CheshireChris

I am feeling the same. I have just started out on the astroimaging journey and have yet to take any images except when testing the kit so managed some darks and flats- it's very frustrating. Not even had an opportunity to get my mount aligned. I'll stick with it though. I also run 4 meteor detection cameras and the number of cloudy nights so far this summer is equally frustrating. Chris

I'm using a refurbished HP Elite Desk 800 G2 Mini, £109.99 off ebay prices vary a bit --> HP Elite Desk Mini - Intel Quad core i5, 16GB, 250GB SSD for the C drive and a 500GB drive. Came with Windows 11 installed. The Dell equivalents are readily available. Nice thing about them is they work well running headless - l have a long ethernet cable in to the house so can control pretty much everything from my 'office'. Chris

Thanks for the replies Yes, I'm sure your right the prime will undoubtedly be better and easier to deal with. I'll try both. Wow! That BackYardEOS looks good - I've downloaded the trial version. Hadn't heard of that until you added the link- for less than £40 i can't see a reason not to buy it. I consider myself (age notwithstanding) to have a good grasp of technology ( l was a storage specialist with IBM until retirement) but astroimaging is bewildering for someone starting out. However being retired means l have plenty of time to get even more confused. Chris

I've taken the plunge and acquired a 2nd hand (never been out of its box) SW Star Adventurer GTi and a used ZWO ASI 533MC Pro for good prices. Can't afford a telescope - yet; that will have to wait until later next year. However l can start using the GTi with my DSLR and Canon lenses: a 70-200 f2.8 L and a 85mm f1.8 L. Initially I'll probably keep it simple and use my EOS-80D rather than the 533; learning to use the mount and SynScan app seems a first priority. Although understanding how to polar align is the first step - l have bought a right angle adapter for the GTi as l doubt if my knees would stand up to much crouching to look through through the finder. Some clear nights would be nice... The computer side l have covered: A HP EliteDesk Mini 800G2 with W11. I've loaded Synscan, N.I.N.A plus the necessary drivers and it all connects OK. Also installed Siril & DSS. My main PC has an AMD Ryzen 7 5800Z, 64GB, GeForce RTZ 3060. if l need the processing power. Loads of disk space with a SynologyNAS (24TB) Equipment wise is there anything else that might be beneficial (or even essential!) in the short term? I've got the ZWO IR/UV cut & light pollution filters on order for the 533. Where I live (Cheshire East) is perhaps Bortle 6-7 - the view south & east is much better than north & west where there is light pollution from Wilmslow & Manchester Any guidance would be very much appreciated. Chris

Thanks Artik, It's detecting the camera now: in the end l did a full install of everything including Debian 12. There is a typo in the command to install the various required modules It errors on bulld-essential - lt should be 'build-essential' ? It works ok when changed. Seems OK - had to create a rules file for the camera to give access. If l click 'Stream' it starts taking photos! Chris

Thank you! I hadn't - wasn't obvious (to me) l needed to. I assumed (wrongly) it got installed with OLS, however 'sudo apt install gphoto2 libgphoto2*' did it running gphoto2 --auto-detect picks up the camera correctly On RPi & Debian OLS still doesn't see anything though. - only the 'Simulation' option is present in drop down Or do l need to have gphoto2 and libraries installed first then install OLS? Chris

I've been following this with great interest and am in the process of getting it working. I plan to use Canon DSLR's - EOS6D and a EOS80D and they work with my Samsung Tablet - insofar as they all connect up and l can control the cameras. No images yet.... However l would, ultimately like to use OLS on Linux and have installed it on two machines - a Raspberry Pi 5 (Bookworm) and an Intel machine(HP Elite Desk 800 G2 Mini) with Debian 12. No problems installing OLS but I can't persuade it to detect the camera on either device. The OS detects it - l can see the camera using lsusb. However the only device l can see via the HTTP connection is the 'Simulation' Anyone got the Linux version of OSL working with a Canon DSLR? Chris

It's been some time since l joined and subsequently did very little other than follow topics in the various forums. A house move and health issues for me and my partner pushed any astronomy aspirations to the background. Hopefully I'm now in a position to rectify that. I haven't bought a scope and l doubt very much if that will happen for a while yet. Probably something for observation only. I have been following the developments in EEVA with great interest and am investigating the use of OpenLiveStacker on both Android and Linux. I have a (as yet unused) Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro & some Canon DSLRs that l plan to try first. I haven't been totally idle and have implemented 4 cameras for meteor detection that are part of the Global Meteor Network and UKMON. Chris

Hello everyone. My name is Chris, 63 years old and resident in Alderley Edge, Cheshire. I've had an in interest in Astronomy since l was a youngster; l had access to a telescope at school but any real viewing over the years has been limited to binoculars. I have the opportunity now to spend more time on astronomy/astrophotography and have started acquiring some h/w to that end. I already have several Canon DSLR cameras & lenses plus a Sony A-5000 that l can use and recently acquired a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro at a very good price - so that will be my starting point in getting some wide field photography under my belt. In terms of a telescope l'm finding that the options are staggering to say the least. What l do know is l don't want anything (yet) that is too large and bulky so any sort of reflector is out. I'm leaning towards a compact wide field refractor that could possibly be attached to the Star-Adventurer, although l get that has some weight limitations. Perhaps something l could leave assembled and keep in the garage when not in use. The choices are a bit bewildering to say the least; that, coupled with trying to understand all the jargon associated with the hobby. Chris