Crab Nebula
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JR
Mar 31, 2021, 8:12:24 AM3/31/21
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Took this last night of the Crab Nebula, a cropped version of 70 x 20 seconds ie 23 minutes in total stacked by DSS, with an Esprit 80ed and ZWO asi533 MC at -10C. The target is really too small for the 400mm focal length but I was pleased to see a bit of detail in the nebula.
James
James
tcos...@gmail.com
Mar 31, 2021, 3:23:32 PM3/31/21
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Hi James
That's a nice image. It's nice and sharp and it's good that you have got some of the 'coiled tendril' details of the nebula. It's quite a small object and not all that bright and is therefore not an easy target. When I have imaged this object in the past using larger scopes I have gone for longer exposures (300s subs) as it benefits from getting more data to bring out the various colours in the nebula. Getting some Ha data also helps to bring out the red detail in the tendrils. Well done!
Cheers
Tim C
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That's a nice image. It's nice and sharp and it's good that you have got some of the 'coiled tendril' details of the nebula. It's quite a small object and not all that bright and is therefore not an easy target. When I have imaged this object in the past using larger scopes I have gone for longer exposures (300s subs) as it benefits from getting more data to bring out the various colours in the nebula. Getting some Ha data also helps to bring out the red detail in the tendrils. Well done!
Cheers
Tim C
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JR
Apr 1, 2021, 4:45:30 AM4/1/21
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Thanks very much Tim and for the advice, helpful as ever. It is a real plus of the forum.
A longer scope is really needed and narrowband. I had had a go the previous night again with RGB and found that 2 minute exposures produced the white light of sky glow. With trial and error I found 45 seconds was ok but the stars were still saturated and no colour. 20 seconds still doesn't produce colours. I am still struggling with gains and exposure times with CMOS. Perhaps I need ultra short star exposures and long ones for the target.
I was also trying out the Lakeside auto focuser as recommended by John for the first time, acquired as a joint family gift. I find it to be a game changer in terms of time and certainty. It works very well with SkyX and its own Wizard for dummies based @focus software. It's the proverbial 'should have had one of these years ago'. Fiddly to fit and serial ports, ribbon cables and COM ports do seem a bit out of date, but functionality wins many times over form. Plus I can now operate entirely indoors apart from manually turning mount bolts for polar alignment.
James
Sent from my iPad
> On 31 Mar 2021, at 20:23, tcos...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Hi James
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/croydonastro/1165701d72663%24552ab900%24ff802b00%24%40gmail.com.
A longer scope is really needed and narrowband. I had had a go the previous night again with RGB and found that 2 minute exposures produced the white light of sky glow. With trial and error I found 45 seconds was ok but the stars were still saturated and no colour. 20 seconds still doesn't produce colours. I am still struggling with gains and exposure times with CMOS. Perhaps I need ultra short star exposures and long ones for the target.
I was also trying out the Lakeside auto focuser as recommended by John for the first time, acquired as a joint family gift. I find it to be a game changer in terms of time and certainty. It works very well with SkyX and its own Wizard for dummies based @focus software. It's the proverbial 'should have had one of these years ago'. Fiddly to fit and serial ports, ribbon cables and COM ports do seem a bit out of date, but functionality wins many times over form. Plus I can now operate entirely indoors apart from manually turning mount bolts for polar alignment.
James
Sent from my iPad
> On 31 Mar 2021, at 20:23, tcos...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Hi James
John Mills
Apr 1, 2021, 10:40:56 AM4/1/21
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Hi James,
Good to know you now have a Lakeside focuser. As you say, its a game
changer and saves so much time. I always found focusing was a pain in
the proverbials before I got one!
Was this a new Lakeside or a second hand one? Reason I mention this was
after 2015 they were changed to using a USB connection rather than a
serial (RS232) one. My Lakeside is one of the early models (c. 2010) and
used a serial port. I'm now in the process of converting my kit to USB.
I've done the filter wheel (a TruTech model) which works fine and
currently working on my Lakeside and the EQ6 mount which all used a
serial connection.
The reason I'm doing this is so I can move the scope further away from
the house and control all the equipment over a single ethernet cable.
The ethernet box at the remote end has a built in 4 port USB hub hence
the requirement to change the kit from serial to USB connections. Its
only my SX camera which is USB. So then the mount, focuser and filter
wheel can also be controlled over the ethernet link. An ethernet cable
of 50 mtrs is no problem, but in my case it will be about half that
distance.
I'll let you know how I get on...
Cheers,
John
On 01/04/2021 09:45, 'JR' via croydonastro wrote:
> Thanks very much Tim and for the advice, helpful as ever. It is a real plus of the forum.
>
> A longer scope is really needed and narrowband. I had had a go the previous night again with RGB and found that 2 minute exposures produced the white light of sky glow. With trial and error I found 45 seconds was ok but the stars were still saturated and no colour. 20 seconds still doesn't produce colours. I am still struggling with gains and exposure times with CMOS. Perhaps I need ultra short star exposures and long ones for the target.
>
> I was also trying out the Lakeside auto focuser as recommended by John for the first time, acquired as a joint family gift. I find it to be a game changer in terms of time and certainty. It works very well with SkyX and its own Wizard for dummies based @focus software. It's the proverbial 'should have had one of these years ago'. Fiddly to fit and serial ports, ribbon cables and COM ports do seem a bit out of date, but functionality wins many times over form. Plus I can now operate entirely indoors apart from manually turning mount bolts for polar alignment.
>
> James
>
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Good to know you now have a Lakeside focuser. As you say, its a game
changer and saves so much time. I always found focusing was a pain in
the proverbials before I got one!
Was this a new Lakeside or a second hand one? Reason I mention this was
after 2015 they were changed to using a USB connection rather than a
serial (RS232) one. My Lakeside is one of the early models (c. 2010) and
used a serial port. I'm now in the process of converting my kit to USB.
I've done the filter wheel (a TruTech model) which works fine and
currently working on my Lakeside and the EQ6 mount which all used a
serial connection.
The reason I'm doing this is so I can move the scope further away from
the house and control all the equipment over a single ethernet cable.
The ethernet box at the remote end has a built in 4 port USB hub hence
the requirement to change the kit from serial to USB connections. Its
only my SX camera which is USB. So then the mount, focuser and filter
wheel can also be controlled over the ethernet link. An ethernet cable
of 50 mtrs is no problem, but in my case it will be about half that
distance.
I'll let you know how I get on...
Cheers,
John
On 01/04/2021 09:45, 'JR' via croydonastro wrote:
> Thanks very much Tim and for the advice, helpful as ever. It is a real plus of the forum.
>
> A longer scope is really needed and narrowband. I had had a go the previous night again with RGB and found that 2 minute exposures produced the white light of sky glow. With trial and error I found 45 seconds was ok but the stars were still saturated and no colour. 20 seconds still doesn't produce colours. I am still struggling with gains and exposure times with CMOS. Perhaps I need ultra short star exposures and long ones for the target.
>
> I was also trying out the Lakeside auto focuser as recommended by John for the first time, acquired as a joint family gift. I find it to be a game changer in terms of time and certainty. It works very well with SkyX and its own Wizard for dummies based @focus software. It's the proverbial 'should have had one of these years ago'. Fiddly to fit and serial ports, ribbon cables and COM ports do seem a bit out of date, but functionality wins many times over form. Plus I can now operate entirely indoors apart from manually turning mount bolts for polar alignment.
>
> James
>
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com
JR
Apr 1, 2021, 11:48:55 AM4/1/21
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Hi John
I looked at the other auto focusers, but the ZWO doesn't have a proper fixing bracket for my scope and the new kid on the block, the Primaluce Sesto Senso is reported to slip, though probably with more load than I have, but played safe. The Lakeside has none of these troubles.
It is new and the alleged move to usb is a 'sort of'. The motor on the focuser connects via a flat ribbon cable using a serial port plug, and the other end of the ribbon cable goes into the hand control box with a usb B, the square sort that used to go into printers. The control box also has the socket for power, 12v, and a standard usb A goes from the hand controller to your computer's usb.
In my set up I have the usb lead for the mount, the usb lead for the camera data and the usb lead for the focuser plugged into a powered usb hub at the mount, on a 12 metre extension lead into the house. To my surprise it all works very well, even on a 2016 i3 laptop. The one complication is that the Lakeside does not download the necessary serial to usb drivers and Windows 10 automatically installs it's own version that do not work. The required drivers are from CDM and readily available on the web.
As you may already have encountered, you also have to know which virtual COM port the computer is using to connect to the Lakeside. A trip into Windows Device Manager tells you which port to specify in setting up the Lakeside software (mine is COM 5 which might possibly be a default setting). The other thing to be careful of is that the hand controller must be set to Auto or there is no connection to the focuser motor
Plug and play it is not, nor 2021 leading edge, but armed with info about the necessary driver (not stated in the user manual) it should take 5 minutes and the hardware works flawlessly.
Happy to expand or send some photos if anything above isn't clear.
cheers
James
Sent from my iPad
> On 1 Apr 2021, at 15:40, John Mills <ejm...@millseyspages.com> wrote:
>
> Hi James,
I looked at the other auto focusers, but the ZWO doesn't have a proper fixing bracket for my scope and the new kid on the block, the Primaluce Sesto Senso is reported to slip, though probably with more load than I have, but played safe. The Lakeside has none of these troubles.
It is new and the alleged move to usb is a 'sort of'. The motor on the focuser connects via a flat ribbon cable using a serial port plug, and the other end of the ribbon cable goes into the hand control box with a usb B, the square sort that used to go into printers. The control box also has the socket for power, 12v, and a standard usb A goes from the hand controller to your computer's usb.
In my set up I have the usb lead for the mount, the usb lead for the camera data and the usb lead for the focuser plugged into a powered usb hub at the mount, on a 12 metre extension lead into the house. To my surprise it all works very well, even on a 2016 i3 laptop. The one complication is that the Lakeside does not download the necessary serial to usb drivers and Windows 10 automatically installs it's own version that do not work. The required drivers are from CDM and readily available on the web.
As you may already have encountered, you also have to know which virtual COM port the computer is using to connect to the Lakeside. A trip into Windows Device Manager tells you which port to specify in setting up the Lakeside software (mine is COM 5 which might possibly be a default setting). The other thing to be careful of is that the hand controller must be set to Auto or there is no connection to the focuser motor
Plug and play it is not, nor 2021 leading edge, but armed with info about the necessary driver (not stated in the user manual) it should take 5 minutes and the hardware works flawlessly.
Happy to expand or send some photos if anything above isn't clear.
cheers
James
Sent from my iPad
>
> Hi James,
> --
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John Mills
Apr 1, 2021, 5:18:27 PM4/1/21
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Hi James,
Thanks for your reply. The reason for using a ribbon cable was to make
the Lakeside motor compatible with the Robofocus motor. These USA made
systems came onto the market a few years before the Lakeside. I bought
one around 2007 which TBH was a big mistake and not cheap either? Some
$400+ shipping!
The control box packed after a year or so. The build quality compared to
the Lakeside is terrible and fitted into a flimsy plastic box! I did
find the problem (the crystal which drives the PIC was intermittent),
but I never bothered to replace it and got a Lakeside instead. I later
tested the Lakeside control box with the Robofocus motor and it worked
fine.
I also use the external temperature sensor which connects via that 9 pin
D plug on the bracket. However, I've never calibrated it and another
thing to play with sometime.
Surprised you had a problem finding a suitable driver? Maybe its a Win10
issue. I use Win7 and it loaded the FTDI driver which is the correct
one... Was plug and play for me. It says:
USB Serial Port (COM6)
Driver provider: FTDI
Driver date: 16/08/2017
Driver version: 2.12.28.0
Digital signer: Microsoft Windows compatibility publisher
On my desktop PC, COM-1,2,3 and 4 are true RS232 ports. On COM5 I have a
weather sensor which uses the FTDI chip and COM6 is allocated for my
filter wheel. I'm still doing the USB conversions to the Lakeside and
the EQ6 so they will probably end up being COM-7 and 8.
BTW, the comm port numbers can be changed. The problem with USB is a
table will build up whenever a new device is plugged in and more so if a
different physical port is used. So you end up getting loads of ports
assigned which you may no longer use. There's something (a command) in
the Device Manager which can clean them out and re-assign them to
sensible numbers.
Anyhow, good to know you got your Lakeside working ;-)
Cheers,
John
Thanks for your reply. The reason for using a ribbon cable was to make
the Lakeside motor compatible with the Robofocus motor. These USA made
systems came onto the market a few years before the Lakeside. I bought
one around 2007 which TBH was a big mistake and not cheap either? Some
$400+ shipping!
The control box packed after a year or so. The build quality compared to
the Lakeside is terrible and fitted into a flimsy plastic box! I did
find the problem (the crystal which drives the PIC was intermittent),
but I never bothered to replace it and got a Lakeside instead. I later
tested the Lakeside control box with the Robofocus motor and it worked
fine.
I also use the external temperature sensor which connects via that 9 pin
D plug on the bracket. However, I've never calibrated it and another
thing to play with sometime.
Surprised you had a problem finding a suitable driver? Maybe its a Win10
issue. I use Win7 and it loaded the FTDI driver which is the correct
one... Was plug and play for me. It says:
USB Serial Port (COM6)
Driver provider: FTDI
Driver date: 16/08/2017
Driver version: 2.12.28.0
Digital signer: Microsoft Windows compatibility publisher
On my desktop PC, COM-1,2,3 and 4 are true RS232 ports. On COM5 I have a
weather sensor which uses the FTDI chip and COM6 is allocated for my
filter wheel. I'm still doing the USB conversions to the Lakeside and
the EQ6 so they will probably end up being COM-7 and 8.
BTW, the comm port numbers can be changed. The problem with USB is a
table will build up whenever a new device is plugged in and more so if a
different physical port is used. So you end up getting loads of ports
assigned which you may no longer use. There's something (a command) in
the Device Manager which can clean them out and re-assign them to
sensible numbers.
Anyhow, good to know you got your Lakeside working ;-)
Cheers,
John
Trev S
Apr 16, 2021, 5:07:34 PM4/16/21
to croydonastro
Rather than run a usb lead indoors from outside I have a laptop outside and another inside and connect remotely over WiFi using AnyDesk, which is free (for personal use) remote PC connection software. I avoid USB hubs as I have found they can cause some connection problems what with two cameras, focuser & filter wheel all connected.
I have a Lakeside focuser and I found that if I install the drivers provided with it before plugging it into the computer, it will find the correct drivers. As James says, if you plug it in first then Windows installs default drivers which have to be removed before the correct ones can be installed.
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