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365 days. 400 objects. One astronomer and a less than
perfect suburban backyard sky.
How far will it go? We can only wait. And wait. And wait…
The New Herschel Project. Coming soon to a computer
terminal near you!
Putting the Losmandy GM811 back in service had been remarkably
trouble-free—especially considering my increasingly fumble-fingered and forgetful nature—so,
I was on to the next step, Muchachos, getting a laptop computer connected to
the mount. While the New Project’s 400 objects wouldn’t require the organization the Big Enchilada’s 2500 demanded, even 400 meant I’d want a planning program running in the field. “What have I seen? What do I still need to see? What can I see tonight?”
While there was a fat, waxing Moon in the sky, she wouldn’t
prevent me from testing the GM811/PC Ethernet connection–indoors, at least. Since I’d set the
mount up for Ethernet before, that wouldn’t be a problem to get going, I thought.
That’s what I get for thinking.
I am—as usual—getting ahead of myself. What about night two
with the Losmandy I alluded to last time? I did get out the next evening
following the replacement of the Gemini 2 computer’s battery (hardest part was
getting the darned thing open so I could swap out the little button cell). Result? The new battery was fine; clock time
was right on the money.
As I also mentioned I might do, I swapped out the refractor
for my Edge 800, Emma Peel. Every goto was bang on, with me just leaving the 8mm Ethos eyepiece in the SCT for the duration; even at 175x everything was somewhere in the
field. Well, what I could see was in the field. Luna was really
interfering now. I did a few more slews, shut down, quitted the backyard for the den and TV, and the next morning tore down
mount and scope.
Next up: wringing out the mount’s LAN connection. Why Ethernet
in the first place? Well, no darned old USB – serial adapters to fiddle with. No
restrictions on cable length. Most of all, in my experience from when I first
began using the mount, Ethernet just works with the Gemini 2.
 |
| The object goto page of the web interface. |
First thing was to download the instructions for setting up
the interface from Gemini 2.com, instructions that largely concern assigning a
static IP address to the computer’s Ethernet port. I remembered these directions
fairly well from following them with my old Toshiba laptop: Easy enough. Quite
detailed. Really too detailed. Yep, too detailed. The author
doesn’t just explain the “how” of the setup, he explains the why for
each step. Something this cat doesn’t really give a fig about.
After puzzling over pages of small type for more than a few
minutes, I recalled that after I’d first received the GM811, I’d written up a
simplified set of Ethernet instructions and posted them on the Cloudy Nights bulletin
board in case some other new Gemini 2 user was as bumfuzzled by the instructions as Unk was. A search of the Cloudy Nights turned them up, I printed
them out, and was ready to roll—or so your benighted old Uncle thought, anyhow.
Sat down to the nice, new Lenovo laptop in the dining room
where it had been stationed during the weeks when I’d been teaching my
university courses online. First thing was to open the Network and Sharing
Center, go to “change adapter settings,” and right click on the LAN/Ethernet
icon. Welp… There wasn’t no Ethernet icon. There was one for Wi-Fi and
one for Bluetooth, and that was it. What the—?!
As I wrote last time, a sneaking suspicion gripped your correspondent. I
started examining the connectors on the lappie. USB 3? Yep, three of them.
HDMI? Uh-huh. Ethernet? Nope.
A visit to Amazon revealed there was, as I’d speculated,
such a thing as a USB3 to Ethernet adapter. As a matter of fact, that seemed to
be a rather common item. I picked a mid-priced example, ordered it via Prime, and it
was soon in my hands. I’m still bemused, though. Why no Ethernet port? Surely
PC makers don’t think Ethernet is going the way of RS-232. Or do they?
 |
| Mallincam Junior, hand control, and receiver. |
Whatever. Plugged the adapter into the Lenovo, and that
blasted LAN icon showed right up. Connected my CAT cable between PC and mount,
turned on Gemini, and went to work. Using my instructions, it was a matter of
10 short and easy steps and I was done. If you’ve got a Gemini 2 and are
wrestling with the website instructions, shoot me an email at rodmollise@southalabama.edu and I
will send you a copy of my simpleminded guide to Gemini 2 Ethernet
configuration.
I was done, but was I done successfully? There
are a couple of ways to connect to the mount with Ethernet. You can use the Gemini
2 ASCOM driver, which is much like the serial ASCOM drivers you are used to. That
will work with any ASCOM compatible astronomy program—which is almost any
astro-ware these days. Or you can use the Gemini 2 computer’s built-in web
page. That allows you to connect to the mount using a web browser.
Since it was daytime and me and the GM811 were sitting in
the sunroom instead of out under the stars, I didn’t think it was necessary to
mess with planetarium programs and ASCOM. The web interface would show if all
was well in a hurry. It did—well, as soon as I went to the Gemini 2 website and
looked up what the user name/password the browser was asking me for should be
(“admin,” no password).
Typing http://Gemini into
Microsoft Edge (or whatever you use) allows you to do lots of stuff including
slew to objects. All I wanted to do, however, was see that I was
connected to the mount. I pushed the virtual HC slew buttons on one of the pages, the
mount moved, and I was done. I’d get the ASCOM driver set up as soon as the old
Moon got herself out of the way…
 |
| GREAT. |
And as soon as a package of batteries including a CR2 cell
arrived from Amazon. I told y’all the other day that the New H-Project will,
like the Big Enchilada, include both visual and video observations. I further
said that in the cheap-simple-easy spirit of the New Project (while I’ll
use the somewhat upscale Losmandy mount, a Celestron AVX or a Meade LX85
would no doubt work just as well), I’ll probably limit the cameras to the
Revolution imager and the Mallincam Junior Pro.
A check of Junior showed he needed batteries for both his hand
control (AAA) and hand control receiver (CR2)–Junior, you see, uses a little HC to set and initiate long exposures. A survey of the junkque drawer in the kitchen
showed that there were no AAAs on hand, much less the CR2 required for the
receiver. I might coulda got one of those CR2s at WallyWorld, but I’ve gone
from trying to avoid the place pre-Covid to staying out of there period. Amazon,
then. The batteries would arrive about the time Moon began to seriously wane, so
I decided I’d start the Project with the Mallincam Junior in hopes of giving
him a clean bill of health after the battery replacement.
While I call my little camera “Junior,” as was kindly pointed out to me my Mallincam extraordinaire, Jack Huerkamp, he is actually a Junior Pro. The plain Junior is an entirely different camera. Anyhow, I holed the little cam to my new laptop upon which I’d installed
the Mallicam Junior Pro control software (which allows you to set everything except
long exposures). I wouldn’t be able to test the long exposure hand control, no, but I’d be able to see that the camera still functioned, and that the program was
set up correctly. Fired everything up, started the software, selected the
correct com port, and enabled the crosshair overlay, which appeared on the
screen of my good old DVD player/monitor. So did the color bars when I enabled them. Looked like
Junior was just fine despite not having been used in—get this—SIX YEARS!
Well, darn. The CR2 batteries finally arrived from Amazon on
Thursday. Do you wanna guess what else arrived? Yep, clouds. Every night
between Thursday and Tuesday showed up a disgusting red or yellow in my fave
astro-weather-app, Scope Nights. Adding insult to injury? I discovered Publix
sells CR2 batteries, so I coulda had one a week ago. Ah, well, such is the
fate of this oft-bumbling astronomer.
I told y’all not to expect a new blog entry every Sunday,
but it looks like you might get just that for a little while, anyhow. But don’t
get used to it. As I mumbled the not long ago, I am thinking in these latter
days “twice a month” sounds about right. However, twice a month it will
be, no foolin’, and when I have the material to bring you an article every
Sunday for a while, every Sunday you shall have.
Plugeroo Department:
If you are an imager and aren’t reading Amateur Astrophotography Magazine, why not? It’s evolved to the point where I can say it’s the best
thing done on the subject in a long time—maybe ever. I should have mentioned
it more often, but with the near-demise of this here blog over the last three
years, I never got around to it. Well, the blog is back and I’m telling y’all to get to this magazine’s website and get your hands on it. I am proud to
say some of old Unk’s simpleminded articles on the subject have even
appeared in this fine publication in the past (don’t let that stop you from
reading it!)…
Plugeroo Part Deux
You asked for it! Nay, you demanded it! Well, one or
two people may have mentioned something about it. I am talking about the
forthcoming 2nd Edition of Unk’s vaunted SCT book, Choosing and
Using a New CAT. I recently recounted some of my work on it during my recovery
from my accident last year–it was tough going due to your old Uncle’s really dilapidated condition. But it all worked out. Overall, I am pleased indeed. It’s not often you
get to go back and fix those nagging issues that have bothered you for the better part of a decade (like some of my
prose, and those lousy black and white photos in the First Edition).
I can say without reservation this is a much better
book than the First Edition, and if you like that, you should really,
really like this one. What’s changed? Naturally, the buyer’s guide chapter was
almost completely rewritten thanks to a decade of changes in the telescope market.
Same with the imaging chapter. And a lot of my MESS has been cleaned up
elsewhere in the book. Did the publisher do some things I don’t like? Sure.
That’s the way the game is played. But, I’m happy with the results, no ifs,
ands or buts.
“When,” you ask? Amazon got “mid-May” from the publisher, but here is the thing, y’all: Up until about two weeks ago I was still working
with the production department making corrections. And there’s the Covid virus.
So…I am doubtful about May. All I can say is “When I know, you will.”
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