First light -- CN10 with autofocus

First experiment with Shoestring Astronomy FCUSB with the Orion Accufocus under Indi/Ekos/Kstars.

The FCUSB device now exceeds the number of USB2 (1x) & USB3 (2x) ports on the Odroid XU4. Used a USB3 unpowered four port hub on the USB2 port to expand as now needed.

Oddly, found that with Indi running on the XU4, Kstars connected from the workstation with indi connected remotely, the workstation copy of phd2 was unable to connect (and crashed with a segmentation fault). Ultimately, ran phd2 over X (with compression) via ssh (displaying remotely) with it connecting directly to the onboard ASI ZWO 120MC-S. 

Started with a very rough initial polar alignment (measured with phd2 with a drift alignment showing DEC drifting up w/ error over -300'). First adjustment (tighten on the right) got to ~-160'.  Then -90'.  Then -20.  Over correction to +13.  Finally iterated to ~-3.2'.

Once polar aligned, finally started trying to work with the FCUSB via Indi to prepare to plate solve and start an imaging session on NGC 6995 (part of the western veil nebula). Sadly, while the Orion Accufocus motor works with the hand controller, and the FCUSB appears to be detected fine with Indy/Ekos, not motor motion was spotted (focusing in or out) with the FCUSB.  Removed the motor for this imaging session... for further tests indoors on a cloudy night.  Did re-verify that the motor does work with Accufocus hand controller...and noted that the focuser itself moves freely.

Ultimately set up the scheduler which ran for an automated collection of 59 light frames (120s @ ISO 1600) with the Astronomik CLS EOS clip-in filter installed.  Total of 6840 seconds of exposure. Initial result in Astro Pixel Processor:


When combined with the collection from 07/02, the result is a great mosaic covering nearly the full extent of the Eastern Veil Nebula:




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Markarian's Chain

Image
Started a mult-session collection on 03/26 (52) and continuing on 04/15 (47), 04/16 (109) and 04/19 (~20) against Markarian's chain  with the venerable Orion ST80 using the generic dual narrow-band filter , clear Astronomik EOS clip-in filter (for consistent focusing with the EOS CLS clip-in filter) and Canon T3I (astro modded for Ha sensitivity).  180s collections used for each (except for 3/26 at 300s) and flats collected against morning blue sky when needed based on re-focusing (03/26, 04/16).  Canon configured with UTC time.  Based this collection in Kstars/Ekos/Indi by centering on  NGC 4438 . For this processing, utilized both 60x180s and 30x300s darks as well as 130 bias (all at ISO1600) frames for calibration.    Collection notes from 04/19:   Ran entirely on the Odroid XU4 via remote desktop protocol (rdesktop client with compression) to simulate a remote location and provide some robustness for network / wifi drop-outs. ...
Read more

Great North American Eclipse

Image
4/8/2024 On Akron OH captured a time-lapse of short exposures through Baeder solar film through the venerable Orion Short Tube 80 with the Svbony 405cc using AstroDMx Capture until totality. Results were great considering the high level cirrus clouds.  After light editing in digikam, found some evidence of corona!
Read more

M94 and M106

Image
 3/7/24 -- first moonless, cloudless night with workable temps.  Attempting to capture M94 high in the north sky from the Meade LX10 EMC with UV/IR cut filter, Meade 0.63 focal reducer and the Svbony 405cc camera.  Set camera temp to 0C and using 0 gain and 0 offset. Telescopius simulator result for M94 using the SCT with the 0.63 focal reducer and the SV405CC camera. Telescopius M95 altitude plot for 03/07/24. Cleardarksky forecast for 3/7/24 for Montgomery County showing fairly clear skies and reasonable seeing expected after midnight. Meteoblue forecast for 03/07/2024 for Silver Spring illustrating clear skies expected for the evening. Before mounting the OTA and counterweights, checked the mount as level and utilized the polar scope (due to a clear view of Polaris through the backyard tree -- a rarity).  Adjusted the altitude up slightly and did a sanity check to ensure ~39 degrees. Initial alignment measured with PHD2 from the Odroid was ~ -11 after several minu...
Read more