Monster Astro Projects

New Orion brand telescopes wait as skies begin clearing

Monster Astro Projects & Updates
The largest projects are described as of Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Numerous ongoing projects make use of the telescopes for astro imaging, conservation, weather, and technical studies. Never a moment lost - if the day is clear, the telescopes are pointed to the mountains to study and statistically categorize the ecology to include plants and animals, large insects and terrain. This area is surrounded by mountains, some 100 miles away, and the telescopes provide exceptionally clear magnified views for visual studies and photographic imaging.

If the night is mostly clear but with sections that may have upper atmosphere haze, or smog, fog, air pollution, heavy humidity, or breaks in the clouds, various inventions are deployed to penetrate the hood to resume astronomical observations.

Main divisions include:

* Singularity Observatory

* Solar Observatory

* Astro Imaging Laboratory

      Equipment, telescopes, accessories purchases

* Conservation

      Forestry study of mountains, plants, animals, birds and resources for

      conservation

* Cartography

      Moon mapping & atlas creation for lunar colonists

* Atmospheric Studies

      Invented methods to penetrate clouds, haze, air pollution, water vapor and haze

Main Sections

* Outdoor Pacific Ocean Astronomy

* Indoor Astronomy

* Armchair Astronomy

Perfect Weather & Clear Skies

The month of November is going exceptionally well. The weather has cooled to the perfect temperature of around 70 degrees and the skies are mostly clear and transparent, providing outstanding views of the mountains for conservation studies and the sky for planetary observations and weather studies. Mother nature has given five months of clear nights after two years of rain and overcast conditions.

Accessories, Inventions

This year has see the purchase of accessories and inventions to penetrate clouds, haze, air pollution, water vapor and haze. 

Telescope Trends

The trend of telescopes: at age 20, the goal was to make the largest telescopes possible. The progression went from 4.25" to 8 and then 12.5. At age 30s, weightlifting helped with strength to build and hoist the world's largest amateur telescope with a plate glass objective at the time - 40 inches in diameter. This was followed by two 50-inch telescopes around age 40s. At age 50s, the telescopes progressed into new inventions - giant power telescopes and then super large space telescopes using recycled nasa parts in space worth trillions of dollars. By age 60s, methods were invented to amplify the power of smaller telescopes into 925 and 1,400 inches aperture. By age 70, the telescope continued to shrink so they could become more manageable, easier to carry and set up.

Digital eVscope Not for this Region

It was finally discovered that, among other problems, Unistellar eVscopes in this region fail due to the combination of severe light pollution combined with haze that occludes and obstructs swaths of stars preventing the telescope from properly calibrating and plate solving.

Busy Making the Lunar Atlas

With renewed interest in the Moon, new private industry moon landings, scientific lunar outposts in the making, upcoming vacation tours to the Moon and potential off-planet colonization, a lunar atlas is in the works. It uses actual raw and processed lunar imaging from our best and most powerful telescopes at Singularity Observatory.

Observing the Sun

Recent telescope upgrades now include a solar observatory, complete with solar filters, abilities to view and image and count solar sunspots to determine sub periods of min and max, transits, eclipses, specula, and other phenomena. Tests will be made on prominences and the solar corona, and correlations with the aurora borealis and aurora australis.

Telescope Thoughts

Telescope Thoughts
Rambling through telescope thoughts tonight

Nobody knows why the three thousand + dollar Unistellar eVscope failed so miserably. Yeah, we were prepared to be amazed as they promised in their advertising, but we only got a disappointing defect that had to be returned to the dealer. Perhaps the telescope could not deal with the heavy light pollution that exceeds the Bortle scale, or high altitude mist that blocks some stars, or just maybe the metal in the building killed the WIFI. After that fiasco, our taste for digital telescopes went to zero indefinitely. And with advertising filling our box for its competition, Stellina, we easily look the other way and delete the claims readily.

What about the long standing GOTO Celestron digital mounts as in the Celestron CGX/L? We've had a mental block in using one and after three years, still no luck with the system. Blame it on a different Asian set of GPS satellites, or problems with the Asian time zones, or a magnetized slag mount needing a protective Faraday Cage, or whatever. After that, my taste for digital mounts went to zero.

Alas, the working solution is at hand. I'm going back to trusted old school, reliable setting circles, finding objects manually with a finderscope and a small equatorial mount, and running a clock drive from a 9-volt battery that has one simple knob. I will use small telescopes that can be lifted with one hand, easily moved and ones that are fun to transport, and a real joy to use. I'm taking back astronomy and astrophotography the way it was, fun and exciting and every time out was a new discovery.

Demise of the Defective Digital Evscope

Demise of the Defective Digital Evscope by Unistellar
This story does not end well. The defective digital eVscope could not be fixed and it was given up, sent back to the dealer for refund.

Over a quarter year delay, with both the dealer and manufacture Unistellar trying to find a solution...

All they had to do was send out a new working replacement telescope but they wouldn't do it.

A card with new software was sent but the telescope still did not work. The dealer and manufacturer tried to offer telescope user solutions but none worked. The final offer by Unisteller was impractical and insisted that I carry the defective telescope on a very costly and Covid-19 risky airflight from Taiwan to California and wait there an undetermined time there for a solution and repairs, then return home. Sadly, our high hopes and preparations for this digital telescope were all in vein. From our perspective, digital telescopes do not work and have a long way to go before they become reliable and practical.

These do-all digital telescopes are black boxes - when they fail there is no clue what happened. The scopes are lacking common sense diagnostics and the manufacturers closely guard their trade secrets and say no user serviceable parts inside. As soon as anything fails, for whatever reason, it's unfixable by the user. This telescope is highly NOT recommended.

8 Bright Stars Orion Area

Brightest Stars Around Orion

Source

Currently at around 4 am, the sky displays the constellation Orion and these bright stars. The Great Orion Nebula is an ideal First Light target for a new working eVscope and the eight listed vicinity stars are perfect for focus and mirror calibration. All listed stars are brighter than second magnitude.

Betelgeuse - Orion (0 to 1.6 mag)
RA 05h 55m 10.3"
Dec +07° 24′ 25.4"

Rigel - Orion (.13 mag)
RA 05h 14m 32.3"
Dec −08° 12′ 05.8"


Sirius - Canis Major (-1.46 mag) Dog Star
RA 6h 45m 9s"
Dec -16° 42′ 58"

Aldebaran - Taurus (-.75 to -.95 mag)
RA 04h 35m 55.24"
Dec +16° 30′ 33.5"



Capella - Auriga (.08 mag)
RA 05h 16m 41.4"
Dec +45° 59′ 52.8"



Castor - Gemini (1.58 mag)
RA 07h 34m 35.9"
Dec +31° 53′ 17.8"

Pollux - Gemini (1.14 mag)
RA 07h 45m 18.9"
Dec +28° 01′ 34.3"



Procyon - Canis Minor (.34 mag)
RA 07h 39m 18.1"
Dec +05° 13′ 29.9"

Based on the maps, the following vicinity objects are available

Map 1

NGC 2238

M78

M43

M42

Map 2

M35

M36

M37

M78

M1

Map 3

M35

M36

M37

NGC 2238

Unistellar Evscope Aftermath

The night sky is perfect for
running a new working
eVscope through its
paces. Visible is M42, and
bright stars like Sirius,
Capela, Rigel, Betelgeuse,
and Aldebaran at around
4:30 am local time.

The Story of Unistellar's Evscope Aftermath

It all began August 8, 2020, when my Unistellar eVscope telescope order was confirmed and the credit card was cashed for $2,999.00 and $242.99 shipping. At Customs, around 10% tax was added, an additional $350, for a total of $3,593.00, all paid in full.

In the aftermath of receiving a non-functional eVscope through OPT telescope dealer in the USA, I waited over 20 days for a replacement MicroSD card from Unistellar.

After installing the new card, the scope was still non-functional and remained stuck on the purple power light, the exact same problem as before. As of Friday, September 17th, 2020, I'm waiting for instructions from Unistellar for telescope replacement. As this telescope was assembled in China, and apparently not checked in China, not checked in France, and not checked by the dealer OPT, I reminded Unistellar to test the new telescope under the night sky before shipping it.

Unistellar Evscope After Card Install

Who knows where the eVscope anomaly is located... it's a mystery the best minds
in the astronomical world have yet to solve! We know, when fully functioning,
other eVscopes are cited by owners to be an absolute wizard in automatic
alignment, and doing everything for you including taking stacked and processed
token photos. The updated app is said to now take full frame rectangular images
with a greater FOV. It even does automatic dark frame subtraction and has
superior goto and guiding accuracy, as they claim. Light pollution is combated
with 3 second stacked exposures using a low noise level SONY IMX224 CMOS
detector with a resolution of 1.2 million pixels (1305x977). The scope can give
views like a 40-inch classical telescope according to observer testimonial and
digital light gathering ability is up to 100 times more than a classical telescope.

This is the digital eVscope telescope by Unistellar, changing the world! The telescope calibrates itself - you don't need to do polar alignment or find and  center calibration stars. The telescope is automatic. This is fantastic for people living in light polluted urban core cities where stars may not be visible. It's great for skyscraper dwellers on a balcony that have over half of the night sky blocked by the skyscraper, side walls, and an overhanging roof partition.

Evscope Slated for Operation

This is the story of the Unistellar Evscope after the card with new software was installed. Unfortunately, the telescope has exactly the same problem and is stuck on the purple power light. Unistellar assures me the telescope will be replaced with priority and the details are being worked out.

Card Replacement

https://otisastro.blogspot.com/2020/09/evscope-card-replacement.html

Sky Conditions

We are currently undergoing a period exceptional skies after midnight, with improving darkness until 4:30-5:00 am local time. Venus is rising and Orion is high in the sky with the Great Orion Nebula ideally placed for observing. It would be a great first light object for a new telescope. There are numerous bright stars for telescope focus and mirror calibration. Generally it rains in the daytime and clears late in the night. Rain cleans the sky of dust and pollution and often the transparency reaches a high point. We look forward to getting a perfectly working eVscope before either typhoons startup or the rainy Monsoon season begins.

Evscope Card Replacement

 Evscope Card Replacement

If you have the beautiful and amazing new eVscope and Unistellar has determined it needs new software for proper functioning, a replacement microSD card may be needed. This is the story about how the card was replaced.

Remove the eVscope from the tripod and set it on a firm table with a special anti-slip grip matt. I used this arrangement to prevent any slippage during work and in the event of a sudden earthquake.

The security screw removal tool is everything - Taiwan makes this amazing TORX tool set forged from S2 Steel. One side is T10 Torx and the other side is TT10 Torx. The TT10 side has a center hole for removing the two security screws on the Unistellar telescope. (the security screw has a center peg) This Alstrong Tools Corp. www.alstrong.com toolset, made in Taiwan, was in stock and purchased today at a local hardware store in Taipei. It was conveniently located down the street, for only $13, a real bargain! The nine piece set name is "Extra long arm L tamper star wrench set, part number CDT-09X." Now it's time to remove the two screws, located one on each side of the telescope label.

With the two screws removed, slide the top cover plate, which includes the power switch, back towards you and remove it. Be very careful not to force anything.

You can see the second board under the top board. In the center is the microSD card. Fingers were used to feel the sensitivity of the card, its position, and then it was grabbed and gently removed. Then immediately, the new card was inserted, observing the cards position, top and bottom. Tools were not used to grip the tiny card as it could easily become flexed and damaged if using metal tools on it. Sometimes metal tools become magnetized and these can damage, modify or erase data stored on the card internally. Use common sense and exercise caution.

Now put the cover back on and install the screws. These screws have only slight pressure to hold in place. Now put the evscope back on its tripod do the first test - push the power button and hold a few seconds. The purple light will come on, release the switch, the light will stay on a short time followed by constant red light and you're good to go! The telescope should successfully boot up with the new software on the new MicroSD card.

When outside, remember to take a dark frame, then run more tests with the latest version app, take pics, etc. - ultimately focus on a bright star using the Bahtinov mask and also collimate the primary mirror. It's raining now but at 4am we're scheduled to have a beautiful clear sky with Venus and the Orion Nebula climbing high. We'll report how this goes in more blogs so stay tuned!

Evscope Security Screw

Evscope Security Screws Removal
Unistellar and telescope owners loosely recommended a T10 Torx screwdriver to remove the telescope housing and replace the SD card. This is not precisely true. As T10 is a security screwdriver, I checked and had these in my toolbox and didn't give it any more thought. However, after the card arrived on Tuesday September 15th, I prepared to remove the telescope case and suddenly the screwdriver did not fit.

Left: Closeup of a required TT10 wrench bit needed for eVscope screw removal has a central hole

Actual screw on the eVscope that needs removal. 
A TT10 tool is needed - the screw has a center pin.

The small black screws on the black telescope needed a magnifier to see what was going on. I used the iPhone X camera at 2x and discovered a central pin in the telescope screw. The T10 Torx wrench would need a center hole to work, which it did not have. Further study showed the required tool is not a T10 but rather more precisely a TT10. Photos of a TT10 wrench on the web 

confirmed this. 

At left, This is a T10 that will not work to remove the eVscope screw. At right, this is a TT10 screwdriver incorrectly labeled as a T10.

The big problem was half the screwdriver tools listed were incorrectly labeled, as seen in the photo with the blue handle screwdriver. This is clearly a TT10 incorrectly labeled as a T10. The TT10 screwdriver/ wrench has a central hole and the T10 does not.

Evscope Card Waiting

The new telescope is dead and not working. The card with
software is bonkers and needs internal replacement.
This little micro sd card with "oops" software has posed
challenges for purchasers of new eVscopes from
Unistellar. Right out of the box, this smart telescope is not
smart and needs brain surgery to rectify its comatose
mental condition. Unistellar won't specify the number of
affected telescopes but it could be in the thousands.

Evscope Card Waiting

and

Arrival
This is a record log of waiting time to receive the eVscope micro sd card with the correct software from Unistellar company, to be installed inside the defective new smart telescope to replace the card with the defective software. 

Currently the telescope does not work and the LED is stuck on the steady purple light indicating the scope will not boot or function properly. 

Unistellar eVscope founders: left to right, From right to left: Antonin Borot, Arnaud Malvache, Laurent Marfisi, Franck Marchis. November 2017 in Aix-en-Provences.

Photo Unistellar

The card will be shipped from San Francisco according to Trevor, stating his associate was informed to ship the card on Aug. 28, 2020. I requested expedited air service which did not happen. As of this writing, there is no contact with the shipper, and no shipping or tracking number, and I was not initially provided the name of the shipping company. As you can see below, Unistellar waited another 5 days before saying they just shipped the card (United States Postal Service USPS). 

Update: the card arrived on Tuesday afternoon, September 15th, 2020, postmarked San Francisco California on August 31st. The envelope had a crossed-out return address from the SETI Institute, at 189 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 200, Mountain View CA 94043, and Franck Marchis name handwritten over it. The Sandisk Class 10 Ultra Micro SD HC I 16 GB card was taped to the SETI Institute calling card of Dr. Franck Marchis, Ph.D., one of the four original founders of Unistellar and the eVscope (see photo above). A personal note was also included! It was a surprise and a great honor to hear from the original founder of Unistellar and maker of the eVscope! I'm totally blown away by this great personal touch.

The SD card was shipped USPS from San Francisco by Dr. Franck Marchis, an original founder of Unistellar and the eVscope, along with a personal note handwritten on an index card.

Checkmark indicates waiting for the card

✔︎ Thursday Aug. 28  NO CARD Trevor: card ship now

  arrive 1-2 weeks

✔︎ Friday Aug. 29    NO CARD
✔︎ Saturday Aug. 30  NO CARD
✔︎ Sunday Aug. 31    NO CARD Card actually shipped
✔︎ Monday Sept. 01   NO CARD Trevor: Shipped today

  arrive in 1 week

✔︎ Tuesday Sept. 2   NO CARD
✔︎ Wednesday Sept. 3 NO CARD
✔︎ Thursday Sept. 4  NO CARD
✔︎ Friday Sept. 5    NO CARD
✔︎ Saturday Sept. 6  NO CARD
✔︎ Sunday Sept. 7    NO CARD
✔︎ Monday Sept. 8    NO CARD

✔︎ Tuesday Sept. 9   NO CARD

✔︎ Wednesday Sep. 10 NO CARD

✔︎ Thursday Sept. 11 NO CARD

✔︎ Friday Sept. 12   NO CARD

✔︎ Saturday Sept. 13 NO CARD

✔︎ Sunday Sept. 14   NO CARD

✔︎ Monday Sept. 15   NO CARD

✔︎ Tuesday Sept. 16  CARD ARRIVED!!!

Evscope Smart Telescope Analysis

eVscope Telescope Innards

Hardware
The eVscope is powered by a Raspberry Pi board with the LINUX operating system and that means one thing - filesystem on an SD card.  The smart telescope has these two electronic cards. At the right is a telescope controller board by Unistellar and at left is the stock Raspberry Pi 3 computer.  When we disconnect Unishield from the Raspi, we can see the bottom side of the PCB with a dsPIC33E microchip responsible for control of the motors. The Unishield also contains a LSM6DSM gyroscope/accelerometer module. Image found on internet at a reverse engineering site.

Computer and Interface
The Raspberry Pi does not use its DSI display interface, audio jack, or any of the USB ports. It gets power via GPIO pins from the Unishield, which is then directly soldered to a battery. The GPIO is also used for communication with the Unishield, e.g. to control the azimuth/altitude motors. The camera stream goes from the IMX224 sensor's board to the Unishield via an HDMI cable, and the data is then forwarded to the Raspberry Pi through the CSI camera interface. This is the same ribbon cable connector used by the official Raspberry Pi camera module (which uses IMX219, a different Sony sensor). Raspberry Pi then uses its own HDMI-out to display the starfield in the eye-piece, which is powered by an OLED display.

Software
We see 4 partitions. Partition 1 and 2 are identical, and one of them likely acts as a fallback in case of a failed firmware update. Partition 3 contains a fairly large (3.4GB) SQLite database called afdstarmap.db, which holds information about objects in the sky. This database is used by the telescope to figure out where it should point itself. The 4th and largest partition is also the only one that is used for storing user data, e.g. observations that can be later uploaded to Unistellar for research purposes.

Partitions
Partitions 1 & 2 are the ones we'll focus on first. We see a fairly standard setup for a Raspberry-based device. cmdline.txt and config.txt are used for interfacing with the firmware and it's where you set low level hardware preferences for different system buses and/or features of the SoC. evscope.dtb contains a device tree, describing all the different hardware features of the board(s). I've linked to the decompiled device tree in the hardware section. Then we have evscope.fw, which is the most important file of all - it contains the whole Linux system that powers the machine. Because the system is booted from a firmware file rather than a regular filesystem, runtime changes are not written back and the system is restored to its previous configuration on every reboot.

Boot
Upon boot, Partition 3 gets mounted as /media/ro, while the user-data Partition 4 gets mounted as /media/rw.

Hardware
System platform: Raspberry Pi 3 A+
Custom board: Unistellar Unishield (Rev P)
Camera sensor: Sony IMX224
Storage: 16GB SanDisk micro SD card
Raspberry Pi Computer
https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-a-plus/
Sony IMX224
https://www.sony-semicon.co.jp/products/common/pdf/IMX224.pdf

Evscope Update

The latest update regarding the failed eVscope

Friday August 28 2020
I think it's good news. I just need to have super patience and bide my time for a half month.

Today, Unistellar claims to have contacted a colleague in San Francisco to ship a card with the correct software to my address in Taiwan. Yesterday, they didn't know if they would ship the card to Taiwan for some unknown reason. As explained today, shipping will take up to 2 weeks, contrary to my request for faster shipping from which I would pay all expenses.

To top off the letter, Trevor states I might never get the card due to Covid-19. Not exactly any vote of confidence. So now I must wait up to a half month and go from there. Thus far, my impression of the company Unistellar is like a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs, highly mixed. I did get a PDF file with instructions on taking apart the telescope and replacing the micro sd card. it looks like a piece of cake. As far as the dealer OPT is concerned, my email went unresponsive. I believe they are simply standing by for a potential return and refund. OPT is an outstanding telescope dealer and have always backed their products.

Others have said companies are fast to take your thousands of dollars no matter where you're located, but when a problem happens, solutions are extremely slow in coming. So for now, the failed eVscope is still failed and I have full confidence that after the card is replaced with new software, the telescope will work flawlessly as advertised. It will be very exciting to begin deep sky imaging through light pollution.

Double Cluster in Perseus

Double Cluster in Perseus

At 3.7 and 3.8 magnitude, these two star clusters are bright enough to capture through heavy light pollution using the eVscope.

The famous double cluster is an ideal object to add to the list of visible and bright NGC objects, and makes a nice addition to the completed Messier catalog.

The two star clusters making up the Double Cluster are called NGC 869 (h Persei) and NGC 884 (Chi Persei). If you are further south (but still in the Northern Hemisphere), try looking for the Double Cluster in the evening in autumn or winter. For general reference, the Double Cluster is high in the sky when the Big Dipper is low, and vice versa. Because the Big Dipper is lowest in the northern sky on late autumn and early winter evenings, the Double Cluster is highest in the northern sky at these times. The Double Cluster is pretty much always visible at evening except in late spring and summer.

Right ascension 2h 20m
Declination 57° 08′
Apparent magnitude (V) 3.7 and 3.8

The position of h Persei’s is Right Ascension: 2h 19m; Declination: 57o 9′ north
Chi Persei’s position is Right Ascension: 2h 22.4m; Declination: 57o 7′ north

Bottom line: On an autumn of winter evening, scan between Cassiopeia and Perseus for the magnificent Double Cluster. At a distance of some 7,500 light-years, the stars in these two clusters are young, hot supergiant suns that are many thousands of times more luminous than our sun.

Link
http://www.waloszek.de/inhalt_astro_dso_ngc884_869_e.html

Unistellar Evscope Update

Evscope update


Unistellar agreed to send out a micro sd card with updated software and a tool to open up the telescope to repair it. This was according to email received on Tuesday August 25th 2020.

However the next day, today, the shipment was held up. According to Trevor, he did not realize, per my shipping address, that I was located in Taiwan and apparently this poses some problems for their logistics. What problems I wonder? Therefore, there is more delay. How hard is it to send a tiny little micro sd card that weighs almost nothing?

It's also very strange that I contacted Unistellar previously, and got their permission to buy the telescope in the USA and use it in Taiwan. So there should be no problem and no delay. I wonder how long antics will go on? Unistellar is an unusual lot and I'm thinking of returning the telescope to the telescope dealer for a full refund.

Evscope Kiss of Death

Ordered from OPT because they had one in stock, the unfortunate brain dead less than smart telescope arrived well packed in a box surrounded by foam padding. Included were the tripod, a box of wrenches to adjust the primary mirror calibration and tripod, quick startup guide and a technical manual. I was prepared to be amazed, Unistellar's slogan, but the amazement will have to wait until troubleshooting and repairs are complete and the telescope gets Unistellar's confirmation of working approval.

EVSCOPE KISS OF DEATH
After five days of wrestling with the new eVscope from Unistellar and trying to get it to work, with back & forth correspondence with Unistellar and OPT, the scope finally locked up with the steady purple power button light, never changing to constant red which would indicate the scope is ready for use. The purple light is much like Microsoft Windows blue screen kiss of death.

I contacted Unistellar and corresponded with Trevor who quickly realized my telescope needs for a software update and that I would need the micro sd card with the latest and greatest incarnations of upgraded software, and a security tool to open the telescope for surgery. We (telescope and I) are waiting for the arrival of the card and tool to begin our telescope rescue with the needed brain surgery.

Someone should have a talk with telescope dealers who do not check their merchandise for functionality and suitability for resale. This is the second defective telescope I've received over the past couple years. What can we expect with the majority of industry products now made in China but not checked for functionality. According to Unistellar, the telescopes parts are apparently made in France or Europe, then assembled in China.

Evscope New Permanent Problem

Evscope Problem
The telescope developed a new permanent problem. It won't start up. I took the eVscope out again and pushed the power-on button. The steady purple light came on. It never turned red. I tried the process numerous times and also waited short and long times. The result is always the same. No red light. I waited until the next day. Same problem. The telescope is stuck. Yes, it's fully charged. On the bottom of the telescope it says "model 1." Maybe this early model needs a software update. I contacted Unistellar - waiting for a reply.

Evscope Anomalies

The latest offering from Unistellar Optics is this massive all electronic 22-inch dob which
sets on a plastic alt-azimuth mount of John Dobson design. We are trying it out for beta
testing. It performs 100 times more powerful than a classical telescope which makes it
much like a 2,200-inch gigantic light bucket scope. It penetrates light pollution, concrete
walls and sides of mountains through redundant para-refractive indexing. Ok, just joking.

Unistellar eVscope

First Light is this 16 second exposure of the Helix
Nebula. The Enhanced Image app function crashed
before the exposure was complete and the Helix is
absent in the photo. By comparing the stars in the
image with other Helix Nebula photos, it's confirmed
the eVscope successfully found and centered the
location of the nebula in the Bortle 9+ sky.

After several days of trying to get the Unistellar telescope to work, the eVscope is still not working. Main problems are: can't connect to scope properly, wifi appears to drop out on the scope (not connected error), it disconnects during an operation, the app appears to have many

Rotating this Helix image from another
telescope confirms the stars line up with
the Unisteller photo. The Helix is NGC
7293 or Caldwell 63 and at 7.6 apparent
magnitude. Why the Helix? It was the only
object suggested for viewing from the sky
limited balcony.

connection issues with freeze up bugs, app crashes, and the scope is unstable and unusable. If you are lucky enough to get to enhanced vision, it will go for a few seconds (16 seconds) and then crash. Attached is a first light image of the Helix Nebula at 16 seconds just before it froze and enhanced vision stopped, then the notorious "not connected" error happened. However, the telescope did properly find the Helix Nebula and center it so for a short time, therefore goto worked so a brief thumbs up for that. I used an image from another telescope for comparison and by rotating the eVscope image, the brighter stars line actually up. I have contacted OPT and Unistellar and the big issue is still unresolved. I have also contacted other users of this telescope who all had similar issues, but still no fix for my telescope. Unistellar support is through email and requires several days of waiting for a reply. So far, the reply discusses issues but is not in any way troubleshooting the telescope for positive results. In any case, I'm still waiting for a reply. issues, but still no fix for my telescope. Unistellar support is through email and requires several days of waiting for a reply. So far, the reply discusses issues but is not in any way troubleshooting the telescope for positive results. In any case, I'm still waiting for a reply.

Random Thoughts

Random Things - New Telescope

The Celestron Equatorial Head CGXL is larger than the entire
C9.25" OTA. The massive and heavy system is being removed
from the observatory balcony to make room for the new
Unistellar eVscope for both planetary and deep sky work.

The eVscope app will compensate for light pollution when "City" is chosen. Other options include Suburb and Countryside.

The new Unistellar evscope is close to working but not there yet. I'm waiting for tonight when our international times match up for a phone call between OPT in California and here in Taiwan. In the meantime, I'm making more space by removing the massive Celestron telescope and mount from the patio and storing it inside. The high resolution planets will need to wait for another opposition during another year.

The room has become a jungle of telescope. The 3-inch Dob is moved to the shelf. The 9.25 is on the floor by the desk. The C14 is in the closet. The mount is in pieces by the doors and shelves. The eVscope takes center attraction, is charging while waiting for another night under the sky, only this time it will have the entire patio to itself. This should increase the size of the available sky towards the East, Southeast, and Northeast.

When you have an image you like, you can save it with
this "save image" or "download photo" icon. You can
also use a screen capture, or pinch enlarge the image
and then screen capture it.

The focus is now on the eVscope. In fleeting moments, the live unenhanced screen in a random section of the sky showed 12 stars when the light pollution was so heavy I could not see one star by unaided eyes. The telescope has real potential in cutting through a Bortle 9-10 sky.

TIP: I have confirmed the telescope won't boot up when the house wifi is dominating the signal. You must turn off the house wifi and the telescope will boot properly in about 5 seconds.

TIP: The fastest telescope in Asia! - I keep the eVscope inside assembled with the tube on the opened tripod. Then before observing, carry the telescope outside through the opened sliding glass patio door and set it there. It takes about 3 seconds to do that! I use the iPhone flashlight to look at the level bubble and confirm it's centered - about 10 seconds. Then the telescope can set there, with the tube cover removed, for about a half hour to reach thermal equilibrium.

TIP: Mercury vapor lights from the ballpark, shining directly on the front of the telescope tube, will cause image noise and pink color stripes. Make sure there are no lights shining on the telescope.

I had pressed a GOTO button and before the new scope disconnected it slewed directly to Neptune and placed it in the center field of view! The potential for this telescope is tremendous!

In removing the Celestron, once again there is confirmation about this system being too large and heavy to handle. Just breaking it down into the basic pieces to bring inside took around an hour. On the other hand, the eVscope is just hand carried outdoors and ready to go in three minutes.

Evscope Problems Outdoors

This is the dreaded and infamous "you are not connected" screen. Turning on the Evscope and checking the wifi connection did nothing to fix the problem.

Troubleshooting Begins
The Evscope was received on Monday afternoon and problems were noted that evening when taking the Evscope outdoors Monday night.

On Tuesday afternoon, the scope started to connect and it seemed it was working. However, Tuesday night led to problems again. At one point, it seemed to find Neptune with a lot of noise across the FOV, then immediately crashed and the image was lost forever. Thereafter, the telescope stopped booting, stopped connecting to the app, and was completely unstable and unusable. Both OPT and Unisteller were contacted on Tuesday. A telescope tech from OPT with Evscope experience immediately responded with email on Wednesday and we are setting up a time for an international phone connection for troubleshooting the telescope.

APP CONFUSION The app, during setup, it seemed to have this moment of confusion on the iPad (which does not have internet). First it asked to input the location manually and next it appeared to get location from "Location Services" and it asked for permission to share the location during app use. The latter is what transpired. Until a place in the menu is found to confirm the latitude and longitude, it won't be known if the values are correct. Later, the iPad app failed when the screens turned all white and the iPhone was used thereafter.

The telescope is extremely high tech and there's often no way of knowing what it's doing, calculating, or thinking during the required pauses of setup and/or operations. Without error reporting, other than a light color, the nonfunctional situation is clueless. The technical manual does not mention the points of boot time and other important operating aspects. Plus, there is no icon guide to the app. You need to ferret out the functions by trial and error and this is next to impossible when the app is locked up or not connected. Plus, when briefly connected, the actions are agonizingly slow, thus negating any surfing of functions. It's hoped there is a solution for this and there probably is.