The Admiral

I thought it was very good, the panel members were very easy to listen to.

Ian

Superb!

Ian

I particularly like the pictures with the foreground stones, they add interest and counterpoint to the heavens.

Ian

Promising development Paul, even if it is a bit nail biting! I'm sure you will buff it into shape, but I guess as always you need plentiful opportunities to hone the skills. Hope we get them.

Ian

I was out looking for Comet Pons-Brooks last night. Couldn't see it at all, just the very early Moon. I snapped it just before it went below the roofline.

Taken with Lumix G80 and Panny-Leica 200mm f/2.8.

Ian

7 minutes ago, gorann said:

Yes, I feel I have the responsibility of catching the photons landing here

I'm beginning to suspect that you've found a way to collect all ours as well. 😉

Ian

You never cease to amaze Goran 👏. Where would you be without those lovely dark skies to keep you, and us, amused?

Ian

When I tried cleaning my conventional camera sensor I used up a lot of the cleaning sticks, but there's still a mote left behind! Turned into an expensive exercise. Have fun 😊.

Ian

I am on Android, and having rolled back the software to the last properly working version I have turned off auto-updating. I did this by opening Play Store, searching for the App (ASIAir), clicking on the 3 dots at the top right of the page, and unchecking auto-updating. It does seem that since v1.9, all versions have 'issues'. Apple products may work differently of course.

Ian

18 minutes ago, Glenbo said:

256mb version has the faster frame rate

Whether the 32GB version has the fast frame rate as the 256GB one is a bit if a moot point. This was asked several times in the comments, and the reply was that it has. However, I suppose the only way to tell for sure is to open one up, but it would be logical for ZWO to adopt the same hardware for both versions. BUT, ZWO's advertising is somewhat ambiguous: "The larger eMMC storage brings faster data transmission speed". This implies that the 256 chip is faster than the 32.

Ian

This is interesting. The NarrowBand Channel has looked inside.

Ian

I think we need to be careful here, as if I understand correctly, the Plus (which is what I have) was launched using the standard RPi, before shortages caused ZWO to produce their own version using different chipsets. ZWO didn't change the model identifier, unfortunately. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

I run mine with a ZWO harmonic mount, so running with all ZWO products you'd expect it to perform without issue, as indeed it did until it was auto-updated to v2 and above.  Initially I couldn't understand why things seemed to be going wrong. Now I've rolled back to v1.9 it seems to be working as before.

With luck yours will work without issue.

Ian

15 hours ago, Glenbo said:

The real test is getting it out on the field.

Well indeed that is a good start, but you certainly need to test for real. For example, the problems I had were things like PA alignment not seeming to work properly, tracking cancelled when trying to do all star PA, and failure to be able to successfully return to home properly after an imaging session, (but doing so before the session). I suspect everyone has different problems. Watch your mount like a hawk during the session.

Good luck!

Ian

Incidentally, re the card capacity, in the video link I posted he suggested 64GB rather than 32GB, as the latter don't necessarily have that capacity available.

Ian

21 minutes ago, Glenbo said:

I may still find annoying bugs with this new version so we shall see.

So, if I understand correctly, you are now on which version? Oddly, I don't recall having to do that to get it working, but never mind. Perhaps I only got as far as v2.0 before I gave up. Let's hope that the version you now have works like a charm. I'm not taking any bets though 😉.

Let us know how it goes please.

Ian

Ah, yes. I was just looking at https://youtu.be/ik7wtHlQYNs?si=jjs_po4zKMQWB3BC and discovered that they are different. I have the Plus version. My misunderstanding, sorry.

I would have hoped that someone with the PRO version who has done the SD card backup could send you a copy of their file?

Ian

I don't really understand what you are saying, I'm not that up on these things.

I presume that you have reset the ASIAir to the default version using the reset button on the user interface, before starting the v1.9.1 app on the tablet?

Ian 

I've downloaded the two options from above, and they both have a size of 662,468KB, the same as my originally downloaded file (probably the Bonzer one). The update 2 version has the same file title, except there's a "tencent" between the final two sets of digits. Go figure.

Ian

9 hours ago, Glenbo said:

Yes I am trying to find a 1.9 version in an APK file.

I agree, I avoided using those websites with their own installers. I did find one from a responder on the ZWO forum, and although I was a bit nervous using it, it does work OK. I've been trying to find it again, but will keep looking. ZWO has a new website which at first site doesn't have a forum, and even if it does somewhere, I wonder if the ASIAir user forum will be copied over. So use the old site, https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/. Reading through the forum is a bit of an eye opener to be honest, there's a lot of disquiet about ZWO's roll out of updates.

Ian

Update. I've found one offering by Bonzer2u, post 72, here https://bbs.zwoastro.com/d/15898-asiair-v21-has-been-released/73. I assume it's still there and I offer this without any guarantees.

Update 2. Another one from and earlier ZWO forum thread https://bbs.zwoastro.com/d/15148-asiair-v20-has-been-released/128. Worth reading posts 116 to 123. Interesting that ZWO suggested the AKP Pure site, rather than post their own link? I think it can be sideloaded rather than using APK Pure. You can Google how to do that.

Possibly worth reminding that automatic updating of the ASIAIR can be switched off by going into the Play Store entry and turning off auto-updating.

Ian

Just a heads up, should it be needed, is that there will not be any talks this year.

https://practicalastroshow.com/speakers/

I see that FLO aren't on the exhibitors list. Is that correct?

Ian

That's a good start, but like all of us the weather isn't being very helpful. Good luck.

Ian

That first image is a rather spectacular one. In some ways I feel the light pollution is an integral part of the image, enabling you to silhouette the background which to my mind helps with the composition.

I note that the star colours are quite saturated, presumably enhanced in post, but I like that, it's the artistic aspect which appeals rather than any scientific accuracy.

Ian

5 minutes ago, YogSothoth said:

they appear to be almost dead centre

Well in that case it makes sense. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it.

Ian

I assume that the rings remain static as you change the geometry of your viewing? I must admit, if there are any rings, then naively I would have thought they'd be in the centre, which is where you'd expect the lens surfaces to be nearest to each other. Then again, your star tests are OK.

Ian