w0mbat

Hi, I have the DDM60 Pro with through the mount cabling. I am a new and as yet inexperienced user and so am not qualified to fully answer your questions but a few points occur to me. 1. Could you use an ASA OK3 focuser? This is cabled through the mount using the data cables. Otherwise I am sure the same cables could be used with other brands with some adaptation. 2. There are four wires in the galvanic power cable, again through the mount. This can give two completely separate supplies or, if it is possible to use a common ground then you could have three DC supplies. 3. The in mount USB hub has three type A ports accessible, again cabled through the mount. I believe you can get small type A to type B adapters. I hope this helps a bit. Beyond this others will need to help you. Regards Ian PS In a few days I am flying to Dunedin to board a ship bound for Antarctica. It will be my first visit to New Zealand!

Thanks for the suggestions Nigel and Gerald. I have visually checked the focuser barrel and it appears to be centred. I think I will contact ASA support directly and see what they suggest. Ian

Hi again, Please ignore previous post. I was testing during daylight and chose an object to focus on which was way too close! A silly mistake! Ian

Hi all, I have the standard OK3 focuser that came with my N10 astrograph. I am finding that the Homefind routine only works sometimes. I have used the focus control in Autoslew and also ACC. Both software routines do the same thing. I press the Homefind button and the focuser slews all the way inwards and then keeps running. The position indication number in whichever software I am using keeps changing but the focuser is no longer moving. It appears to have reached its inwards limit. Occasionally it does work and reverses out 2mm and resets the display to that value as expected. I am concerned that the motor continuing to run while the focuser is not moving may damage the mechanism. Surely the focuser has limit switches at the end of its travel?? If so it looks like they only work sometimes or else the focuser stops moving before it reaches the inwards limit. The only thing I can think of to try is to increase the shaft pressure with the adjusting screw but I am not willing to do that yet in case I am missing something else. Any ideas? Regards, Ian

Hi Sebastian, In Autoslew go to "Telescope/Add Remove Components" In there you will find a small box marked "Use ACC" If you untick this box ACC will not load when Autoslew starts. Regards Ian

Hi Mark, Inspired by your success I have recently had an eyepiece adapter machined for my N10. Unfortunately I appear to have made some sort of error as I cannot achieve focus. The adapter I have has a "face to face" length of 57mm as you suggested. I interpreted this as the distance from the mounting flange on the 3" Wynne corrector to the other end on which the eyepiece rests when fully inserted. So far (yesterday, in amongst the usual Christmas activity) I have only tried a Baader Hyperion zoom eyepiece. If I pull out the eyepiece from the holder until it is nearly falling out focus is nearly reached with the OK3 fully out. Unfortunately my optical knowledge is insufficient to understand where I have gone wrong. I had the adapter made for the visit of my family over Christmas so this is all a bit disappointing! Any advice you (or others) could give would be greatly appreciated. Regards and Christmas greetings to all, Ian

Hi Michael, I had wondered if that was the explanation. Ian

Thanks Michael. I am sure many other users will appreciate this as well. Regards Ian

Hi all, Recently I have been watching the forum membership number at the bottom of the main page. It goes up and down like a yoyo! Just out sheer curiosity I would love to know why. It's like watching the stock market. A few days ago I saw it hit 150 but since then it has struggled to regain the peak! Ian

Hi George, So far I am only up to three star pointing files for PA optimisation. I have avoided looking at Sequence for the same reason...just another level of complexity for my 62 year old brain to cope with. I will keep in mind what you have said when I get to large pointing files. Last night I worked out how to synch by choosing a star in the planetarium program rather than in Autoslew......much easier and quicker. Thanks for helping me realise my misconception. And also to Luc. Ian

Thanks for replying George. Yes, I have been choosing a star in Autoslew. For some reason I thought that was necessary for the initial synch. My planetarium software is C2A. I know it works properly with Autoslew (through ASCOM) as I have just started trying the "three star same dec" routine for polar alignment. Stars chosen in C2A show up as "ASCOM Object" in Autoslew. Frankly it had never occurred to me to try synchronisation the other way round at start up. These procedures are all totally new to me. Next clear night I will try to do what you suggest. Nevertheless I would still be interested to know the answer. This is one of the reasons I started the thread re the manuals. Just saying "synch to a star" in the manual is a little obscure when one is a total beginner like me. Regards Ian

28 views and no answer! Perhaps I have asked a really stupid question?? Nevertheless I still don't know the answer and would love someone to clear this up for me. Regards to all, Ian

I do support the idea of a Wiki. However, from past experience with other unrelated software, I do not believe that a Wiki is in any way a sufficient replacement for well written fully comprehensive manuals. The provision of good manuals is the natural responsibility of any company that sells complex expensive high performance equipment. Unfortunately the ASA representative has not addressed the basic issues in my original post. Ian

Dear ASA, As someone who is completely new to modern sophisticated equipment such as my DDM60Pro, I am finding that most of my frustrations and difficulties come from the out of date and incomplete manuals for the hardware and associated software. Fortunately I have a lot of experience with complex technology and software in fields other than astronomy and I generally am able to blunder through in the end. Were this not the case I would be completely lost. This leads me to ask when the manuals will be brought up to date and cover every aspect of the equipment and software? I believe that the wonderful products made by ASA are being let down by inadequate and out of date documentation. This is not good for the reputation of ASA. I would respectfully like to make some suggestions for these updates. 1. The manuals should not assume any prior knowledge. When technical jargon is used it must be explained at least on the first use or in a glossary. 2. Important procedures should be set out in a simple step by step way. 3. When there are exceptions to a procedure they should be put in a separate section, not mixed in with the normal procedure. 4. The manuals must cover every aspect of the software or equipment. There is a significant number of functions or parts of Autoslew, for example, that are simply not mentioned in the manuals. 5. When a manual is translated into another language, the manual should be proof read by a native speaker of that language. There are examples in the documentation of inappropriate use of words that do not make sense to a native speaker. For instance, in the Autoslew manual the word "overseen" is used when the writer clearly means "overlooked". To a native English speaker these two words have very different meanings. I am sure there are forum users, including myself, who would be willing to do this proof reading. I am developing enormous respect for the ASA products I own. Unfortunately that respect does not extend to the documentation. Kindest regards, Ian Delaney

This may be obvious to experienced users but It is not to me. When I choose object/star, for the purpose of synching, there are two drop down lists. Why is this? I have been selecting the same star in both lists. It seems to work but I cannot understand why or if this is necessary. This is one of many missing explanations in the Autoslew documentation. Regards to all, Ian

Hi, That's interesting. I received my DDM60Pro earlier this year. It came with an EA (Elektro-Automatik) 300W power supply capable of supplying 21A. It only weighs 1.75 Kg. Ian

Hi Stuart, To the east. I am 20 km north of Buchan in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains. Nearest major town is Bairnsdale which is 100 Km from me. So it is very dark and the altitude is 540 metres. Looking forward to first light with my N10 soon. Some clear nights would help. Ian

Hi David, I have just checked my N10 tube rings and the thread size is 5 X 0.8 mm. That is a standard metric thread. Hope this helps. Ian

Hi Stuart, I received a Howie Glatter laser and tublug just last week. I have tested the laser for its own collimation and it seems very good. I have done a collimation on my N10 with the new tools and, frankly, I found it quite easy. Small secondary adjustments brought the beam into the centre of the main mirror triangle. I then installed the tublug and could immediately see the shadow of the main mirror triangle projected onto the tublug screen. I then found it easy to slightly adjust the main mirror to centralise the shadow. I then removed the tublug and put the laser back and was pleased to find that the return beam now disappeared up the laser hole. So, based on the belief that the N10 would have arrived with only with small errors caused by transport, I hope and believe that I have achieved good collimation. I do not have the catseye tools. Part of why I chose the Glatter tools is that I could not completely understand the catseye tool method. I am actually about 4 hours drive from Melbourne. However I would be very interested in cooperating on this (or anything) as apart from this forum I don't know anyone to work with. Regards Ian

Hi all, Soon I will be trying my first images with my N10. I have never owned a telescope with a fan before. So I would like to know how and when experienced users operate their fans. Is it just for temperature equalisation before imaging? Or do you run them during imaging? My N10 fan is very noisy at full speed. I wondered if this would introduce some vibration in the OTA. This led me to wonder what others do. Ian

Clemens, have you heard of C2A (Computer Aided Astronomy) which is a free planetarium program which, as far as I can tell, works well with Autoslew and is very intuitive (it needs to be for a beginner like me). I know this is not what you asked but few people seem to have heard of this software. It is recommended by the Target Asteroids! (Osiris Rex) people for example. http://www.astrosurf.com/c2a/english/ I think it is worth a look. Ian

Thanks very much Clemens. It looks to me like the only tricky bit would be the spherical profile to match the dome. Otherwise easy. Ian

Hi, Thanks for that info. I did wonder if I should have ordered the solar vent. I would be very interested to see some photos of the solar vent and where/how it is installed. I am thinking I could probably build a similar device for less than what Sirius asks. I am very happy with my Sirius observatory but I did find it hard to find information on the various options when I was ordering. I had assumed the main purpose of the ventilator was to remove hot air in the summer. It did not occur to me at the time that condensation would be such an issue. If you could post some photos it would be great. Thanks Ian

Hi again, A few days ago I realised I would have to fix some design errors with my pier by adding an extension on top of it. So today I started to disassemble the telescope and mount in preparation for that. This has led me to solve the inconsistent balance issue. You guys were absolutely right......something was moving, in fact the whole OTA. Some time ago I had removed the telescope mounting plate. I replaced it and the four screws but had somehow forgotten to retighten them! So the mounting plate was free to move about under the screw heads allowing the whole OTA to move around several mm. No wonder it was hard to balance! Thanks again, Ian

Thanks Nigel and George. My current setup is very simple....3" corrector, camera adapter, Canon 60Da DSLR. I have secured all cables. So I don't think movement is a problem. Yes I am saying I get different results when I slew back to the original position at which the balance was done. I had wondered about the cables through the mount.....sometimes I think I can hear them moving when slewing. Sounds like I should assume the balance is OK and see how it goes.