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Re: G11 Cable Management
Sonny Edmonds
"looks great sonny!
?
on the autoguider, do you have the option of guiding via ascom?"
-- Hi Brian, Well.... I don't honestly know. I've always just had the USB connection, and the ST-4 wire to the autoguider port of the mount. Did it that way on the old AVX, and now on the 811. I've wondered how the Guide camera actually got it's signals to the mount controller, whether by the ST-4, or from PHD2 in the computer. But it has worked, so I basically left it alone. SonnyE |
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Re: G11 Cable Management
开云体育Hi! I also use a tubing of sorts, flexible, but I run my big cable
above and across the tube, and down the other side, giving some
more room for flexibility. It runs over the G11 head at the RA
axis, so to speak, to minimize drag below the G11 head.
Unfortunately, I can't show pics as I am travelling.... got a lot
of stuff velcroed to the tube, too, but not all. I never had a
snag since making this harness. Magnus
On 2020-02-10 03:58,
lesleyrgreen@... wrote:
Here's my cabling. I am using that large spiral plastic flex tubing you buy at auto parts stores. I attach it at the base, then at the saddle knob, then at the finder scope. The Gemini isn't in this picture but it just connects separately on the other side of the scope pretty standard.? |
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Re: G11 Cable Management
Hi Natalie: I've also had issues with cable hanging up on knobs or other things with my Losmandy , CGEM and Mesu GEM mounts.? Here is the latest way that I've dealt with routing of cabling that 1) won't hang up on any knobs and 2) provides minimal torque on an axis( which is vitally important with the Mesu).? Basically it's two loops by the Dec axis.? One loop takes care of RA movement and the other addresses the movement of the Dec axis.? I use a Velcro loop to divide one large loop into two at the Dec axis housing. ?? This setup also the tandem Losmandy dovetail mountings. Regards Mike On Sun, Feb 9, 2020 at 10:28 AM Natalie Electron <natalieelectron@...> wrote: Hi All, |
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Re: G11 Cable Management
Hi Nat It doesn't look terrible - the big white bundle could use to be supported farther up so it doesn't risk dragging (like around gemini level) what makes you think the cables are the root cause of your performance questions? On Sun, Feb 9, 2020 at 1:11 PM Natalie Electron <natalieelectron@...> wrote: Hi Brian, --
Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
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Re: G11 Cable Management
Here's my cabling. I am using that large spiral plastic flex tubing you buy at auto parts stores. I attach it at the base, then at the saddle knob, then at the finder scope. The Gemini isn't in this picture but it just connects separately on the other side of the scope pretty standard.?
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Re: First Light, first night, Wow! GM811GHD under the stars.
开云体育I absolutely agree Sonny, compared to The AVX mount, Celestron replaced it and it is now on it's way to a new home. I guess I swapped it for A Baader diagonal and assessories. One of my friends said " I would keep it". But others here and CN
have told me yep after two or three years you will dig it out and think I need to sell it. I just beat that situation to the punch and sell it now. I hope to be doing AP next winter season or sooner. I just need to figure out a game plan on gear and such.
I glad things are going swell with you.HAPPY SKIES and good nebulae hunting. P.S. I found your YouTube chanel.
Sent from my Galaxy Tab A
-------- Original message --------
From: Sonny Edmonds <sonnyedmonds@...>
Date: 2/9/20 7:18 PM (GMT-06:00)
Subject: Re: [Losmandy_users_io] First Light, first night, Wow! GM811GHD under the stars.
Brian,
Since this is all new to me, I think bright stars help me speed things up. Except last night the glaring Moon was a PITA. But Stellarium is happily sending the mount to the new objects for me. One of my worries, as it were. My only problem is finding the Nebula, currently. But I'm going to blame the Moon for my own inabilities. LOL! It was good meeting you at Losmandy Friday. Thanks for the pictures and help! Deric, Oh, I am ecstatic with my new 811! There isn't any comparison to my old mount. But I have to learn the new ins and outs with it. I do have my Red Dot sight I can use if the mount stops with the star or object out of the two telescopes FOV. (I use my Gride scope as one finder, and my main telescope as my final aiming view. Anyway, as simple as I am, it works good for me. And I have prefect balance, something I never had before. The quality shows in the ease of use I'm finding. Hi Tim, I've always taken a somewhat odd approach to Meridian flips. Mostly I tend to just avoid them. But in the past, PHD2 was my biggest pain. So what I learned to do was to simply shut off PHD2, then restart it Post Flip and let it settle in. Then go back to imaging. Where I don't do Visual anymore at all, just cameras. My old mount (if it could be called a mount) was very hard to use compared to the new 811. So I'm learning. Actually, learning by leaps and bounds. But happy as a clam. Now if this weather would just go away, and somebody turn off the Moon, it could be ideal. Oh, and shut off the lights. I was following a bus the other day, something a very rarely do. On the back was the dumbest poster ever. It said, "Join the 9 o'clock brigade. Turn on your outside lights at 9 PM, and leave them on all night."? Why would I want to light the way for criminals? I'd rather they trip and fall on my booby traps. Talk about aiding and abetting light pollution! -- SonnyE |
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Re: G11 Cable Management
looks great sonny! on the autoguider, do you have the option of guiding via ascom? On Sun, Feb 9, 2020 at 4:30 PM Sonny Edmonds <sonnyedmonds@...> wrote:
--
Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
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Re: First Light, first night, Wow! GM811GHD under the stars.
Sonny Edmonds
Brian,
Since this is all new to me, I think bright stars help me speed things up. Except last night the glaring Moon was a PITA. But Stellarium is happily sending the mount to the new objects for me. One of my worries, as it were. My only problem is finding the Nebula, currently. But I'm going to blame the Moon for my own inabilities. LOL! It was good meeting you at Losmandy Friday. Thanks for the pictures and help! Deric, Oh, I am ecstatic with my new 811! There isn't any comparison to my old mount. But I have to learn the new ins and outs with it. I do have my Red Dot sight I can use if the mount stops with the star or object out of the two telescopes FOV. (I use my Gride scope as one finder, and my main telescope as my final aiming view. Anyway, as simple as I am, it works good for me. And I have prefect balance, something I never had before. The quality shows in the ease of use I'm finding. Hi Tim, I've always taken a somewhat odd approach to Meridian flips. Mostly I tend to just avoid them. But in the past, PHD2 was my biggest pain. So what I learned to do was to simply shut off PHD2, then restart it Post Flip and let it settle in. Then go back to imaging. Where I don't do Visual anymore at all, just cameras. My old mount (if it could be called a mount) was very hard to use compared to the new 811. So I'm learning. Actually, learning by leaps and bounds. But happy as a clam. Now if this weather would just go away, and somebody turn off the Moon, it could be ideal. Oh, and shut off the lights. I was following a bus the other day, something a very rarely do. On the back was the dumbest poster ever. It said, "Join the 9 o'clock brigade. Turn on your outside lights at 9 PM, and leave them on all night."? Why would I want to light the way for criminals? I'd rather they trip and fall on my booby traps. Talk about aiding and abetting light pollution! -- SonnyE |
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Re: G11 Cable Management
Sonny Edmonds
I spent today finishing up my harnessing, and consolidating my wiring. I have two wires leaving my new GM811GHD. 12 volt power, and a single USB from my HUB. But lets see if I can get some pictures up.... ?I use a product called to build my harnesses. ? ?Here is where the Gemini wiring breaks out of the harness. Ball bungee for support of the drop wires. ?Left to my own devices, I get creative. I had a pair of , and the Gemini 2 controller fits beautifully where the leg extends. Go back to image 1 and you'll see it there. I put the "loop side" on the HC so it is gentle on the hand. The "hook side" on the leg. If you try this, I put the sides together, then mount the pair to one device, then peal the other side and placed the HC against the leg. Done. I pull the dots apart and hand press them snugly to the anchor point. Finally, I support the drop wires with a from the Gemini 2 T-bolt. It gives some flex if needed. 4 wires disconnect the telescope from the mount. The RA and Dec cords disconnect the head, plus a harness snap strain relief. And 3 wires disconnect the Gemini 2. Typically for me I bring in the telescope, then the head, and the tripod. The harness and my computer together. -- SonnyE |
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Re: G11 Cable Management
Hi Brian,
Here's some photos of our existing cable management attempts for our two basic scope configurations... Please note that the SV50ED is only for EAA finder use and not guiding, as that allows it to be moved between rigs using the Meade/ES finder bracket which is good (stable) enough for EAA finder use (Sharpcap with reticle) and eliminates the weight of the upper dovetail plate on the SCT. (And of course the SV50's focal length makes it useless for guiding the SCT at 3048mm) (We will be replacing the ED102 with a 140 when it is ready.)? We did also coat the indexing AZ handle with glow in the dark (blue) paint. Thanks, Nat |
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Re: G11 performance unguided
>>>
You said you wouldn't use Guide Assistant, but I am not sure why because there's no guide camera and therefore no ability to run any sort of guiding or ga while imaging :) On Sun, Feb 9, 2020 at 12:34 PM Anthony Q <anthonyquintile4@...> wrote:
--
Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
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Re: G11 Cable Management
Hi Nat do you happen to have some pictures of your setup including the cable details On Sun, Feb 9, 2020 at 10:28 AM Natalie Electron <natalieelectron@...> wrote: Hi All, --
Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
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G11 Cable Management
Hi All,
We are struggling to get a good (imaging) cable management solution to work with our new G11G and would like some advice. Our mount safety limits are currently set to 95 degrees on both east and west, with the default goto limit. We also replaced the Az hold down wing nuts with the larger, handles that are used on the top of the tripod legs. This allows the Az deck to be tightened down much more easily and firmly during PA, and then the handles can be positioned so there are less surfaces to snag on than the aluminum wing nuts; Everything seems OK with a 12" CAT, but we are struggling with cable routing when using a small(er) 102 APO with OAG and 50mm EAA finder. (On the CAT we are anchoring to the LX200 handle with velcro.) Our cabling is routed through a home made sleeve, consisting of satin blanket edging sewn into a sleeve. This is super slippery and flexible and glides? over anything on the mount except for the hook side of velcro.? We use a LOT of double sided velcro strapping on the tripod legs, both the skinny and wide versions from Home Depot, with the loop side always facing outward to minimize snagging as well. That way we are not gooing up the tripod with velcro adhesive all over the place. We are running ultra-flexible silicone 16 ga power for camera cooling, as well as 3 zwo flat usb3 cables and? 'ultraslim' cat6 cables for the FT focusers, and? RCA extension cables for the dew heaters through that sleeve. After about 6 feet or so, we change to a plastic loom strapped to a tripod leg, which then connects to all the various stuff velcro'd to the inside of the tripod legs, then onto the battery pack.? The desire is to have a standard single harness that will work for both a big CAT as well small refractors. We just can't figure out the best way to loop the cable from the saddle to the stationary part of the mount. We have tried using loop from the saddle plate to the mount post, but we can't seem to find a place that doesn't allow the cable to snag. We have tried using a 1/4", 16" long carbon fiber rod strapped to various positions on top ot the OTA as well as at saddle plate height to extend the loom off the back of the deck, but that doesn't seem great either.? Also, we were wondering if the 12" post extension may be useful to provide an anchor point above the tripod legs, any thoughts there ? Realizing that the trend nowdays is to put everything on top of the saddle, we are not ready to do this quite yet, as it does add additional payload weight that we are trying to avoid, and even so, there still is the requirement to run some kind of cabling to the deck. Since cable loom flexibility is not our issue, we will resist moving stuff (control boxes, hub, etc) to the top of the scope (for now). This also allows us to adjust the heater controls, turn usb devices on and off, etc, without disturbing the telescope deck much, and seems like it would keep the control units drier when they are protected on the inside of the tripod legs. As well as not having to add additional cabling for the focuser hand controllers, laser pointer remote switch, etc. So any advice as to what works for others would be greatly appreciated as it seems that good cable management is critical for good guiding results. Thanks, Nat |
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Re: First Light, first night, Wow! GM811GHD under the stars.
开云体育Star positions are really just a look-up table ... and one look-up table should be as good as the next (unless one of the catalogs has an error in it, but since these tables are imported, that's probably not likely).One error you can expect to encounter is "cone error". ?This is the notion that the optical axis of your telescope probably isn't bang-on 90° angle to the dec axis. ?Suppose it's really a 91° angle. ?Since you generally align by centering in the "eyepiece" you're really aligning the setup to the "scope" and not the mount. ?But when you do a meridian flip to look at the other half of the sky, everything will be off by 2x the amount that the optical axis was not perfectly orthogonal to the dec axis (in my example it would be 2°). ? That's generally "ok" as long you know to expect it, because once you center on the star, a mount that is accurately polar-aligned should be happy to track it all night long (after you compensate for the error when you do the meridian flip.) Clear Skies, Tim On Feb 9, 2020, at 12:23 PM, Sonny Edmonds <sonnyedmonds@...> wrote:
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Re: First Light, first night, Wow! GM811GHD under the stars.
开云体育Sonny, I am glad that you and your mount are getting acquainted and be becoming friends. Their is alot to Learn. I am beginning to get comfortable with my mount. My problem has been that the Losmandy and Gemini? 2 do not work like my previous
mount and am looking forward to replies on this thread having not tried aligning on other stars not in the "Bright Star" list. The Moon was bright last night but I still like looking at it, with a 21mm 100° TV Ethos, it looks like you are looking out the portal
of Apollo 11. HAPPY SKIES and good hunting to you Sonny.
Sent from my Galaxy Tab A
-------- Original message --------
From: Sonny Edmonds <sonnyedmonds@...>
Date: 2/9/20 11:23 AM (GMT-06:00)
Subject: Re: [Losmandy_users_io] First Light, first night, Wow! GM811GHD under the stars.
After I did about 5 stars last night, I was landing with my object (target) in the near center of my main camera's FOV. (Just Bodes)
It struck me later that I should use the Bright Stars catalog in the Gemini 2 hand controller for my alignment stars. I was just going after ones in Stellarium, and having it slew to them. Then the Align-Alignment adding. My way worked, but I can't help but wonder if I used the Gemini catalog is I wouldn't get a better alignment? What do you think Chip Louie? Or anybody. Doggone Moon almost obscured the stars here last night. Humidity? I pulled the mount in early. A lot to learn, but not like when I started. Losmandy is an amazing mount! Going to play inside till the weather breaks around Tue/Wed, then run outside again. LOL! -- SonnyE |
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Re: First Light, first night, Wow! GM811GHD under the stars.
Hi Sonny you can use any celestial object to align (except solar system objects of course). you don't even need a star, If you plate solve you can just go to different parts of the sky and sync (align too if you want). But for visal, it can be hard to center something in the fov if you can't see it, so bright stars are a good choice for that. but they don't really make any difference in accuracy.? better pointing accuracy comes from more points spread across the sky, at different alt and az On Sun, Feb 9, 2020 at 9:23 AM Sonny Edmonds <sonnyedmonds@...> wrote: After I did about 5 stars last night, I was landing with my object (target) in the near center of my main camera's FOV. (Just Bodes) --
Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
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Re: First Light, first night, Wow! GM811GHD under the stars.
After I did about 5 stars last night, I was landing with my object (target) in the near center of my main camera's FOV. (Just Bodes)
It struck me later that I should use the Bright Stars catalog in the Gemini 2 hand controller for my alignment stars. I was just going after ones in Stellarium, and having it slew to them. Then the Align-Alignment adding. My way worked, but I can't help but wonder if I used the Gemini catalog if I wouldn't get a better alignment? What do you think Chip Louie? Or anybody. Doggone Moon almost obscured the stars here last night. Humidity? I pulled the mount in early. A lot to learn, but not like when I started. Losmandy is an amazing mount! Going to play inside till the weather breaks around Tue/Wed, then run outside again. LOL! -- SonnyE |
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Re: Old Ring Gear vs New Ring Gear G11
Les,
You will get decent images with anything under 0.9" RMS when guided. Don't let chasing the lowest PE hold you up, let the images be your guide. If you are not fully optimized and slightly oversampling then guiding is not so important, get some experience and have some fun and get good enough at the process, you will find out if PE is holding your images back. Tackle the lower PE when it becomes an issue. -- Chip Louie - Chief Daydreamer Imagination Hardware |
Timothy Campbell
Chip Louie
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