wornish

1 hour ago, wimvb said:

I have been running INDI/Kstars on a Rock64 (Rockchip RK3328) for several years, and also have a RockPro64 (Rockchip RK3399). Because the RockPro64 is larger, I haven't mounted it on my telescope yet. (I bought it because it uses 12V instead of 5V, so one less cable.) I use Armbian as OS, and have the stable pre-compiled version of INDI/Kstars installed, which runs without any issues. I think I must have been one of the earliest users of 64 bit systems, because I had to ask the developer of linux phd2 to add 64 bit to the repository. Anyhow, early problems were mostly related to instabilities in the OS, and (un-)availability of 64 bit software. I used to have Ubuntu/Mate installed, but switched to Armbian a little more than a year ago, and haven't had a problem since.

I have just got Armbian running on RockPi4B (RK3399), did you compile KStars/Indi from source?

Postman delivered a RockPi4 and 256GB NVME M.2 memory.   Going to try and compile KStars on it.

Initial tests show the RockPi4 is blazingly fast.  Read speed from the NVME is 1.5GB/sec 🤓

My RaspberryPi4 with SSD manages a respectable 350 MB/sec.  For further comparison the read speed from the SDCard is 24MB/sec.😟

Anyone running KStars on the RockPi4 ?

41 minutes ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

Silly question, but why not install the ready compiled \ ready to go executables ??  

They are not available for the RPi unless you are running Astroberry.

I use Topaz DeNoise for my moon shots.  I think when used in moderation it does a great job.

Someone asked this question on another forum.

Why are craters on the moon almost always round?  why no glancing blows?

On 05/03/2012 at 15:20, Mav359 said:

I have a 9.25 its fantastic, just think space, it's not small! & if your not permanently set up in an obs think about having to move it. Its a great piece of engineering but you can't pick it up in one go (60kg ish) as it turns into an octopus and won't go through a doorway.

Imagine what the 11" would be like.... don't be put off though i have zero regrets and with a F6.3 reducer its capable of much more then just planetary imaging.

I have the edgeHD 9.25 and set it up each time on my AZ-EQ6 mount.  The OTA weighs 9.5kg so its not too hard to set up.

Taken this afternoon using my OMD EM1mk3 with 300mm and 1.4TC

11 hours ago, scotty38 said:

Nice, I have one of those..... Keep thinking about a different power cable similar to yours as the standard one is a bit stiff and can catch but it keeps working so haven’t bothered yet....

I have the standard AZ-EQ6 and was thinking the same thing about getting a new power cable as it is a bit stiff.  Great Mount.

If all you want are the INDI drivers then go to the Indi home page

https://indilib.org

And click on the Get Indi drop down. Select MacOS and it takes you to the Mac page then click on the down arrow at the bottom.

If you want to get the latest Indi and KStars/Ekos then go to the KStars page and download the Mac dmg file

https://edu.kde.org/kstars/#download

The settings you use in Registax6 are critical.

Make sure you are using the Gaussian filter option not the default option.

This video explains the process steps.

Celestron have also gone up in price.

15 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

@wornishThanks. I’m on a MacBook on which I use KStars/ekos/indi to control my mount, cameras and guiding. I know when I first down loaded KStars it had the ekos and Indi components too. It took a while to get it up an working with various add ons, plate solving databases etc .... and I don’t want to muck it up. I am aware though that were  I to get a new mount or camera, which are on the cards, I’m probably going to have to upgrade. 

As you are on a Mac the upgrade is straightforward. Simply download the macOS file from the site and a single click will do the upgrade.  Your supporting databases and setups will not be changed and it will work straight away.

7 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

I have been thinking I ought to update my now rather old versions of KStars for some time. I am slightly worried about disrupting a working system.  How does one go about it? Does it update EKOS and INDI at he same time?  

Depends what system you are running it on.

If it's a Windows based system then simply go to the Kstars site and download the Windows version.

https://edu.kde.org/kstars/#download

If its Mac or Linux then follow the instructions on the site to download the specific version.

If you are running on a Raspberry Pi then you have two options .

a. If running under Ubuntu linux follow the instructions on the site.

If running Astroberry then you can simply use the software update steps described on the Astroberry site.

Open terminal.

Use: sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

When you do this update update it updates EKOS and Indi as well.

If you are running some other version of Linux then I am afraid  a full recompile is needed which is not for the feint hearted.

Taken using my ZWO ASI290MC on HD925

Managed to get some good detail last night.

This is a stack of the best 10% of 2000 frames taken with my ASI290MC on HD925.

Got a few more images still to process. Must learn how to do a proper panorama.

Pixinsight is capable of producing high quality output by itself. but that said many people always give their images a final polish is an image processing app.

If you want free one then have a look at GIMP it can do anything even PS can do.

Affinity Photo is not free but is available for a one off payment and has many astro features excellent value for money.

Plus 1 for Sharpcap, it is so quick and easy.  KStars/Ekos also has a very good polar align function and its free!

Excellent detail.  

Had another go tonight.

Single shot hand held again.

Single shot hand held.

EM1mk3 + 300mm + 1.4TC.

Few close ups.  

Not very happy with the clarity.

There is a useful tutorial here.  Its for autostakkert 2 but it applies to 3 as well.

One thing that stands out for me is that you have way too many alignment points and they are two small.

Try clearing the grid and then select the 200 AP Size  or manually pick a size.

Its no longer in beta they released the full version last night.  1.9.