Astroman's Blog

New website was revealed today, complete with gallery..

http://members.optusnet.com.au/astroman02/astrophotography/index.html

Tried a couple of objects under very trying conditions. Wind was blowing/gusting around 5-10 knots for most of the night. I decided to push the envelope a little and run at ISO1600 with the Hutech IDAS Light pollution Suppression filter in. So here are a couple of the images I got.

Messier 104 - Sombrero Galaxy


Comet C/2006 Q1 McNaught (No this isn't the famous one of 2007)

A popular Open Star cluster in the Southern Hemisphere, the Jewel Box cluster is an easy target for Astrophotography.

This one was made with 10 x 5 sec ISO800, 10 x 20sec ISO800, 10 x 30sec ISO1600 all taken with the Canon 400D

EQMOD - The Journey begins today...



Introduction: Anyone who owns an EQ6, HEQ5, Orion Sirius, Orion Atlas, in goto or the newer non-goto versions, will know that the current synscan hand controller is a little out of touch with today's users, lacking many features that the current big names (Meade, Celestron) have had for quite some time. Although slowly catching up now the controller has a flash upgradable memory. With the EQ6 and HEQ5 mounts being a fairly cheap alternative to some of the more sophisticated mounts of similar weight carrying capacity, it was only natural that a better alternative would be found to control the mount.

This is where the EQMOD journey begins.

EQMOD was inspired by a member on the EQ6 yahoo group, his name was John Archbald who worked out that the signals from the Synscan hand controller could be emulated by a computer to control the mount. It was the dedication of one man in particular, Mon Sarmientos that drove EQMOD into the outside world and into the hearts of many EQ6/5 owners. Today several software developers and beta testers are working literally around the clock to make EQMOD one of the best Telescope drivers available freely. The developers post comments on the EQMOD user group hosted by Yahoo (link at bottom of article), which opens it up to the whole world at the same time. With the developers in several different countries answers and fault finding is a quick and easy process.

In addition to the original Hand Controller modifications, an ASCOM driver has been written. This has been in constant upgrade since its beginnings. The EQMOD ASCOM Driver uses the EQCONTRL.DLL file to communicate to the stepper motor controller board. With the EQMOD ASCOM driver, the user will be able to control the MODDED EQ mount using any ASCOM compliant planetarium software at 0.144 arc second resolution.

The driver supports almost all the ASCOM method and properties which include;
- GOTO/SLEW at 0.144 resolution (depending on the accuracy of the planetarium database)
- SYNC (via ASCOM / Planetarium Software)
- PARK TO HOME/PARK TO CURRENT/UNPARK
- 1 STAR ALIGNMENT
- 3 STAR ALIGNMENT
- N STAR Multi-Point Telescope Mount Error Modelling
- PULSEGUIDE (at variable speed rates and with 'duration' parameter support and duration override)
- USER PROGRAMMABLE TRACKING RATES (both on DEC and RA)


Other Functions include;

- SIDEREAL, LUNAR, SOLAR TRACKING
- AUTOGUIDER PORT SPEED RATE SETTING (RA and DEC speeds can be set independently)
- VARIABLE SLEW SPEEDS which can be set from x1 to x800 of the sidereal rate
- NORTH and SOUTH Hemisphere support
- EQMOD SLEWPAD - Interface that allows a three button mouse as a SLEW HAND PADDLE.
- JOYSTICK SUPPORT for Hand control Telescope Slew
- NUMERICAL KEYPAD SUPPORT for Hand control Telescope Slew
- GPS Support for Time and Location Synchronization

Functions that will be supported (currently under development);

- PEC TRAINING (via hand control or PULSEGUIDE) AND PLAYBACK (encoder position accurate) - BACKLASH COMPENSATION. Although Backlash has been included in the list of things to be added, this has been put back several times to make way for newer additions which we believe are more important. Other features which are currently being worked on area, Polar Alignment feature which will tell the user how far off the SCP or NCP he/she is in arc minutes. This should make Polar aligning the mount much easier for greater accuracy and easier guiding for Astrophotography.

Here is a sample screen shot of the EQ-Ascom window.



At first glance it can be quite a challenge to get your head around all the features on the one window. Many of the buttons and controls have several different functions to make navigating the setup window easier. One of the main features is the display window which swaps between several views making the whole Ascom driver very user friendly, and enabling the driver to have many different functions. Although not all the functions are needed by the average user, the other functions were added to help those wanting to do more than just have simple GOTO.

The driver also comes in different languages which can be developed by translators so EQMOD can be used all over the world, not just the English speaking world.

One advantage of using the Ascom Standards is that it enables other programs to connect to EQMOD for things such as Auto guiding or Pulse Guiding. Some programs which have been tested successfully with EQMOD are PHD, Guidedog, Guidemaster and K3CCD. Using these programs are very simple and all pretty much work in the same way. For pulse guiding which is just as good as Auto guiding, a user selects the guide camera, then can connect to the mount via the Ascom Standards, with EQMOD selected as the driver. Once this has been done the Guiding program can communicate via EQMOD to move the mount axis in RA or Dec, to keep the guide star in the area selected. Very simple.

If you want more information regarding this driver for your EQ-Mount, please go to the User groups website, at, http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/eqmod/

Other websites which would be useful are...
http://eq-mod.sourceforge.net - EQ6/EQG/Atlas Mod Circuits

Here are a couple of new images taken lastnight with the 8" scope. Makes it easier to image when you have a bit of aperture.

Orion Nebula

and...

12th magnitude C/2006 Q1 McNaught

Been a little slack lately and have not posted anything.

Here is a test image taken through my 8" scope with focal reducer, giving and effective focal length of 900mm or F4.5. It comprises of a sum of 20 x 30second images, no darks, no flats, no bias. Hutech IDAS LPS Filter.

Well it was clear lastnight so I thought I had better get some practice in. The main aim was to do some BETA testing for the EQMOD software, which worked reasonably well, all goto's were really good and autoguiding made easy. I was happy with the outcome but as usual the skies are letting me down here.

Here is the Swan Nebula 6 x 250sec iso 400 No noise reduction, no flats.



The triffid was my first DSO target of the night and proved to be an interesting subject to photograph, I spent a good 30 minutes looking for a bright enough guide star in my toucam. 6 frames 250sec @ iso400 in camera noise reduction ON.



Another target for the night was the Moon. This was a test of a new add on to the EQMOD software which calculates a mosaic frame around a particular coordinate. Depending on your frame size which is adjustable, you can slew around an object in precise movements making processing of the mosaic easy. 17AVI's @ 30seconds each, 10FPS. Mosaic done in Imerge and final levels and curves adjustment in Photoshop.

Here is another image taken from Snake Valley in Victoria, Australia.

Orion Nebula and the running man..

This was one of the first deepsky images taken through my 8" f6 Newtonian. It's a little out of focus but I am really happy with it. I cannot remember the full details of it.

Triffid and lagoon Nebula.

Camera: Canon 400D
Scope: 80mm f5.6 APO Astrograph
Location: From my home

Details:
# of Frames: 6
Exposure time each frame: 115 seconds, ICNR ON
ISO: 400

Stacked in Deepsky stacker, final processing in Photoshop. No darks and no flats were taken during the session so some camera/scope artifacts were a little harder to remove. I am reasonably happy with the number of stars I was able to get, but the nebulas themselves were at the mercy of the atmosphere. Light pollution being the main cause for the browning around the Nebulas. This can be removed with more processing.