wuthton

I've sent two (well used/abused) cameras to Atik for repair and on both occasions I've been very pleased with the communication, speed and value of their service.

I'm sure someone on here keeps weather records but I'm fairly certain that for the past few years the Autumn has been quite poor followed by a good clear spell around November 5th with all the flashes and smoke that goes with it.

No worries, this is a very brief overview of an extremely complex subject with regard to imaging only, there's a whole lot more consideration for visual. Refractors that you can pick off the shelf fall in to 3 categories + 1, Petzval. The first three are singlet, doublet and triplet which through the increasing number of lens elements for each category manage to improve the colour correction of the image, blue light will (nearly) focus to the same point as the red light. But they all suffer from field curvature, the image looks like the Enterprise about to enter warp hence the need for a flattener. Petzvals have superb colour correction and an extra element which gives a flat field and takes away all the spacing and back focus faff that comes with flatteners. I'm sure someone will correct me but the Redcat is the first Petzval refractor that I've seen where the price isn't very firmly into 4 figures.

When Platesolve2 in SGPro completes it then countdowns for 10 seconds . I'm sure that in the past I've found a setting to reduce this but now I can't find for love nor money. Please either point me in the right direction or tell me that I've imagined it.

Yes, but the ZS61 isn't a Petzval.

The ED80 carries a reputation it gained when there was much less competition in reasonably priced short, fast refractors, it's now just plain slow for imaging use. I'm just putting together a travel setup and I did have a paw at the ZS61 but in the end I went with the Redcat51, the price is about the same once you've added the flattener to the 61 which the Redcat doesn't require.

Thank you very much for your input but I fear that even if I do get it working it will be inferior to my current system, (Win10/OpenVPN/RDP with SGP and PHD2) so I've thrown in the towel.

After reading this, the adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is ringing in my ears, so I've thrown in the towel. Windows 10 / OpenVPN / RDP just works and always has worked for my Obsy. Astroberry looks absolutely ideal for a travel setup I'm putting together, no VPN required.

Many thanks for the suggestion but this unfortunately broke data transmission to/from all clients. I do think you were on the right track though.

To all appearance the Pi has connected to OpenVPN as it should but it will not render the Astroberry Desktop through either VNC or a browser.

I think you may be onto something here, I've disconnected WIFI as suggested and it appears to be trying to connect. On a browser window after 30s or so I'm getting a blank grey page but no error and VNC is asking for a password but then hangs on "preparing desktop". I'll try the above and report back, I've got to do some proper work for an hour or two.

Your OpenVPN server sits on a external IP - this is on your home network or remotely somewhere? - Remote Server (VPS) Your OpenVPN client is the Astroberry - you are connecting this to the OpenVPN server? - Yes, exactly Is the client that you can SSH into the Astroberry on your home network, or is it also remote and also running an OpenVPN client to the same OpenVPN server? - I can SSH both ways without trouble. I'm reasonably certain my problem is with Nginx but I only have experience with Apache.

Many thanks for the suggestion but I'm hoping to swap out my windows 10 obsy PC for a raspberry pi but to access it from outside my network I need to use a VPN. My home broadband is over the mobile network (CGNAT) so my home ip address is private, as I understand it. The obsy can be used completely remotely over a VPN. I can SSH into the Pi without problems, the Astroberry Desktop is what's unavailable over the VPN. astroberry@astroberry:~ $ sudo iptables -L -n [sudo] password for astroberry: Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Thank you again for your imput.

Thanks for the reply, Secure Shell App for Chrome (Chromebook and Windows10), I have putty but I haven't tried it as the former does the job from a browser window.

I hope someone can help, I generally get these things working through perseverance rather than knowledge but the problem seems very specific to the Astroberry setup, the Google has failed me. I have OpenVPN running and to all appearances working as it should on the Astroberry Pi. It's connected to my server and I can SSH into the Astroberry over the VPN but I'm unable to load the Astroberry desktop either through a browser or VNC (10.8.0.16) I'm assuming the configuration of Nginx needs tweaking but I'm out of my depth now. astroberry@astroberry:~ $ route -n Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface 0.0.0.0 10.8.0.1 128.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 tun0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 202 0 0 eth0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 303 0 0 wlan0 10.8.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 tun0 128.0.0.0 10.8.0.1 128.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 tun0 *VPN SERVER IP* 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.255 UGH 0 0 0 eth0 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 202 0 0 eth0 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 303 0 0 wlan0 Many thanks in advance,

I was part of a couple of previous discussions on this subject. The bottom line was when the laws of physics are applied, having the weights as close to the mount as possible is preferable but in the real world you'd never discern the difference.

My Zotac has 4gb of ram which is plenty for long exposure image capture but I'm not sure about planetary, it's well over 12 years since I've tried it.

Marmo, The Zotac with Windows 10 Pro, PHD and Sequence Generator Pro is superb, it's never skipped a beat, bomb proof but comparatively expensive. I haven't used the Raspberry Pi (Kstars and Ekos) in the wild yet for various reasons but it does look very, very promising for a portable rig that I'm planning. You do need to be semi-confident with Linux command line to run the install scripts but it's not particularly difficult. I'm sure if you start a topic plenty people will chip in. I've only .... so far.... touch wood.... sacrificed one PC to the gods of unexpected snow. I have painted some tin foil black and taped it over the vent holes in the top of the Zotac, just in case.

Your 250pds is a beautiful scope but it's not your friend for narrowband imaging. The focal length literally magnifies even the slightest jiggle and it's physical size makes those jiggles more likely to happen, guided or not. Beautifully crafted optics with perfect colour correction are wasted on narrowband imaging, if focused you could take a great image through the bottom of a jam jar but what it does require is time and no jiggles. Narrowband filters are expensive and the shorter the bandpass the more expensive they get. At longer focal lengths the difference between cheaper and more expensive filters becomes much more pronounced, you get beautiful tight stars with some Astrodons and comparatively bloated stars with 7nm Baaders. Conversely at shorter focal lengths and wider fields of view the differences are greatly reduced. You only need to buy the filter size recommend for your camera, buying any bigger is a waste of money. My Atik 314 has a tiny chip so only requires 1.25", My Moravian G2 has a bigger, KAF-8300 chip, I can get away with 31mm without any vignette. I've only ever used CCD cameras but if I were buying a camera today I'd be giving the current crop of CMOS some lusty glances. You can get similar results to a CCD but with shorter exposures, less time then less chance of jiggles. Your integration time is similar to CCD but made up of more but shorter exposures. If you're managing a minute at 1.2m then you'll manage and age unguided if you reduce your focal length. Beg, borrow or steal a prime camera lens with a manual aperture ring (Pentax Super Takumar fit well) and add a cooled, mono CMOS camera with a cheap Ha filter, strap it to your HEQ5 and point it at Orion for 2 minuites, you won't be disappointed.

I just thought Id share my experience because I fixed my wheel more by luck than management and it might happen to someone else. I was testing a new setup using a Raspberry Pi (Kstars, Indi, Ekos) with an Xagyl Filter wheel. Plugged the filter wheel in, it calibrated and then died. Tried it on windows machine (Ascom, SGP), still dead. I assumed the motor had given up as it appeared to be trying but no movement. I then tried a second Xagyl filter wheel and the same thing happened which is when I smelt a rat. The filter wheel speed was set to zero in the Indi driver, this was a fresh install, I certainly hadn't changed the setting. I don't know how the settings are saved on the wheel or the initialisation procedure but before the speed was changed in the Indi driver, the Ascom driver wouldn't recognise or connect to the wheel. Once the speed was turned up all was good again, Indi and Ascom.

I'd ditch the guidescope rings altogether, they're not necessary at all and can cause headaches. Hopefully your dad has the tube rings that came with the ST80, just use those. Enjoy it, that's nice setup and it's going to be clear tomorrow.

Very true, if the want to they'll get in. A brick built observatory, I'd be through the wall in 2 minutes with a sledge. Photo - electric beam sensors are the business or if you have a second shed with nothing of real value in, leave the door unlocked but alarm it. They'll try first every time. Anything to deter or alarm before they put a wreaking bar to use.

I've used an on mount mini pc for years and I couldn't recommend it highly enough. My personal choice was a Zotac CI320 but there's now much newer models available in the CI series. I chose it purely because it had 6 usb ports and therefore I could wave bye bye to hateful usb hubs. A secondary bonus was a massive improvement to guiding as the number of cables going to the floor is a fraction of before resulting in less cable drag and less chance of a snag. They are barebones so you need to cost in an SSD, ram and a Windows Pro license key. Edit: Have you looked at a Raspberry Pi 4 with Indi, Kstars and Ekos. I'm just starting to have a play with it but I'm yet to find a weakness?

If you're running 240v to your mount then I'd highly recommend one of these. Neat, convenient and reasonably safe. https://www.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-weatherproof-box-kit/46169

Backfocus and aperture rings are tricky. Don't touch Nikon lenses, the aperture springs open when you take it off the dslr body. Canons are a minefield for compatibility. There's not enough backfocus for a filter wheel, you must take the lens off and screw the filter into the lens adapter. If anyone can say this is false, I'd be forever grateful. It's not a huge problem for me as I never change filter during a session.