hitmanh

Feedback: omg, omg, plate solving, omg. Ah, got that out of my system. Installing Indilib was simple enough and had no issues. Creating profile was straight forward. Connecting to az-eq6-gt using eqmod driver and Zwo asi1600 using Zwo drivers just worked. Here things got a little more difficult, it isn't exactly clear what you need to set versus what can be left alone. It took a while to work past some error messages imply because it isn't clear in the UI what boxes you need to fill in. Documentation on Indilib isn't great (it's mainly a glossary with a few parts on actually how to do stuff). Forums are helpful and devs are active on there, which is great. Simplest way to get working is to following this video, which I found far more helpful. One I understood the setup and workflows, Ekos is very simple and easy to use. Last night I was on m33 and m31 very quickly and plate solving -> slew to target works very well to get DSOs centered in your view. Configuring photo sequences is very easy and straight forward, sadly sky conditions weren't great (high level cloud) so I didn't have much to show. Getting focus manually on the CCD was fine using the tools Issues I had: Initial config wasn't always clear (text input boxes are exactly the same as current setting boxes, for example, so it's not necessarily clear when/where you need to add data) and it isn't clear what you need to add to get going versus advanced config that isn't necessarily required to make it work During last session, plate solving stopped working. Not sure what the problem is yet. FITS viewer not coming to front on occasions Stuff I haven't done yet: Guiding Filter wheel Polar alignment process Overall, I am very happy with Indilib/Ekos. Once configured it is very easy to use and stable (ran for over 5 hours over two nights on the laptop on battery) with tracking and photo sequences running without a single failure/crash, missed shot, or tracking issue.

So, I decided to jump into linux for control and capture (I've been using it for years for servers and storage). I picked up a Google Pixel Chromebook and I've installed GalliumOS (based on Xubuntu with some optimizations build in for Chromebooks). The Pixel has quad core i7 with 16gb ram, a great display (2560x1700, 13"), so will be great for portable image processing, and has a 12 hour battery life. The only real down sides are cost (it's around £900) and limited storage (64gb solid state built in). It does have USB 3 and USB C plus a SD card slot, so extra storage can be added easily. Getting Linux on was pretty simple and is well documented. I've installed Indilib and built phd2 and I'm just waiting for USB adapter for my az-eq6 before giving it all a go. Main use will be command and control when at home (I have decent workstation for image processing at home) and for c&c and image processing when mobile (will be trying the PixInSight demo soon). Hopefully will have some feedback soon.

For those with mirror-less cameras (4/3s, Fuji X, Sony alpha, etc) Canon FD lenses work a treat, I've pick up 85mm F1.4, 100mm F2.8, 200mm F4 , and 300mm F4 for not a lot of cash from ebay in the last year and had some pretty nice shoots.