dannybgoode

Someone on another forum is related to one of the engineers who worked on the sunshield. Apparently they are very happy with how everything is going and the pause was genuinely nothing to be concerned about. They just wanted to take their time and make sure everything was as optimal as it could be. The deployment schedule has flexibility built in so they decided to use it...

I have to tear mine don't each time sadly however I am slowly getting it all back outside in-between emails and phone calls . Scope is out and cooling also and NINA is chuntering away on flats at the moment. Fingers crossed all goes to plan and I can get some good data. I the past I have rushed to complete targets just to get an image as I couldn't be confident everything would just work the next time however I am planning on taking my time and getting some really good, long data on targets. Yeah, very impressed with NINA. So much so I have subbed to the dev's Patreon channel for a few £ per month...

Thought I would post a little update now I am using a Beelink Mini PC to run the show. I have not yet used the set up in anger, that will happen hopefully tonight looking at the forecast however last night I had it up and running to get PHD2 set up and calibrated and I currently have it outside running the main camera to capture some dark and bias frames. I am connecting to it using Windows Remote Desktop and so far it has been utterly reliable, no issues at all with connectivity and every time I have started NINA and connected various bits to it everything has been flawless. It just 'feels' robust so to speak and I have much more confidence in it all working when I need it to most; ie when it is nice, dark and cloudless. This is not something I could say about Astroberry and APT. All in all very happy so far and will report back after tonight's (hopeful) session.

Layers 2 & 3 also tensioned successfully. They're taking a break and then layers 4 & 5 tomorrow

My plans are modest; actually do some imaging and observing. I have invested in some lovely gear and I must actually use it. I came close to selling my TMB 105/650 LZOS was I was at the bottom of my depression but something held me back and I am glad I did not - I would have missed it I think. So far though this year (a short length of time it has been admittedly) I have actually been setting up each night, even when it has been cloudy, and just running through getting everything set up and running. Rinse, repeat. Just making sure that when it is a clear night I will be able to get set up quickly and with the minimum of snags. I also want to get my rig fully mobile and get to my RC plane club field where I have much better views of the skies and much darker ones than I do at home also. Again, I just about have everything together for that...

Perfect - thank you @vlaiv. I thought that was the case but wanted to be sure. Given it looks a nice clear day and I am hoping to get some nice darks in the bank whilst I wait for evening. Gives me opportunity to test my new mini PC, NINA and the camera are all talking to each other properly

Thank you - I haven't really done much to the settings and I cannot see anything obvious that would make it slew the wrong way. Got a couple of things to try today and at least I have EQMOD to fall back on. Just prefer GS Server to work with - much cleaner looking and I like the fact you can pull things in from CdC etc

Possibly a daft question however I am trying to ascertain whether it is possible to build up some of my calibration frames without the camera being attached to the scope or even the filter wheel - simply in a quest to maximise camera time for actually capturing photons. So, I know flats should ideally be taken every session and for each filter used and ditto dark flats at the same focal point and rotation as the light frames. However, do full dark frames and bias frames need to be taken per filter and if not does the camera even need to be attached to the scope?

Been trying to give GS Server a whirl as I prefer a few aspects of it over EQMOD however I just cannot get it to work properly. Running NINA with the mount connected by an EQDir cable and whenever I slew to a target it seems to be 180o off.. The mount is showing the correct coordinates when in the home position (90o and 0) but slewing just won't behave. EQMOD on the other hand works perfectly so it does not appear to be a mount or NINA issue. Am I missing something obvious? I could just keep using EQMOD however I do not like it when stuff doesn't work when it should!

Well I have just got my Beelink Mini PC up and running. Indeed I am writing this via an RDP connection into it and it seems to work very well. Whilst I agree there are often software solutions etc I've gone for a little travel router thing for two reasons; 1/ it is very straightforward to get up and running, sure I could mess about with scripts and stuff and I am pretty confident I could get it working however this was very easy. When out in the field I want to be 100% sure it's just going to work as I will not have any way of accessing the machine to fiddle with scripts and the if they don't fire up properly and 2/ these little routers are very versatile and I can make use of it when not running my scope computer. Just finishing the final bits of the installation and making sure everything talks to each other but so far so good. Overall a nice little solution and hopefully one that proves more robust than the RPi with Astroberry.

I took a gamble, set up early when it was cloudy, finally got outside around 9pm; still fast moving patchy cloud and whilst I got focused and solved but for some reason I couldn't get guiding to work and I'm not convinced the mount was tracking. The clouds thickened and I decided to call it a night. Took the dogs for a late walk, got home and the clouds had cleared. Ah well. Forecast looks good the next few days though... Looking forward to seeing the results of your efforts :). Good news that you got a break

Yeah I've gone for a £3p/m donation. I would never be able to write anything like this so feel it worth supporting as these guys and girls give so much to the hobby...

Having had a good play with NINA last night I am suitably impressed enough to consider donating to the dev. I happily pay for things like PixInsight, will cross Adobe's palm with silver etc and realised that I often just grab free software without thinking about the devs behind it, many of whom do a truly cracking job. Anyone else donate to the devs?

Oh I don't know. I sometimes like it when someone interferes with my property 🤣

I agree entirely. I just wouldn't want anyone getting into trouble trying it here without knowing whether it is an offence or not I think home security lights should be banned also. They often actually aid a thief rather than hinder them. And as for 'decorative' garden lighting etc - yep that can all go as well...

OK - having had a play with the mosaic/panel generator thing I can confidently say it's lovely! Very easy to use - more intuitive than KStars/EKOS and I like the way once you have set a panel up you can just drag it around to maximise its use. As an eg, to get M81 and M82 together with M81 in the centre I would need a 1x5 grid but the 5th grid would be pretty much empty. Knocking it down to 4 vertical panels and it means M82 drops out of frame but I can simply drag the panels up so M81 is in the bottom of the 4 panels and job done. Really very nice...

@scotty38 - ah brill. Didn't see that - is there an idiot's guide to setting it up? Looks perfect... EDIT - think I have figured it out :). Just running it through the simulator now

I so want to really like and get on with Astroberry/KStars - it is everything I wanted and the fact it runs on a Pi meant I finally thought I would be able to get out and mobile. But, it just is not quite stable enough for me - when it works it is brilliant, when it doesn't it can just be a night of frustration trying to fight issues; PA is fiddly, sometimes sequences just don't quite run, autofocus can be sketchy and at the moment for some reason it just doesn't like my Starlight Xpress CCD and I can't spend another year fighting issues and getting demotivated. I have APT as well but just felt KStars hung together better but have caved in and given NINA a go. You know what? I like it so far. Has a nice UI and is pretty intuitive. Sure I still find ASCOM more clunky than INDI, I found INDI utterly seamless to get everything up and running, however once set up it generally doesn't need touching again. Yesterday was my first time hooking everything up and it took a while to resolve COM port conflicts and get everything talking but by the time I got outside and hooked everything up it all started working first time which is what I wanted. It took a little while to get the autofocus to work but that was simply because I was too far out to begin with but once I had set the focuser there or thereabouts it worked flawlessly. As an aside this is the first time I have really used my autofocuser and it is life-changing, really is. The sequencer is straightforward also and things like slew to and plate solve all worked very well. Last night (and after I had got over some one time initial setup bits) was the first time I have run a routine on any software and had confidence it would complete without an issue which is a big step forward for me . Overall I am impressed enough to have ordered a mini PC to see if this finally gives me the mobile setup I have been looking for and I recommend anyone considering alternatives to their current control software to give it a go. The only thing of particular note I think is missing at the moment is some form of automated mosaic routine however I am sure this will come either directly from the Dev or via a plugin.

Is it legal though - interfering with other people's property? Personally I agree - it's a great thing for them to be doing however I would not be confident, in the UK at least, this is completely within the law.

@daz and @ONIKKINEN - super stuff. I have been playing with NINA tonight on my laptop and the main thing that was causing me to think I would need to stick with Astroberry was the lack of an ad hoc network to be able to work mobile and this looks like the ideal setup all round. May well bite the bullet and get some bits ordered.

And this has always been a dream target of mine. Not difficult, not rare but one of the ones that got me wanting to image in the first place. Plus I have promised my boy a copy for his wall. Plenty of high cloud and generally poor seeing but at least starting to gather some data on it. This is a single 300s Ha sub...

I had something of an epiphany tonight. Cloud free nights are a real treat but rare and in the past I have wasted them by not being prepared and then getting frustrated when nothing works. In fact this has really been the main reason why I got so demotivated last year. So tonight I decided to take the opposite approached. The forecast has been a little sketchy but there have been some good clear periods coupled with times of fast moving but broken cloud and that has been forecast to go on through the night. I also realised I had a lot to do as I am giving NINA a go instead of Astroberry/KStars so have taken the opportunity to give everything a run through. And you know what? Quite a lot hasn't gone quite right but then as I never planned for tonight to be a session instead of being frustrated I have been really pleased with what I've got done. NINA is now working, I have finally got on top of my autofocuser, the PPBA works a treat, slewing and plate solving is all go and as a bonus the clouds have cleared for a bit now so I am even getting a little bit of imaging done. Chalk all of this up as a success . Now I just need to get pulse guiding working which for some reason it doesn't want to and just keep making sur things work each and every time I want them to. So the moral of the story is don't waste a far from perfect night - there is still plenty you can get done...

Looks like the sun shield is now deployed and is ready for tensioning . Fingers crossed this all goes to plan. I am also hoping that it’s not a case of the really difficult bits going fine only for a snag on what should be a relatively straightforward part of the deployment 🥴

Positioning is largely done via gyroscopes which are electrically powered so largely non-fuel dependent. They may need to use a little though for this purpose

It's currently travelling pretty slowly in spacecraft terms. It's only doing 2500km/h or so - Concorde could do 2100km/h by way of comparison and Apollo 11 on the way to the moon over 40000 km/h and it will keep on slowing down (the odd correction burn aside) until yes, it will pretty much just stop and enter L2 orbit. The maths to work out the required velocity etc is beyond my tiny brain for sure!