Gear communication issues.

[Eric Hughes]

OK astrogabbers I need help. I'm trying to get started in AP. I'm using an Orion 80ED w Sirius Goto GEM, I have a Canon T3, and Mac laptop. I know very little (yet) about what I need to know, but right now I can't get all my gear talking to each other. I've DLed Nebulosity, PHD (the demos), and I've watched the tutorials. I can get Neb and PHD to recognize my camera, but not my mount. In PHD, there are only like 3 or 4 choices for mounts, and mine isn't one of them. Can anyone help me with this setup?

[Russ Ruggles]

When I want PHD to communicate with my mount I just click the "mount" icon and it finds it.
Using the Celestron mounts - I use the Shoestring Astronomy USB converter. I'm not sure you would need something like that.

[Eric Hughes]

It doesn't recognize my mount. There's a selection on my mount for "PC control", so I put it on that, but it still doesn't recognize it. :(

But thanks for the reply, Russ!

[Russ Ruggles]

Good response Bob. I didn't have all my info here at work but Bob helped fill in the blanks.

[Marc Basti]

Eric, not sure what you are using for a guide camera. I use a ssag and I plug the RJ-12 cable from the ssag right into the guide port (CGEM mount) (usb back to the lapper). In PHD go to the mount drop down menu and select "on camera" and it's ready to go. Make sure the ssag drivers are installed. I use Windows so not sure what might be different using Mac, another Yahoo tech site to check is Stark Labs. G-luck, Marc

[Eric Hughes]

Ok, I got a PC, and am still scratching my head. I don't know how or what program I need to do what I want. I've DLed PHD, Neb, and ASCOM, but what needs to be with what?

For instance, I know PHD is for guiding, but what connects with what? My mount is Sirius goto, w synscan controller.
My camera is Canon T3, but am I supposed to be able to see what my computer sees from the camera in PHD?

And I can get Neb to recognise it, and I can set my image capture data w it (ISO, # of captures, etc.), but Neb seems to be not very user friendly. Like what do I do after I have images captured? I know I need to stack them, but how?

I know this hobby is techinical, and I wasn't expecting it to be easy, but I didn't expect to not even be able to make it past connecting everything. And thanks for the reply, Marc.

I'll start digging through these yahoo! groups.

[Steve Coates]

To run PHD guiding you'll need a guide camera and scope. The RJ-12 cable will plug into the guide camera and your mount. The guide camera will also have a USB port that will go to your computer and from there you can guide with PHD software. If you don't have a guider or guide scope you can get 30-60 sec subs and just take a bunch (and I mean a BUNCH) and stack them in DeepSkyStacker

DSS will stack your subs, as well as Darks, Flats and Dark Flat subs and save them in TIFF format to process in PhotoShop (or a free processing program like GIMP

You can run the camera with Nebulosity. You can set the ISO, exposure length etc with it. I suggest using the Live View on the camera to center your stars...If you find Nebulosity difficult try using BackyardEOS

You will not see what the camera sees through PHD, PHD is used with the guide camera and guide scope only. You'll have to connect the camer to your computer via the USB cable that came with the camera.

Use this website to set the settings on your camera.

I'd skip the mount control with the computer for now, use your Hand Controller to slew and align.

Here are some helpful links that got me going:
http://www.samirkharusi.net/sub-exposures.html Helpful discussion on Signal to Noise and collecting subs
http://www.saratogaskies.com/articles/cookbook/index.html

There is lots to learn I would suggest learning one component at a time. Good Luck and happy reading!

[Eric Hughes]

Whew! Thanks, Steve!