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Monday: I set up early, just after 9am, to try and catch any better seeing conditions before things warmed up.
Yet again AWR and ASCOM + C-Du-C provided garbage results. As usual I check whether AWR's IH2 has remembered where it was parked yesterday. Even when I do not connect the serial cable to bring ASCOM & C-du-C into play the figures on the little screen may be correct in Altaz but are total garbage in Equatorial coordinates.
So for the umpteenth time I tell it where it is parked [AGAIN!] and then press SETParK. PERIMETER EXCEEDED! AGAIN! My feeling is that the AWR clock is the problem when converting from Altaz to Equatorial coordinates. I have to reset the parking position by an hour forward every time. Which, of course, it promptly forgets overnight.
Then I connect the serial cable, connect the telescope and tell CDC I am using ASCOM[AWR] and tell it [YET AGAIN] where I am parked by Syncing on the eastern horizon. Now one would think, after all that, that I could safely aim a CDC Goto slew for the Sun. But no, it couldn't find the sun if it was filling the whole damned sky!
So for the umpteenth time I take hold of the AWR Simple Paddle and "manually" slew until I centre the sun's image in the base of the Lacerta solar prism. Only then can I tell CDC that I can Sync to remind CDC that it missed by several long miles and that I am now pointing at the sun no thanks to its help. Now it can happily track all day long. That is assuming that tracking actually does start automatically. It seems to be a random feature and I have lost track of the number of times I have had to tell the IH2 to start tracking. The drive pulleys move so slowly that I have marked them clearly to be sure they are actually moving.
I have taken a series of images of start up coordinates on the AWR IH2 screen and bottom corner of the C-Du-C screen to try and get my head around what is actually happening.
I have taken a series of images of start up coordinates on the AWR IH2 screen and bottom corner of the C-Du-C screen to try and get my head around what is actually happening.
I have decided I need a trolley or small table for the laptop + mouse mat. No fixed position works well, all year round, over the course of a full day. I played with a large cardboard box to try and make a deep shade for the laptop screen. Not a great idea as it needs constant adjustment. Seat height also changes the desired viewing geometry. I am deliberately wearing a very dark grey jumper or black T-shirt to avoid direct screen reflections. The laptop screen must be seen clearly to be able to achieve best focus and centring of the field of interest.
The damned Skywatcher clone focus motor paddle is now running non-stop on the right button but nothing [at all] on the left. The motor only stops when I press the left button or pull the plug/cable out! Not a useful choice.
Despite all these problems I captured a lot of videos for later, artistic impression. Because they are always on the laptop I have to go some considerable rigmarole to be able to post them from the PC. I was advised to get rid of unwanted video files to make room on my computers. Useful advice. I gained 100GB on the SSD alone by being selective and removing duplicates captured at similar times of the same area of the sun.
14th Not a great day for solar imaging until late afternoon because of cloud. I re-collimated the 7" using the Cheshire. The very first time with the FeatherTouch focuser in place. What a huge surprise to have it stay perfectly aligned unlike the Vixen 2".
15th Sun out of a clear sky today. Already captured some 2k frame and 5k videos of the sunspot in white light.
C-Du-C missed the sun by miles again on the first slew. It stopped probably 20 degrees away in both azimuth and altitude. After manually slewing and syncing on the sun Home [Park] meant a severely nose down pointing.
The ZWO 120MC in SharpCap has an overlaid ripple like old fashioned obscuring glass. Bad in WL but worse in H-a. There is a graininess to the laptop screen even when the camera has no telescope attached.
The damned Skywatcher clone focus motor paddle is now running non-stop on the right button but nothing [at all] on the left. The motor only stops when I press the left button or pull the plug/cable out! Not a useful choice.
Despite all these problems I captured a lot of videos for later, artistic impression. Because they are always on the laptop I have to go some considerable rigmarole to be able to post them from the PC. I was advised to get rid of unwanted video files to make room on my computers. Useful advice. I gained 100GB on the SSD alone by being selective and removing duplicates captured at similar times of the same area of the sun.
14th Not a great day for solar imaging until late afternoon because of cloud. I re-collimated the 7" using the Cheshire. The very first time with the FeatherTouch focuser in place. What a huge surprise to have it stay perfectly aligned unlike the Vixen 2".
15th Sun out of a clear sky today. Already captured some 2k frame and 5k videos of the sunspot in white light.
C-Du-C missed the sun by miles again on the first slew. It stopped probably 20 degrees away in both azimuth and altitude. After manually slewing and syncing on the sun Home [Park] meant a severely nose down pointing.
The ZWO 120MC in SharpCap has an overlaid ripple like old fashioned obscuring glass. Bad in WL but worse in H-a. There is a graininess to the laptop screen even when the camera has no telescope attached.
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