wornish

Yes I felt the same. The last few slides he skipped looked interesting.

Absolutely brilliant.

Some useful info here from the developer of Sharpcap.

So far it's working for me. Fingers crossed.

Finally got everything working. Using Kstars and Ekos with Astroberry on a RPi3B+ on the mount, all work great. Just set up for a remote control session tonight. This is my astro setup.

Plus 1 for astroberry. Recently installed it on my Raspberry Pi3B+ and it works great. For the first time, I can remotely control all my gear.

As said its the GPS equivalent of the millennium bug year 2000 role over that affects early GPS systems. More details here https://www.orolia.com/resources/blog/lisa-perdue/2018/gps-2019-week-rollover-what-you-need-know

It can be done using the terminal. After a lot of searching the command that worked for me was. sudo do-release-upgrade You can also do it from the main Astroberry window using the System - Administration - Software Update app as well. Its a bit complicated though doing it that way. I also looked at using the Rock as well but decided to try the more proven RPi3B+ to see what its like. I did invest in a powered hub for the mount as the RPi just couldnt cope with all the USB power needed for the cams and focusser. I am amazed that the inbuilt WiFi actually works without any booster and connects to my house BTHub, so I am completely wireless!

At the moment I am just running the indi-drivers on the RPi and Kstars and Ekos on my windows laptop, I have not suffered any crashes - yet? The standard Astroberry still comes on Ubuntu 16 and I wanted to take advantage of some of the latest indi drivers which need 18. So I have now updated my RPi to 18.10. The release-upgrade takes a long time and after about three hours asks you a couple of questions which you have to answer before it continues for another hour or so. It does however work. I was using a 16gB memory card and that did fill up. So it's important to clear out a lot of the old stuff using some of the command line tools and the Bleachbit (as root) app when upgrade finished to clean out junk and free up disk space.

Just a brief update I had my first real session last night running Astroberry on my RPi3B+ on my mount. Apart from the initial set up of the focuser and then doing polar alignment (I use Sharpcap for that) I controlled the whole thing from a nice warm house using my windows laptop over WiFi. Managed to get 5 x 300 sec shots each R,G and B + 10 x 300s Lum of Makarians Chain with M86 in the centre using the Ekos inbuilt astrometry for platesolving and alignment. I also used the internal Ekos guiding package but don't think I got that working correctly will watch a tutorial again to see what I missed. The whole Kstars and Ekos apps are very powerful and I am going through a steep learning curve, but very pleased to actually get it working pretty well. Here is my attempt from last night.

Previously I have used APT on a windows laptop directly connected to my gear and it really worked well. But I wanted to move indoors so decided to take the plunge. I have just completed installing a Raspberry Pi3B+ running Astroberry on Ubuntu Linux and now I can remotely control my whole setup in the garden over WiFi while I stay in the warm indoors! It was relatively easy once I managed to get all the software up to the latest levels. It took a whole day to update my RPi Ubuntu from the Astroberry supplied version 16 to the latest version 18, but I just left it to run and it all came good in the end. I am just using the Indi drivers on the RPi and all is working as it should. I do have one outstanding issue with my sestor-senso focuser that has to be recalibrated for each new session after being powered off, that is a pain but hopefully, the Indi drivers will get updated to fix the issue. I have had a steep learning curve with using KStars on my laptop as the indoor control application, but I am getting there. Looking forward, Indigo is a new open platform Astro software package that will run on any platform. Indigo has just released Indigo Sky which is a complete Raspberry Pi preconfigured disk image running on Debian Linux and having played with it, it looks very promising. APT is planning to introduce Indigo support in their next release and subject to drivers being available for all my gear (again sesto-senso is an issue) I plan on switching back to APT as my overall control application as I know my way around it. So bottom line: If you are OK using the terminal for the occasional command line update to install a missing bit of software, then Linux is absolutely great.

I have taken the advice from RadekK and downloaded astroberry to try on my new RPi3B+. After a few teething problems because of a slightly low 5V supply, I have managed to get Indi / Kstars and PHD2 up and running and being accessed over WiFi. I have updated Ubuntu from 16 to 18 and all still works, this allows me to use extra drivers in Indi. I think I am going to need a WiFi extender though as the one in the RPi does not have a very long range I am told. So progress is being made.

Thanks for the replies but there is no explanation of the steps needed to load exactly what software on the RPi and what software on the remote controlling computer if its running Windows. Indi is not fully supported on Windows even today according to their website. Its a minefield of issues, which most posts seem to gloss over, or drown you in lots of technical info which never actually come to a working solution. I am looking at indigo which could be the way forward but it's still effectively in Beta and not solid, but shows promise. Remote control of your total imaging system and mount etc is certainly not ready for non-techies who want to get into the warm! I use APT as my main application which in the next version is promising indigo support and that will make a big difference if it delivers.

Thanks, I have read her long post but it seems she only controls the focuser and camera, not the mount. I am sure someone is doing it but I can't find them on here.

I have searched this forum but can't find any post where someone is actually controlling their mount remotely using a Rasberry Pi at the mount end. What software needs to run on the Rpi to actually connect to the mount? Any help or links appreciated.

Thanks for sharing this. Not heard of NINA before. I will certainly give it a go.

The forecast is for clear skies tomorrow have you tried saying pretty please ?

Here is an excellent tutorial in removing gradients using Photoshop and its basic tools. The steps are to create a synthetic flat and then subtract the flat from your image. You can fix your gradients for FREE.

It works great, just ran the Backlash Aid using APT and everything seems fine. If a focusser is only using the course control then I guess the accuracy of focus will suffer. On my Esprit 100 the Sesto Senso takes over 90,000 steps to move the focuser from fully in to fully extended . that works out at 0.887 micron per step.

Took the plunge and ordered one as an early Christmas present for myself. It arrived today. Its so small and neat ! Was very easy to fit on my Esprit and it works with APT. Now just need some clear skies to give it a go.

I am seriously considering the Sesto Senso and was wondering how those that have one are getting on with it ? One thing I am confused about is how does it attach to your scope ? I understand it clamps on the fine focus button shaft but where does the body of the focusser attach?

Just re visited this thread. In the first post it is said that long focal length scope imaging is beyond the capabilities of most non premium grade mounts. i.e. mounts costing less than £2000. I am successfully guiding and capturing acceptable images using my existing kit Esprit 100ED ( 550mm) so no problems there. Now the but: I "was" thinking about getting a longer focal length OTA say a Celestron HD 9.25 to capture the smaller DSO's Will I be dissappointed because my AZ-EQ6 isn't able to guide to the accuracy needed. What mounts are others using to support a long focal length scope for long exposure imaging.

Will Have you managed to get SharpCap to platesolve and polar align now ?

Ideally yes as already said but it works just as well if its out of the frame..

Another BIG + for Sharpcap Pro and Polar alignment. It just works so quickly and you don't even have to have your mount powered on. You can be in excellent alignment in less than 4 minutes. Best £10 I spent on astro software. If you are quick you can download the current Beta and try out the Polar Alignment tool for free. I think it times out the end of October after that its back to paying for it. In fact I have just this week renewed my pro licence for a second year and got 2 extra months free.