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Posts posted by Tomatobro
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I have five ( brought used of Ebay) NUC's in service (i3 and i5) which all have Win 10 pro ( for remote desktop) and all run off a 12 volt supply. Fast boot up and they range from 4 to 8Gb ram and most have 256 Gb storage.
Although the power input state 18 volts I have never had an issue running them at 12 volts
The most I have paid is £110
Worth considering if cash is tight.
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I always go for the Startech industrial hubs. These are powered by a separate power supply. Sometimes can be got for a reasonable price on Ebay.
There is a used 4 port 3.0 for £34 available.
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I have looked at the data sets available since joining PA but this is the first write up I have seen on what you get for the money. Nice image.
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Looking at the exposure time and recording time if yours is GMT then this could be a match as ours is tagged with UTC
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I had a pitch booked but could not justify the risk so decided to stay at home. I guess others have done the same.
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Cloudy Nights has a post on this so worth a look
search on ASIAIR Plus Speed Test, Planetary Imaging
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38 minutes ago, TiffsAndAstro said:
Bit apprehensive about it tbh
I can understand this as it can be all a bit confusing.
I always do my setup tests in daylight. I aim the scope at the top of a distant tree, set the camera to a very short exposure and see what I get. If the scope is a total unknown back focus wise I improvise something without all the reducers etc just to get an idea of what the measurement is. The cardboard tube from the inside of toilet rolls can be useful for this. It excludes the light and you can slide it in and out watching the monitor till a rough focus position is found then mark it with a pen. Now I can start putting together spacers etc.
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On 01/04/2024 at 14:41, tomato said:
I wonder what will be a hot topic then
Image processing software that looks at your subs, decides they are not up to standard, takes control of your scope, retakes them and wakes you up next morning with a cup of tea and the best picture you have ever seen. Shows you your picture and compares it with the one it took with comments as to where you went wrong.
A bit like how the Asiair passes comments on my polar alignment performance the other night.
5000..... Wow
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1 hour ago, John_D said:
Well designed ( usually more expensive ) switched mode supplies can handle transients very well. Similarly, badly designed ( usually cheaper ) linear supplies, with insufficient smoothing capacitors for example, can have poor transient performance
True of everything. But I stand by my basic advice i.e. a good linear PS would be my first choice.
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Switched power supplies are small and efficient but poor when dealing with transient loads. Linear power supplies are big and heavy and not very efficient but are good at dealing with transients.
Linear power supplies are being phased out (EU directive).
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Never in the field of astro photography has one item been loved by so many and disliked by so few.
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My allsky has 25 watts of heat going into it and when its switched on in the evening the dome will show a degree of misting some nights. After about an hour its clear.
I read somewhere that someone tried reducing the volume of air inside the canister by packing it with high density foam. The idea I think was that as its the air that is holding the moisture then reducing the volume inside with the foam it reduced the amount of water available.
I have packed the housing that holds my Unihedron SQM meter and it seems to have worked but have not tried it with my allsky.
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Robin's demo of the latest version of Sharpcap shows just how far it has come from version 3.1. Met up with some from the Wolverhampton Astro Club.
And I saw a SeeStar in the flesh for the first time. I also saw some walking around with one under their arms with a "how am I going to justify this" look on their faces.
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I just updated my air plus and all seems ok. The only thing I spotted is that "gain" is misspelt on the guiding page.
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looking at the frame edges the stack has been dithered? What calibration frames were used for the stack?
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A gust of wind is the usual culprit or a cable snag
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Since my last post I went through my phone pictures as I have a habit of taking pictures of each stage but although I have some with it installed non are of the actual process.
Looking at the pictures it does look as in you have some leeway on the longitudinal positioning post hole drilling but not much side to side. The side to side is not so critical as the mirror can be rotated to suit. On that basis the actual hole positioning is not a s critical as it would seem. Just make sure you mark and drill in the plate slot centres so you can raise and lower the focuser as required.
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A long time ago I fitted a steel track to a SW MN190 and like others have commented nothing lined up hole wise. From what I can remember I placed strips of masking tape around the hole and lined up the focuser using a collimation cap in the focus tube to the secondary. While holding it still I then marked out the position of the base plate onto the masking tape.
The tape had the benefit of not letting the drill slip when starting the holes.
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A local club member suffered a stroke recently and to be able to take over my portable imaging rig to his house to offer some mental stimulation I had a problem of the WiFi range with my Asiair plus.
Setting up the scope in the back garden the WiFi signal was not strong enough to reach the lounge and I did not like to use his home WiFi in station mode so I came up with this battery powered WiFi extender
Once the scope is setup and polar aligned I can put this extender on the kitchen window sill and we can sit in the lounge controlling the scope with a Doogee tablet.
The usb powered WiFi module is from Vonets used in extender/repeater mode and has a surprisingly strong signal for such a small unit.
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I don't own a SeeStar but if I did I would keep its operation within its original design limitations. Did ZWO foresee what folks outside of the target market for this scope would be doing modification wise? I think not. Therefore the product was value engineered accordingly.
In the end the choice to extend its capabilities is down to the user. Any unit returned under warranty that has gear or support bearing failures will be questioned.
I have no doubt that the engineers in ZWO are taking note of what owners are doing with the SeeStar and we will see the results in the Mk2 version.
Gene Kranz
I don't care about what anything was DESIGNED to do, I care about what it CAN do
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Mini PC recommendations Please ??
in Discussions - Software
Posted · Edited by Tomatobro
picture added
In the observatory I have three NUC's. One is called Dome NUC, another is called Pier NUC and the third is called AllSKY
Connected to the Dome NUC is the Pulsar dome and Shutter controller, ZWO astro camera (various), 7 position filter wheel, ZWO focuser, monitor with keyboard and mouse, runs NINA , Sharpcap, PHD with its own zwo guide camera. The mount is a Skywatcher EQ8-r and C du Ciel planetarium. There are also some RS232 serial devices controlled via TeraTerm and a GPS receiver.
The Pier NUC has an internal Dome camera, a Unihedron sky quality monitor, a cloud monitor (via Bluetooth) and dew heater controllers as well as an emergency system shutdown system controlled via a radio link and some switchable power ports controlled via Teraterm
The third NUC is connected to an all sky camera.
All these systems operate on their own Remote desktop from the house