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Amazed! Just followed the Quick Start, and away I went.
It was great to meet the folks at Losmandy, and Brian and I were able to meet face to face. Great to meet you Brian!
I spent more time dumbell-dorfing with my old wiring harness tearing it apart than anything else.
After assembling the mount, I set it up out back. I didn't like my old Vixen bar, but I tried it. It had a stray bolt that stopped me from balancing. So I brought it in and managed to get everything transferred to the DUP14 bar.
If I hadn't have stopped to wrestle the old wiring harness I'd have been done when the stars came out. But I have many, many feet of Spiral wrap to remove so I could separate the old wiring. Once done, I connected up the power and the USB from the Powered hub. I also ran a separate USB from the Gemini II to a separate port on the Baby Dell.
I was really pleased with the one star alignment, and it stayed right with it. Trying to figure out the hand control, I browsed around for a few minutes, then tried the Solar System and saw several available planets. So since I could see her, I picked Venus and it slewed very close to it. I was only using the guide scope camera at the time because my main camera was sputtering. I thing Stellarium is not quite set up right. But once I shut down Stellarium, The camera held it's own.
So a few tweaks for Stellarium as I go along. Rome wasn't built in a day.
But the new Losmandy Mount is behaving perfectly right out of the box. Staying under 2 seconds in PHD2, and about half of that is under 1 second. Very, very happy.
Taking it easy this first night, just shooting Uranus, because Venus went behind the neighbors trees. Not my normal fare, but hey, learning is a breeze.
Just need to see if I can get Stellarium and the Gemini II to shake hands.
OK, back to playing! It's good to be back!
Ha! Got it! Reopened Stellarium Tried a different COM port, reselected Losmandy G11, and like Emeril sez, BAM! There's the symbol, Losmandy, and it works.
Hummm, off to find a nebula to suck the light out of.
This is undoubtedly the easiest start up I could have hoped for.
Next I need a virtual hand controller. Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.
Sonny
--
SonnyE
|
Glad to get your report and that your system is behaving very well.? Looking for Uranus...not easy!??
If you use the Gemini.net, you can use a wireless game controller off the PC as a wireless handset. At least for slewing, that works fine.? You can map the buttons a lot of ways if you want to spend time on that.? Aside from wireless movements, you don't get the real handset display...but for that Gemini net in the PC works just fine.
Have fun, Michael
Amazed! Just followed the Quick Start, and away I went.
It was great to meet the folks at Losmandy, and Brian and I were able to meet face to face. Great to meet you Brian!
I spent more time dumbell-dorfing with my old wiring harness tearing it apart than anything else.
After assembling the mount, I set it up out back. I didn't like my old Vixen bar, but I tried it. It had a stray bolt that stopped me from balancing. So I brought it in and managed to get everything transferred to the DUP14 bar.
If I hadn't have stopped to wrestle the old wiring harness I'd have been done when the stars came out. But I have many, many feet of Spiral wrap to remove so I could separate the old wiring. Once done, I connected up the power and the USB from the Powered hub. I also ran a separate USB from the Gemini II to a separate port on the Baby Dell.
I was really pleased with the one star alignment, and it stayed right with it. Trying to figure out the hand control, I browsed around for a few minutes, then tried the Solar System and saw several available planets. So since I could see her, I picked Venus and it slewed very close to it. I was only using the guide scope camera at the time because my main camera was sputtering. I thing Stellarium is not quite set up right. But once I shut down Stellarium, The camera held it's own.
So a few tweaks for Stellarium as I go along. Rome wasn't built in a day.
But the new Losmandy Mount is behaving perfectly right out of the box. Staying under 2 seconds in PHD2, and about half of that is under 1 second. Very, very happy.
Taking it easy this first night, just shooting Uranus, because Venus went behind the neighbors trees. Not my normal fare, but hey, learning is a breeze.
Just need to see if I can get Stellarium and the Gemini II to shake hands.
OK, back to playing! It's good to be back!
Ha! Got it! Reopened Stellarium Tried a different COM port, reselected Losmandy G11, and like Emeril sez, BAM! There's the symbol, Losmandy, and it works.
Hummm, off to find a nebula to suck the light out of.
This is undoubtedly the easiest start up I could have hoped for.
Next I need a virtual hand controller. Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.
Sonny
--
SonnyE
|
Nice to hear! I've been using it for a year and a half with great results. As you get more experienced with guiding, you'll easily stay under 1 arc second and much less for objects high in the sky- and it will hold that for very long exposures which you need for narrow band. Whatever issues I thought were with the mount just turned out to be from my inexperience and I am completely happy with it. And yes, cable management is more than half the battle in getting good guiding.
I saw the thread around models vs. plate-solve. My method is to simply ask the mount to go where I want through SGP, then do a blind sync using ANSVR. After that, it the PS2 plate solver works fast and great and even helps me make sure my rotator is in the right position.
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Congrats, Sonny, HAPPY SKIES and good hunting to you.
Sent from my Galaxy Tab A
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
-------- Original message --------
From: Sonny Edmonds <sonnyedmonds@...>
Date: 2/7/20 11:39 PM (GMT-06:00)
Subject: [Losmandy_users_io] First Light, first night, Wow! GM811GHD under the stars.
Amazed! Just followed the Quick Start, and away I went.
It was great to meet the folks at Losmandy, and Brian and I were able to meet face to face. Great to meet you Brian!
I spent more time dumbell-dorfing with my old wiring harness tearing it apart than anything else.
After assembling the mount, I set it up out back. I didn't like my old Vixen bar, but I tried it. It had a stray bolt that stopped me from balancing. So I brought it in and managed to get everything transferred to the DUP14 bar.
If I hadn't have stopped to wrestle the old wiring harness I'd have been done when the stars came out. But I have many, many feet of Spiral wrap to remove so I could separate the old wiring. Once done, I connected up the power and the USB from the Powered hub.
I also ran a separate USB from the Gemini II to a separate port on the Baby Dell.
I was really pleased with the one star alignment, and it stayed right with it. Trying to figure out the hand control, I browsed around for a few minutes, then tried the Solar System and saw several available planets. So since I could see her, I picked Venus
and it slewed very close to it. I was only using the guide scope camera at the time because my main camera was sputtering. I thing Stellarium is not quite set up right. But once I shut down Stellarium, The camera held it's own.
So a few tweaks for Stellarium as I go along. Rome wasn't built in a day.
But the new Losmandy Mount is behaving perfectly right out of the box. Staying under 2 seconds in PHD2, and about half of that is under 1 second. Very, very happy.
Taking it easy this first night, just shooting Uranus, because Venus went behind the neighbors trees. Not my normal fare, but hey, learning is a breeze.
Just need to see if I can get Stellarium and the Gemini II to shake hands.
OK, back to playing! It's good to be back!
Ha! Got it! Reopened Stellarium Tried a different COM port, reselected Losmandy G11, and like Emeril sez, BAM! There's the symbol, Losmandy, and it works.
Hummm, off to find a nebula to suck the light out of.
This is undoubtedly the easiest start up I could have hoped for.
Next I need a virtual hand controller. Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.
Sonny
--
SonnyE
|
Very cool. Now make sure your flood insurance is up to date since it will be cloudy and rainy for weeks!
Les
|
Got my wiring straightened out this afternoon.
revamped the Gemini 2 USB to the Powered hub and everything is running and working (data wise) through my single USB cable. Nice and tidy.
I even played around with the hand control and put it in Night Mode.
I finally read the last part of the Quick Start guide, and floated around collecting stars and pushing: Menu-Align- Alignment-back collecting more stars after the 1 star alignment.
It worked well enough after 5 stars that Bodes Galaxy came in nice and centered. Just a little nudging to bring it into my crosshairs. Then start up PHD2 and started shooting.
Nothing to write home about, because my images stink right now. But I'm learning the mount in leaps and bounds.
And it's nice to be inside out of the cold.
It's supposed to rain tomorrow.?
--
SonnyE
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SonnyE,
Happy to hear you got a peek using your new mount before the clouds rolled in last night and rain comes this afternoon.
--
Chip Louie - Chief Daydreamer Imagination Hardware
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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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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
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
-- Brian?
Brian Valente portfolio
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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
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
-------- 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
|
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,
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On Feb 9, 2020, at 12:23 PM, 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)
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
|
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
|
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
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
-------- 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
|
Hi Deric,
I think you will be better off putting the AVX in the past. I know I am.
I don't damn the AVX, but I certainly damn the corporate philosophy.
My AVX was a hard teacher. But I did make it work.
And now, I'm loving my new Losmandy mount! I can truly appreciate how good it is!
One of the nuances I've noticed is the motors are what we call "Soft Start". the drivers ramp up the current so they gently start the load moving.
Many might not know about that, but I do from my Electrical background.
I think the learning curve is going to be much easier, and much better than the old AVX. My learning curve with the AVX had a lot of boulders rolling down on me. LOL!
The Gemini 2 seems to perform amazingly better. Just watching it in Stellarium is totally different in a very good way.
Sorry you had to find my Youtube channel. I will amend my signature to make it easier.
I hope you enjoyed some of it.
--
SonnyE
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Sorry Group, test post.
--
SonnyE
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Sonny I know I am better off LOL... without the AVX. It worked well when it worked. Good to introduce me to a GEM mount. It had two trips back to Celestron. The last time after three or four hours of nice usage it whent up in smoke. My guess
dew must have shorted out a motor or something, I dont know. That's when I knew I was done with Chinese mounts. Interesting note on the soft start motors. I will have remember that. Gemini 2 has worked well for me. It is not too difficult, I am finding new
stuff about it such as night mode ect...Their is alot going on inside of it, I dont think I will need all of it though. No need to be sorry on the YouTue chanel, I was actually Looking up videos on AWO Aiair Pro and Eagle 3 micro computers when I saw Sonny
Edmonds chanel , I knew it had to be your chanel. Thank you Sonny, HAPPY SKIES and good star hunting.?
Sent from my Galaxy Tab A
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
-------- Original message --------
From: Sonny Edmonds <sonnyedmonds@...>
Date: 2/10/20 10:41 AM (GMT-06:00)
Subject: Re: [Losmandy_users_io] First Light, first night, Wow! GM811GHD under the stars.
Hi Deric,
I think you will be better off putting the AVX in the past. I know I am.
I don't damn the AVX, but I certainly damn the corporate philosophy.
My AVX was a hard teacher. But I did make it work.
And now, I'm loving my new Losmandy mount! I can truly appreciate how good it is!
One of the nuances I've noticed is the motors are what we call "Soft Start". the drivers ramp up the current so they gently start the load moving.
Many might not know about that, but I do from my Electrical background.
I think the learning curve is going to be much easier, and much better than the old AVX. My learning curve with the AVX had a lot of boulders rolling down on me. LOL!
The Gemini 2 seems to perform amazingly better. Just watching it in Stellarium is totally different in a very good way.
Sorry you had to find my Youtube channel. I will amend my signature to make it easier.
I hope you enjoyed some of it.
--
SonnyE
|
Michael Herman
Chip Louie
Timothy Campbell