From: Mark Gaffney <markgaffney@me.com>

Date: January 21, 2010 11:31:40 AM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: New AstroIIDC user

Milton, 

I did look at those links including the diagrams (from Celestron it says in one of them..) of the doughnut shapes. At the time I was tweaking the collimation screws I also tried briefly a star turning it through focus to the "other side" though I don`t recall exactly what I saw at the time but rest assured when I get a chance I`ll try your method with the reticle interface on Astro IIDC. The long VGA cable method with Metaguide & the monitor etc. is no great problem now either as I`ve got all the cables sorted & rolled up in the doorway! I got out & attempted PA tonight but clouds kept obscuring my view of the stars I needed. I got as far as completing the 3 star alignment-using just the 25mm eyepiece (sometimes waiting 10-15 minutes for stars to be visible!) & had centred Betelgeuse in the finder using All Star. Just as I went to centre it in the eyepiece & confirm, the view of everything was obscured for most the rest of the night..so I wasn`t able to actually complete the PA. 

I thought there`d be a fps reading on the log of one of my movies that might be an indication of speeds used. My first post was with an FMT7 814 x 618 movie with the readings of Max fps 32.44 & exposure 5.38 ms. Later I found a NON.. FMT7 800 x 600 set of movies taken the same night I recieved the camera of the full moon (on my external HD) & whilst there`s an exposure reading of 0.05 ms there`s no reading for fps that I could see. This is with Astro IIDC.I know Kurt is referring to information given in the Scorpion manual & Fly capture & that Alan has now timed an exposure with Astro IIDC so I`ll leave the matter there..! 

Mark.

On 22/01/2010, at 4:10 AM, Milton Aupperle wrote:

Mark;

On 20-Jan-10, at 11:56 PM, Mark Gaffney wrote:

> Milton,
> I think Alan & Kurt are talking about the non FMT7 800 x 600 pixel
> size aren`t they?

Yes.

> The 814 x 618 pixel image log for my movies had a fps reading I
> think wheras the log I found for the 800 x 600 pixels one has just
> an exposure reading of 0.05ms..?

Exposure time has nothing to do with frame rate, except frame rate is
the maximum exposure time.

You can be shooting ant 1.75 fps and have the exposure to 0.01 ms
(which is 0.00001 or 100,000 th of a second).

> Anyway I`ve had a quick look at Fly capture on my PC & it has an
> "enable" FMT7 selector but the image scale dosen`t seem to change
> from 800 x 600 pixels on any mode?

Read what we said. It's the 800x600 size that DOES NOT have the words
"FMT7" on it. ROI is not enabled for fixed sizes so the only size that
you can do is 800x600 in either 8 bit or 16 bit Monochrome with the
2007 and later Scorpions.

> This is shooting a blank-no scope but out the door into the light! I
> don`t know enough about it at this stage! If Alan`s timed it that`s
> good enough for me..! As to collimation here`s a couple of Jupiter
> snapshots from last time I shot it, the first at prime focus the
> other with a 2x barlow & the Scorpion, I believe. I had tried to
> adjust collimation until I had the clearest view of Jupiter`s
> stripes through the 25mm eyepiece..
> <Snapshot 2010-01-21 17-43-09.jpg> <Snapshot 2010-01-21 16-53-55.jpg>
> I can`t promise I`ll look at collimation of the scope any time soon
> (it`s cloudy tonight for instance..!)

You do not use stars for collimation, you use stars! You'll make it
worse, not better.

Please READ the URLS I indicated in the previous message because
they CLEARLY explain what you should be doing on.

TTYL..

Milton Aupperle