mareman48

Welcome to SGL, glad to have you 😂

Nice shot, manually as well, impressive.

Got my first real clear night last night, but wasn't feeling great, so only got a couple of hours in, typical.....

You have Steeple Leaze Farm close by, supposed to be a lovely spot 🤔

23 hours ago, kev100 said:

It was nice last weekend from the Isle of Purbeck, and this weekends looking good 

Hi @All

I don't know about you, but this Winter and Spring has been the worst weather I've had for Astronomy in years.

Anyone getting any clear nights any other part of Dorset?

This is typical in my neck of the woods -->

Lovely Pic lee,

I'm not  that Fram from you ( Dorset)  and wish my skies were like that.

Very nice work.

Pat

Interesting, wonder what the price range will be on the Asiair  2600 duo air🤔

Welcome JP

You have landed in the right place.

Best Astronomy forum on the net, lots of different sections to help you on your journey.

If you can get the family hooked, that’s Galveston the journey.

Manual for that mode is Here

Computer:

Late 2017 27" iMac - 4.2GHz i7 Quad Core - 64GB DDR4 - Radeon Pro 580 8GB

Early 2024 -24"  iMac M3 - 16GB Ram- 500GB Flash, ASIStudio, 

Software:

PixInsight, Siril, Photoshop, Topaz Labs, ASIStudio, QuickFits,

I find large files are Graphic and Processor heavy, especially using PixInsight and ASIStudio, I have other Macs, but I tend to use this 2 for my Post Processing.

Welcome to SGL 

Lovely looking 🐈 

Hi Paul,

Great in-depth video, glad you got to shoot the Aurora.

I've been chasing it for years in Scotland, but so far have not managed to get a look in.

Your video has encouraged me to pull the trigger on take my chase to Norway.

All the best.

I like it 🤗

What is your setup?

Very nice 👍

I love the almost 3d depth and feel.

Nice pic, would be interesting to learn about your work Flow

Pat

On 30/01/2024 at 17:24, Spaced Out said:

Hi all. I've set up a live stream camera so that I can monitor the sky for the Aurora Borealis. I hope this will run 24/7. I wanted to share this with a few mates so I've added it to a webpage and made it public. There is an all-sky cam on the page too. I’m in the process of setting up some motion detection software to see if I can catch any meteors on the live stream 🤔.

Just chucking it on here in case anyone is interested. 🙂

northumberland-astro.space/sky-cameras/

 

 

Many thanks for this 👍

On 25/08/2023 at 19:29, carastro said:

Just found this one on the internet.  Looks quite large with electric hook up and is accessible from the London area, and Dorset is pretty dark.  Looks like 65 pitches, do we need as many as 100? 

Looks like some Glamping Lodges too.  

Says Bortle 4 on Dark Sky map. and it is central for those of us in the South. 

Sorry this is large, just copied and pasted. 

24 x Electric Grass Pitches

7 x Grass Hardstanding Pitches

25 x Serviced Hardstanding Pitches9 x Serviced Grass Pitches

9 x Serviced Grass Pitches

https://www.campsites.co.uk/search/campsites-in-hampshire/fordingbridge/hill-cottage-farm-camping-and-caravan-park

Dorset get my vote 😃

Welcome,

This is the best Astronomy forum online hands down, so you will do well here.

26 minutes ago, Elp said:

With app version 2.0 I had an error once on my mini, just before starting the plan I cleared the internal storage from the last session as I always do, low and behold I get an error message "disk is full" and the plan could not start. Nothing I did resolved this, even using an external usb flash drive. Ended the session for me. A few days later all is well... Go figure.

Ghost in the Machine 😄

4 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

Probably unrelated to your issue @mareman48 but I had some problems taking flats the other morning. It would take the first shot and preview and then the next preview  wouldn’t happen, or only very very slowly.  I couldn’t work out what was wrong but  concerned not to somehow lose the previous  night’s data I transferred all data off the memory stick. The memory stick was not anywhere near full but I emptied it out. When I reinserted the stick into the ASIair and restarted it was all OK. Problem gone. What that was about I have no idea.

Maybe not be relevant to you if you’re not using a memory stick. 

Well, you were spot on there Ouroboros, Saved me a lot of head scratching.

Much appreciated

Thanks 

3 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

Probably unrelated to your issue @mareman48 but I had some problems taking flats the other morning. It would take the first shot and preview and then the next preview  wouldn’t happen, or only very very slowly.  I couldn’t work out what was wrong but  concerned not to somehow lose the previous  night’s data I transferred all data off the memory stick. The memory stick was not anywhere near full but I emptied it out. When I reinserted the stick into the ASIair and restarted it was all OK. Problem gone. What that was about I have no idea.

Maybe not be relevant to you if you’re not using a memory stick. 

Actually, I am using a 500gb memory stick, I will remove my Light files and format it

I will try shooting the dark library on the internal storage and see if I get the same results, that should eliminate the USB as the culprit.

Thanks 

13 hours ago, Elp said:

This rules out the ethernet cable connection then. Have you tried:

1. A different controlling/viewing device,

2. Different (earlier) version of the asiair app, or there's a recent beta that's just been released on their user forum you can test.

I'm a bit stumped with this one, if the images are transferring near instantly via ethernet this may point to the software being the culprit.

I’ve tried several different devices, all are pretty new and quite fast, I’ve even tied android devices. With the same result,

My next step will be the software, I will try different versions, I am leaning more to this as the issue as I’ve just started getting lots of issues when I deleted my old dark library and started a new one. (see attached pic) 

Also  horizontal lines across the bias frames, some frames coming out white, some with lines and very few decent ones, same with the darks, set of 100 darks, 1-20 fine, then 21-70 blank, then 72 ok, then the rest white.

Not sure if this is related ,or if my 3 month old camera is on the blink, will be spending the today trouble shooting.

Thanks for your suggestions.

4 hours ago, Elp said:

If you follow post number 11 here regarding connecting to your air on pc and checking the airs folders do the images write straight away after they're taken?

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/815591-asiair-file-transfer-in-station-mode/

 

Yes, pics are instant, I can check the folders as the pics are being taken, the issue is just the time lag of the preview window.

i.e. today I was shooting my dark library, when I checked the flats folder, about 20 flats are already in the folder and the preview window still had not shown the first flat on the main screen.

4 hours ago, Elp said:

Ethernet should be very fast, there's no firewall restrictions or anything on your router throttling it down? Could be the cable but I don't see that being the issue unless contacts with the end plugs or the wires have broken down.

No firewalls, or VPN’s

6 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

How about trying it wirelessly standing right next to your ASIair, @mareman48?   If it’s still slow that would at least rule out your wired LAN. 

Hmm, didn’t think of that, thanks 😃

7 hours ago, Elp said:

I'm assuming you're connected to the air in the screenshots via a mobile phone or tablet WiFi connection? How far away from the setup are you and is the direct line of sight from setup to phone through brick?

The slow transfer rate is indicative of this, my 183 produces 40MB images, but my typical WiFi transfer rate is 1MB per second and the previews load in usually less than 10s, the preview doesn't download the whole complete file, just a smaller preview of it even though smaller sensor camera images load faster when doing the same task.

The plus I believe comes in two types even though they're not marketed as such, a first generation and an improved one. I believe the first gen plus came out, then the mini then the second gen plus. I suspect this because the mini has the best WiFi propagation (and was the newest air until a new plus was released) and zwo must have realised this and changed the plus. I second this suspicion as my plus has woeful WiFi propagation. 

I've improved my plus by buying a cheap SMA extension cable (1M long), unscrewing the aerial, attaching the cable (make sure it has the correct male and female pin types each end), then reattaching the aerial to the other end of the cable, et voila, improved WiFi propagation.

But assess your distance and housing material, brick/stone as well as metals can play havok to WiFi strength, simply lifting the mobile device to window height can improve the connection if you've got line of sight to your rig.

 Hi Elp,

I am hard wired in via LAN, I have the latest version of the ASIAIR Plus.

I never use wifi as I have lots of metal in my house, learnt that years ago when the Asiair first came out and I had constant dropouts.

I actually had the latest 256 model which is supposed to have a faster data transfer rate, but I thought it was faulty and sent it back, then bought the Plus again.

Same Sanrio, so i'm scratching my head, wondering if its my LAN cable, as i've had that about 4 years 🤔

Thanks for your help

Pat

Hi, 

Wasn't sure which section to put this in,  but hey ho 😀

I have an issue with my Asiair Plus (pretty sure its the Asiair Plus)

But looking for some advice on how to trouble shoot this issue.

When I shoot any subs with the Asi2600 connected to the Asiair Plus, the preview of the image take nearly a min to preview, even if its only a 10 sec sub.

At first I thought it might be the Asiair, but I bought a new one, and i'm still having the same issue.

Ive change the cables to good quality USB 3.0 ones from the Manufacture, tried the round ones, the flat ones, now i'm using the Red USB 3.0 cable that comes with the new Asiairs.

Preview does not go any faster than 600KB/s ( see attached pics ) most times around 500KB/s

My setup is :

Mounts: EQ6-R Pro/ZWO AM5 

Main Camera: ZWO ASI2600, William Optics GT-81 IV 

 Guide scope: ZWO ASI178MM

Thanks in advance.