Finally ready - i thought - but there are always issues after such a complex setup as you can read below. My new, higher pier extension has been finished and is on this way to Spain.
At E-Eye you can control your PC using Teamviewer or any other remote control software you like. I found Teamviewer working best over low laceny connections and much better than RDP. One of the pictures above shows my desktop and the running programs: Talon (Roof control), 10 Micron Keyboard (Mount Control), Dragonfly (Power control), SGP (Imagaing), Cloudwatcher and the Webcam's output. The MBox control program to feed the mount with environmental data cannot be seen but is running in the background.
All is working very well and the cloudwatcher is directly connected to the talon and will close the roof if clouds are approaching, power or internet is lost. Obviously you could automate the full session: Open roof, unpark mount, Power up CCD/Focuser, goto Object, focus, integrate, Power down, Park, close roof.
Flat's
After Jose has finsihed with the setup i found that Flats showed some strange shadows is upper left corner. Triggering Jose, we found that the Off Axis Guider is in the light path. Apparently, it moved during transport.
SX + SGP
After having sorted the Flat issue, SGP's autofocus routine did not work but Maxim was fine. The first picture of a focus run was far off the second and third. After hours of searching, the ASCOM driver V5.5 of the Starlight Xpress CCD was identified as the root cause. When taking a Flat, the Picture shows a Flat - all good. Now you take a Dark and guess what: You get a Flat. Now you take a 2nd Dark and get a Dark. It looks like that the driver caches the picture for some reason. Upgrading the ASCOM driver to V6.2. solved the issue. Maxim was always working as it does not use ASCOM.
This quick First Light picture taken under near full moon and some dusty skies. However, i am surprised about the good result!
This picture shows off the otherwise faint emission nebula IC 410 in the constellation Auriga through a H-alpha narrow band filter. The image data traces the emission from hydrogen atoms in the nebula.
It features two remarkable inhabitants of the cosmic pond of gas and dust just above the center, the tadpoles of IC 410.
8x10min Ha
After adding some more expose time, this is the final image.
15x10min Ha
17x10min O3
20x10min S2
total 8:40hrs
Color mapping is R:G:B to HA:O3:S2
Update 2019:
I changed the kit in 2019, so i quote my full previous kit here for historic reasons:
Mount: 10Micron 1000HPS, GPS
Scope: Takahashi TSA 120 FTF, TOA-35 Reducer
Main CCD: Starlight Xpress Trius SX-694
OAG: ZWOOAG + ASI 120MM-S
Guide/Widefield: Borg ED36 + QHYIII-178
Filterwheel: ZWO, 8x1,25", Baader LRGB, Ha, O3, S2, Dark
Gemini Snapcap
Optec Quicksync Focus Motor, Optec Focuslynx
APC Back-UPS BX 1400
Lunatico's Dragonfly, Lunatico's Cloudwatcher, Astromi Weatherstation
HP Microserver Gen8