RayD

Happy days mate.  So glad you got this sorted and kudos to @angryowl for helping out.  Bring on the clear skies!! 🙂

5 minutes ago, MikeP said:

It is worth having a look at NINA https://nighttime-imaging.eu/

Mike

Never seen that before, Mike.  Looks neat.

I run Suequence Generator Pro, and love it.  It makes life very easy and encompasses many things in to one package.

CDC I use and rate it highly.

DSS I sometimes use but less so now as I mostly now use Pixinsight as for me it seems to do a better job.

Sharpcap I use and rate it for planetary but use Registax more than AS3! although I do sometimes use that if Registax is having a moment.

I think those that use Maxim rate it highly, and there are the Linux options of Kstars/Ekos etc. but I find that all a little bitty and haven't really got on with it when I've tried it.

I think much of it is how the software fits your eye and your expectations as, in general, they all work.  For me SGP looks good, runs well and does an awful lot for the money.

Enjoy your new compluter and hopefully the clean slate will mean trouble free imaging whichever route you go.

5 minutes ago, andrew s said:

My advice, for what it is worth is to minimise the number of components as much as possible.

Regards Andrew 

Dob it is, then 😉

News that Royal Mail is struggling to get through a backlog of 15,000 items waiting to be sorted at Heathrow hub!! (sorry to those waiting for bits from me).

👍 Spot on job, Mark.  I like them.

5 hours ago, steppenwolf said:

You clearly haven't seen his premises then!

I have.  I went there when I accidentally broke a motor on my mount, and it is pretty impressive!  Lucas was superb and replaced the motor for me while I waited, FOC, just charging for the actual motor.

Top bloke, impressive workshop and I am one of the ones who has had no issues at all, so extremely happy with it.

Under the matting in the scope room side of my obsy I have two pressure pads which I activate when I'm imaging.  I think they were about £20 each, so not a back breaker.  They are connected to my home automation system and it sends me a push notification and turns the lights on if anything triggers the pads.  This could even be a cat jumping in there, but it keeps me satisfied that no one is trying to pinch my kit.

Maybe something similar under a mat next to your kit which no one would be expecting, and which could trigger a siren if triggered.

Holy thread revival!  That was 2011, I suspect he knows how it performs by now 🙂

To underline Carole's point, I am not ready for imaging yet as it isn't dark enough, so I have the roof of the observatory closed and I am running the flats for this sequence as I have just changed my camera.  Easy to do to, takes about 10 minutes tops and leaves plenty of time to get my main sequence ready to run.  You don't have to do them at the end of the sequence, they can be done at the beginning also (or any time if your camera hasn't been moved).

42 minutes ago, carastro said:

Flats are IMO the most important part of imaging as they remove dust and vignetting.

Couldn't agree more (well, with the exception of the light frames of course 🙂).

When doing flats and bias frames remember they don't take long to do at all, so take lots of them to make a really decent master of each. 

Don't sell your stuff, you will definitely regret it.  I just took about a year out myself for a coupe of reasons and, whilst I didn't actually miss it too much whilst away, now I am back in to imaging etc. I have a renewed interest and passion for it.

As noted above, a rest is as good as a change.

50 minutes ago, alacant said:

...and small. Perfect. Let the imaging begin.

Let's hope you've started a trend; phd2 users looking at their images, not their graphs!

Cheers

Well said, Sir!

10 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

The Sky-Watcher HEQ5 PRO Go-To has been recommended to me also today - worth a look 

Definitely, a really good mount.

They're a good little mount, I still have one that I use for friends to use for visual, but if you want to use for AP using your C8 I would suggest something like a used EQ6 or similar which you can connect to using EQMOD to make life a bit easier.  However, much depends on your budget but they are all good mounts within their weight capacity.

7 minutes ago, smr said:

Ok thanks,

A lot of these USB hubs have very short cables. Do you use an extension USB cable to connect to laptop ? 

Most of the better ones like Startech actually don't come with a cable, you use your own, so you can choose what length you need.

1 minute ago, Beardy30 said:

Like the look of this mount as an upgrade from the SE I have - question I have is ... would my Nexstar SCT 8” fit or do I need an extra something to connect them ? 

The 8" SCT is sold with the AVX as a kit by Celestron so it will definitely fit and work.  Once fully loaded with kit the C8 is at the upper end of the mount's capacity but, depending what you intend to use it for, it will work fine.  However, don't be expecting to image with 30 minute subs at F10 as you'll probably struggle.

That's right, Ken, on the stock focuser you need no other adaptors.  Everything you need is supplied in the kit.  Just 1 x USB and 1 x 12v power is needed and no external controller.  

I believe it works fine with APT, and both 32bit and 64bit drivers are supplied on a USB stick.

The only downside of the Lakeside is the controller, if you don't use a hub.  It is pretty big and can be a bit cumbersome to house in a suitable spot.  If you have a hub with a focuser output, as I do here on my Esprit with a Pegasus UPB, then there are actually less cables as it runs on the single one which carries both data and cabling.

Both are very good and both work very well with the FSQ106, I like both for different reasons.  I think others like the Pegasus are also very good.

You need to open Sharpcap and in the settings menu set your destination folder.  See below.  Click on the 3 dots next to the file name and choose your external drive or other chosen file location.  You see mine is my R: drive, which is an external USB3 drive.

I've used both Lakeside and Sestosenso on my FSQ106 and both work excellently.  The Sestosenso is easier if you don't have a hub as the controller is built in, so you don't need to house the controller box. 

I did a video fitting the lakeside to my FSQ here so you can see how easy it is to fit.  You can also see it here with the Sestosenso.

Edit:  They will both hold your focuser fine, but the Sestosenso fits to the low speed shaft, so has a lot higher resolution and is why I currently use that.

1 hour ago, Rusted said:

So I bought a 1TB Samsung T5 external USB3 SSD. But now I waste valuable imaging time transferring files.
Just because the onboard  SSD has filled up. [Again!] I could get a bigger onboard SSD but worry about reloading Windows 10.

Not sure what capture software you're using, but have you tried setting your target location to your external drive and save directly to it?  The T5 on USB3 has a pretty good write rate, so it may work.

This is all I ever do and it works fine and keeps the internal drives for programmes only.

6 minutes ago, Helen said:

Thanks all - I think sticking to what I know for the time being might be an idea rather than going down the Pi4 route...

How does this look? https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/refurbished-hp-elitedesk-800-g3-core-i7-6700-16gb-512gb-nvme-ssd-windows-10-t1-hpe800g3i716gb512gbw1/version.asp

Thanks

Helen

Looks like a pretty good spec.  W10 Pro isn't essential but it is handy to have as it means you have a little more control over updates, and you can utilise Remote Desktop if you choose to do so.

It has 2 display ports so make sure your monitors have this input or you will need a display port to HDMI, DVI or VGA adaptor (depending what inputs your monitor has).

It doesn't say if it has USB3, but I suspect it will.  Even so, it is very cheap and easy to add a USB3 card to one of the spare slots.  It's small form factor so you would need a short card, but these are readily available.

In all I'd say not too bad for an i7 with a good sized SSD, 16GB RAM and W10 Pro.

15 minutes ago, johninderby said:

When is Moonlite going to bring out an R&P focuser?

Now that would be something!

It's pretty subjective.  I actually run both; a desktop i7 in the UK and an i5 fanless (pier mounted) mini pc (not NUC) in Spain.  Both have been faultless but of course either or both could fail at any time. 

One thing I would say is the cost of a better spec at purchase is minimal compared to costs of upgrades in the future, particularly if you are using it for high frame rate video capture.  Get a reasonable spec now and it should last quite a while.

Totally agree with Sara re. SSD, pretty much a must have.

Great stuff, lovely to read something positive.