Vox45

This thread was created to help people who would like to leave MS and move to Linux. The idea is to list, in a concise manner, the list of all softwares that are either cross-platform (for exemple: Carte Du Ciel) or alternatives to what is commonly used (for exemple INDI Library instead of ASCOM) I'll let people who are computer savvy expand on this list... There are also Linux distribution that were created specifically for astrophotography

thank you for taking the time to clarify this I'll look into your software as it looks really good from what I gather reading this thread. Nice to see that there are still people trying to improve on this process as it can be confusing to the newcomers. I still see on a regular basis people starting threads on PA and confusing 3 stars alignment with polar alignment. In my case, it has always been the issue of what to do when polaris is not visible... learning an alternate method has saved my night a couple of time

I am starting to get a little confused, maybe you can help clarify. (1) How does PPA compares with Kevin Sipprell's PoleFocus ? (2) I see people using PoleMaster software, which looks similar to your software, and pay up to 300€ for the camera that is placed on the Polar scope. From what I understand, your software uses a camera mounted on the main scope, so are these people throwing away 300€ ? I mean, is there a reason to get a dedicated cam on the polar scope, what is the logic behind that if we can achieve the same result using a DSLR on the main OTA ? Sorry for the dumb question but I feel that we are spending a lot of energy on something that should be quite simple and built in the mount I heard that some newer mount get rid of this issue... rumor ? Personally I use PDH drit align tool ... takes more time but works well. I would like to test your software so I could speed up the PA process of course. A fellow astronomer did a demo of his polemaster last week, he was done in less than 5 minutes... but for a cost !

nice

Curious .. which software did you use to do the design with transparency like that ? looks quite nice

I can't wait to see the end design great project ... but will the obsy also have pretty blue curtains like the play house ? I hope it does ! My duaghter is also 6... what a joy when she started to enjoy astro like her daddy. Nothing beats that

My version of M31 taken with a SW80ED and FR/FF + Canon 1000D DSLR, not cropped. I was fortunate to be in the French Alps under dark skies, that made it much easier to get decent result. I only wish I had taken more lights (15x30secs @800ISO)

Beautiful nice choice of color, it does compliment your tidy garden ! I am a bit jealous ....

Thanks for pointing that out ! The cheap chinese copy I got is such a soldering mess that I don't trust it to be used with my mount anymore. I understand where people are coming from when they want to make their own cable, but in my case, I don't want to worry everytime I plug my cable and my peace of mine is worth the price of an Hitech Astro cable Again, I am not judging people who feel like making their own cable as it is a really easy job, my only advice would be to stay away from chinese copies and buy genuine FTDI chips

Soldering was really awful, I was shocked when I opened the casing... I agree Zakalwe, you get what yo pay for... I went to the FTDI site to order the chip... The chip is 14.88£ and shipping is 16.93£ for France. Grand total of 36£ ... Might as well buy one from FLO, to support their business and i'd get better customer service if something goes wrong.

last update ... gave up ... Everything that could go wrong did go wrong... - Ordered from eBay (china) on june 27th... finally got the chip 6 weeks later - followed EQMOD colors for the RJ45 and like the big dope that I am did not realise that the wire I had did not match the color specifications ... I confused the red for the "orange" (TXD) and used the yellow and black as specified. Problem is, I did not check the specs for the one I got on eBay... in doubt I went back to the vendor site and saw this: Red wire: 5V Black wire: GND White wire: RXD Green wire: TXD Yellow wire: RTS Blue wire: CTS I should have gone with Black/White/Green instead of Black/Yellow/red (that I mistooke for the orange) Basically the 1st wire I made was GND/RTS/5v ... Doh! hopefully I did not damage anything by putting 5v on TXD .. - and finally, as everything was getting very confusing, I opened the USB connector to look at the PCB and, surprise surprise ... Green wire was loose ! To think that I bought this because I did not want to do soldering on an FTDI chip... Frankly, all this to save 20£ and it is still not connecting to the mount. I give up, I'll be ordering a genuine chip from FTDI tomorrow lesson learned.

I just had a senior moment there ... When I said that when cheking the voltage using pin 4 (GND) and 5 (RXD) I get 4.98v but when I check on the pin 4 and 6 (TXD) it reads around 3.5v It was actually the opposite... I get 5v on pin 4 and 6 (TXD) and 3.5v on 4 and 5 (RXD) which is the correct voltage for a HEQ5 mount on TXD... Still no luck, I get connection errors in EQMOD and went through the usual suspect (com port, drivers, reboot, etc) I even change computer from a win7 x32 to a win7 x64 so... I'll check the wiring and hopefully it is not the FTDI driver refusing to talk to a fake chip although FTDI did say that they would not do that (anymore)

Ok I see what you mean ! thanks The chip I bought is a 5v chip, I made sure of that. I agree with what other are saying about buying cheap copies from china. In my case it was more for a POC and I will buy a genuine FTDI one later. It is quite easy if you have the tools to crimp an RJ45 to a wire ended chip (rather than soldering)

Maybe I am doing my test wrong ! I just plug the USB cable and use a voltmeter on the RJ45 side, I do not plug the cable into the mount (not an electrical genius here

I bought the requred chip with a bare wire end and then used an RJ45 connector and crimped the wires according to the EQmode website. http://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/reqindex.html When cheking the voltage using pin 4 (GND) and 5 (RXD) I get 4.98v but when I check on the pin 4 and 6 (TXD) it reads around 3.5v Is this normal ? should I get around 5v on both wires ?

Finally I can join the party Here's my new case. Just got it last week and spend some time this weekend fine tuning it... At last, I can throw away my cardboard boxes and ziploc bags