wornish

I have been running my RPi4 off USB3 SSD for almost year.  Yes it still has a small (cheap)  SD card as well but then that is only used for the initial firmware loading.  The performance difference is massive.

I have made a few posts on this topic that give links and storage benchmark info.

I will wait until it comes out in the next release of Raspbian though rather than risk a Beta.

Just now, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Cheers, yes definite progress 🙂

Yes the 12V supply to ASI1600 is on a seperate 12V 5A supply but I think it is only used for cooler isn't it ?

Thanks for the other tips.

Steve

Think it also powers the USB2 hub built in to the camera.  I connect my filter wheel and focuser to the Hub on the ASI1600.  

On the RPi4  I have

USB2 guide cam

USB2 mount control via a USB to Serial adapter

USB3 ASI1600 MM Pro

USB3 SSD memory 

Sounds like you're making progress.  I moved from APT to Kstars and it does take a while to find your way around, but practice helps.

I don't use GPS so can't answer your Q1.  You can enter your mount coordinates location into Kstars by using the Geographic menu from the top bar.

Q2.  I guess you are used to using Windows where its just Ctrl - C and Ctrl - V 

The difference in using the terminal on a Raspbian Linux system is to simply add the Shift key.

So Copy is Ctrl - Shift - C  and Paste is Ctrl - Shift - V.

Alternatively use the right mouse button and you get a little pop up menu where you can select copy or paste etc.

Q3.  Could well be a power issue.  When you are using all the USB ports on the RPI it is taking quite a bit of power, not sure the standard Power supply is up to it.  I use a more powerful 5 amp supply.  I assume you are supplying the 12V to the ASI1600 seperately.

I totally agree with the recommendations others have made.  Its an app that you have to dive in to, it is certainly not a quick click and magic happens type of app.   There is no one right way to process an  astro image and you have to find your own best workflow. 

Some people prefer video tutorials others prefer web based/text based ones, it's down to what works for you.

Best solution IMHO is to dive in and find your way around, make mistakes which we all do, but learn from them and move on.

Been there got the badge.  Well done.

Blimey my thread has developed a whole life of its own.  Some interesting feedback thanks.  At these long focal lengths I think Lunar and Planetary imaging is fine but don't think my seeing and  mount tracking are up to long exposure imaging of DSO.  The pixel scale is too small.  Anyone using an ASI1600 MM Pro on an edge HD care to share an image or comment.

Thanks for sharing the excellent data.

Here is my effort.

55 minutes ago, Adam J said:

You can't but in general if red is longer than greeñ and blue on one scope it will be the same on another. 

Not sure that is correct different scopes have different lenses/optics and focus different wavelengths differently so you are still comparing apples and oranges IMHO.

Thanks for sharing.  It looks very fancy now.

Registax 6 struggles with large images. If they are over 3000px longest edge it willl complain and may fail. Below that its not too bad.

+1 for Sharpcap.  It works in a few minutes.  Don't need to buy any extra hardware.

21 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I have a PC on the mount but not re RPi. I would like to try the RPi though and have started to look at KStars / Ekos.

• Do you lose anything doing this (taking in to mind what you can do on APT as that is what I know) ?
• How easy is it to use remote desktop, ot Teamviewer etc to monitor via a remote laptop?
• Is it easy to setup the RPi with all the software required ?
• I am guessing it would be best with the RP3B+ model ?

Steve

 

I also started with APT many years ago.

I moved to running Astroberry on my RPi4 which gives you Stars / Ekos already installed.

I access it remotely from my Laptop using OpenVNC over WiFi.   Again Astroberry includes that.

If you use Astroberry everything is installed so set up is simple.

The RPi3B will work but go for the RPi4 with at least 2Gb memory or even 4GB it is so much better.

Astroberry Server 2 is the latest version and you can download the complete disk image from here.

https://www.astroberry.io

As long as you are running Rasbian OS on your RPI 4  (or Ubuntu) you can resize your file system to as much as you want.  1GB or more is possible.  So yes a 128GB SD mem card will certainly work.

The minimum size is recommended to be 16GB if you want to use the full desktop interface, but you can go smaller if you only run your pi as a server with just a text terminal interface.

I have managed to do away with my powered hub.

My connections are as follows

          From RPi4 USB3  port (blue) - to SSD Memory

          From RPi4 USB3 port (blue) - to the ASI 1600MM Pro USB3 port

          From RPi4 USB2 port (black)- to Guidecam USB2 port

          From RPi4 USB2 port (black)- to Mount Hand-Set via USB to Serial adapter

Then from the ASI1600MM Pro inbuilt hub : 2 USB2 cables 

          USB2 port to ZWO EFW USB2

          USB2 port to Sesto Senso focuser USB2

I have an external water proof  12V 30amp Power Supply and run a single 12v cable from that on the ground up to a small self made distribution box located on the mount.

From this I have 4 individual 12v cables going to

          ASI 1600MM Pro so its red light comes on

          Sesto Senso focuser so its red light comes on

         AZ-EQ6 Mount 

         4 channel Dew Heater controller

Finally in the distribution box I have a 12v to 5V converter so I can supply 5V to the RPi4 itself.

Thats it, no Hub required.

It all works great and connects up once KStars/EKOS is started. The thing to check is that the RPi4 supply voltage is slightly over 5.0.  I adjusted my supply to 5.1V as the RPi4 is very sensitive to under voltage errors and that can stop things working.

Finally I connect to the RPi4 via WiFi from my warm room indoors using Open VNC.

I have a Esprit 100 and use a ZWO EFW. I have a Sesto Senso electronic focuser but have not needed to refocus when switching filters.  

I really don't see how you can compare one persons step count with anothers. There is a big difference in how different s/w apps allow you to set the desired  acceptable FWHM variance when focussing.  Then add to that the different focusers people use each with a different step count for moving the same distance.

I you are getting a new PC then try and get one as many USB ports as possible with at least one being USB3.  That will allow you to use the latest CMOS cameras if required.

I am thinking of adding a Celestron Edge HD925 to my astro gear and want to be able to use my existing ZWO ASI1600MM Pro camera and ZWO EFW that I have on my Esprit.

I also want to  include a ZWO OAG in the image train.  Anyone else done this ?  on an edge HD.     If so what extension tubes do I need to get to the correct back focus of what I believe to be 146mm.

Also I have read that you can't use electronic focusers on the HD tubes because of the mirror lock screws, is that true?

PS will work but won't be very fast.

One thing I forgot to mention is before committing check on the Indi home page for the list of devices supported. Make sure all yours are on the list.

There are so many choices out there these days that some peoples devices might not have an INDI driver available so won't work.

Here is the link

https://indilib.org/devices.html

As others have said not bad for a first attempt.

1/30 sec is quite a long exposure and the moon is moving quite quickly.  I would recommend going for at least 1/250 sec or even faster to try and remove the motion blur.

The other tip is use a remote shutter release as simply pressing the shutter causes vibration even in a sturdy mount causing blur.

Focussing is critical.

I use been using Astroberry for over a year starting on a RPi3 and then moving to RPi4 with USB3 SSD.   KStars and EKOS do everything I need.  They allow you to use PHD2 guiding if you prefer that over the inbuilt EKOS guiding.   The object finding and GoTo with astrometry works using offline solving and is very quick.    Like any new software once you come familiar with using the interface life gets easier.  Never had a crash.  Latest version even makes updating easy.

Fantastic images.

You say you were at 3000mm how did you achieve that I thought the C8 was 2000mm?

Used my Toupcam Guidecam on my main scope to get this close up.

Stack of 200 images using Registax6

Lightroom is a completely separate application made by Adobe.

Not familiar with LRT, have you tried asking users on the LRT forum?

https://forum.lrtimelapse.com

What software have you used to do the integration ?