JamesF

15 minutes ago, johninderby said:

I have a "champagne" ED80, but it's nothing like that colour.

James

1 hour ago, Astro Noodles said:

What a spoilsport. 😄

Well, I wouldn't want you to miss out, so how about this?

James

Sadly,  it's not supposed to happen at all any more: https://astronomy.com/news/2018/09/two-stars-will-not-merge-and-explode-into-red-fury-in-2022

James

22 minutes ago, Franklin said:

In the lyrics of D Ream, "Things can only get better" 🙂.

I think that might have been after he left the band though

James

11 minutes ago, BCN_Sean said:

I can't remember which of the 120MC firmware I used on it now (I think it was the ASI120MC-compatible.iic in the bin->firmware folder, but try both for the 120MC), it needed the latest firmware updater from the ZWO website on an account with admin level privileges on Windows and if Windows popped up security questions they needed accepting as it would throw other issues on the Mac and also on Linux.

It's definitely the "compatible" version that's required.

Historically (by which I mean ten years or so back) there were a number of USB2 astro cameras including the ASI120 that attempted to improve their data transfer rates by breaking the USB specification (I have a vague recollection that the QHY5 did the same).  In fact, taking the specification literally, they really should not have been allowed to be sold as "USB" devices.  Under Windows, at the time, it worked because the Windows USB interface didn't necessarily question devices that claimed to work outside of the USB specification. Linux took a different approach in that it expected devices to conform to the USB specification however, and devices that stepped outside those bounds wouldn't always work.

The "compatible" firmware makes the camera conform to the spec.  It means slightly slower frame rates but with the benefit of reliability.

James

1 minute ago, wimvb said:

To clarify:

you will get a list of devices that are connected to the Pi, as well as the usb ports in the internal hub. There should be one entry for the t7c camera. If that says ”120”, the firmware should be identical to the asi120.

Possibly more relevant are the USB Vendor and Product IDs that will show up in the list.  A genuine ASI 120MC I'd expect to show up as 03c3:120b (from memory).  If the T7C shows up differently then it may well be a non-starter on Linux, though I would probably try something horrible like hacking the ASI SDK to replace the embedded VID and PID with that of the T7C before giving up entirely.

James

I thought the T7C was basically a direct copy of the ASI120MC and should accept the same firmware.  Out of interest, if you plug it in on the RPi and on the command line on the RPi run the command "lsusb", what is the output?

James

36 minutes ago, Astro Noodles said:

Maybe the BBC shouldn't spend any more money on Brian Cox. Maybe on things that more people will be interested in - the Great British Lawn mow-off for example.

It's about time that made it to prime-time.  If they could just talk James May into presenting it.

Nobody likes a soggy ha-ha!

James

I've just watched the first couple of episodes of the "Earthshot" series.  In terms of style I found the photography to be very similar to Brian Cox's programmes, even down to having someone standing on a rock outcrop staring meaningfully into the distance whilst the camera pans around them as the shot widens.

Perhaps it's just an affliction of modern television programme directors/producers.

James

1 minute ago, UKDiver said:

I just can't stand how Brian Cox speaks

He can't help being from Oldham

2 minutes ago, UKDiver said:

has it really taken her this long to see the first episode of StarTrek:TNG?

Errrm.  I've never seen any episode of ST:TNG.

James

2 minutes ago, Astro Noodles said:

I like that pronunciation. Sviebonie

I think it could be more Russian/Slavic sounding like Svbonya

Perhaps it's Gaelic, in which case it's probably pronounced "star"

James

6 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Sony, Bony or Bonny - this is very good deal:

That looks very much like the one that TSO sell: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p7169_TS-Optics-ED-APO-80-mm-f-7-Refractor-with-2-5--R-P-focuser.html

which does claim to be FPL-51.

So what then explains the difference in price?

James

1 minute ago, tomato said:

Yes, great value for money products, dare I say it some ZWO accessories look to be re-badged SVbony items…

I have wondered if some of these things aren't mass-produced in a factory in China and then get rebadged by almost everyone.  Which is fine for the simple items as they're likely to be identical wherever you get them, but it doesn't reassure me when it's something more complex.  For example, where two vendors are selling what appears to be the same product at significantly different prices, it's not possible to know if the cheaper one has agreed to take a lower standard of product from the actual manufacturer.  For example, where the product involves a fan, one might have gone for a cheaper type that may fail more quickly whereas the other has taken a more expensive option that should be more reliable.

I'm not suggesting that SVBony do this, but these thoughts do cross my mind when I see radically different pricing.  Take the many different vendors re-selling cameras made by Touptek, for instance.

James

8 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Let me guess. Zymurgy, a depressive state afflicting brewers whose ales refuse to clarify and have excessive deposits of a largely brown character at the bottom of the barrel. Also a digestive disorder brought on by imbibing such ales.

It sounds as though it could be.  Maybe even should be   However, if I recall correctly it's actually the study of fermentation using yeasts.

James

7 minutes ago, gorann said:

Not sure why all you are so sarcastic about this company and its name. Their T2 and M48 extender sets are cheap (a fraction of the price from our UK/EU dealers) and works great, and really good to have in excess when you struggle to get the right distances in your rig, but I would probably not try the rest of their offerings.....

I honestly didn't understand anyone to be being sarcastic.  Perhaps something has gone missing in translation?

I have to agree about their T2 extension tubes though.  I've found them very useful.

James

I had a feeling there was another similar word relating to brewing, but now I've remembered the word it turns out to be two sets of three consonants separated by a vowel, which is nowhere near as impressive: zymurgy.

James

3 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Do we? Time for the dictionary. (I've heard it said by sausages, though, while frying in a pan.)

Olly

It's in my Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus.  It's (not unsurprisingly, perhaps) the last word under 'S'.

James

2 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I suppose an English speaker shouldn't growl too loudly since we have a word with six consecutive consonants.*

*Kinghtsbridge.

We also have one that is only six consonants.  And it's related to astronomy: syzygy.

James

The screenshot utility is under the "Accessories" section of the main menu.  I think by default the main menu shows favourites with an option to show all applications.  I always change it to the latter.  But for something like the screenshot application that I might use a fair bit, I right click on the bottom toolbar near the existing icons and select the "Add to Panel" option, then add it to the toolbar using the "Copy a launcher from the applications menu" option.

James

2 hours ago, Gina said:

Success!!  Installed LM20.2 MATE on the laptop and I have multiple Terminals working!!  Hooray.

Excellent

It looks as though MATE uses its own terminal package ("mate-terminal") so perhaps the defaults are different.  Possibly Cinnamon uses gnome-terminal instead.  I believe the Xfce version does things the same way as MATE, too.  At least, I have the last 32-bit release of Mint running on a very old laptop with Xfce and it hasn't irritated me to the point of installing something else, so I assume it must work the same.

I was amused by the descriptions of the different releases on the Mint website:

Quote

Cinnamon is primarily developed for and by Linux Mint. It is slick, beautiful, and full of new features.

Quote

Although it misses a few features and its development is slower than Cinnamon’s, MATE runs faster, uses fewer resources and is more stable than Cinnamon.

Style over substance, then?

James

1 hour ago, Gina said:

Someone elsewhere running Linux has pointed me to the answer!!

  screen is what does it (or did it).  Evidently screen is not installed by default in LM20.2 Cinnamon!!

Amazing!!  As soon as I start a new topic for this I seem to have the answer.  Oh well ces't la vie

Well, screen can do something similar, yes.  It's a very useful tool.  Effectively it allows you to create multiple "virtual" terminals and switch between them in a single terminal window and that may be sufficient for what you need.  I'm not aware that it would, for example, allow you to place multiple terminal instances on the display concurrently however, which is how I usually prefer to work (like an IDE, only a DDE -- a disintegrated development environment

One quite convenient feature of screen is that it allows you to log in on a remote machine from a terminal window, start something running and then completely disconnect from it (even powering off the local machine) leaving everything running on the remote system.  It's then possible to reconnect to the remote system later and rejoin the same terminal session carrying on from where you left off, even from a completely different local system.

James

Sorry -- I asked in the other thread.  Which desktop are you using?  I have MATE and for me it "just works", but perhaps Cinnamon is different.

James

There's no ASCOM.  Instead you need to look at Kstars and EKOS.  Probably the best way to install them is from the launchpad PPA rather than using the versions that come with the distribution, which can be quite out of date.

As for the Mallincam, is it a video model, or USB?

James

8 minutes ago, Gina said:

Installed Mint 20.2 on my Asus Laptop wiping W7 in the process as I couldn't think of anything I might want W7 Home for.  I now have it running but as yet I haven't got multiple instances of Terminal available.  With Terminal open, clicking on the Terminal icon simply closes it rather than opening another instance.

Ahhhh!  Which version of 20.2 are you using?  Perhaps there's some different default behaviour between the versions.  I'm using MATE.

James

1 minute ago, johninderby said:

Fortunately the trees aren’t on the south side or north side or west side. 🙂

Well, if you're ok with it that's fine.  Otherwise me and my friend Mr Stihl have a solution for these kinds of problems

James