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Boy with tongue out while looking through telescope

So what exactly did I want in an observatory?

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
May 5 2020

A few people have asked, quite surprisingly to me, what kind of observatory I was “letting go” from my long-term goals. Most plebes think an observatory is simply a place to put your scope and observe the sky, and while they are not completely wrong, it is much more complicated than a simple “location-based” definition.

So, let’s start with what I have as a scope:

That set-up is made up of nine things:

  1. A physical site:
    1. A location to do the viewing, preferably with dark skies (this picture is taken at the inlaws’ cottage in front of a lake and big open skies to the west);
    2. A flat platform for the equipment all to rest upon, along with vibration suppression pads under the tripod legs; and,
    3. Some sort of limited area around the space;
  2. Observing mechanics:
    1. An optical tube — the orange part, which is a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (SCT) design;
    2. A mount — the small black base with a computer in it and an arm that rises up from just below the tube to attach at the far side of the scope; and,
    3. A tripod — the silver part, with the three legs fully extended;
  3. Accessories:
    1. An eyepiece (black with green banding at the top back of the scope);
    2. A power source, which is a portable power tank (this model is very similar to a car battery); and,
    3. A place to hold accessories, which is a flat area just below the black mount, very hard to see in the photo although there is also a table out of range of the camera;

For most observing, the parts are inter-related. If you are away from power, you’ll want a portable power tank; if you’re in your backyard, you can run an extension cord. If you are using a permanent observatory, you’ll likely mount your scope on a cement/concrete pier; if you are travelling, you’ll likely use a tripod that expands and folds.

A physical site for observing

The three groupings mentioned above are done in “sub-bundles”. For observatories, the location, the space, and the platform all go together, with three standard options.

i. A prefab structure with a dome structure

These are usually tight little designs with an opening on top, and a swivelling roof that you can open (so the scope can see out while blocking any light from the sides) and rotate in any direction. But if it looks tight, it is because it is. Note the little handle on the front panel — that’s your door, and you have to duck under the roof rim to get in there. Plus, once you’re in there, it’s pretty cozy. And that is usually starting with an 8’x8′ footprint.

ii. A small shed with a roll-off roof (RoR)

These designs are incredibly prolific with tons of different layouts and designs for how the roof rolls off, whether it is motorized or not, how it slides, what angle it slides off at, etc. Companies like Sky Shed will sell you domes like above, or plans, or kits, or the whole shebang together, and you can even hire someone to come and do it for you. The size of the footprint varies, but most occupy at least 8’x8′. Many are 10’x10′. Some are modified and are only 6’x8′. Usually they have the same basic layout — a box shed, with some arms out to the side where the roof “rolls” to, exposing the interior of the building to the night sky.

The buildings can be anything from a basic shack to a really nice looking cabin. But generally, they are all 8’x8′ or bigger. But note the “frame” beside the building — this is where the roof rolls/slides “off”, so if you have an 8’x8′ structure, you need an empty 8’x8′ space right beside it. If you use the dome (i) above, it just rotates, so it holds to the 8’x8′ space.

iii. Some sort of roll-away building

Option (i) swivelled the roof; option (ii) slid the roof to the side; option (3) moves the whole building out from around the scope. Some people call them roll-away observatories. Others call them outhouse observatories as they are often little tiny, outhouse-sized buildings sitting tall around the scope. Others go with a birdhouse design (single pier coming up, and then a box around the scope) and they are called motel-o-scopes. For me, it is more like a phone booth. You open the door, your scope is inside. If you want to use it though, you roll / slide the phone booth out of the way and there’s your scope left sitting by itself on some sort of stand (usually a pier). Here’s a typical outhouse style.

The image isn’t entirely fair, it’s a 4’x6′ which seems pretty compact, right? That one is actually even larger than most, there are more compact designs. But you can see that the rails behind it, where the whole thing would move backwards and the scope inside would seem to “slide out” the front (but of course it doesn’t move at all, it’s fixed, it is the building that moves). By contrast, motel-o-scopes usually look like this with the top coming off:

Some people go for a full prefab metal one, with a similar footprint to the outhouse:

As you can see, they’re not that attractive usually. However, there is also something lost in translation for a lot of these options, which is that while you can build small observatories, the actual size and the functional size are misleading.

Most astronomers don’t spend time in their small observatories

For the domed option, and the small-footprint ones above, the observatories are mainly just for imaging, not visual observing. They set up the scope for the roof, angle, etc., and then go work their laptop. Likely from inside the house or at least from some place warm. They basically use their observatory as a “remote viewing” option. Perfect for imaging / astrophotography.

But they rarely if ever do visual observing with these set-ups. Why? Because the dome and the closet-sized ones are too tight to move around in. The big huge ones will do both, but the smaller ones are mainly for imaging.

Can I use a small footprint observatory? Not really. I am mainly a visual observer. I do a bit of dabbling in astrophotography, but I primarily want the observatory for visual. Let’s look at the options.

 Roll-off RoofDome Roof Observatory

Motel-O-Scope/
outhouses

Telephone booth hybrid
SizeOften 8’x8′ or greater8’x8′2’x3′~4’x4′
UsesVisual or imagingImagingImagingVisual or imaging
Capacity

Scope
Tripod or pier
Electrical
Lighting
Accessories
Desk/Table

Scope
Pier
Electrical
Scope
Pier
Scope
Pier
Electrical
Accessories
Design
Prefab or customPrefabCustomCustom
Appearance
High-qualityMechanicalFunctionalFunctional or basic
Cost
$$$$$$$$$-$$$-$$$

My options for just a slab

As I have already mentioned, I don’t have room in my backyard for an 8’x8′ footprint (dome) nor twice that for one with a roll-off roof. I would absolutely love a full-sized 8’x10′ observatory, complete with a roll-off roof, maybe even a modified roof that would allow partial opening rather than full roll-off. Maybe walls that lower to ensure full horizons, although, in my backyard, that wouldn’t be necessary (even if I lower the walls, there are houses at the angles). I’d even love to raise it up a bit. Have space for some chairs, a table, maybe my laptop. A place to properly arrange all my accessories. Electrical power, fans for the summer, heaters for the winter. And lord, the ability to use it in the winter would be heaven. No shovelling snow to have space, no setup in the freezing cold with bare fingers and a metal telescope, I could just get everything ready to go, open the roof, look for a while, shut it back up, and go inside for cocoa. Out of the wind, away from the elements. A permanent place with lock and key, maybe even a security system, a place for everything and everything in its place. Ah, the dream.

Now, as I said last week, I knew generally that I could never have one of those full-sized observatories. But I had a small niggling hope that perhaps I could come up with something with a small footprint that would work. With some planned yard work including some flowerbeds, I wondered if perhaps we could upgrade my viewing options and start with a slab.

My tripod has a 43″ inch spread from leg to leg, and if you draw a line from one leg to another, and then bisect that to go to the third leg, the distance is 36″. In other words, if you put the two back legs against a wall, the front one will stick out about 37″. Alternatively, you can think of the tripod lying on the circumference of a 5′ diameter circle for it’s footprint. And it is those outer points of the legs that present the biggest challenge. Normally, if the scope is in line with a tripod leg, it’s a bit annoying to get close enough to the scope to see properly. The tripod leg is in the way, you don’t want to risk kicking it, and if you are crossing over from one area to the other, you want to be able to do so easily without backing into things behind you either.

If you think of the tripod and the viewing circle, and place it in a standard 6’x6′ slab, you get the following layout. The green is the available space (slab), the blue triangle is the direct area covered by the tripod, and the orange area represents what happens if you setup the tripod randomly in the circle (it would circumscribe the orange circle). As you can see, there is not a lot of space outside of the orange viewing circle, and within the circle but outside the triangle, different spots are tighter fits.

This suggests that a 6’x6′ slab is not likely to work. I’d likely need something larger. But the larger it gets, the more real estate I’m taking up in the backyard. And the best spot is right in the way of everything else. So I started thinking about the layout of the tripod.

Someone online noted that he set up his tripod in a specific way each time. So in a sense, the orange circle is less important. He put the two legs farther to one side, centred the rest, got a perfect set-up for everything, and then actually marked and drilled holes in his cement slab where the legs were sitting so that EVERY FUTURE time he set up, they’d be in the same spot. With the same 6’x6′ slab, it would look more like this:

For those into math, he was trying to centre a weighted average of the tripod dimensions over the centre of the square. I got to thinking maybe I could do the same. I could set it up so the slab would not be proportional for ANY and ALL setups, but rather just right for ONE specific setup in particular. Since most of my viewing is to the south and west, I could choose the orientation that would give me the most room for THOSE directions, while minimizing the viewing space on the right. If I did it to an extreme, I could put the tripod all the way to the SOUTH and WEST corner, leaving me all the space at the NORTH and EAST corner.

But in my backyard, I could only see three places to put that slab:

  • In the centre of the yard, messing everything up for everyone;
  • At the bottom of the stairs, also messing up most of the backyard usage; or,
  • Next to the stairs, off to the side, a possible 6’x6′ space, with me eating up 2’x4′ of dead space that will likely to become a flower bed and another 4’x6′ of lawn space.

Unfortunately, the more I worked on that last option, the less enamoured I became. It is really close to the back fence, a tight space, and not that great for viewing to the west. I looked at it again tonight, just to refresh my memory, and it isn’t as bad as I thought since it opens up some sky to the east. Of course, any viewing to the east or west is problematic because I’m viewing over top of houses that give off heat, but I also lose a small chunk of valuable sky to the south-west where I’m frequently trying to capture planets in the 10:00 p.m. to midnight window.

I hemmed and hawed, hawed and hemmed, gotta be this or that, and I decided no go. It would just seem too claustrophobic jammed in there behind the scope and tripod.

When ideas lead you down garden paths

The pandemic has been kicking my heinie for work or lack thereof, and I have a bit of cabin fever. So when a simple brain fart happened, I forgot my “it doesn’t work” analysis and conclusion above and let the idea lead me astray like a wicked temptress in a seedy bar.

So, let’s recap. Big RoRs are out; domes are out; small footprint ones for imaging only are out. I can’t find a setup that is the right size to leave my scope in all set up either, not easily. A slab in that 6’x6′ spot wouldn’t be great, but what if I just put a storage shed there. I had looked at some pre-fab sheds and even found a couple that would seem to fit the bill.

I was thinking I could put this in the 6’x6′ space, store all my gear in there, pull it out and use it, save me lugging back and forth to the garage. Andrea was worried about the soccer ball hitting it, which is admittedly not ideal, but as long as my scope wasn’t against the walls on the inside nor were we talking about kicking it against the building repetitively for hours, my gear would be fine. I found another one, slightly different design, maybe it would work too. I figured Andrea could choose which one looked better to her.

It has the slightly wrong orientation, but it’s a different style design, either could be fine. And then I realized something.

While both fit the 6’x6′ footprint, they are taller than I need. I basically need 5′ to clear the top of my scope. 56″. These babies? Over 7′ to the peaks. In other words, not only way higher than I need, they would even go above the fence line and REALLY blocking the view from our gazebo. It would even be starting to block our view from the house.

So, again, I ruled them out. I wasn’t that initially invested, it was just a storage shed.

Until I got ANOTHER brainwave. Much of that “space” consideration for a slab, i.e. the square/circle/triangle diagram above is controlled by the triangle. How much space my tripod covers. But I don’t need to set up my tripod if I’m doing an observing space that was out of the way. I couldn’t put a pier on a slab in the middle of the yard or in the middle of the stairs area, but over off to the side out of the way? I could, in fact, do a permanent pier. If I used the same 6’x6′ space, I could use a pier and have a layout that would be more like this.

6’x6′ footprint, represented by the green. An orange 6′ diameter viewing space since there would be no tripod legs in my way. And a blue pier 4″ in diameter in the geographic centre of the working space. Lots of space to move around it, not claustrophoic at all. Wait a minute, sister, we might have a winner!

I thought I was on to something

As I said, I got excited. The slab area doesn’t work well, that’s still mostly true. But it occurred to me that if I was to raise the level of the viewing area to match the deck by essentially extending the deck into that space, and raising the pier up by another 2′, I could have a pier up through the deck extension, a 6’x6′ viewing area around it, plus an opening behind me to the main deck, so I could either centre the pier or shift it slightly off-centre reflecting that extra viewing area on the deck.

My brain started to explode with possibilities, and reality was NOT filtering any of them down to viable options. I toyed briefly with the idea of putting some sort of building like the sheds above, prefab and cheapish (relatively speaking). But I was already going to have to pay someone to build a deck extension that would require 2 posts plus the pier for holes in the ground, permit approvals too. Plus pouring the pier itself, including specifications to embed some metal rods to use to attach the telescope mount. I averaged it out to the 56″ height I have now for the tripod, add a couple more for the tube to overlap, call it 5′ total, with the pier portion likely representing 3.5′ of that 5′.

Right, so the prefab buildings were too big. And too expensive. One is almost $2K all on its own, not counting the build of the deck and pouring the pier. I’d also have to modify the shed to be removable. And, oh yeah, they are probably too high.

But I’ve researched a lot of options for those outhouse-style observatories. Or the telephone booth design, as I like to call it. Could I do one that would allow me enough space to cover the scope on the pier (5′ tall, 2′ wide) and maybe have some room for some accessories, a shelf or two, and wheels for it to roll away on? I could. I even have a couple of ideas on how the walls could hinge to open around it like a telephone booth door, turn and roll away onto the deck out of the way. It could even block light or wind from various directions if I need it. Let’s call it maybe 2′ x 4′, or up to 4’x4′, opening up to a small “temporary wall” of 2’x8′ with all my gear hanging on it. Glorious idea.

My friend Stephan knows someone who does custom work, they could likely do the deck and the pier easily enough, and would be willing to build me a shed on top. Except that “custom work” adds up way too fast. As much as I would like it, it just stacks the cost too much.

I stepped back and went through all the steps I would need to do the custom shed part myself. I would still need someone to build the deck extension and pour the pier, but the rest? I could just about handle it all myself. Maybe with a little design help online.

I found a design that was similar to what I have in mind, a guy made it in the local club so I could likely go to his house even and take measurements. And I very excitedly showed it to Andrea.

Who pointed out that it was ugly. Which it was. Kind of like some of the ones above. But the worse news is that his “ugly” one was WAY nicer than anything I would ever come up with. If she thought that one was ugly, my version would be an eyesore. Sigh.

So I went back to trying to contain the cost with an existing prefab. It would be hard to modify and put wheels on, but I gave it a go. All of the options were either too short/tall, ugly, or expensive. Or all of the above. One had some potential, but the shed itself was more than $2K, AND I would have to do a bunch of custom work just to get it to fit.

Then I realized too that basically NO option was ever going to work in that space. Even if I held it to only 5′ high, it’s going to be higher than the fence line when raised up on the deck (which is 2′ off the ground) and higher than the shed that was just going to be on the ground. That one got ruled out because it would block the gazebo and house views; this one would block it even more. Well, fiddlesticks.

And that is where I crashed hard. The re-ignition of a dream, a possible way forward, cabin fever, and a working solution that I came up with on my own got me REALLY excited. Too excited. I should have known better than to let my hopes run free. Particularly in the world that we’re living in right now.

I am still playing with secondary options

I really struggled to pull myself out of the letdown phase. Particularly as even if it was feasible, I don’t have the skills myself nor can I afford the extra cost to make it look “nice” enough to proceed.

I haven’t completely given up on the idea of a 6’x6′ viewing area there, with a pier. I just can’t have it as a permanent observatory with a building. Going back to that initial definition, yes to the neighbourhood, yes to the backyard, meh to being over to the side but I can live with it, yes to a pier rather than tripod legs, and yes to a metal plate on top that I will attach my mount to for holding the tube.

The difference is that I will just have the 4″ pier (or whatever size is appropriate), and the plate, and nothing else there most of the time. When I want to observe, I’ll attach my mount on to the pier, and the scope on to the mount. When I am done for the night, I’ll take everything off, and rather than putting any sort of “box” around it, I’ll just put a pier condom over it (like a wet bag) to keep everything dry. It’ll be about 4-5″ in diameter, maybe 3.5-4′ tall, and that’s it. I’ll have to put a chair or something in the way so people can’t hit it. Or I could do what some people do and put a small tabletop on it to use for drinks and things, make it look like part of the deck. It’s an option at some point to consider. Not a full observatory, but a pier isn’t a terrible compromise. I could settle for the slab and pier, but I think it would be way too tight. I’d have to decide if that was worth it or not. Regardless, it’s an upgrade to have a stable pier over tripod legs.

Since one of the limiting factors is the time it takes to move all my gear from the garage to the backyard, I looked into an option to have a storage shed on the deck, back out of the way, not blocking any view, maybe something big enough to put my scope in that I could open up, pull out my scope already set up and be good to go. None of the pre-fab buildings fit the space, nor can I build anything nice enough myself. I could consider having something custom built there if I don’t do the deck extension, but I’m not thrilled by the idea of storing my gear there if I don’t get a huge improvement in my set-up time.

So I have also been actively looking at wagons. I think I have one that will work for me, and I even found a Canadian distributor, finally. That was surprisingly harder than I expected, but it’s worked out now. I found a few distributors, but they looked sketchy — websites with no physical location behind them. Selling garden equipment? Nope. I had to compromise on the version, not exactly the model I want, but it works, and it is $250. No rush to get it though as I would have to have a place in my garage to park it and be able to load everything into it while still being able to lock stuff up easily plus keep it all clear of dust, etc. I would prefer not to have to back my car outside to do it, that’s partly how I ended up not closing the door and having stuff stolen, but hopefully once bitten, I’ll be twice smart enough not to leave stuff open to being stolen so easily. But on the positive side, building a small “hut” in my garage is about functionality, not “look and feel”, and my skills can handle that at least. It won’t be pretty but in my garage, it doesn’t have to be. When I’m ready to do that, i.e. after cleaning a bunch of crap out of the garage and clearing enough space for everything, I can do all of it myself. Nice.

I still have to look into the tips for letting go more, even after I’ve negotiated myself down to something better than what I have now, and I’m still going to look into easy-to-access sites within 20 minutes drive of my house to give me better viewing options. But the observatory idea is dead; I’ll have to settle for being able to improve my options.

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Posted in Astronomy, Goals | Tagged depression, dreams, observatory, options, telescope | Leave a reply
Boy with tongue out while looking through telescope

New featured images – Astronomy

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
April 16 2020

I have almost 1400 posts and pages, and with a redesign that I’ve recently been working on, i.e., changing many things behind the scenes in layout and workflow, I need to go back and fix a bunch of featured images for sizes. So at the same time, since I’ll be using the Featured Images in a slightly different way along with other graphics in my site, I’ll take advantage of the update to also consider new images.

For astronomy posts, most of which up until now have been about astronomy and telescopes and imaging, oh my, I’ve tended to use a whimsical graphic for all of it.

Boy with tongue out while looking through telescope

It has a transparent background, PNG format, and I like the light nature of it. It reflects my approach to astronomy, generally informal, non-scientific, heavy focus on observing over imaging or logging. In short? Fun.

But my astronomy posts are not all about “fun”. Some of them are a bit more serious about the hobby, and how to record observations, etc. More of the “what did I see” than “what did I experience” type post. And so while it is still coded in the website as an astronomy category, it strikes me as a bit different. To that end, I found this image which shows a logbook:

Logbook next to telescope looking at moon and stars

Also PNG format with a transparent background, it is still a bit light. I’ll easily use it for my observations / logs.

But as time marches on, I also find myself getting a bit into light imaging. I have all the imaging tools I need to keep me busy for a very long time — an adapter to attach a point-and-shoot camera, the adapters to attach my DSLR, and even a NexImage 5 webcam. All perfectly fine tools for my type of scope (a Schmidt-Cassegrain tube on an alt-az mount), even though the scope and mount are not ideal for astrophotography. Instead, I’m more likely to use my smartphone with my scope, and I have a couple of adapters to use. But that too then gives me a slightly different blog post, one with images of actual targets. As such, I’ve uploaded a third image.

Telescope looking at sky that shows stars, comet, planet and moon

While still a graphic rather than a photo, I like the idea that it shows different types of targets — stars, planets, the moon, comets, and deep space. So I’ll likely use that one for my imaging posts.

Which then leaves me with a question. When I do my official PolyWogg Guide to Astronomy, which of the three do I use? I could use:

  • the informal whimsical one showing the boy enjoying the stars;
  • the more formal one that includes a logbook; or,
  • the one that emphasizes the targets.

I’m pretty sure I’ll go with the whimsical one, as that is more the tone I’m going for — newbies who are looking at getting into astronomy and who are willing to learn from someone who is just a little ahead of them on the knowledge curve. But “pretty sure” and “certain” are a gulf apart, and I welcome any views anyone has to shift the needle.

Of course, from time to time, I might want other images too. So I have a NextGen album with lots of other images in it from various clipart collections that I can use. Stay tuned!

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Posted in Astronomy, Computers | Tagged astronomy, computer, featured images, telescope | Leave a reply
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Reading Michael Swanson’s “The NexStar User’s Guide II” – Chapter 07 – Connecting a PC, Mac, Tablet or Smartphone to Your Tablet

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
September 8 2019

For reviewing purposes, I skipped over the short Chapter 6, focused on Sky Portal operations, as I’ll do that chapter after I have a chance to connect to my tablet and test some of the operations. I thought of doing the same for Chapter 07, Connecting a PC, Mac, Tablet or Smartphone to Your Tablet, but it’s a short chapter, and easily dispensed with here.

Some of the highlights:

P.165 – Wired Connections for RS-232 Hand Controls…I knew that most of the wired connections used a USB to Serial adapter, and plugs in to the RJ-22 Jack (I thought it was an RJ-45, but apparently not!). However, one “new” thing in the guide is that there is a way to do a wired connection to a tablet or smartphone using SkyWire + Sky Safari with an iOS device. I had no idea there was an option for a physical wire connection. I might have skipped the dongle wifi if I had known that earlier, as there can be challenges maintaining connections.

P.165 – Wireless connections…As with the wired one, I didn’t know people had attempted doing it with BlueTooth but it sounds way more exciting than the wifi connection. Out of my abilities, most likely, but I’d be willing to buy one if it is ever perfected. I’ll stick with my wifi connection (SkyPortal module) although good to see the range of other options available.

P.168 – Software to Control Celestron Telescopes…I don’t have a lot of interest in this aspect, to be honest, and I have a copy of NexRemote that came with my scope back in the day. However, what I found incredibly useful was the suggestion that when any software asks you for your type of scope, if it doesn’t offer you an option for your specific model, it suggests using NexStar GPS or CPC…very useful to know! I also like the multiple refs to more materials on the author’s website.

P.169 – Troubleshooting Serial and USB Connection Problems…I have had problems with my wifi connection in the past, but I read the other connection section anyway. Interesting that NexStar Observer List software (NSOL) is only able to connect through the ports on the bottom of the hand-controller, not the extra ports on the mount. Under the Troubleshooting WiFi Connection Problems section (P.171), I was intrigued to see that when connecting to Android, it may note that the internet is not available (yes, I’ve had this!). It says you have to say “YES” and “DON’T ASK AGAIN” or Android will block everything. Nice. I also didn’t know that I could connect both my phone and the telescope through my router at home (if I was in the backyard) and that connection works better. While that would be helpful at home, I’m curious if that method (called Access Point mode) would work with my iPhone set as a hotspot. Something to keep in mind for the future.

A good short reference chapter. Hopefully, I won’t need the trouble-shooting part as much.

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Posted in Astronomy, Book Review | Tagged astronomy, bluetooth, hand controller, laptop, NexStar, PC, reading, reference, tablet, telescope, wifi | Leave a reply
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Reading Michael Swanson’s “The NexStar User’s Guide II” – Chapter 05 – NexStar and StarSense Hand Control Operations

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
September 7 2019

Chapter 5 (of Michael Swanson’s “The NexStar User’s Guide II”) is entitled NexStar and StarSense Hand Control Operations and you would be right if you assumed this was going to more like a software manual than a telescope manual. It is a highly specific reference manual for the use of the hand controller and reading it page by page is for the hard-core geek only. But it is full of fantastic info that I didn’t know enough about, even though I’ve worked with the hand controller for years. These are the highlights for me:

Pg. 128 – Adjusting slew rates…I knew how to manually adjust the slew rate (MOTOR SPEED then press 1-9 where 9 was the fastest). I really only use 3, 6, and 9 for rates though. 9 if I’m going a great distance, 6 if I’m adjusting for centreing, and 3 if I need very fine adjustments while doing astrophotography and looking at centreing something on the screen. However, I didn’t know that if you were slewing in one direction (say left) and also held down the opposite button (i.e., right), it would temporarily speed up to rate 9. I have no idea when I would ever use that, but it’s good to have. I suppose if I knew I was going from rate 6 to something that was farther away and wanted 9 temporarily and then back to 6, I could do the temporary speed boost.

P. 130 – SAO stars…I knew the list was there, I didn’t know that you could type in a few digits and that served as a “filter” so that 0004 would give you a list of 000400, 000401, 000402, etc. with only the visible ones at that time showing up in the list. Not sure I would ever use it much though.

P.130-131 – Sky Tour…I use the sky tour regularly, and have always wondered about the methodology it uses. While there isn’t much detail on that in the manual, it does note that it is the same Sky Tour in my son’s 4SE as well as my own 8SE, with no adjustment to the software to recognize that some objects might not be suitable for that particular scope.

P.132-133 – Anti-Backlash/Backlash Compensation…The previous chapter already covered this from a physical setup perspective, this gives you the walk-through for the software side. Still need to do this.

P.135 – Slew Limits…I have had an occasional problem with my slew limits, and I didn’t really understand how they were working. The Slew Limit tells you when something is too far up or down for your scope to see, perhaps because of what you have attached to the scope (like a camera) or could be for permanent horizon. I set my scope up so that nothing CAN hit the base any more and I almost NEVER go to zenith anyway. But I occasionally get slew limits for something that is too low. What I didn’t realize is that my setup is throwing off my limits. I physically install my tube with the mount vertical and pointing up; my son does his vertically, but with the mount pointing down. We install the tube, turn on the scope, and go to horizontal. I didn’t realize that the scope THINKS you start horizontal. So, we need to make it horizontal, and then restart the system to reset the counter to horizontal. We haven’t had any problems, but there were a few objects here and there that I thought we should be able to see and the scope said “Nope”. Might be why. Need to adjust that as part of my setup technique.

The Filter Limits (P.136) is the temporary version of slew limits, in a sense, and is usually related to horizon. I wish it would allow you to just point to your horizon and say “Use this as your lower horizon limit” and to allow you to do it in multiple directions. I have zero viewing sites that have all 4 directions with the same horizon. My backyard is great to the South, maybe 15 degrees. East and West are more like 60 degrees with houses. North is perhaps 45 degrees. If I set it by the limits East and West, the highest, I’ll miss out on a ton of objects to the South and North. At the Carp site, great views to the West, but North and East has a hill and South has some trees. Not huge problem, they would work okay there. The FLO site has trees to the East and North, but better views to South and West. AstroPontiac is fantastic in almost 225 degrees, but the Gatineau Hills right behind it for the other 135 degrees is another story. And at the in-laws’ cottage, West and South are awesome, while East and North are about 85 degrees straight up for trees. I know some of the software options for tablets and planetariums will sometimes allow you greater flexibility for simulating your view, not sure it changes much for scope control though.

P.137-138 – GoTo Approach…This was covered for the physical side in Chapter 4 on alignment, and notes the default settings for back-heavy and front-heavy scopes, with the recommended settings over the defaults. I want to try this soon too.

P.140-141 – User Defined Objects…I had seen this in the menus but really had no idea what it was about, nor did I understand the sub-menus much. I loved the explanation on these two pages to know there are basically 99 memory spots to remember UDOs. If I choose my own object in the sky, and pick SAVE SKY OBJECT, the computer will add that location’s coordinates to memory, but unfortunately with no option to edit the name. SAVE DATABASE OBJECT does the same but for objects already in the main database, and so it retains the name too.  Interestingly, you could program your night’s viewing ahead of time using this method as the scope doesn’t need to be aligned. You would essentially be creating your own personalized star tour. ENTER RA AND DEC would do the same, albeit without a name. When you want to use the list, pull up UDOs and choose GOTO SKY OBJECT. I’m curious to see if I can pre-program those with software, but I guess if I’m using the apps, I don’t even need to use that as they allow custom lists / catalogs anyway.

P.141 – Display settings…I need to check to see if I have LCD Contrast and Bold Font set for my hand controller, I sometimes have trouble reading it. And I can do the same for my son’s.

P.142 – Cord Wrap Prevention…It sounds strange to say, but I hate the Cord Wrap Prevention. Why would I hate it? Because while I like the general premise of stopping the scope from getting all tangled up and pulling on the power wires, my Sky Tour starts near M110 and the Andromeda Galaxy. Then, as I go along, and as I get close to due North, the scope can get a bit confused…it hits the cord wrap limit (North), and then to get to the next object (across the limit line), it goes ALL the way back around, as it’s supposed to do. I would much prefer if that limit line was close to M110 so that for a sky tour, I could do almost all of it before running into that problem. Particularly as a couple of elements shift a bit in the order, and one will be past the limit (all the way back around) and then an object or two later, will be back across the limit (so all the way back around again). If I could adjust it closer to the right (East/South) of M110, I would be able to do almost the whole tour without that problem. And since I am rarely in that section of the sky in most of my sites, it would be a good limit anyway. Except the only setting seems to be ON or OFF. Sigh. I’ll check with the author to see if there is any way to edit this.

** Update: I heard back from the author, who was very polite considering I missed something he had already explained in the book. I just mis-read it, as I was looking for something that says “here’s how to edit”, and that isn’t quite how it works. Apparently, the default setting is due north (I thought was “near North”, but no, it is actually North) and since I always leave it on, I’ve never see an option to change it. But if I turn cordwrap OFF, and then turn it back on, it will then ask me to point to the exact opposite point of where I want cordwrap to be. At present, the default of SOUTH means the mount thinks my cable starts to the south, so when it gets half-way around to NORTH, it activates the cord-wrap. So, if I want to activate cordwrap “east of M110” which has RA of 0h, I need to toggle CORDWARP and then point the scope to an RA of 12h (directly opposite M110). That initially seemed ludicrous to me, but the author further explained that it is asking you to point to the centre of the available range of motion. Ah-hah! That makes sense! Except then I found out that if I’m using Sky Portal, I can’t change the setting, it’s always due South. Sigh. Cuz I want to start using that! **

P.147 – Direction Buttons…I already mentioned this in the physical setup / alignment section as it messed me up. I had inverted controls set ON by default, and it meant that my UP and RIGHT should have been DOWN and RIGHT, so my alignment process always included altitude slippage. FOR FIVE YEARS. Arghh!

P.147/148 – Hibernate…I have wanted to try to see some planets during the day for a long time, just to see what you could see. But it’s impossible to do an alignment, right? Well, in addition to the option to do a solar system alignment (even on the moon or sun), you can also align during the night, and then put your scope in “hibernation” mode like a laptop. Then, when you want to use it during the day, you can wake it up, don’t MOVE anything, tell it the current time, and voila, you’re back in business. It already knows your location, and where it is in relation to the stars a few hours before when you did the first alignment, now it just needs to know how long it was sleeping. If you do ANYTHING else before entering the new time, the alignment is lost. I really want to try this, except for one little thing. Well, two things. First, dew would be a pain. Second, it would work best with a great alignment in the wee hours before dawn…yet I am NOT a morning astronomer. I even struggle to stay up much past 1:00 a.m. But I do want to try it sometime.

P.150 – Version…I figured SOMEWHERE in the handset there must be some indication of what version of firmware is running, so I will have to look that up, now that I know how!

As I said at the beginning, this is the hard-core manual side of the software. Most people would likely use it as a reference guide, “How do I….”, but it was fascinating to read the whole thing at once and see other settings that I might use. Great chapter.

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Reading image, frog with book

Reading Michael Swanson’s “The NexStar User’s Guide II” – Chapter 04 – Alignment

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
September 3 2019

Chapter 4 of Michael Swanson’s “The NexStar User’s Guide II” is entitled Alignment and is the chapter that made me want to buy the book and read it cover to cover. Readers of the blog know that I struggled with alignment for my NexStar 8SE (Solving alignment problems with the Celestron NexStar 8SE) and Michael’s online resources were helpful in resolving some of them, or at least narrowing the problem. I even held off buying the book because he said Guide II was coming and I should wait over Guide I. Then I managed to solve most of the alignment issues, and so when his book arrived, I didn’t devour the whole book right away. I just cruised through the Alignment chapter. Then this past summer, I went back and re-read everything in order.

Here are some highlights from Chapter 4:

Backlash compensation (P.87): A great element for those of us with slightly older scopes whose mounts are no longer “factory fresh”. My son’s new 4SE? Dead tight regardless of the direction I’m slewing. My 8SE? There’s a bit of a lag. I tried adjusting this 3 years ago and just got confused. The new guide has it very clearly laid out, and I’ll be attempting a fix later this month.

GoTo Approach (P.88): Tied to the backlash compensation is a setting that depends on whether your scope is back-heavy or front-heavy. I have always felt that my scope was “front-heavy” the way I pushed it forward, but I reached out to the author to ask, and he confirmed that the SE series is still generally back-heavy given the weight of the mirrors, unless you are using a metal dew shield to make it more front-heavy. I need to change this too.

At the time of this writing, the default settings for the NexStar+ and the SkyPortal app are negative for altitude (up/down). The default settings for the NexStar version 4 and StarSense hand control are positive for altitude. When used in alt-az mode (no wedge), back-heavy scopes perform best with this set to positive, while front-heavy scopes should have it set to negative. This helps to minimize the effects of gear backlash on GoTo accuracy.

Accurately Center Alignment Stars (P.89): The end of the section outlines the doughnut method for doing alignment, i.e. defocusing a star until it is a large disc that makes it easier to see how well it is centred in the eyepiece/field of view, a great method.

Final Movements When Centreing Alignment Stars (P.89/90): Regardless of backlash compensation, or your GoTo Approach above, the scope is always going to have its drive tighter in two directions than the other two. In other words, for azimuth at least, going right is always going to be tighter than going left. When you go left, there will always be a bit of slippage. So you always want the “last” movements when centering to be to the right to keep the drive as tight as possible, no slippage. Any slippage will increase your margin of error with the alignment.

The PROBLEM comes with the up/down movements. And the source of multiple years of alignment problems that I couldn’t figure out for the life of me. All the online tips say that the final movement should be: Right and Up. In other words, the tightest last movement should be to the right (as above) and then up. In theory, this means that DOWN will have slight slippage, UP will be tight. And that’s what I was doing.

Except I wasn’t. Here’s the bombshell from the guide:

To help minimize the effect of gear backlash, your final movements when centering the alignment stars are essential. The default settings with the NexStar+ hand control and the SkyPortal app require you to center each star with final movements using only the right and up arrow buttons. The default settings with the NexStar version 4 hand control require you to center each star with final movements using only the right and down arrow buttons.

While the bolding is mine, I would like to THINK that if I had read that, I might have saved myself a few years of pain. My handset did indeed have the settings reversed — so I was doing “RIGHT AND UP”, but my handset was inverted, and I should have been doing “RIGHT AND DOWN”. Son of a biscuit. Which meant that while my azimuth settings were relatively fine (left and right were tight), my altitude was consistently off. Only when I was talking to the guy who programmed the hand controller one night and I mentioned that the setting was inverted did we together have a eureka moment. Every single site I found online, every reference, everything I saw said NexStars should go RIGHT and UP. It never occurred to me that my default settings were different. I have no idea if I had read that bolded section above if my brain would have sparked or not. It sparked when I was out with the programmer trying to solve my alignment issues. Alas, I read it in the guide almost three years later. Grrrr.

Cancelling a Slew (P.91): This is one of the most useful things I learned in the whole book, and it is so simple. Once you press enter on the hand control when selecting an object to view, the GOTO features take over and it starts slewing there. I’ve tried hitting BACK, a few other buttons, nothing seemed to stop it until it got to its destination. One time that was a zenith location and my diagonal was hanging down low, and yep, it smacked the mount base. It ground so hard, I needed Celestron to fix it and my mount was gone for 2 months. I got to this section, and literally I was like, “Are you kidding me? All I have to hit is one of the directional buttons? Really? How did I *not* figure that out before?”. Sheesh.

Various alignments (P.92-99): While I feel that I knew most of the details about Sky Align, Auto Two Star Align, and Two Star Align, mostly from reading various posts online (some by the same author), I knew very little about One Star Align or a Solar System Align. I’m itching to try the Solar System align to see if I can do some stuff during the day (with appropriate solar filter in place, just in case it passes the Sun). I confirmed with the author I can even do this on the Moon or the Sun. Woohoo! 🙂 Maybe I’ll try it the day of the Mercury transit this year (November 11th) as I’ll be outside anyway!

Using SkyPortal (P.99-103): I have the wifi dongle, and I have found the connection with the tablet or smartphone to be a bit finicky at times. Nevertheless, I am inspired to try it again, partly because I hadn’t realized you could add more stars to the alignment process — up to 10 in total to improve GoTo and tracking. I desperately want to try that. I’ve thought of buying a StarSense for improved alignment, but I am willing to try this first. Might want to upgrade firmware though.

I have always wondered what stars are in the database for possible use during alignment, and a DLable manual on the author’s website notes that

  • Two Star alignment has 247 possible objects [a somewhat eclectic list, as some go as faint as 5.4 (Polaris Australis) but even a full list of magnitude 4 would well surpass 250 objects];
  • Auto Two Star and One Star are limited to 56 possible objects (again, a bit odd since there are 88 constellations and you would think at least the brightest in each would be available); and,
  • Sky Align (the generic three star approach) has 82 possible objects.

And here’s the weird part…you would think it would be cascading / shrinking lists — 247 for 2-star, 82 of those for Sky Align, and 56 of those for Auto 2-star or 1-star. Except Albireo and Algenib are available for 2-star and 1-star but not the more general Sky Align. Albireo is a double-star, but there are other doubles in the list (Mizar, for example); I don’t know what’s unique about Algenib. Like I said, weird. I assume it has something to do with the math for Sky Align, some sort of conflict if you use those two.

Sync (P.123): I had learned how to do this, as well as Precise GoTo (P.124), when I was out observing with the hand controller programmer, but it was good to see how to use a semi-permanent “additional alignment star” for a series of viewings or a local star for a one-time alignment boost.

One thing I have never seen listed anywhere (and it’s not in the guide) is what to do when something happens and your alignment changes during the night. You can replace alignment stars, sure, but my question was more specific — what happens if you “kick” the tripod by accident (or more likely someone passing by kicks it) — do you reboot the scope and start over? There’s no menu option to start a new alignment from the beginning. I reached out to the author of the Guide II to ask. He confirmed that while you may have to do a reboot if the legs are moved considerably (i.e., the alignment may fail when you do the first replacement), you can always try just repeating the existing stars again rather than starting fresh or saving two new alignment stars. Good to know.

And this concludes Chapter 4. This chapter alone was worth the purchase price.

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