Skip to main content

Astro PiFi

Search This Blog

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Conditions at my home

Bortle
SQM 21.00 mag./arc sec2
Brightness 0.430 mcd/m2
Artif. bright. 259 μcd/m2
Ratio 1.51
Bortle class 4
Elevation 118 meters
Light Polution Map

Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Hyperstar Hyper adjustments

Having some trouble with fine adjustments on the Hyperstar. The new hyperstar is great, but it's very sensitive to focus, tilt, corrector alignment and backspacing. I've been struggling to work through the tilt issues lately. Steps Here's the steps to achieve near perfect alignment when there is negligible tilt in the optics of the system: Zero all tilt adjustments in the system. Interactively test and adjust the height of each adjustment screw push/pull set using a dial gauge on a flat surface while rotating the component under the dial gauge. Do the camera first then the Hyperstar. Center the corrector plate Take the scope out at night and point it straight up. Loosen the corrector plate screws de-focus the system and examine the direction of the star elongation around the edges Adjust the corrector plate centering screws until all the elongation directions point away from the center of the image Tighten up the corrector plate Check for tilt in the system by rotating th

Stable Tripod Base

One thing that I've been really happy with is my idea for a tripod base as an alternative to a pier. I have two bases setup in my yard, one for each mount. I can polar align once, and be able to keep that alignment for months. I've seen PA of around 0.1 months after doing a drift align with PHD. This reduces my setup time drastically and allows me to be very methodical when doing an alignment. This is very simple to do. Just get threaded pipe and a flange attachment, screw them together like so: And pound three of them into the ground where the tripod bottoms are. Make sure the mount is roughly pointing in the right direction, and level. Do a very careful polar alignment once, and you won't have to do it again for a long time. You can now take the mount into the house at night, and bring it back out when you want to use it. Make sure not adjust Alt-Az on the mount or the tripod leg length, and you are good to go for quite a while!

Ekos / Indi nightly builds for testing forced meridian flip

These are nightly builds for indi and kstars to be used for testing on ubuntu 22 with an x86 processor. These are not stable so bugs are expected. I've updated the ekos / indi meridian flips to match ascom's by using the ":MM#" command. This should provide a much more usable and reliable meridian flip mechanism for Ekos. You will not have to set the "Western Limit" in the mount to match ekos. You can just use the limits in Ekos and they will work as long as the flip will happen within the safety limits. It involved modifying some fundamental components of indi/ekos that are shared across all the mounts, so it really should be thoroughly tested. Please help out if you can to test the new feature. The changes are currently in the indi nightly builds https://photos.app.goo.gl/y3jYcaAp6RZTnQbQ9 I've highlighted the new features in red. With the new feature you can manually initiate a flip from the indi panel. You will need to enter the coordinates that you

Powered by Blogger