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Re: Does Explore Stars only work on WiFi for a PC running Windows?
#ExploreStars
The moon has absolutely killed me this week! Hopefully soon I’ll be able to post something from it with the AR102. I did run it one night off the ASIAIR Pro and it worked great! Here’s an image of it setup on my telescope platform.
-- Explore Scientific iEXOS-100 William Optics SpaceCat 51 APO ZWO ASI183MM Pro, ASI533MC Pro Canon 5D, T3i (Both Astro Mods) William Optics UniGuide ZWO ASI120MM-S ZWO ASIAIR Pro
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Re: Does Explore Stars only work on WiFi for a PC running Windows?
#ExploreStars
How is the mount going Wade?
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Re: Astrophotography Done with the iEXOS-100, EXOS 2, and G11 Post your Pictures and Details! Lets Show What These Mounts Can Do.
#G11
#astrophotography
#iEXOS-100
#EXOS2
Hey Guys,
Here is my shot of M31 taken last night, it was a full moon but it was the first clear night we have had in a long time so I took a chance on it !! 2 hours 17 minutes of exposure time, 30 second exposures @ iso 800, 20 Darks, 20 Bias & 20 Flats, unguided, Astro-Tech AT80ED, Astro-Tech .80 Reducer/ Field Flattener, Canon XSI 450d, ICE Lipo Light pollution filter, Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker & processed in GIMP. Any suggestions on a better filter for M31 ? -- Derrell Oliver Astro-Tech AT80ED Meade Infinity ST80 with Lunt Solar dual speed crayford focuser. Meade Polaris 90 with GSO dual speed crayford focuser. Meade Polaris 130 with ScopeStuff 1.25 crayford focuser. ES iEXOS-100 ZWO ASI120mc-s, Canon XSi 450d. EQ2 Mount with Orion EQ-2M RA Drive. AZ3 Alt-Azimuth Mount.
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Re: Astrophotography Done with the iEXOS-100, EXOS 2, and G11 Post your Pictures and Details! Lets Show What These Mounts Can Do.
#G11
#astrophotography
#iEXOS-100
#EXOS2
Jeff Snell
My latest from last night...Lagoon and Trifid Nebula and the Soul Nebula. Both shot at 3200 ISO, 120sec exposures, Canon T5i astro-modified Lagoon and Trifid: 30 Light, 20 Dark, 20 Flat, 20 Bias Soul Nebula: 90 Light, 20 Dark, 20 Flat, 20 Bias Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop with Astro Plug Ins Lagoon and Trifid was shot looking south over Ogden/Salt Lake City Utah at about 30 degrees elevation. Lots of light pollution and about 95% moon illumination. The Optolong L-Enhance Filter is AWESOME! I am totally surprised by the detail that came through on that shot. PHD tracking total consistently .4 and below... Jeff EXOS 2 GT/PMC-Eight w/Explore Stars ES ED80mm APO Celestron 8" Edge HD Canon Ti-5 w/ Spencer Camera Astro-mod Orion Starshoot AutoGuider w/50mm Guidescope QHY Polemaster ASCOM POTH Hub, CdC, APT, PHD2
On Mon, Sep 21, 2020 at 3:25 PM Jeff snell <jeffery.snell1@...> wrote:
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PMC-Eight Stellarium Setup Procedure
#ASCOM
Myself, Jerry Hubbell, and David Campbell have come up with a step by step procedure for you to use the PMC-EIGHT and Stellarium with ASCOM.
1. Download ASCOM 6.5 making sure to install POTH. 2. Run the ASCOM Diagnostics program to verify all the components of the platform were installed correctly. 3. Download and Install Stellarium 20.3. 4. Under the ASCOM folder in the Start Menu, find and start POTH Scope-Dome Hub. 5. Select Setup and Select Choose Scope. Select “ES PMC8 Telescope” 6. Select Properties and Enter the settings needed for you mount, location, and connection type. 7. Power up your PMC-Eight Control System and hit the Connect button on POTH to verify that POTH communicates correctly with the mount. 8. Start up Stellarium. 9. Select “MOVE A TELESCOPE TO A GIVEN SET OF COORDINATES”. 10. The Slew Telescope menu will pop up. 11. Select CONFIGURE TELESCOPE. 12. Select ASCOM and scroll down to ASCOM settings. 13. Choose ASCOM Telescope and Select POTH Hub in the menu 14. Make sure you UNPARK the mount and turn on Tracking using POTH.
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Re: iEXOS-100 First Light
#iEXOS-100
Perry Gee <pgee2013@...>
Unfortunately, when I called them, they don't have any left. So I guess I will either have to go with the Skywatcher HEQ5, or wait for 2 or 3 months!
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Re: iEXOS-100 First Light
#iEXOS-100
Perry Gee <pgee2013@...>
Thanks. Not a great price, but not terrible either. I'm still trying to find out what it would cost to ship it to California.
On Tue, Sep 29, 2020 at 8:10 AM Mario <mario1546@...> wrote:
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Re: iEXOS-100 First Light
#iEXOS-100
Mario
Last time I checked this local supplier in Ontario had some in stock Might be worth a look given the exchange rate... Regards, Mario
On Tue, Sep 29, 2020 at 11:07 AM Perry Gee <pgee2013@...> wrote:
--
Regards, Mario Streetsville, Ontario Mounts: iExos 100, Skyguider Pro Scopes/Lenses: Main/Orion 80mm, DSLR/Tamron 18-400mm lens, guide/ZWO-340A Computer: ASIAir Cameras: Canon T2i DSLR, ZWO120MM (guide) Utility Software: iPolar (for Skyguider polar alignment), iCap, Explorestars, Canon EOS Utility Image Processing Software: Photoshop 
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Re: iEXOS-100 First Light
#iEXOS-100
Perry Gee <pgee2013@...>
Thanks for letting me know. They aren't in stock in the US until November sometime, so I've been looking all over. Unfortunately, the cost of import and shipping is prohibitive. But it was worth looking at the possibility.
On Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 10:34 PM Ian Morison <ian@...> wrote: Hi Perry,
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Re: Cloudy Nights Thread
#CloudyNights
Done
-- Sincerely, Jennifer Shelly AstroPorch, VA Mounts: ES PMC-8 G-11, ES PMC-8 EXOS-2 Scopes: ES ED127 FCD-100, ES Levy Comet Hunter, ES N208CF, QHY Mini Guide Scope, Solomark F60 Guide Scope Cameras: QHY600M, QHY128C, QHY168C Misc: MoonLite CFL 2.5 / High Res Stepper / V2 Mini Controller, Baader SteelTrack NT / SteelDrive II, Baader UFC, Optolong 2" L-Pro / L-eNhance, QHY CFW3-L, Baader 2” LRGBSHO CCD Imaging Software: NINA, APT, SharpCap Pro Processing Software: PixInsight, Lightroom, Premiere Elements
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Re: iEXOS-100 First Light
#iEXOS-100
Wes Mcdonald
Ian
Nice technique. Very cool. When I said “break the clutches” I meant release them 😀. No problem to push to! You might be interested to know the iexos clutch uses a friction lock system to engage the wheel gear to the shaft. This is a good way, as it does not distort the wheel gear the way a wedge lock clutch might. Thanks for the characterization and method. That a7S seems like a nice camera. The large pixels would make it great at 1600mm fl, match up with seeing very nicely. That would make it a candidate for an f10 scope at 2500mm fl with a .68 reducer - perfect for a 10” SCT I image with a Nikon D5300 Astro modified. The darn thing is danged quiet and takes some pretty pics matched to my ES 127 refractor @ 940mm fl. With a .8 reducer it will capture the Orion Nebula and Running man in one frame. Thanks again for doing these tests. Look forward to your blog on the mount. Wes
-- Wes, Southport NC EXos2-GT PMC-8, iExos 100 ES ED 127, 10" LX200GPS+wedge, Astro-Tech 8" Newt, ETX-90, 60mm no-name guide scope ~ 260mm FL Polemaster, Orion ST-80 and SAG, ZWO 290MM, D5300 astro modified Nina, Bootcamped Mac Mini control computer, RDP to iMAC 110 amp hour lead acid deep discharge battery for field power Electrical Engineer, Retired
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Re: iEXOS-100 First Light
#iEXOS-100
Ian Morison
Hi Wes, I have investigated the tracking further. I always allow the NCP alignment to be slightly off so the image moves across the sensor during the total period of the exposures. This helps remove the effects of hot pixels and 'color mottling'. Each exposure is short enough so the stars were not trailed. In the Orion image, the exposure time was just 15 seconds so that the centre of M32 would not be overexposed. That worked. If there are hot pixels these will leave a trail across the image which will show the tracking performance. It was quite cold and the Sony A7S with its 8.4 micrometre sized pixels was virtually free of hot pixels and I could only find one faint trail. This is cleaned up and rotated in the attached image. One can see the periodic error track. Each pixel of the camera/scope combination subtends 5 arc seconds, so the PE error is somewhere between 10 and 15 pixels - just as you thought. Cheers, Ian
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Re: iEXOS-100 First Light
#iEXOS-100
Ian Morison
Hi Wes, I would not say professional as I was a radio astronomer. Here are replies to your queries.
Yes I am using Explore Stars in the T -mode.
I have used 'goto' fo some visual observing and, of course, for the astrophotography use I could 'goto' an object nearby and drive to where I want to image. However, I do not think manual use would break the clutches! My GM8 with similar clutches is a 'push to' mount having encoders under the control of an Argo Navis hand controller.
I located the artificial star at the end of the garden (not really far enough away) and placed its image in the camera live view when attached to my 430mm refractor. Took a very long 'bulb' exposure whilst the mount was tracking at siderial rate. This produces a long streak across the resulting image. With my small tracking mounts I have always been able to see tracking errors, but could not really see them with this length of exposure.. I suspect though that the exposure was not really long enough. Thanks for giving me the PE period. I will do the same experiment tonight using a shorter focal length lens so the exposure can be much longer and will update you. Cheers, Ian
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Re: Ghetto azimuth adjuster
#iEXOS-100
I printed it with PETG on an Anet A8.
Lutz
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Re: iEXOS-100 First Light
#iEXOS-100
Ian Morison
Hi Perry,
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
The UK dealers are also out of stock, but I found one on Amazon UK. The price was higher ($50) than UK cost but free delivery. I discovered that it came from Germany taking some time. The website implies that it will be back in stock mid October. Cheers, Ian
On Tuesday, September 29, 2020, Perry Gee <pgee2013@...> wrote:
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Re: iEXOS-100 First Light
#iEXOS-100
Perry Gee <pgee2013@...>
I've been struggling to buy a mount this last month, as all of the American dealers seem to be back-ordered. Where did you buy from?
On Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 4:44 AM Ian Morison <ian@...> wrote:
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Cloudy Nights Thread
#CloudyNights
Someone is asking about mounts again on CN, see this link
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/731681-so-who-is-happy-with-their-mounts/?p=10541861 -- Tim Myers Telescopes: Celestron 4SE, Celestron 8SE, SkyWatcher 100ED Pro Mounts: 4-5 SE, 6-8SE, EXOS-2GT with PMC-Eight Cameras: ASI1600MC Imaging Camera, Cooled, ASI120 Guide Camera Focuser: ZWO EAF Scope Mini PC: Topton Pentium Laptop: Lenovo Software: CDC, SharpCap Pro, NINA, PHD2
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locked
Re: #iEXOS-100 using Ekos and Kstars, problems when running GoTo
#iEXOS-100
Please move this conversation to the PMC-Eight Applications Subgroup as it is no longer relevant to the PMC-Eight
Thank you -- Jerry Hubbell Vice President of Engineering Explore Scientific, LLC. jrh at explorescientific.com www.explorescientificusa.com 1010 S. 48th Street Springdale, AR 72762 1-866-252-3811 Author: Scientific Astrophotography: How Amateurs Can Generate and Use Professional Imaging Data Remote Observatories for Amateur Astronomers: Using High-Powered Telescopes From Home Mark Slade Remote Observatory (MSRO) IAU MPC W54 Equipment Wilderness, VA Mounts: ES PMC-Eight G11 + Telescope Drive Master (TDM) Scopes: ES 165 FPL-53 ED APO CF, ES 102 FCD100 ED APO CF Cameras: QHY174M-GPS + FW, QHY163C Misc: 3-inch 0.7x Focal Reducer Field Flattener, Filters: Luminance, Red, V-band Photometric, Diffuser, 200 lpmm Spectral Grating Software: MaxIm DL 6, Cartes du Ciel, Astrometrica, AstroImageJ, AutoStakkert!
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locked
Re: #iEXOS-100 using Ekos and Kstars, problems when running GoTo
#iEXOS-100
Hiya,
Not using astroberry specifically as I rolled it all together myself on the pi but we had very similar problems to yourself with Ekos/Kstars and the iExos-100 and it got compounded by using a polemaster for alignment. Similar to yourself what we tended to find was that after setting the camera to the NCP in the "home" position (i.e. counterweight bar straight down, camera pointing at Polaris - using a vixen plate directly, no ball head) and then plate solving we would try to do polar alignment and it would rotate in all kinds of strange directions (and frequently fail to plate solve from the polemaster in the process). What we had to do was use an iterative procedure to fine tune things as it seems a single solve isn't always good enough for the mount to know where it is so what we did was; Roughly polar align the mount - I find the polar tunnel impossible to use so I broadly eyeball it and then my wife uses liveview on the camera to see if we're in the ballpark. Solve (with the action set to sync rather than slew) Slew to a target not super far away from polaris - it'll quite frequently end up nowhere near. Solve again Slew to another target - it'll likely to be much closer now Solve again Slew once more and it'll normally be bang on. Then we'd run PA with the polemaster and it would typically solve quickly and slew correctly during the procedure Finally once PA is dialled in tight a final 1/2 solve and slews would set us up for the night. It's a bit of a faff to get the mount dialled in but it only takes a few minutes and you only need to do it once per session. my working hypothesis was that by having the mount quite a way off PA the solving gets a bit messy and whilst it solves it's not fully sure on the absolute position of the mount and get's it wrong. A few repetitions fixes this by giving it more data to work with. Hope that Helps Jacqui
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locked
#iEXOS-100 using Ekos and Kstars, problems when running GoTo
#iEXOS-100
I have a raspi running astroberry and could successfully connect to the mount using USB.
Everything seems configured correctly but I do not really know how to initialize my setup before starting a photography session. What I did try was to approximately polar align the mount, then release the clutches and move the axes such that the camera is pointing at Polaris (Camera is currently mounted on a ball head but I try to keep it parallel to the polar axis as much as possible). Then I run plate solving in Ekos and get the correction. The mount then slews to that direction to center Polaris in the camera. The next step is where the problems start. When I chose a new object in the sky and command to mount to slew to it, it goes to a totally wrong direction. Kstars shows a right motion in the sky map but the camera goes to a position where it is pointing very far from an obvious object (Andromeda for example). I couldn't really understand what the problem was. Also, when sending back the mount to Polaris, it does not go back to where it was initially. Did anybody get the iEXOS-100 to work with Ekos and faced similar problems? Some hints would be helpful. Also, sometimes the mount becomes very loud when slewing and seems to get stuck for a moment. The noises are quite scary, sounds like it will break or something. What is that? I attached a picture of my setup.
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