Hello

Just got APPC Pro connected and to the best of my ability, configured.

When I normally do my field setup (visually), I connect my mount, 'fake' a Park 4, enter my location code in the HC, and do a one star sync.

Now that I'd like to move on to imaging with APCC, please help me with the following questions:

1) Another post said you can accurately simulate a "Park 4" position using a carpenter's level.  How would I do that?

2) If I use the carpenter's level and do an accurate "Park 4" simulation position, can I simply use SkySafari Pro and eliminate the HC entirely?

3) If I'm planning on primarily imaging (using NINA) from my portable setup, can I eliminate the mount initialization (use neither SkySafari Pro nor the HC) external process entirely just using Software?  Can you please describe the workflow steps using just APCC, APPM and NINA with the Dale Ghent plug-in to start out with a single target with a 3-RA 10 points each (one 5 deg North of target, one on the target RA and one 5 deg S of target) DEC ARC model.  This is my first attempt using APPC / APPM so if what I ask is not correct, please let me know.

My normal reaction would be to initialize with the HC, do a single star sync, tell it to do a park 4, then cycle the power and let APCC know I'm at the Park 4 position.

Any hints to clue me in are appreciated, since skies are so incredibly stingy down here in Mosquitoville, USA with 82 degree Christmas's.

Thank you

David D

If you are going to use APCC, you do not need a keypad (or SkySafari) at all.

My portable imaging configuration is an AP1100 using APCC Pro, the AP ASCOM V2 driver and NINA.

To set up and initialize the mount, I use a simple magnetic compass to find north.  You will want to find the magnetic variation for your location (sometimes called magnetic deviation, but in aviation, magnetic deviation means something different, so I reserve that term for aviation).  My compass has a simple dial so that I can adjust it for magnetic variation.  That gets me very close to true north.

After the mount is set up with the scope on it, I release the clutches and manually move it to the Park 4 position before powering it on.  This is where the carpenter's level comes in handy.  You want the counterweight shaft parallel to ground and the telescope parallel to the ground, using the level to verify.

Once that is done, I power on the mount and start APCC Pro on my computer.  Instead of entering your location information in the keypad, you will put it into APCC Pro.  You will also want to make sure that the time and date on the computer are accurate.  APCC Pro then initializes the mount.  You can configure APCC to either automatically start the ASCOM driver, or you can start it manually.  I'm habitually unable to follow directions, so I have some of my own steps that favor manually starting the ASCOM driver (and, indeed I have APCC configured let me manually connect it as well).

At this point, you are ready to run the mount completely from the computer.

It's helpful to have planetarium software to point at your first star for syncing.  I use TheSkyX Pro for this, but there are a number of free alternatives, with Carte du Ciel probably being the most popular.  But pretty much any planetarium software that runs on your computer will work.  Just connect the software to the ASCOM driver, select your star and go to it from the planetarium software.  Once there, do a sync.  It is very important that you use the sync command from the same software that did the goto.  The ASCOM driver will take care of converting the sync command into a recalibrate command for the mount.

At that point, you can connect NINA and use whatever workflow that makes sense to you.

Note that I have omitted a lot of stuff here, assuming that you already have your own workflow for the mount.  For example, you will want to polar align the mount before doing the goto for the first star.  I personally do the daytime polar alignment routine from the AP manual when I set it up, and then tweak it at dusk with the RAPAS.  But there are lots of ways to polar align, so do what you are used to.  Also, APCC can store many locations so that you can select one.  So if you use the same sites repeatedly, you can just enter them all.  You could also connect a GPS to your computer and have APCC Pro use it to create a new site from the GPS data.  And there are ways to get the GPS to sync the computer time.

...And a bunch of other little workflow things like that.

I hope that this helps,
-Wade

Hi David,

For imaging you will need good polar alignment. Can you use the bubble level on the mount rather than a carpenter level?
I do this when setting up and was thinking it might keep you from bringing one more item outside.
Here are my initial steps but there may be better/quicker ways:

Take mount out, assemble, and level with bubble level on mount.
Mount scope, guider, camera/accessories and balance (Park 3 position for me). Check level again.
Use RAPAS to get rough polar alignment (I have not calibrated my RAPAS yet).
Power on mount, start APCC. I manually connect the mount and the APv2 driver. HC is not needed if you dont want it although I started out using it.
Use Pempro, NINA's Three point polar align, Sharpcap, etc. to try and dial in the polar alignment. (I have only used SharpCap so far but want to move to Pempro)
Connect Stellarium or SkySafari.

After this you can perform your star sync or platesolve using Pempro or NINA to get accurate GoTos. (NINA and ASTAP and worked well when platesolving for me but I do want to try Pempro)
Once I am polar aligned and my GoTos are accurate, I go to my object and start autoguiding using NINA and PHD.
I am no expert here and its fairly new to me as well so others may have better ideas.
Todd

Regarding the bubble level on the mount, it's not critical that the mount itself is level.

The carpenter's level is used to ensure that the position of each axis is correct before unparking.  To do this, you release the RA clutch and move the axis so that the counterweight shaft is on the west side (assuming northern hemisphere) and use the level to ensure it's parallel to the ground.  You then release the declination clutch and move the scope so that it's pointed south (assuming northern hemisphere) and use the level to ensure that it's parallel to the ground.  You can then unpark the mount from Park 4.  If the mount is well polar aligned, this may very well put your goto star into the field of view on the first try.

-Wade

On Tue, Jan 4, 2022 at 02:10 PM, midmoastro wrote:

For imaging you will need good polar alignment. Can you use the bubble level on the mount rather than a carpenter level?

Bear in mind polar alignment is not really affected by whether or not is level, other than significant errors in level will confuse instructions (like from Nina's TPPA) that says "move 2' down", in that "down" is now also slightly left or right.  But that's a pretty minor effect unless you are grossly unlevel.  But even if grossly unlevel, once aligned and sky sync'd (recal) it just doesn't matter.

I just get it grossly close with the bubble level, and use NINA's TPAA and work it until I'm at about half an arc minute or less (for guided the last few arc seconds are not that relevant, even if you do not build a model, and less so if you do). 

Then I sync (that becomes a recal) elsewhere in the sky at the same time I am calibrating PHD2 for the evening, and I'm done.

Pempro may be more accurate than NINA (or so I'm told), but NINA is plenty accurate, and Pempro still can't do my camera even binned and subframed.  And NINA takes me about 3 minutes max, whereas it looks like Pempro (from my few attempts that got part way) is a lot slower; my ADHD kicks in and I forget what I was trying to accomplish.  :) 

My normal workflow is: 

- Plop the tripod down in some holes I put in pavers, that gets me fairly close. 
- Very rough level just because
- Initialize from last position, which is Park 3. 
- Once dark enough, do an AF run (if needed) and TPPA
- Run a script that slews high near Dec 0 and set tonight's camera rotation (check via plate solve) and PHD2 calibration.  The plate solve also sync's (recal)
- Load my sequence for tonight's targets, as everything else is done.

If I wanted to, or was unguided, I would run a DEC-Arc between the last two steps, based on tonight's target using Dale/Ray's new stuff. 

Linwood

Thanks Linwood. I could have worded that better but I did not mean to imply being level is needed for polar alignment. The second part of that was really just to see if the carpenter level was needed as I just use the bubble level to get close as you mentioned. This might save a trip for David unless he has a reason to be in Park 4. Even then, maybe its not real critical though. I dont know as I always use Park 3.