Last nights adventures!

[Grizz]

Ok folks last night I had about a 4 hour window of clear skies so I lugged all the stuff out to the driveway and was going to practice polar drift  iterations and try and get the LPI to autoguide through the ETX90 piggybacked on the LX200.

I have everything outside and I'm hefting the LX200 up onto the wedge, I have the one bolt screwed into the base of the scope to slip into the slot in the wedge. I get the thing up there and into the slot, I set it down on the wedge and get ready to put the other 2 bolts in when all of a sudden I hear this awful scraping sound! I feel the scope starting to move and slip off the wedge...   I grab it by the fork with one hand and I manage to catch the handle with the other as it stars its fall to the driveway The scope swings around and smashes me in the shin   but  I was lucky enough to be able to save it from impact with the earth! My shin ain't happy but I am

Seems the base where the bolt screws in stripped. I make sure I screw it in enough that there are alot of threads caught but for whatever reason it stripped out.

Now what to do? Well clear skies are nothing to sneeze at so I rigged a longer bolt with alot of washers up and with fear in my heart hoisted that baby back up there  I'll deal with the stripped threads later!

Now what does this have to do with Astrophotography? I dunno?

But I got to hookup the LPI and tried some autoguiding with the ETX90.
Did the drift thing
Here are the results.

This is a 2 minute exposure ISO800 through the LX200 @prime focus. The Stars look pretty round to me? But then again....

But I figured I'd let the experts give me thier opinions

Please disreguard the funky colors and the noise. I was just trying for round stars.    BTW its supposed to be M56.

[Brian DeJong]

OMG.  That is my worst nightmare and I dread it each time I remove mine from the pier.  Be very htankfull you caught it.

Anyways, are you using a focal reducer?  The image appears to have some vignetting and I would only expect that if you are using a reducer.  the stars appear to be very well behaved for a 2 min exposure.  I cant reliably go past 1 min 40 seconds without seeing some distortion in the stars.  So the LPI can be used as a guid imager?  I may have to look into one for use wih the OAG that I have,

Please keep us posted on how well it works as a guider.  I for one was not aware that it was capeable.  How long of an exposure can ou do with it?

[saburo76]

Grizz,

As a fellow 10" Meade SCT + wedge owner, I was feeling the horror you had last night as I read this post.
I could almost feel my heart racing as I pictured it falling to the ground.
Major Yikes!

I'm glad you were able to save her!!
I'm guessing you have a nasty bruise or shiner on your chin to show as your badge of courage as well.

Glad you were able to capture a nice image from last night's adventure!

-Robert

[ricksastro]

You must be one strong dude to catch a beast like the LX200 like that!  

Your guiding looks perfect...I assume at f10?  If so, that's a super performance...you're into the range where seeing is often the limiting factor rather than mount performance (a good thing)...

Colors not so off...just a little weak in blue, but not much.

Cool stuff (and good catch!)

Rick

[saburo76]

errr, should I say "shin"  (wrote chin above)

[dsnay]

Grizz,

Nice catch!  
I'm waiting for some clear skies so I can try using the LPI for guiding for wide field images. If I can get anywhere near your results, I should have some great results since I'll just be using film piggybacked on top of the scope.

Do you have any pearls of wisdom for me regarding setting up the LPI for guiding? It looks like there really isn't much to it.

Dave

[Grizz]

You must be one strong dude to catch a beast like the LX200 like that!  

Your guiding looks perfect...I assume at f10?  If so, that's a super performance...you're into the range where seeing is often the limiting factor rather than mount performance (a good thing)...

Colors not so off...just a little weak in blue, but not much.

Cool stuff (and good catch!)

Rick

Thanks Rick,

I just got lucky on the catch my hands just happened to get to the right places to get a grip! I suppose the adrenline rush gave me the strenght to actually catch it.  No way I could catch one if you threw it at me!

It was @f10 its nice to know the LPI, LX200 and ETX will guide well together at least I don't have to but anything new to get it to work (yet). Next time out I'll see how long it will go.

Robert,

Thanks I'm glad it didn't hit me in the "chin" if it did I would have been in a bad position!  

Brian,

Thanks. I just let it go for 2 min. I was pretty amazed it went that long. Then the clouds rolled in so I had to stop. I'll try longer exposures next time out and see what I can get.

Dave,

No it was pretty simple I was ready for this huge struggle to get it all working. I just put the LPI in the ETX, hooked up the LX200 to the computer, started up the LPI imaging program, selected autoguide, found a star centered it, drew the tracking box around it, hit start and it did its calibrate routine and started guiding!

Too easy I must have done something wrong!

Thanks everyone.

[dsnay]

So I take it you were imaging using something other than the LPI. I know you have something else, I just don't recall which one it is.

As to the hook up, did you just use the wiring diagram provided with the LPI? If I understand you, you've got the LPI in the ETX (which I assume is on top of the LX200) connected to the computer and then the computer is connected to the LX200's handbox.

Sounds too easy to be true.  

'course now that I have a goal, the clouds have arrived!  

thanks,
Dave

[Grizz]

Dave,

Yeah it does sound to easy to be true! And it may never work again...we shall see

I was imaging with the 10d thru the LX200. The LPI was guiding thru the ETX90 and that was indeed riding piggyback on the LX200.

I just connected the LX200 via the RS232 to the computer. The LPI was connected via the USB to the computer. I started up the LPI imaging portion of the Autostar suite, not the starmap part. (FYI the autoguiding/imaging portion of the autostar suite has to have full control of the port. If you try and connect to the starmap or any other program guiding will stop. Unless you have 2 ports on your computer, I don't.

I left the diag checkbox unchecked. I don't know what you are using as a guidescope but unchecked works for the ETX90. You will know soon enough because if the box needs to be checked, and is not, the guidestar will march right off the screen.

I draw the tracking box around the star and click START.

The program will calibrate itself and start guiding.

Some other settings you need to make are the focal length of your scope and corr. gain I left this at .5 and it seemed to work well.

Good luck. I hope I have the same luck next time I use it. Well not the gravity/scope part.

[dsnay]

Great! I'll be using the LX90 as the guide scope and just piggyback a film (oh my gosh, someone's still using film!) camera on top. So things should be pretty straightforward, once the clouds go away.

Dave

[twilbur]

Hey Grizz, way to take one for the team!

As a fellow 10" LX200 owner, I don't even want to think about getting hit with one the way you did, brutal. Better than letting letting it hit the ground though!

Your M56 looks great! Very nice looking starts for 2 minutes at F10, you're psyched!!!

[Grizz]

Thanks Ted.

Yeah I'm pretty psyched! I can't wait to get out and try again.

Thanks

[Jake]

What a crazy story!  I am amazed you were able to catch that beast - but I'm very glad you did.  I bet that left a nasty one on your shin.  

Judging by your image, it looks like you have got your autoguiding setup working pretty well.   I'm looking forward to more shots.

-Jake

[dsnay]

Hey Grizz,

How are you connecting the handbox to the PC? I'm sitting out here in the front yard trying to hook things up and I've got that serial cable and connector that came with the LPI suite, but I ain't got no serial port on my laptop. What's a guy to do? Can I just get some sort of adapter to make it connect to one of the USB ports?

thanks
Dave

[Grizz]

Dave,

I have no serial port either. I had to buy a USB/serial adapter. There are many out there I got the Keyspan and it works well with my setup.

I pulg the RS232 cable into the port on the base of the LX200 not directly into the ASII handbox, But I'm not sure how the LX90 works I'll leave that up to you.