AstroAF - Astroasis Oasis Electronic Filter Wheel | Celestron EdgeHD 8

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

It was great meeting you as well Doug! Good times!

[@AstroAF]

Thanks Rich! Hope to see you again sometime!!

[@Naztronomy]

Great Info, Doug!

[@AstroAF]

Thanks Naz!

[@whatmattersmost6725]

First, cool and makes the world smaller!

[@AstroAF]

lol, going to reach out a lot farther!

[@KJRitch]

Congrats on the EdgeHD 8. I'll be interested in you set up of this OTA with the Celestron OAG and how well it works on your HEQ5 especially guiding. I have a C8 with a Celestron OAG. I am using it with a Starizona corrector (F7.1 with focal length 1454mm) and ASI071MC all on an AVX mount. I've had my AVX adjusted by Starizona, where they adjusted the backlash of the motor and worm gears for RA and DEC.I know you've adjusted your HEQ5 gears. I would like to see you do a video of on how well it guides and your PHD2 settings. Maybe your settings will work for me and my AVX mount. Despite my AVX mount RA and DEC backlash being turned I find guiding still irrattic. One night it seems fine at 1 arc second and below and another night its wild and crazy. The AVX doesn't seem to handle any wind over a couple of mph. Since I have to setup and tear down I have to calibrate every session and it's rare I get PHD2 not to complain about the calibration. I use the NINA TPPA procedure and get the total error at 10 arc seconds and below. It doesn't seem to impress PHD2 as it seem to state my polar alignment is not accurate enough. Most of the time I just accept the calibration results to get onto imaging.

[@AstroAF]

Hi KJ! I’m with you on that. I’m thinking my 120mm mini might be a weak link and won’t be taking advantage of the larger prism on the Celestron OAG. I’m also thinking I’m going to be borderline on imaging payload with guiding. I’ll just have to try things out and see. I just recently started using PEC in EQMOD in addition to that in PHD2. I realized ~.2” improvement. In both cases of payload and PEC in both EQMOD and PHD2, there’s a mixed bag of opinions. I just try and see how things work for myself. Cheers! Doug

[@KJRitch]

@@AstroAF I’m using the ASI174MM mini. I would suggest you use a 1.25” parafocal ring on the tube of your guide camera when inserted into the Celestron OAG. I find the OAG guide camera tube a little sloppy. It seems smooth enough when the camera is removed but when you set the camera for rough focus then tighten the two lock screws and you try to use the focus ring you feel resistance. When you tighten the two screws the guide camera tube is tilted slightly and it rubs against the OAG camera tube that moves up and down. I find the ring keeps the camera centered better and helps prevent tilt that may affect what you see on PHD2 display. It allows you to remove the camera without loosing focus as long as the OAG focus ring is locked down and you can rotate the guide camera if it is not quite inline. Check out James Lamb KZbin videos for setting up and planning with an OAG and a SCT. My issue is guiding. I have to set and tear down every session and PHD2 calibrations always have an issue so my guiding is never consistent. Add a little wind and all bets are off. I’m tempted to bite the bullet and purchase an AM5.

[@AstroAF]

@@KJRitch Hi KJ, gotcha, yeah, I am disliking the absence of a compression ring in the OAG helical focuser’s camera mount. Thanks for that tip! Cheers! Doug

[@AstroAF]

@@KJRitch I just ordered some parfocal rings, they’ll be here tomorrow.

[@KJRitch]

My C8 with Starizona Focal Reducer, Celestron OAG, ASI174mm guide camera, ZWO filter drawer, spacer, ASI071MC Pro, Mele Quieter 3Q and assorted cables runs about 19lbs. My AVX mount is rated 30lbs. I just tried PPEC algorithm in PHD2 for the first time. I ran calibration assistant and as usual PHD2 complained about some that I don’t know how to fix but the graph was close to right angles. I then ran the guiding assistant and applied the min/mo changes. I slewed to the Leo Triplet and PHD2 found a guide star. I had to increase the exposure from 1 sec to 1.5 sec and I was running 12/13 SNR. After about 10 minutes I noticed the RA was coming down closer to the DEC numbers which were under 1” RMS. I decided only to take test images starting from 3 minutes to 10 minutes. I just looked at my 5 minute and 10 minute fit files and the stars even in the corners looked good on both exposures. I was in a good viewing area, Bortle 3, and little wind. I did have my first issue with NINA and ASTap with GOTO and during TPPA in NINA while adjusting ALT/AZ it plate solving starts to fail when it was working fine on the previous image. The question is will guiding now be consistent?

[@chrisjordan4210]

Astro photography is a very deep gravity-well...obviously defies Newtonian economics.

[@AstroAF]

Hi Chris! Lol, if one were to experiment, this scope and my wallet would fall with the same acceleration. Cheers! Doug

[@chrisjordan4210]

@@AstroAF Presumably at a rate of $9.81m/s²...or here in England, even faster.

[@AstroAF]

@@chrisjordan4210 😂 measured in sterling.