How to add Computer Tracking to a manual telescope

[tr12]

Hi,
I recently joined MAS as a new member.

I have an Orion Starblast 6 Astro Telescope (Click for Details).

When I start observing through it, I readily become frustrated because, for some reason I don't see things clearly or it takes hours to finally find and focus on closer/brighter objects.

I always had urge to control my telescope from computer and see the images live on computer. That way, I can put my telescope out in balcony and sit inside warm room and could observe for hours in winter days and also increase my observing efficiency.

I am wondering if anyone of you know an affordable (maybe under $500) way to make my manual telescope a goto or computer controlled telescope. Please point me to any website you think it might be helpful for me

Apart from my interest in astronomy, I also like taking pictures. I have hoped someday I will start taking long exposed pictures of stars using my DSLR once I have added tracking to my telescope.

Please let me know if this question is not relevant to this forum. I can move it to wherever you like.


Thanks!

[SEmert]

There may be some good home built tracking mechanisms discussed on the internet somewhere - I'm not aware of exactly where. A good place to start looking is in the forums on Cloudy Nights or on Astromart. Or someone in the MAS that may have researched it could answer here. The best topic to place this question under is the Equipment, Gadgets and Stuff forum topic, so if you don't get any more answers here you may repost there, although I'd expect people would see it in either place.

A couple of options for adding just the digital setting circles for a "manual go to" or "point to" type of capability would be to either find the Orion Intelliscope controller and encoders and add them to the Starblast mount, or get other DSCs like this:
http://www.astrosystems.biz/dsc.htm
I used to have a Sky Commander from them, and loved it. Unfortunately I sold it with the 16" scope it was mounted on. One of these days I will buy another to replace it on my current scope(s).

JMI Telescopes - http://www.jimsmobile.com/ - also has DSCs and has retrofit kits for many scopes. It may be worth contacting them to see if they are working on one for the 6" Starblast or could modify one of their kits to fit.

[tr12]

Thanks Steve!
I just sent an email to astrosystems and jimsmobile.

[SEmert]

Cool. Let us know what you find out from them.

As far as finding objects manually with the Starblast, it shouldn't be that difficult. A couple questions:

Have you aligned your red dot finder to the scope? If you haven't, an easy way to start is to focus the scope on a distant object during the day (insulator on top of a fairly distant electric pole, top of a flag pole, etc.), then adjust the red dot so it is pointing at the object.

Is the scope collimated well? At night, point it at a fairly bright and easy to find star. It should come to a pinpoint. If not, you need to collimate. Easiest is using a laser collimator. There are lots of instructions on the web for collimation, and anyone can help at a meeting or star party.

Charts. You need to know what to look for. The Messier objects along with a few other NGC objects are the brightest and best to get experience with. www.seds.org/messier gives basic info on the Messier objects, and there are good simple charts on the web here: http://www.astro-tom.com/messier/messie ... r_maps.htm then after that, the Mag 7 Star Atlas provides very good star charts. Go to my links on the B-SIG Links page for more links and for an index to the Mag 7 Star Atlas, and the Observing SIG for some Excel spreadsheet lists of objects. Finally, the simple month-by-month charts from www.skymaps.com are great to show what is visible in any given month and also lists them by unaided eye, binocular and telescope objects.

Hope that helps somewhat!

[Dave Venne]

Hi tr,

You might also consider removing the optical tube assembly (OTA) from the alt-az mount and putting it on a go-to mount that allows computer control. There are getting to be quite a few of these out there. Two that come to mind as under $500 are a used CG5-ASGT (typically $400-500) or an iOptron Cube-G ($370) or Cube-A ($420). For Solar/Lunar/Planetary imaging the Cubes should be fine, while the CG5--because it's a German equatorial mount--will support going deeper. The CG5 doesn't have a dedicated USB port, so you'll need an adapter unless your computer has a serial port.

I can vouch for the CG5, but have not used an iOptron. Here's a two-part review of it from someone who moved their OTA to one.

Dave

[Ricola]

Tr,

Thanks for joining!

Overcoming scope frustration can be a big hurdle. Good news is there are a lot of great people in the MAS who are happy to help you get over it.

As a member, the club has a few loaner scopes to check out and try, one of them is a Celestron Nexstar Alt-Az mounted goto scope. I borrowed it a year and a half ago, and it got me over the frustration hump. Easy to set up and rewarding views my first night out in a light polluted suburban yard. Check the MAS website for information on how to contact Clayton our Vice President and scope checker-outer.

Also, consider coming to the BSIG Beginners meetings, and club and public star parties. They are the best way I know to see tons of astro gear in action and get lots of educated opinions on what might work for your scope. If you're like me, seeing and trying things is key to picking the ones that will work for me.

This stuff can all get really expensive really quickly, but is sure can be fun!

Ric

[Enberg]

That Starblast is a nice entry scope. I have started from scratch with an old Celestron Firstscope 4.5 and I'm almost finished with the Messier List as well as the Universe Sampler observing program, all with manual finding. It does take two things: 1. Alignment of the finder and collimation of the scope - you can get help from other club members if you need help - that's what I did at first. 2. A sky chart - like from Skymaps.com for each month. This will get you started. The first time I was out with my scope, I could only get it pointed at the moon.....then on the second night out, I managed the moon and Saturn. Then I got a better finder device (reflex finder), help with collimation and alignment, and built an alt-az mount to replace the shaky GEM mount that was original to my telecope, and things improved a lot.

The alt-az mount is very intuitive once you get started. Then, you can get some experience and work toward decisions on your next scope with go-to, and tracking for astrophotography.

[tr12]

Cool. Let us know what you find out from them.

As far as finding objects manually with the Starblast, it shouldn't be that difficult. A couple questions:

Have you aligned your red dot finder to the scope? If you haven't, an easy way to start is to focus the scope on a distant object during the day (insulator on top of a fairly distant electric pole, top of a flag pole, etc.), then adjust the red dot so it is pointing at the object.

Is the scope collimated well? At night, point it at a fairly bright and easy to find star. It should come to a pinpoint. If not, you need to collimate. Easiest is using a laser collimator. There are lots of instructions on the web for collimation, and anyone can help at a meeting or star party.

Charts. You need to know what to look for. The Messier objects along with a few other NGC objects are the brightest and best to get experience with. http://www.seds.org/messier gives basic info on the Messier objects, and there are good simple charts on the web here: http://www.astro-tom.com/messier/messie ... r_maps.htm then after that, the Mag 7 Star Atlas provides very good star charts. Go to my links on the B-SIG Links page for more links and for an index to the Mag 7 Star Atlas, and the Observing SIG for some Excel spreadsheet lists of objects. Finally, the simple month-by-month charts from http://www.skymaps.com are great to show what is visible in any given month and also lists them by unaided eye, binocular and telescope objects.

Hope that helps somewhat!

I got following response from Astrosystems
"Sorry, we have nothing like that, I believe JMI has a drive system for your scope, but it is not GOTO."


Thanks for very helpful tips on calibration, I will try them.

[tr12]

Hi tr,

You might also consider removing the optical tube assembly (OTA) from the alt-az mount and putting it on a go-to mount that allows computer control. There are getting to be quite a few of these out there. Two that come to mind as under $500 are a used CG5-ASGT (typically $400-500) or an iOptron Cube-G ($370) or Cube-A ($420). For Solar/Lunar/Planetary imaging the Cubes should be fine, while the CG5--because it's a German equatorial mount--will support going deeper. The CG5 doesn't have a dedicated USB port, so you'll need an adapter unless your computer has a serial port.

I can vouch for the CG5, but have not used an iOptron. Here's a two-part review of it from someone who moved their OTA to one.

Dave

Thanks Dave for the information. I searched web for weeks for this and couldn't find this much info.

[tr12]

Tr,

Thanks for joining!

Overcoming scope frustration can be a big hurdle. Good news is there are a lot of great people in the MAS who are happy to help you get over it.

As a member, the club has a few loaner scopes to check out and try, one of them is a Celestron Nexstar Alt-Az mounted goto scope. I borrowed it a year and a half ago, and it got me over the frustration hump. Easy to set up and rewarding views my first night out in a light polluted suburban yard. Check the MAS website for information on how to contact Clayton our Vice President and scope checker-outer.

Also, consider coming to the BSIG Beginners meetings, and club and public star parties. They are the best way I know to see tons of astro gear in action and get lots of educated opinions on what might work for your scope. If you're like me, seeing and trying things is key to picking the ones that will work for me.

This stuff can all get really expensive really quickly, but is sure can be fun!

Ric

Thanks Ric. That's a great idea. I have already sent an email to VP of MAS for loaner request.
I have put forthcoming BSIG meetings and star parties on my calendar.

[tr12]

That Starblast is a nice entry scope. I have started from scratch with an old Celestron Firstscope 4.5 and I'm almost finished with the Messier List as well as the Universe Sampler observing program, all with manual finding. It does take two things: 1. Alignment of the finder and collimation of the scope - you can get help from other club members if you need help - that's what I did at first. 2. A sky chart - like from Skymaps.com for each month. This will get you started. The first time I was out with my scope, I could only get it pointed at the moon.....then on the second night out, I managed the moon and Saturn. Then I got a better finder device (reflex finder), help with collimation and alignment, and built an alt-az mount to replace the shaky GEM mount that was original to my telecope, and things improved a lot.

The alt-az mount is very intuitive once you get started. Then, you can get some experience and work toward decisions on your next scope with go-to, and tracking for astrophotography.

Thanks!
That was very helpful. Sound like I will do exactly similar thing.

[tr12]

I got a below response from iOptron

I think there are some solutions if you are looking for a GOTO mount, instead of some modification kits. You can either select an A/A mount or a EQ mount. http://www.ioptron.com

Since the 6” OTA with accessories is probably over the maximum payload of a Cube/CubePro mount, youmay chose MiniTower II or a MiniTower Pro mount, as an A/A mount. You may take short exposure photos. You also can chose an iEQ30 mount, which will be good for long time exposure astrophotography.

Thought to put it here, as it might be helpful for some other amateur star-gazer like me

[Dave Venne]

iOptron says the weight limit for their G and A mounts is seven pounds, so you should start by weighing your OTA. If it's under seven pounds it would probably be okay for visual work although it may be a little shaky. If adding the DSLR gets you up toward the limit it'll probably be a struggle to do imaging that will give you satisfaction.

An upleasant truth is that the requirements on a mount for imaging are far greater than those for purely visual work. And to meet those requirements often requires more money. The MiniTower II and Pro both demolish your budget, so it's probably better to go either the DIY route as Steve suggested or find a used CG5 if you need to stay under $500.

Have you had any luck in finding a way to pipe the telescope view indoors to your computer?

[SEmert]

... I got following response from Astrosystems
"Sorry, we have nothing like that, I believe JMI has a drive system for your scope, but it is not GOTO."
Thanks for very helpful tips on calibration, I will try them.

Bummer! But something to keep in mind is that inexpensive goto scopes and drive systems often are a bit cumbersome if you want to just move the scope manually a bit - either as in it didn't center on the object perfectly, or you simply know there is something else in the near vacinity and you want to manually jog it to check it out. With a digital setting circle "push to" system, you get the advantages of the DSC telling you where the object is, and you are not encumbered by servos holding the scope in place. You can push it around to your hearts delight. Yes, you lose the sound of servo motors whirring and the thrill of the scope moving itself to the desired object and you lose the fact that it will continuously track the object once it acquires it, but DSCs are really nice and simple to use! And the Sky Commander available from Astrosystems (and others) will do just that.

[tr12]

Have you had any luck in finding a way to pipe the telescope view indoors to your computer?

No, not yet. After I finalized the mount, I think I will start researching about that.
I have come across some low-light optimized CCD video camera. But, still not sure what to chose.