Keyboard Shortcuts
ctrl + shift + ? :
Show all keyboard shortcuts
ctrl + g :
Navigate to a group
ctrl + shift + f :
Find
ctrl + / :
Quick actions
esc to dismiss
Likes
- Losmandy_users
- Messages
Search
|
Re: Bright Star disappeared from list despite being well above horizon
Was out last night for a few hours.? Tracking and pointing were good.? I double checked and yes, once again Sirius was well above the horizon but missing from the Bright Star list after a while.
I'm still getting used to and learning the Gemini 2, and was wondering if it's possible to look for an object by name like I could with the Celeston NexStar hand control, which had a list called "Named Objects"?? For example, if I did not know the Messier number 42 for the Orion nebula, could I just look up "Orion nebula" somehow?? Or do I have to know the catalog number for every object?? Not a big deal, just a convenience. Thanks again for any help. |
|
Re: Question for Brian Valente (not Losmandy related)
Hi Arun if it's personal, just drop me a line at bvalente at gmail dot com if it's losmandy related it would be better here or techsupport at losmandy dot com On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 7:35 AM Arun Hegde <arun.k.hegde@...> wrote: Hi Brian, --
Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
|
G11 guide speed further update
Well, I answered my own question last night. As recommended in the G11 manual, I calibrated my autoguider at a speed of 2x, then guides at a speed of .5x. As I suspected, the results were a disaster. I then recalibrated and guided at 2X, then again at .5x. Unlike my previous experience guiding was much more accurate at .5x. I guess I could have saved my time and just followed the other members recommendations. So as to not have wasted the whole night, I finished up by taking a tour of open clusters in Canis Major.
|
|
Re: unguided imaging on the G11 - wrapping up the tests
Wow, that is quite impressive. My g11 couldn't do that. Have you measured your PA? Mine is 25 to 35 arc sec. I have an older non Gemini mount. It does do an adequate job with the auto guider, but would.t dream of doing un guided photography with anything more than a 50 mm lens.
|
|
unguided imaging on the G11 - wrapping up the tests
A while ago I posted about unguided imaging with the G11 finishing out that discussion, here's a stacked image over several nights of unguided imaging - 79 5 minute exposures to be exact.? you can download a jpg here:?? With my skies, sadly i don't have the seeing that would produce pinpoint stars This was mostly an experiment to?see how good a?standard G11?could perform. I'm not sure i would do unguided on a regular basis, but then again, this ain't bad! Sadly i don't have the skies to produce pinpoint stars, but I think the eccentricity looks pretty good here.? I will probably continue with guided imaging, partly because I tend to go with what I know, but i may under some conditions switch to unguided.? I think it speaks a lot to what the mount is capable of "out of the box" details: 79x300sec HA filter only Losmandy Stock G11 polar aligned via sharpcap to <10arcsec ES165 w/ 0.8x focal reducer @840mm f5.3 SX694 Pro CCD camera?0C Ha 5nm filter stacked, slight cropping, and light processing in PixInsight, no noise reduction Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
|
Re: Alarm sounds within seconds of starting to slew to alignment star
Cheers Clif. ??
|
|
Re: Alarm sounds within seconds of starting to slew to alignment star
nice - thanks for the update. keep us in the loop! On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 11:18 AM Arnold C. Ashcraft <wa2guf@...> wrote: My new high torque servomotor just arrived.? I installed it on the RA gearbox and moved the original Dec motor (not high torque) back to the Dec axis.? Original RA motor goes in junk box.? Both motors now run fine at a setting of 300 and 700.? Have not tried 800 yet.? The new values for RA lag and duty are 3 and -4 and the values for Dec are -1 and 1.? The values for RA with the old motor were -11 and 15.? I got no stalls or alarms.? So far, so good. --
Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
|
Re: Alarm sounds within seconds of starting to slew to alignment star
My new high torque servomotor just arrived.? I installed it on the RA gearbox and moved the original Dec motor (not high torque) back to the Dec axis.? Original RA motor goes in junk box.? Both motors now run fine at a setting of 300 and 700.? Have not tried 800 yet.? The new values for RA lag and duty are 3 and -4 and the values for Dec are -1 and 1.? The values for RA with the old motor were -11 and 15.? I got no stalls or alarms.? So far, so good.
Thanks for all the help... ????????? Clif |
|
Re: Bright Star disappeared from list despite being well above horizon
Hi Sonny and thanks for the welcome!
Now that you jogged my memory, I think there was a G811 setting and that's the one I chose.? I had thought about doing the factory reset; maybe I'll go ahead and do that.? With the virus shut-in situation, I'm running out of projects anyhow.? And we finally have some good nights coming up, albeit with iffy seeing, but great transparency and I want to shoot DSOs, so that's welcome news. I've watched all of the Losmandy videos, and they've been a GREAT help.? Much as I liked the Celestron CGX, helpful tutorials were definitely lacking there, as was the operating manual.? But that's not to "dis" Celestron stuff.? I liked the mount, and love the EdgeHD SCTs!? Have owned a couple of those.? Anyhow, back to Losmandy... I have to drag my outfit in and out the back door too - just a regular opening, and I have it on JMI Wheeley Bars, too.? So, it's "counterweight out first" then maneuver the other two struts around the door jambs.? Getting it all back in is quite a bit more hassle than getting it out, that's for sure. |
|
Re: Bright Star disappeared from list despite being well above horizon
Hi Brian,
Thank you for the response.? I did not realize I had responses here as I was under the impression some notification would come into my mailbox.? Just checked here on a hunch.? So thanks to everyone who did respond.? I'm likin' this already! I have checked and rechecked (and rechecked) date, time and location, and all's well with those (and the battery, btw).? I'm using UTC for the time.? I've not tried Stellarium yet.? Still learning the ropes with a new mount and configuring PHD guiding, ASCOM, and Astrphotography Tool.? For this old dog, that's alotta new tricks all at once.? Last night we were out (we being my wife, who assists me with PoleMaster alignment and some of the tech stuff on the computer when needed, and crawls into her Snoopy "I Need My Space" sleeping bag that we got from Lands End and watches for meteors) and could not get the mount to connect to the computer.? She finally figured out that some cleaning up she'd done the other day apparently removed the Gemini 2 setup parameters, so she did a system restore and that fixed it.? Just making a note of that here, in case anyone else encounters that problem. As for "astroitalian," I'm of Italian descent, and lived in Italy a number of years.? Had an astro pal there whom I went to visit once, and did a Messier Marathon with a bunch of other Italian astrophiles.? Great time! |
|
Re: G11 guide speed update
We'd have to see some guidelogs to determine what is actually going on, but it's unlikely that 2x really means 1x.? Personally i'm a fan of "results speak for themselves" so if you find something that works for you, i would stick with it. On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 10:04 AM <esmdavis1@...> wrote: In the past, I have observed that my RMS error at a guide speed of 2x was as good or better than at a speed of 0.5X I am thinking that what Losmandy calls 2X is actually 1x, and therefor does not require a reversal with east corrections, and may be more responsive to rapid changes. --
Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
|
Re: G11 guide speed update
In the past, I have observed that my RMS error at a guide speed of 2x was as good or better than at a speed of 0.5X I am thinking that what Losmandy calls 2X is actually 1x, and therefor does not require a reversal with east corrections, and may be more responsive to rapid changes.
|
|
Re: G11 guide speed update
Yes great point Les it needs to be set to 0.5x for guiding you could also use 0.3x but guiding would be less responsive On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 9:41 AM Les Niles <les@...> wrote:
--
Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
|
Re: G11 guide speed update
>>>
Is the st4 guide rate the same as that indicated by the LED controller, and therefore the guide rate of the hand controller?? ? Correct On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 9:27 AM <esmdavis1@...> wrote: This is a standard G11, no customizing. Is the st4 guide rate the same as that indicated by the LED controller, and therefore the guide rate of the hand controller? --
Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
|
Re: G11 guide speed update
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýThe ST-4 port on the 492 digital drive is the same port as the hand controller. In other words, the mount treats them exactly the same because it has no way of knowing which device is providing the command to move. This gets me in trouble regularly as I set the speed to 4x or 16x to use the hand controller for positioning and then forget to set it back to 0.5x for guiding.???-Les On Apr 21, 2020, at 9:27 AM, esmdavis1@... wrote:
|
Arnold C. Ashcraft
to navigate to use esc to dismiss