Camera orientation

LOL No red flag warning from us  Ray

Honest answer,

We had a lot of dicussion about camera rotators before we set up each pier as they have pros for the end user but for us the negatives outweighed the benefits at the price point we charge per hour

Rotators unless you spend a small fortune introduce tilt etc[/*]
Most telescopes do not have enough back focus except for the stock (useless) inbuilt manual rotator which is impossible from 2500km away [/*]
Flats - each rotation then requires individual flat frames for whatever degree of rotation the customer asks for. At our pricing level it simply does not allow the time involved to do this and keep the pricing structure at affordable levels so we made the decision to stick to a fixed position because even allowing for a mosaic we are still way way cheaper than anyone else [/*]

I hope that helps explain things

Steve

Totally understood Steve and I can fully appreciate how difficult this would be. It would be a nice luxury, but I am very happy with things as they are. Excellent...

Thanks.
Simon 

Steve, 
Thank you for such a detailed explanation. I really hadn't even thought about the flat frames issue.

I wasn't expecting to be able to choose a specific rotation, but how M31 aligned nicely in Mike's image got me wondering if you had actually tweaked the orientation, but from what you said, obviously not.

This ought to mean that all cameras that don't have square sensors are setup in a particular way. Pier 5 aligned with RA, 6 with DEC. So are all the others also aligned on the DEC axis? Just useful info to have when assigning some targets to scopes when it is a tight fit. 

Cheers, 
Ray

Mine is milk and no sugar. 

No worries, glad I could help

we will on each equipment page once all the new mounts are in place put a camera orientation image on each equipment page 

it should be done already but kinda slipped my mind....sssh

we will also have FOV examples as well which should give you another good idea as to camera orientation 

Steve

Hi Steve, 

You mentioned above in reply to my question about sensor orientation that it can be established by reference to the example images being displayed against each pier. Unfortunately you are currently displaying an  image of M31, which as I alluded to earlier in the thread, seemed contrary to that of M8. Having just got around to calibrating the light frames I received back from my booking of M31 I find those are rotated 90 degrees to what you are showing, confirming my thoughts. A minor point, but it does show the galaxy incorrectly. You are most welcome to look at my booking 127 part 1 to check this. 

Cheers, 
Ray 

Just trying to add 3 images to hopefully make it clearer.

Totally failed to post the 3 images on this mobile device, may have been better on the pc.!
The image shown is after a 90 degree rotation and cropped to align to the top and bottom edges of the forum example you show. Obviously it does not extend out to the corresponding left and right ones. 

Hi Steve, 

That's great having that information for each pier. Occasionally I'll use Cartes du Ciel and knowing the orientation really helps to get the best coordinates for framing if there's not much room for manoeuvre. 

Cheers, 
Ray 

Yes, thanks Robo Team for adding Orientation to the equipment page!

Brian

Ah that info would be cool yes for planning mosaics as well. I now just booked 2 piers and will calculate the rotation and write that down. I guess that's not really changing then.

Ray, I am sorry that I missed this but I'm very pleased to see that you have posted this image and I think the colour is great on it. I know you have been working hard behind the scenes trying to get stuff sorted out, so I wanted to say well done to you! Simon

Hi Simon, 

Hope your improving health continues well.

Thank you for your kind words., I appreciate that. There are many imperfections in the image and that is why I posted a muted image originally, helps hide a few things. For me a lot of blood, swearing and tears went into that image, so thank you. Next up is a bicolour narrowband image which is more familiar territory for me. Famous last words probably.  

Best regards, 
Ray 

[size=100]Ray, I find processing hard work - and it is so difficult to put down once you start - it consumes you. Sometimes I find it too much for me and I wonder if it is the best thing for my mental state and 'improving health'. Thanks for caring... But we keep going. You are doing superbly, and whilst I do know about the blood, sweat and tears, it was totally worth it with what you produced. Thumbs up mate!


Simon[/size]

Hi there Simon, 

I really hope that things very quickly turn around for you,. Also I hope you don't feel pressured into processing the images if it is in any way uncomfortable. It should be something calming and relaxing, well that's what I tell myself.

Honestly there was no sweat involved in processing my image, blood and tears yes! Time out is a good thing Simon and I hope you get your mojo back soon. Some beggar I reckon stole mine  years ago. I'll try and keep you amused in the meantime, with a forthcoming post, based on a suggestion you made recently.  

Cheers for the nice comments and thank you for the advice you gave earlier which has been really helpful to me. 

Keep your pecker up Simon. 

Ray 

Now before anyone reports me over that last phrase I used, you should look it up in a reputable dictionary first, Collins or Macmillan. 

Just to add to the topic;

Pier 1 orientation: Up is 89.9 degrees E of N
Pier 3 orientation: Up is 270 degrees E of N (or 90 degrees counter clockwise)

Cheers, Vincent

Good morning to you Ray and thank you for your friendly and concerned comments. I honestly hear you and I will take your advice as and when I feel I need to, because it is not worth not doing so! It is a tough balance all this. I do find you your comments online amusing and I think it is good for all of us to have a bit of a fun element to things, and whilst I didn't look up your comments about peckers it is because I've decided I'm going to trust you implicitly on this one! I also hope you can stay buoyant as well. Have a great day, presumably in the rain! Thanks again. Simon