Nice video! Like you i have been Doing EAA myself! Using a 130mm Newtonian on an Alt-Az Mount with goto, and The ZWO ASI 224mc planetary camer. I do live in a Light Polluted area. And Surprisingly With the help of EAA i was able to the Sombrero Galaxy which is 8th Magnitude galaxy, Its Definitely Crazy!
Hi Peter, I hope EAA opens up your skies again. Having been a visual astronomer and then switching to EAA the difference is striking. I don't see much point in visual astronomy whatever level of light polluted sky you live under. Have fun. Pete
Nice video. By the way, Starizona sells a conversion kit for older CPC scopes to be made fastar/hyperstar capable. I have a CPC 800 with a Hyperstar. It’s a nice option to have for EAA.
Hi Michael, I'm jealous of your setup 😊 As you say, ideal for deep sky EAA. Alas, the high cost (to me), means I will be sticking with F6.3 for sometime to come 😒. On the bright side, there is still a huge number of objects for my old CPC to observe. Albeit, at a much slower capture rate and smaller FOV! Many thanks. Pete
I'm getting set up Pete but have had no end of trouble with cpwi finding my celestron motor focuser , I'm light years behind you but bit by bit i aim to get there, always look forward to your videos and seeing your set up has helped. i have a astro alstair camera , downloaded sharp cap and ASCOM , a 6 inchelestron sct
Hi Colin, First of all I doubt very much you are "light-years behind". Everybody learns from each other, after all this is a hobby and apparently should provide some pleasure 😂 However, everybody has slightly differing setups and hence experience different issues. I have explained this before, but my aging CPC-800 has a motherboard problem (as diagnosed by Celestron) hence, I rid myself of the hand-controller and connect (via USB) directly to the focuser unit. The focuser connected to the base-unit provides the control of the telescope. It is NOT the recommended way of connecting CPWI to your scope! It works though 😊 Thanks Derik (Celestron Engineer). It is quite hard to help without knowing your full configuration (scope, PC, USB connection etc). Also, I only have experience with CPWI on an old CPC-800 and a NexStar 4SE scope. I would definitely ask on the major forums and even Celestron directly. I would suggest, getting each component working independently first. PC to scope (via handset), PC to focuser (direct connection). If one way fails at least you have narrowed the problem. Let me know how you get on. Pete
@@Xio2011 Hi Pete Thank you for your reply, I’ve now ordered a usb from Flo , they recommend the lead I need . Frustratingly I ordered two from Amazon and both did not fit . I have no hand set because I brought the Astro Fi 150 mm goto , exactly the same spec with the optics as the Celestron 6se except the mount is not very good. Little did I know a couple of years ago that the mount is properly more important than the optics , anyway I fixed that with sand in the legs of the mount . The whole thing works via Celestrons Sky Portal and that works very well, never had a connection problem and have always been successful with an initial three star alignment. I decided tho add the motor focuser for a more enjoyable night under the stars , ie no more wobble when focusing on planets . The sky portal app is not very good at controlling the focuser hence my move to cpwi, and now I want to enter the world of EAA. I will let you know how things proceed, I fully appreciate that every set up differs from one person to another . I’ve sent other people detailed instructions of how to align this Fi telescope , because on the Celestron FB page many fail to align and are nearly giving up on the whole idea of Astronomy. It’s not their fault because the instructions that come from Celestron leave much to be desired. Why that is puzzles me because celestron make very good telescopes. Clear shies Pete , I hope your channel grows and grows Colin
I’ve only recently discovered your channel and I really like it. I hope you’ll share one of your sessions again soon. Is there any chance you could share the scripts you written for SharpCap and AstroPlanner? Perhaps as a GitHub gist?
Hi, thank you for your comment. I do apologise, I'm sure I responded to your comment days ago but for some reason it has gone missing! Yes, I can share the code. I would say, that the app and scripts are hard-coded for my workflow and file locations etc. I had no intention of ever making an app for public consumption. There might be some code that might prove useful to you in the construction of your own app/scripts. I will post a link in the description, when I have gathered the source code together. Have fun. Pete
Hi Pete, great videos, I am an EAA Newbie, and have been amazed at what I can see from my bortle 5 location in East Kent. I have a similar setup to yours - I have a CPC 925 scope fitted with a Mele quieter PC and the celestron starsense camera 36:10 mounted piggyback, and due to a tight budget I have a SVbony SV705C imx585 OSC camera. I am saving for the celestron focus motor at the moment, and plan to use the usb connection to connect to the mount (currently I connect via the handset port) - I am running CPWI and sharpcap on the mini PC I then RDP in from my laptop inside… focussing is a bit of a chore until I can get the focusser. I also have ASCOM running on the mini PC. I currently just have stellarium running on the laptop inside. My question is how do I get stellarium to drive the mount, and I would love to use plate solving like you are… what would be a good resource to learn how to integrate the systems to eventually achieve full remote control?
Hi James, that is an awesome setup for EAA. In order to allow remote applications to talk to the telescope PC I have ASCOM Remote Server installed (github.com/ASCOMInitiative/ASCOMRemote/releases) on the telescope PC. This acts as a bridge between CPWI (using classic ASCOM) and Stellarium via Alpaca. In the Remote Server you setup your local devices CPWI (and eventually your focuser). Within Stellarium (or any other ASCOM app) on your inside PC you use the Alpaca tab in the device selector. If everything is setup correctly it will auto discover the devices on your network. Stellarium can then control the scope remotely. For plate-solving you need some additional software installed on the telescope side PC. The fastest is ASTAP (www.hnsky.org/astap.htm). Once installed go into SharpCap Settings and select ASTAP as your default plate-solving solution. SharpCap usually detects which plate-solving software is installed automatically. You will need to set the focal length of your telescope in mm. You can find this out by imaging a portion of sky and have Astrometry.net solve the image online for you. It will bring back an arc second to pixel figure that you can add into this equation to calculate your scope's focal length - [Focal Length in mm] = (206.2648 x [Pixel Size in μm]) / [Arcseconds Per Pixel] I also use All Sky Plate Solver (www.astrogb.com/astrogb/All_Sky_Plate_Solver.html) which is slower but usually works if ASTAP fails for some reason. If plate solving does fail, increase the exposure (I have success at 500ms to 2s), check the focus and make sure your focal length setting is correct. When you get your focuser check out the auto focussing tools in SharpCap, but that's another adventure :-) Have fun. Pete
@@Xio2011 Thanks so much for your comprehensive answer, looks like I have another adventure in store learning how to integrate what I have! Thanks for your inspirational videos, they have really shown me what is possible, and are the closest thing I have found to match my equipment and my aspirations for EAA. So please keep posting them… if you ever get the time a video showing how you managed to integrate your various software packages would be a great help to me… 😉
Hi James, I knocked up a quick video to show you my setup for Remote ASCOM and a little bit of plate solving setup. I hope it provides a bit more help on setting up the connection between the inside and outside PCs. th-cam.com/users/liveeZadtKTGmPg Have fun. Pete
@@Xio2011 - I think have got my system operating now… all set up in my conservatory with a dummy sun alignment… scope is slewing to locations in Stellarium on the remote PC… I am over the moon… just need some clear skies now… with luck scope nights is forecasting a three day clear spell starting tomorrow so I hope to get some EAA sessions in. I really appreciate you taking the time to make a bespoke video for me… that was so kind! Setup was clear and easy… so thanks again!
Hi Pete, just stumbled over your video - nice job. As I am also a CPC800 user and have steeeep learning curve, in particuler regards focus on (on planets), I noticed that you do not use a wedge for EEA. How do you tackle the image rotating over time absent EQ Polar Alignment? Do you just crop the edges of the image in processing?
Hi Michael, Great to hear from another CPC-800 owner :-) The short answer, is exactly as you stated. I would just crop the edges of the image. The longer answer is that I don't really find field rotation much of a problem. The sub lengths I use are 4-15 seconds so that mitigates any rotation in a sub. My total viewing time of an object rarely exceeds 15-20 minutes and usually is in the 5-10 minute range. There is a lot to see up there :-) Imaging anywhere in the sky usually works with those range of settings or even longer. If I was after a long total exposure time I could always wait until the object was in the east or west and not too high in altitude. Those longer subs and total exposure bring out other problems to solve. Even though I'm using a camera. I'm still a visual astronomer observing a target. The final image is definitely not a work of art and rarely ever gets post-processed. If I was to move more to astrophotography then I would reconsider my whole setup. For now though the CPC-800 suits my method of observing perfectly. I don't do much observing of planets. However, SharpCap's new live planetary stacking features are really awesome. There are also built-in tools for focussing, but I'm afraid I haven't used them yet. I wish you luck with your planetary endeavours. Pete
@@Xio2011 Hi Pete, thanks for you input. May I ask another questions relating to PC connectivity. So far, I never tried to connect to PC, but I was wondering what would be an accurate approach, also to connect to ASIAIR. Reading through handbook and internet, I always come across connection via handcontroller (USB mini to USB A). On the other hand, I see a RJ45 port named "PC" at the CPC mount base - but I never see that one mentioned and how/ if it used to connect. How do you realize your connection to the PC? Going forward, do you have experience in connection to ASIAIR? ASIAIR does provide ethernet and USB ports, but I don´t find anything how to connect CPC800 to ASIAIR. I know that CPC mounts are compatible, as I see them in the list in ASIAIR app. Thanks, Michael
Hi Michael, For information on the PC port I would consult Mike Swanson's website NexStar Resource Site. I can't remember ever using the PC port myself. My USB cable (type A male to type B male) goes from the laptop (running CPWI) to the Celestron Focuser and the Celestron Focuser attaches to Aux 1 on the CPC-800's base. I never have the handset attached and haven't felt the need to use it for 4 years of EAA :-) This configuration came about as I was getting some weird behaviour when the focuser and handset were attached at the same time. After some amazing problem solving by a Celestron engineer, it looks like there is a faulty component in the CPC-800 causing the problem. He had a much more detailed description of the problem than that. So, he suggested using the undocumented method of connecting via the USB port on the Celestron Focuser and this allows the scope to be controlled without any issues. As my scope is old I was using a USB to Serial adapter to the handset and this solution removes the need for that extra piece of hardware. I'm afraid I have no knowledge on the workings of the ASIAIR. Have fun. Pete
Hi Doug, Great to hear from you. I am really enjoying your Herschel 400 videos. I was a software engineer for many years and finished up teaching computing in a local primary school. As well as the observing advantages EAA brings, I like the technical aspects of EAA. Especially, the software side that enhances and streamlines the EAA observing process and allows you to learn so much more about the objects you are seeing in your field of view. Also, creating scripts in AstroPlanner, SharpCap or Stellarium gives me something to do on a rainy day :-) Have fun. Pete
@@Xio2011 OK, that explains a lot. At least there’s an explanation for the way you are so gifted in those areas of software interaction and execution. :-) i’m sure I will have more questions in the future. :-)
Pete, I'm enjoying your videos a lot. A question on your software: Are you running Sharpcap on the laptop outside and all the other programs on the desktop inside?
Hi Allen, I'm glad you are enjoying the video. Yes, Sharpcap is running on the laptop. On the laptop, I run SharpCap, CPWI, Ascom Remote server and ASTAP/All Sky Plate Solver. MS Remote Desktop onto the laptop and then use Windows Power Toys fancyzones and pin on top functionality to organise the apps on the main monitor. AstroPlanner and Stellarium run on the desktop. Thank you for your kind comment.
You are definitely NOT capturing at f1.2. The distance to the camera sensor only slightly changes the focal length. The further away the camera sensor the slower the f ratio by a miniscule amount. You are probably capturing at f6.31.
Nice video! Like you i have been Doing EAA myself! Using a 130mm Newtonian on an Alt-Az Mount with goto, and The ZWO ASI 224mc planetary camer. I do live in a Light Polluted area. And Surprisingly With the help of EAA i was able to the Sombrero Galaxy which is 8th Magnitude galaxy, Its Definitely Crazy!
Thank you. I hope the EAA is going well.
I sure wish my accent sounded as distinguished as yours.
i’m REALLY enjoying this video.
Hi Doug, thank you for the kind comments. I blame my parents for the accent :-) Looking forward to your next video. Have a great Christmas.
@@Xio2011 Thankful for your parents. : ) I’m hoping for tomorrow night. Very kind of you. Keep up the good work!
Peter, An fascinating presentation. I'm in a heavily light polluted situation and I think EAA is the way forward. Peter
Hi Peter, I hope EAA opens up your skies again. Having been a visual astronomer and then switching to EAA the difference is striking. I don't see much point in visual astronomy whatever level of light polluted sky you live under. Have fun. Pete
Nice video.
By the way, Starizona sells a conversion kit for older CPC scopes to be made fastar/hyperstar capable.
I have a CPC 800 with a Hyperstar. It’s a nice option to have for EAA.
Hi Michael, I'm jealous of your setup 😊 As you say, ideal for deep sky EAA.
Alas, the high cost (to me), means I will be sticking with F6.3 for sometime to come 😒. On the bright side, there is still a huge number of objects for my old CPC to observe. Albeit, at a much slower capture rate and smaller FOV! Many thanks. Pete
I'm getting set up Pete but have had no end of trouble with cpwi finding my celestron motor focuser , I'm light years behind you but bit by bit i aim to get there, always look forward to your videos and seeing your set up has helped. i have a astro alstair camera , downloaded sharp cap and ASCOM , a 6 inchelestron sct
Hi Colin,
First of all I doubt very much you are "light-years behind". Everybody learns from each other, after all this is a hobby and apparently should provide some pleasure 😂 However, everybody has slightly differing setups and hence experience different issues. I have explained this before, but my aging CPC-800 has a motherboard problem (as diagnosed by Celestron) hence, I rid myself of the hand-controller and connect (via USB) directly to the focuser unit. The focuser connected to the base-unit provides the control of the telescope. It is NOT the recommended way of connecting CPWI to your scope! It works though 😊 Thanks Derik (Celestron Engineer).
It is quite hard to help without knowing your full configuration (scope, PC, USB connection etc). Also, I only have experience with CPWI on an old CPC-800 and a NexStar 4SE scope. I would definitely ask on the major forums and even Celestron directly. I would suggest, getting each component working independently first. PC to scope (via handset), PC to focuser (direct connection). If one way fails at least you have narrowed the problem.
Let me know how you get on.
Pete
@@Xio2011
Hi Pete
Thank you for your reply, I’ve now ordered a usb from Flo , they recommend the lead I need . Frustratingly I ordered two from Amazon and both did not fit .
I have no hand set because I brought the Astro Fi 150 mm goto , exactly the same spec with the optics as the Celestron 6se except the mount is not very good.
Little did I know a couple of years ago that the mount is properly more important than the optics , anyway I fixed that with sand in the legs of the mount .
The whole thing works via Celestrons Sky Portal and that works very well, never had a connection problem and have always been successful with an initial three star alignment. I decided tho add the motor focuser for a more enjoyable night under the stars , ie no more wobble when focusing on planets .
The sky portal app is not very good at controlling the focuser hence my move to cpwi, and now I want to enter the world of EAA.
I will let you know how things proceed, I fully appreciate that every set up differs from one person to another .
I’ve sent other people detailed instructions of how to align this Fi telescope , because on the Celestron FB page many fail to align and are nearly giving up on the whole idea of Astronomy. It’s not their fault because the instructions that come from Celestron leave much to be desired. Why that is puzzles me because celestron make very good telescopes.
Clear shies Pete , I hope your channel grows and grows
Colin
Love this.
Thanks Doug.
I’ve only recently discovered your channel and I really like it. I hope you’ll share one of your sessions again soon.
Is there any chance you could share the scripts you written for SharpCap and AstroPlanner? Perhaps as a GitHub gist?
Hi, thank you for your comment. I do apologise, I'm sure I responded to your comment days ago but for some reason it has gone missing! Yes, I can share the code. I would say, that the app and scripts are hard-coded for my workflow and file locations etc. I had no intention of ever making an app for public consumption. There might be some code that might prove useful to you in the construction of your own app/scripts. I will post a link in the description, when I have gathered the source code together. Have fun. Pete
Hi Pete, great videos, I am an EAA Newbie, and have been amazed at what I can see from my bortle 5 location in East Kent. I have a similar setup to yours - I have a CPC 925 scope fitted with a Mele quieter PC and the celestron starsense camera 36:10 mounted piggyback, and due to a tight budget I have a SVbony SV705C imx585 OSC camera. I am saving for the celestron focus motor at the moment, and plan to use the usb connection to connect to the mount (currently I connect via the handset port) - I am running CPWI and sharpcap on the mini PC I then RDP in from my laptop inside… focussing is a bit of a chore until I can get the focusser. I also have ASCOM running on the mini PC. I currently just have stellarium running on the laptop inside. My question is how do I get stellarium to drive the mount, and I would love to use plate solving like you are… what would be a good resource to learn how to integrate the systems to eventually achieve full remote control?
Hi James, that is an awesome setup for EAA.
In order to allow remote applications to talk to the telescope PC I have ASCOM Remote Server installed (github.com/ASCOMInitiative/ASCOMRemote/releases) on the telescope PC. This acts as a bridge between CPWI (using classic ASCOM) and Stellarium via Alpaca. In the Remote Server you setup your local devices CPWI (and eventually your focuser). Within Stellarium (or any other ASCOM app) on your inside PC you use the Alpaca tab in the device selector. If everything is setup correctly it will auto discover the devices on your network. Stellarium can then control the scope remotely.
For plate-solving you need some additional software installed on the telescope side PC. The fastest is ASTAP (www.hnsky.org/astap.htm). Once installed go into SharpCap Settings and select ASTAP as your default plate-solving solution. SharpCap usually detects which plate-solving software is installed automatically. You will need to set the focal length of your telescope in mm. You can find this out by imaging a portion of sky and have Astrometry.net solve the image online for you. It will bring back an arc second to pixel figure that you can add into this equation to calculate your scope's focal length - [Focal Length in mm] = (206.2648 x [Pixel Size in μm]) / [Arcseconds Per Pixel]
I also use All Sky Plate Solver (www.astrogb.com/astrogb/All_Sky_Plate_Solver.html) which is slower but usually works if ASTAP fails for some reason. If plate solving does fail, increase the exposure (I have success at 500ms to 2s), check the focus and make sure your focal length setting is correct.
When you get your focuser check out the auto focussing tools in SharpCap, but that's another adventure :-)
Have fun.
Pete
@@Xio2011 Thanks so much for your comprehensive answer, looks like I have another adventure in store learning how to integrate what I have! Thanks for your inspirational videos, they have really shown me what is possible, and are the closest thing I have found to match my equipment and my aspirations for EAA. So please keep posting them… if you ever get the time a video showing how you managed to integrate your various software packages would be a great help to me… 😉
Hi James,
I knocked up a quick video to show you my setup for Remote ASCOM and a little bit of plate solving setup. I hope it provides a bit more help on setting up the connection between the inside and outside PCs.
th-cam.com/users/liveeZadtKTGmPg
Have fun.
Pete
@@Xio2011 Wow - You are a star… Thanks so much for your help!
@@Xio2011 - I think have got my system operating now… all set up in my conservatory with a dummy sun alignment… scope is slewing to locations in Stellarium on the remote PC… I am over the moon… just need some clear skies now… with luck scope nights is forecasting a three day clear spell starting tomorrow so I hope to get some EAA sessions in. I really appreciate you taking the time to make a bespoke video for me… that was so kind! Setup was clear and easy… so thanks again!
Hi Pete, just stumbled over your video - nice job. As I am also a CPC800 user and have steeeep learning curve, in particuler regards focus on (on planets), I noticed that you do not use a wedge for EEA. How do you tackle the image rotating over time absent EQ Polar Alignment? Do you just crop the edges of the image in processing?
Hi Michael,
Great to hear from another CPC-800 owner :-)
The short answer, is exactly as you stated. I would just crop the edges of the image. The longer answer is that I don't really find field rotation much of a problem. The sub lengths I use are 4-15 seconds so that mitigates any rotation in a sub. My total viewing time of an object rarely exceeds 15-20 minutes and usually is in the 5-10 minute range. There is a lot to see up there :-) Imaging anywhere in the sky usually works with those range of settings or even longer. If I was after a long total exposure time I could always wait until the object was in the east or west and not too high in altitude. Those longer subs and total exposure bring out other problems to solve.
Even though I'm using a camera. I'm still a visual astronomer observing a target. The final image is definitely not a work of art and rarely ever gets post-processed. If I was to move more to astrophotography then I would reconsider my whole setup. For now though the CPC-800 suits my method of observing perfectly.
I don't do much observing of planets. However, SharpCap's new live planetary stacking features are really awesome. There are also built-in tools for focussing, but I'm afraid I haven't used them yet.
I wish you luck with your planetary endeavours.
Pete
@@Xio2011 Hi Pete, thanks for you input. May I ask another questions relating to PC connectivity. So far, I never tried to connect to PC, but I was wondering what would be an accurate approach, also to connect to ASIAIR. Reading through handbook and internet, I always come across connection via handcontroller (USB mini to USB A). On the other hand, I see a RJ45 port named "PC" at the CPC mount base - but I never see that one mentioned and how/ if it used to connect. How do you realize your connection to the PC? Going forward, do you have experience in connection to ASIAIR? ASIAIR does provide ethernet and USB ports, but I don´t find anything how to connect CPC800 to ASIAIR. I know that CPC mounts are compatible, as I see them in the list in ASIAIR app. Thanks, Michael
Hi Michael,
For information on the PC port I would consult Mike Swanson's website NexStar Resource Site. I can't remember ever using the PC port myself.
My USB cable (type A male to type B male) goes from the laptop (running CPWI) to the Celestron Focuser and the Celestron Focuser attaches to Aux 1 on the CPC-800's base. I never have the handset attached and haven't felt the need to use it for 4 years of EAA :-)
This configuration came about as I was getting some weird behaviour when the focuser and handset were attached at the same time. After some amazing problem solving by a Celestron engineer, it looks like there is a faulty component in the CPC-800 causing the problem. He had a much more detailed description of the problem than that. So, he suggested using the undocumented method of connecting via the USB port on the Celestron Focuser and this allows the scope to be controlled without any issues. As my scope is old I was using a USB to Serial adapter to the handset and this solution removes the need for that extra piece of hardware.
I'm afraid I have no knowledge on the workings of the ASIAIR.
Have fun.
Pete
this was super-interesting, Pete. I wish i had your tech background. What was your skills training? What jobs have you worked?
Hi Doug,
Great to hear from you. I am really enjoying your Herschel 400 videos.
I was a software engineer for many years and finished up teaching computing in a local primary school.
As well as the observing advantages EAA brings, I like the technical aspects of EAA. Especially, the software side that enhances and streamlines the EAA observing process and allows you to learn so much more about the objects you are seeing in your field of view. Also, creating scripts in AstroPlanner, SharpCap or Stellarium gives me something to do on a rainy day :-)
Have fun.
Pete
@@Xio2011 OK, that explains a lot. At least there’s an explanation for the way you are so gifted in those areas of software interaction and execution. :-) i’m sure I will have more questions in the future. :-)
Pete, I'm enjoying your videos a lot. A question on your software: Are you running Sharpcap on the laptop outside and all the other programs on the desktop inside?
Hi Allen, I'm glad you are enjoying the video. Yes, Sharpcap is running on the laptop. On the laptop, I run SharpCap, CPWI, Ascom Remote server and ASTAP/All Sky Plate Solver. MS Remote Desktop onto the laptop and then use Windows Power Toys fancyzones and pin on top functionality to organise the apps on the main monitor. AstroPlanner and Stellarium run on the desktop. Thank you for your kind comment.
You are definitely NOT capturing at f1.2. The distance to the camera sensor only slightly changes the focal length. The further away the camera sensor the slower the f ratio by a miniscule amount. You are probably capturing at f6.31.
Whoops! A slip of the tongue, me thinks. Yep! F6.3 it was, as per normal. Many thanks.