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nameunknown

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    Chester UK

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  1. ..another little nudge - anyone know if this has been sorted?
  2. ..its a truly impressive distro with a huge range of the stuff available for Linux astronomy at zero cost - if enough people used it (and the update was fixed) then it could be a fairly good way of future-proofing obsy set-ups against changes in Windows.
  3. I suppose if you have the concrete base for the pier sticking up then its a right faff to hide it if you ever move the mount. Although if you leave it flush or below ground level you can always cover it up, but then the foot of the pier might be exposed to standing water.
  4. Does anyone know if sources.list in the Distro has been fixed?
  5. I'm a bit of a novice with Linux, but isn't it just a case of editing sources.list to change "Fourth" to "hirsute"?
  6. Does that mean we have download again and re-install or not? I don't mind either way -its a fantastic bit of software!
  7. I downloaded on my win10 box and burned it to an iso on a USB stick with Etcher. The install (on a linux machine) starts with rather a long pause, just wait it out, then there are the usual questions. I used the whole disk as I was installing over the older version of the same with minimal changes (other than an update, which caused problems with the busted INDI package). I just left it alone to do its job: "ITABDFI". After the questions you can see a progress bar, which is less mystifying than a blinking cursor which looks like a computer special effect from ALIEN and gives you no idea what might burst out next. Maybe there was a voice in the background saying "DON'T PANIC" in a HHG sort of way but the flicker of the USB stick shows something is happening. Overall install took about 45-55min, with some data needing entry about half-way through so it can be left alone apart from that. First reboot has some pauses while it presumably loads stuff while displaying a "ready to go" window and a "washing machine" icon. I left it doing that for about half an hour and then hit DONE. Sofware updater failed (claiming no network connection although Firefox was working fine), so did a reboot, which gives a few more icons (extra HD's in the machine). Still getting "Failed to download repository information" - then an "up to date" - then an internal error. Will continue testing....
  8. Thanks for the heads-up Oleg, I'll certainly give it a try! That "bug" in INDI (indi.asi) certainly seems to mess things up. And congrats on the software - it really looks brilliant (hopefully I'll get it working soon)
  9. Just tried out Astronomy Linux from a freshly cooked bootable USB using the option to install alongside. It seems to have partitioned the disk, and then perhaps failed on the GRUB install, so I don't get the option to boot into my old system. It then ran an update, which failed on one package and aborted. The "broken" packages are "indi-asi" and "indi-full". Will keep playing with it, but please be aware the "install alongside option" may be a little risky.
  10. I have found that "marine ply", especially the stuff with a cedar facing, can be a b*****r to paint. I took advice in the shop and they sold me the wtong stuff, so I rang the paint company (Akzo) help line and they checked the facts with the store, then gave me the right stuff for free. Ten years on and it still looks great. If a paint job is really important, or (as in my case) needed scaff, it may be as well to check the substrate with a paint company first. Rgds P
  11. Hi, Great job! - a couple of tips from experience. 1) keep one of those cheap plastic sheets that are used for decorating in the obsy, just in case it rains and something goes wrong with the roof. Then at least you can throw it over the scope or whatever. Consider it the rain equivalent of a fire blanket. Hopefully you will never need it. 2) my roll-off roof (the one in the photo) blew off in a storm (good thing I had the sheet). I had tie downs but they didn't hold (but it was a very strong storm). Why not add some reserve lock-down devices ? I use four pretty heavyweight "turnbuckles" (spanschroefen ?), which I fit if the weather is going to be bad. They are a lot less expensive than a new roof! regards, Peter
  12. Phosphine is probably a good thing even if it is not associated with life on Venus. Phosphorous is quite a rare element, but may be essential to the sort of life that can use common chemistry and its lack of abundance is one suggested "solution" to the Fermi Paradox. So finding its available elsewhere even from a non-living source helps the odds for life, a little. In terms of related chemical stories - I bought a Victorian house some years ago and on peeling off the wall-paper found a green wash on the plasterwork. This was apparently an arsenical wash intended to prevent mould growing on wall-paper paste etc. I then discovered that the bugs had a niftly way of getting rid of the arsenic - converting it into arsine gas (the analog of phosphine).
  13. My problem was wind - that big storm back in the spring. A freak gust lifted the 4th floor roll-off roof straight off, over the house and into the street, where it experienced spontaneous disassemby.. This was followed by some running about and moving stuff while the rain was pouring in. Fortunately I had a few packs of the thin (decorating) poly sheet in the obsy as an emergency rain cover. Next day I boarded it as a temp measure, then came lock down, builders merchant shut, instructions to put myself under house arrest and the price of polycarbonate sheet went through the roof (if you could even get it). I never found my wind gauge. I did contact my insurance provider and they sent someone round to have a look, who thought it was an "external door" and needed a lock. I did point out that anyone who had a helicopter wouldn't be interested in robbing me, but agreed to fit a lock. Eventually I decided that making a claim wasn't economic as the only thing that seemed to be damaged (apart from the lid) was the wind gauge and one old SLR. This week I put a newly built lid on, with even more tie-down options than the old one. While at it, I installed a locking mechanism. Then I decided that the roof needed another coat of waterproofing. So, up on the obsy roof with tin of stuff etc. At some point I needed to close the roll offslightly and forgot about well-oiled rollers and the locking device - CLICK! Mmmmm....four floors up, on a flat roof with a locked roll-off skylight having a lot of cunning self-locating pins holding it down against serious storms. Fortunately, I managed to work out a way of opening it (since fixed). Anyway, the positive side was that it reminded me that while I was restoring my composure with a stiff drink, it was time to post something on SGL after a long absence.
  14. Between cloulds, so far not that bad at all .. but needs a better night
  15. Well, getting the 200k to sit on the eq5 mount was a bit (lot) harder than I thought. Newton-Ellis were great at making an adaptor, but the things you tighten to fit it all together tend to collide (can't give them a name for fear of the "swear filter"), and balancing is a bit of a nightmare. I'm really quite (very) "unhappy" with the supplier, but it's cooling down now and we shall see soon.... P
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