Gina

The success of last night's tests (in spite of a nearly full moon) has boosted my enthusiasm for astro imaging and led me on to further ideas. With the vagaries of the weather here I feel I need to get the most out of any hours of clear night sky and also the most out of what equipment I have. For instance I have two ASI1600MM-Cool cameras so a dual imaging rig seems something to go for. I also have two filter wheels ZWO EFW and EFW Mini. What I don't have is two sets of Astrodon 3nm filters but I can still split them between two imaging rigs. Several of the vintage SLR lenses I have are in pairs of the same focal length. My best telescopes are singles but I do have a pair of ST80s which are fine for NB. APOs are only really needed for wideband imaging, mainly galaxies. I may get on to planetary imaging later I also have a pair of Evostar 80ED Pro scopes that were superseded years ago but could still prove useful. I've been planning to sell them but scopes are awkward to transport and they aren't worth that much. Having an EQ8 mount I have no problem with payload - I had 3 scopes on it at one stage some years ago but found getting all 3 aligned accurately was a problem. I've thought out how I can run two virtually identical ZWO cameras on one setup. I would use a separate RPi running INDIserver and drivers for each camera and 2 instances of KStars/Ekos on my indoor desktop. One RPi would control the mount. Two ZWO cameras of the same type can't run off one RPi as INDI is unable to distinguish between the two.

3D printed a new set of focus gears and focus motor bracket that attached to the lens. The camera can be rotated 90 degrees without affecting focus. I got the opportunity to test this out last night and the focus is greatly improved - more so than I expected.

I think I prefer stars in but the starless one is certainly fantastic, really superb. Which software did you use to process it?

Watched it too. I always watch that programme.

That is very nice - small but perfectly formed. And not the "run of the mill". Yes, I like it a lot too.

Very nice - I like it. Much more interesting.

Excellent - love it

Yes, I have seen that when imaging the Heart and Soul widefield (135mm lens and ASI 1600MM-Cool).

Still watching the programme about telescopes - a repeat though still worth watching.

Watching too.

Me too. Now watching about a mission to Mars.

I might just be able to provide some expertise.

I know only too well how frustrating it is relying on other people!!! You have my sympathy, Dave.

Yes indeed!

I guessed you were 😄 Glad you find some of it useful

I probably have copies of the various Arduino sketches and of my modified INDI drivers. Should also have circuit diagrams etc. Most of it can be found on here in various threads and blogs. I post pretty much everything I do on here. No doubt I can find anything specific.

My automation uses KStars/Ekos/INDI with several RPi units for remote operation, or it will when it's all finished.

I think it will be a little while before I get round to advancing my weather station project. I have a queue of jobs and that's not at the top (yet). I already have a lot of it done but Arduino + 1-wire based and I want to use RPi for remote operation and to tie in with my KStars/Ekos/INDI setup. The latter runs all my imaging kit including (shortly) all sky camera and motorised ROR control. I have a working logger for weather data and a 3D printed Stevenson screen. Wind instruments are practically done too. ATM the logger only logs data to an SD card and I would like to run a live weather web site like I did some years ago. All the various parts want linking together.

Thermally lagging the camera body will help get the camera temperature lower. Makes quite a difference.

This screenshot shows the latest XY Carriage with the partscooling fan and air duct moved underneath so that it no longer sticks out beyond the frame.

Latest assembly. XY Carriage with running rods added and also drive shafts with timing pulleys.

This is very interesting. I was thinking of the possibility of something similar myself.

I'll bring the rig back indoors tomorrow and see what I want to do and decide if it would be worth arranging remote camera rotation.