lukepower

Luis, Thomas, thank you

I usually power down the IP camera, as the infrared light (which fortunately I can turn off) definitively causes some odd artifacts on the images.

I am using two ASA's with the old encoders remotely at Nerpio, without serious issues. The only thing you will need is some sort of remote IP camera to check the mount position before doing a homefind. I also added two marks (with duct tape) to know where the encoder reference marks are located, so that I can move the mount in the right position easily. If you have the bucks, do the upgrade. Othwise buy a decent IP camera.

Hi Thomas, nice images. I particularily like the way you process the nebulae. and the presentation with the mouseover - simply stunning! Is this done in a somewhat automated manner or completely "by hand"? Cheers

Hi folks, finally I've found some time to elaborate quite a big stash of dfata gathered over the last 12 months of NGC 6888 (Crescent nebula). I tried to combine RGB data with some narrowband data (Ha and OIII) with Pixinsight. I like the way it shows the nebulosity of the area while still preserving the faint OIII data: Best regards

HI Nigel, capacity might be an issue. We have two scopes in Astrocamp, Spain and happy there. We also considered to move one scope to another site in Spain (forgot the name) which also seemed very good, but decided to keep things at one place ultimatively. I do know that US and Australia options are quite expensive...

ANdrew, this sounds like a hardware problem rather than a software problem to me...

Hi there, good point! It could indeed be an interesting endeavour to exchange imaging hours. I guess that this would make mostly sense for those among us who have an automated setup. There should be some free/open source software around to organize something like this. I have no idea, however, how many could or want to cooperate in such an effort - my experience is that most people want to get the data but won't return anything...

FLI works under Linux, no problem. Most CCDs actually do work fine. And for the dome, it is usually quite easy to get the protocol and implement something usable quickly. The issue is that ASA is not supporting Linux - so you'd need to run a WIndows machine with Autoslew on it, and use the wINDI server to make it accessible from KStars (no matter if that one runs under Linux or Windows).

Well, I am not the big Linux-is-my-OS guy, but still you guys should have a look what Linux has to offer. Especially KStars is a nice alternative to TheSky, plus it also has functions to image (bye bye MaximDl), focus (FocusMax cya) and even automate (up to a level similar to ACP Scheduler). So yes, I think it is a nice solution. And one can use KStars even under Windows - and thats what I was testing here. With a Moravian camera it works fine (all software running under Windows).

Hi guys, is anybody using the ASA mounts under Linux? If so, how do you do? I am exploring alternative software solutions - KStars with Ekos (for automation) - which are open source and seem to work very well. They need to use INDI drivers. Now, I can find INDI drivers for basically all gear i use (CCD, Focuser, Dome, filter wheel) except for the mount I know I could use wINDI server to connect to a Windows system with ASCOM drivers, however FLI doesn't provide adequate drivers for this solution... Thanks

Hi, what you need to do (and add in) your procedure is the following: After you started the motors do a Homefind (Mount -> Homefind). After you successfully solved and sync'ed your mount, go and set the new reference position. This two steps are important if you do not have absolute encoders. With the absolute encoders, only the second point has to be done. And - what I would also check is if the parking position you expect to be the Zenith has the correct values: Mount -> Park Positions -> set new park positions Best regards

Ok guys I tested this with two different systems: My 20" Cassegrain, running at about 3400mm FL. 10 minutes unguided was no problem, whithout MLPT. This is definitively an improvement My 14,5" f3.6 Newton, while still being autoguided, was basically doing no corrections over 15 minutes subs. I still want to see if this works when the model becomes "older". With the Cassegrain, I actually used the gathered data of an older AutoPoint run, which seems to work well anyway...

Impressive! I still have to test the new version. Let's see what the results will be. I also think there are still other bugs in the pointing part of Autoslew, as we operate one scope (Veloce 200RH) which is perfectly polar aligned. Without a model, we can go to about 20 minutes unguided, with the model we can't even get close to 5 minutes...

Hi Mark, I will have to check this as soon as weather permits some testing under the stars. There is no visible slippage on visual inspection, so I assume it is little enough to only be seen during a focusing run...

Hi Mark, how much did you need to tighten it? I went now as much as I could tighten it by hand with a small screw-bit - so not a screwdriver - and still experience the problem...

I really have to grip what is going on here. I am able to get decent focus, but Autofocus is out of the question right now...

Update from my side: I tightened the two screws as depicted in the ASA manuals, but am still experiencing heavy backlash - like, going into focus at 10.00, continuing to 10.20, then moving backwards I need to get to 9.40 to get into focus again - so backlash of about 0.60. Is this normal? Thanks Lukas

Maybe about the "relatively new" Quickstart guide on the ASA homepage. It is better than nothing, and better than the outdated docs... Still not great, though

Well done Christer, thank you!

John, autoguiding with the ASA mounts is easier than with other mounts, as the movements are very smooth and precise. I use very small corrections (Maxim DL aggressiveness around 2-3) and also make infrequent corrections, and raise the minimum move to higher values. With this, it is very easy to guide and forget completely about MLPT and the likes.

Hi John, the remote guys are basically doing the same what one would locally - but using Teamviewer or the likes. The better question - and I guess this is what you wanted to know - is what the automation guys are doing. MLPT is not usable from ACP/Sequence Generator Pro/CCD Commander/, so either you try your luck with SuperFit or you use a guider (duh!). I personally had some success with SuperFit - it worked as long as the conditions (temperature) were similar over different nights, but the more time between the pointing run and the timaging time, the less it worked. I settled to using a guider for slow corrections with all my systems, and am quite happy with it. MLPT might be more efficient, but not by much.

I use the Baader Filters. The camera is working fine, however the slow readout is a bit of a downside

Its the Moravian G3-16200

Hi Bernard, I got your last mail with the ACC software, thank you for that. The system is now working - not perfectly, as there is still quite some slipping, but good enough to do some testing. I truly like the performance of the KAF-16200 so far.