (8). Any thought Before I give up and pay someone (anyone interested ? ) to travel here and collimate for me? pelle

Thx Max for the reply! >Bad edges can be missed on some test systems. For the price we pay for ASA-astrograph they should be perfect. A test protocol is promised in the brochure but I never got one. I have made a mask to reduce F-number but spikes looked the same. I also rotated the primary (not glued contrary to the brochure) with same result, no change in spikes.. pelle

I too would appreciate an extra park position. Also please show alt/az of target! pelle

Nigel, very dark indeed! can you give a rough estimate of seeing in terms of possible resolution might have bin? perhaps 1.5" ? What is a normal value, 2" (fwhm) ? At my obs I might get 2 twice a year! 3 is more usual. All numbers are rough esitmates but not far off I think. Woluld be interestng to hear what other folks get....Any takers? pelle

Thanks for the answe Gerald, my tublug is 2", much better than 1 1/4" ofc You mention centering the secondary as seen with a cheshire but do ASA move secondary mirror (not holder ofc) straight down from focuser? If you slide the secondary parrallel to its surface (so a laser doesnt hit it in its center) it shoulnt be exactle centered in the cheshire,right? With the help of the swedish reseller I was able to get a decent collimaion by taking shots with camera in place and then adjusting one screw at a time. Quite effective. Later we will try to fine tune it with catseye xlk. One thing you didnt adress is the extra diffraction spikes you see in the image. Doesnt ASA check both mirrors before shipment? As I mentioned I never got the test protocol that you mention in the brochure. Pelle

Hi I have an ASA 10N astrograph on an ASA DDM60Pro mount. I received it in this january. I use ASA's 3" wynn Corrector (x0.95) No guiding. I've never been able to get (even Close to) perfect images with it. I've tried with glatter laser from asa (not perfectly collimated collimator!) and TUBLUG. Since laser isnt perfectly collimated (and I dont use ANY force when fasten it with screws) its hard to judge when laser hits middle of primarys triangle. Supposedly, thats not critical. Correct? With Tublug I collimate primary to move triangle to tublug's center, as well as I can judge. Obviously my judgment isnt good enough cause eggs remains I will try cats Eye later but descriptions how to use it seems to be somewhat dependent on secondary placement so that will be Another difficult excercise (I've read somewhere here on forum that ASA moves secondary down to avoid assymetric vignetting (as they should) However it isnt clear to me if they just moved it down or moved it parrallel to seconday Surface, that makes a difference for how to use cats Eye and other Tools like sight tubes, I THINK at least. As you notice I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to collimation. I'm not very interested in it but now I have to. This is NOT what I wanted, I bought with a hefty premium for a newtonian precisely so I DIDNT have to figure all this out myself. Makes me wonder about their quality Control. Also Orion optics can be a bit sloppy from Reading this forum. The tubes where described by asa as having tested mirrors with accompanying protocol. I never got any protocol and I strongly suspect my primary is faulty. Now my question is this, how much of these problems/thoughts do you share? My experience is not completely negative tho, I had a focuser thrashed by not being careful when unscrewing Corrector but they sent a new one without hitting me with a charge. Kudos for that. I have read all threads here I can find about eggs and diffraction patterns but I'd appreciete your feedback about my image as well: is the eggs likely caused by bad collimation and is extra fiffraction spikes due to faulty primary? Any help/thought is appreciated Pelle

Come to Think of it, even if mount isnt part of the problem I'd like to know the answer to my original question: Is there any situation (no guiding) when you have a good (enough) pointing model when bad shape stars resulted from ex. bad balance WITHOUT autoSlew reporting servo errors? anyone? pelle

George, as round as seeing permits them to be (and that aint much!) So not easy to judge from that. I will move this question to astrograph section instead after I made some more thinking. pelle

George, I'm not guiding and when I look at images I see that the problem isnt the mount, or at least not only the mount. The images are consistent no matter direction (of scope) and vega at 0.001s showed eggshape as well. Every image shows eggshapes but direction of trail isnt totally uniform, But Close. My scope is ASA 10N astrograph. Main mirror is glued and doesnt move. Collimation is made with a tueblug+ glatters 2" laser. I dont Think I can improve upon collimation with those tools at least. This makes me wonder if the wynn Corrector (also asa) is defect, has that happened to anyone here? Sorry about the irregular capsm dont know why this forum editor does that. Also, anyone have an idea why I get so weird diffraction spikes? pelle

I have a problem with egg shaped stars wich I thought was collimation error, now I suspect mount but that doesnt seem completely logical either since autoslew doesnt report any position errors. Therefor I wonder if bad balance (its far from perfect) cann reult in egg shapes even if autoslew doesnt report any errors? pelle

Sorry to hijack the thread but I would like to know if all you guys using SGP are using the inbuit HUB without problem? Pelle

Hi there! 5.1.1.6 pelle