Astro-Geek

I was looking for small reels for my long USB active cables and discovered "empty" 3d printer filament reels were a neat and cheap solution. They're about ten inches diameter and three inches wide, made of plastic, and quite sturdy for repeated log term use. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=empty+3d+printer+reel&_sop=2

I've also just completed building Robert's myFocuserPro2 controller, so this project caught my eye ( Dammit 🤓). I went the veroboard route as the printed circuit boards seemed awkward to source in the UK. The guy is a genius and to publish the instructions in the Public domain for such a comprehensive device is extremely generous. I've been tackling small DIY electronic projects for many years (right back to "Practical Wireless" back in the 1970's), so soldering and following circuits was no problem. I did struggle with the Arduino programming a bit though, never having got into them before. The plethora of youtube videos and Robert's extensive PDFs caused me some confusion, paradoxically because of the level of detail and the multitude of variations. When it came to uploading the firmware to the Arduino, I finally found the important instructions to edit the main .INO file to "un-remark" the included hardware add-ons and the need to copy 16 sub-directories of "include" .H files into the Arduino programming directories. I'm glad I persevered though, because I'm pleased to say that it works perfectly, both by it's built-in buttons and LCD display and the comprehensive windows application. I can now run that on my telescope's dedicated NUC PC, or the Ascom driver within other Astro Photography apps. All I've got to do now is work out some way of physically attaching the stepping motor to my various scopes to allow it to be switched between them.

A 200mm Newtonian Reflector (like Robs' suggestion of the 200P) is indeed the nearest thing to an all-round scope. So much better than the department store refractors and reflectors that cost almost as much. I shudder to think how many budding enthusiasts are discouraged forever with their "900x magnification - see the surface of the moon" small aperture scopes on flimsy mounts. The simple construction of an eight inch dob means that almost all the money goes into the mirror, hence the decent sized aperture and chroma free viewing. I have a fascination for all things mechanical so I have amassed quite a collection of scopes, a 127 Skymax Mak, a 120 evostar f8 refractor, an 8 inch celestron SCT, a 190mm Skymax Mak, an 8 inch Skywatcher reflector, and a 12 inch flextube goto Dob, so I have no particular bias. Each has its own forte, lightness, portability, brightness, magnification power etc.., but if I was forced, (at gunpoint 🤓), to drop down to just one scope, it would be the eight inch Dob. (and even then, I could keep an Equatorial mount and rings for using it for Astro Photography.) It's light enough to move quickly around between my front and back gardens (one has a view to the Eastern horizon and the other to the Western horizon).

Yes, a very good point for anyone considering buying one for Astro use. The wide range of NUCs and similar "mini PCs" can be misleading in their expected speed and performance. Identical looking models vary greatly in their CPU speeds, RAM and IO ports. I've been successfully using a fairly fast one for some years now on my home network as a 24/7 server to upload weather stats to the web and record TV via Windows Media Recorder. So when I bought another one for my "Astro Server" 🤓, I chose very carefully. I made sure I got one with 16gb of RAM, an SSD, and USB 3.0 ports. The final choice was narrowed down by CPU type, where I used a comparison website, https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/ This gave relative "speed marks" enabling me to compare them with my existing (and previous) PCs. My new NUC's i5-5250U had a speed rating of 3592, which put it well up on my other PC's speeds: 908 MINIX NEO Z64 Intel Z3735F 1.8ghz ( a little Minix Windows Media player that lives behind my TV) 1002 ACER NOTEBOOK ES1-512 celeron N2840 @ 2.16ghz Dual-core (my previous windows notebook) 1289 MAC MINI Core 2 Duo (P7350) (my Mac Mini) 3452 Server2 nuc i5-4250U (My 24/7 home network NUC) 8132 ASUS GL502VM Intel® Core™ i7 6700HQ (my latest "gaming" notebook) 9506 BENCH TOWER i7 3770k (my desktop gaming machine) Many Astro and AP progs are quite undemanding, cpu-wise, but software like Stellarium runs so much faster and more smoothly when accessed via Windows Remote Desktop.

Yes, that certainly shows good support for DSLRs. One just needs to bear in mind that the only dedicated CCD/CMOS cameras that they support are ZWO ones, whereas the "less proprietary branded" Stellarmate Pi supports any with Ascom drivers.

I have to admit, my only knowledge of them is whatever I have gleaned online. I believe the only CCD/CMOS astro cameras they can connect to are ZWO, being a proprietary product. The Stellarmate uses the same Pi hardware (3 or even 4) but can connect to Ascom compatible cameras, whether bought as a hardware/software package or just the software alone. Bit I could be wrong there too ! 👀

I've just gone through this decision making process too. I wanted to standardise to a dedicated scope mounted unit to enable AP and scope remote control and initially tried my existing notebooks and Android tablets. Without a dome or converted shed, I found these tricky to support and use adjacent to the scope (in the garden). I've also just tried the Raspberry Pi method with Stellarmate software, remotely controlled by PCs and Tablets. (I had initially considered the ASIair, but that was restricted to just ZWO cameras). It's very good, but I just can't get used to Linux/Mate, (getting too old in my ways... 🤓) I readily confess I'm biased to PCs, but I have so much more experience with Windows that I've now gone back to the PC based route. Couple that with the relatively economic availability of very powerful units, I've now bought a fairly fast NUC, (a 515RYH with an i5-5250U 2.7g proc, 16gb RAM and a 256gb SSD). This was £240 second hand. It's only slightly larger than the Pi, at 4 inches square, and runs happily off my 12v SLA battery pack. It now sits happily on the mount, with nice short leads to the camera and mount, and thanks to the handy Windows Remote Control app, is controlled via any PC or tablet on my home wifi/wired network. I can stand next to it with my 10 inch android tablet, or run it from my notebook in the conservatory, or from my gaming PC upstairs with triple monitor setup, or even move between them. ...and being windows, it happily runs all of the AP and scope control software that I've got used to, (Sharpcap, APT, Stellarium, kStars etc..)

Thanks for the heads up for Robert's myFocuserPro2 DIY project..... 👍 I'm now heavily into parts acquisition and construction. The mass of info was a little daunting initially, but after watching numerous YouTube videos and reading several PDFs, I now have a reasonable understanding of it and it's various manifestations. I've gone for the veroboard construction method of the full blown design, with manual buttons, LEDs, and autofocus. The NEMA17-PG27 Stepper Motor was the only "expensive" part, (at £31 here in the UK), and the components are about that much again, so such a comprehensive remote/auto focuser for about £60 is amazing. Once I have the control box built, I'll see what I can devise in the way of a universal mounting bracket/flex drive for the stepper motor, so that I can switch it easily between my refractor, reflector and SCT.

Thanks for the tips, I'll do some Googling on them. I use a couple of Newtonians, a C8 SCT a 180 Skymax and a 120 Evostar (variety is the spice of life 🤓), so I guess each will need a specific bracket/belt drive hardware device. Despite my wishful thinking Avatar, I don't even have a permanent shed setup (yet), so the prospect of being able to nip back indoors for most of the viewing in the Winter is a Godsend. I initially shied clear of viewing via cameras, but I now realise how much more sensitive a CCD/CMOS sensor is, especially when viewed on a large 4k monitor 😀

As I follow up to my previous post on this thread, I've now set up a NUC as my telescope remote control. I'm fairly street-wise with PCs, (famous last words ! 🤓) so I made sure I bought a reasonably fast one. I settled for a NUC5i5RYH with an Intel i5-5250U , 16gb or RAM, and a 250gb SSD disc. It has all the latest fast connections, USB 3.0, Bluetooth, wifi and and gigabit wired ethernet. I managed to get a secondhand one for £250, so it's considerably more than the Pi 4, but it's much faster, being comparable to a high end laptop, yet still only 4 by 4 inches and running happily off my scope's 12v battery pack. (via a cheapo car cig 19v power adapter). There's also no need for a powered USB hub, unlike the Pi. It came with Windows 10 Pro, so it runs any Astro software nice and fast, and supports Windows Remote Desktop. I hadn't realised, but Microsoft even now have a (free) remote desktop app for Android. So now I can run all of my favorite Windows Astro applications, (APT, Sharpcap, Stellarium etc.) from the self-contained NUC and then operate it from any other PC in my house via my home LAN via wifi, and even from my Samsung 10" android tablet. I can either stand next to it with the tablet, or sit in the conservatory with my notebook, or pop upstairs to my triple monitor gaming PC. So I'm not tied to Linux/Mate apps, as any windows software will run on it, even multi windowed. All I need to do now is figure put the best way to remotely focus with my various telescopes, but I'll start a new thread for that......

Stash's reply mentioning Windows remote desktop has re-awakened my interest in that method of telescope control. I started this thread when I jumped in with both feet, (as usual 🙄), with the Raspberry Pi 4 solution, with Stellarmate software. The tiny Pi 4 with USB 3.0 and 4gb of memory is very attractive, and the Noob friendly turnkey boot OS and software from Stellarmate has shielded me from the steep, (for me !) learning curve of Linux/Mate. However, I'd already become quite "comfortable" with a whole range of Windows based software for mount and camera control, (APT, Sharpcap, EQMOD, Stellarium etc.) I hadn't thought about how compact and powerful computers like the NUC PC had become, only slightly bigger than the Pi, but potentially much more powerful. I've just experimented with running my notebook remotely from my home network desktop machine and the total remote control at operating system level makes any astro windows software usable via wifi or ethernet cable connection.

Thanks Stash, more food for thought for me there. I've used the Windows OS remote facility from one windows PC to another, and I do use a fairly powerful and compact fanless NUC as a 24/7 PC on my network for weather stats uploading and security cams. The tiny size of the new Pi 4 coupled with USB 3 ports and 4gb or RAM, (and the fallback of the wired gigabit ethernet), is very convenient when being remotely controlled from any PC on my home network and also from a wifi connection to my 10" Samsung android tablet. If there is a freeware open architecture way to remote control the Pi at OS level from a networked Windows or Android device then that would indeed trump the Stellarmate App. But I don't think there is ? (very happy to be put right there if I'm wrong !) Excuse my blundering around with these thoughts, I have an unusual mixture of IT experience, fairly good with PCs, but neanderthal with Linux et al...... 🤓

Thanks for that. I hereby promote myself to Noob-First Class...... 👍

I need to check if my basic understanding is correct here..... 🤓 My purpose in using the Pi is to have a very compact computer on the mount itself to control the movement and camera with minimum length leads....... ....so that I can then live view and control it via an Android tablet or a notebook or desktop PC via my home wifi/wired network. My limited knowledge so far leads me to believe that only Stellarmate (and ZWOair) offer this remote control aspect of the Pi from a network connected Android or Windows device ? I have previously been using APT on my gaming notebook, (very fast and powerful) with a powered USB 3 hub and a 10 metre active USB 3 extension lead. This ran all of my mounts and CCD/EOS cameras and even enabled Sharpcap and Stellarium via the same hardware setup. The "remote control" of the Pi appeals to me because I can dispense with the 10 metre USB lead and control everything on the scope from any machine on my home network. I'm a complete Noob with the Pi and its OS, so it's quite possible I'm still wrong with some of my conclusions !

Yes, absolutely right, exactly how mine suddenly started to work. (thanks)......

I think that was the root of my problem, I kept trying to start it from the remote app, and the error message pops up on the monitor screen of the Pi, (if there's one plugged in !) The message seems a bit cryptic, but the gist is that Indi can't run until a mount and a camera have been put in the settings. That was the breakthrough on mine. All of a sudden Indi did start, and my mount was movable and I have an image from the camera. I haven't managed to make it a live (moving) view yet, but it's very heartening milestone for me.... 🤓 Once you do get it going, it looks incredibly sophisticated.....

Just a quick update, I have action at last !! 😀 I've run Indi from the Kstars menu on the Pi 4 itself and selected a ZWO cam and my LX200 mount and I can move it..........

"Confidence is the feeling you get just before you realise how little you know"..... 🤓 (My Epitaph....) Well things were going really well up to now. 4gb PI 4 booting nicely from the Stellarmate OS image, (apart from one or two errors that flash upwards on the boot screen, like "swap file can't be made"....) It comes up nicely with the desktop and even starts kStars. I can then login to it via my Samsung Android tablet and also my Windows 10 notebook. I managed to change the wifi (somehow !) from from hotspot to infrastructure with a permanent IP address so that I can still access the Internet from everything even when connected to the Raspberry. So far, so good.... then Bam... I can't see how I can enable any of my cameras and mounts (ASI120MM, EOS 70D, Meade LX200, EQ5). I've tried to follow the tutorials and vids on the Stellarmate site, but the config screens are different (maybe because I have the Pi 4 beta ?), and it isn't too clear whether the adding actions should be via the tablet, the notebook, or the Pi 4 itself. I need a "Stellarmate for Dummies" guide to get going. I'm fairly au fait with Windows and networking, but the Raspberry OS is a completely new adventure for me. I hail right back to the CPM and MsDos days, so I guess I'll eventually get to grips with it though. I know the various items of kit and the connection leads are all ok, because I've had them working via APT, Sharpcap, EQMod and Stellarium. The hardware is running nicely. I put the board in the official Pi 4 case and added an RTC and some vent holes and a 30mm fan. It was a bit noisy at first, but a 22 ohm 1/2 watt series resistor has made it almost silent, yet really cool.

Thanks for that, I'll do a bit of Googling on it ...... 👍

Yes indeed, that was from Amazon, and the next day they even pushed it up further, to £80 !! 👀 The 4gb model is almost a black market item at the moment, sold out everywhere that it's being advertised at the correct price. It seems to be working really well with the Stellarmate beta 1.4 software though, connects to my mounts and cameras, and is accessible from my notebook and my 10" Android tablet. I've switched the wifi to infrastructure mode, so I can even run it from the Lounge.... 😀 As it's all so "open" I guess it'll be upgradeable to any future 64 bit Stellarmate OS. I never actually owned a PI 3 Stellarmate, but I can easily appreciate the online feedback of how much the USB3, Gigabit, 4gb RAM and 3x faster Proc have improved it over the PI 3. I was just getting to grips with APT via a 10 metre active USB cable, but this may well prove much more convenient.

Has anyone else tried this yet ? (I did search here first and couldn't find anything, but usual apologies if I missed it....) I'm a total Noob with Stellarmate ( so many gadgets like this, difficult to be "street aware" of everything ! 🤓) I came close to buying an ASIAIR but was discouraged by the way it's so restricted to ZWO cameras. That got me into researching the Raspberry PI as a remote telescope controller and I found the Stellarmate device. I then researched that and found that the complete software could be bought for $50 and would then boot a stock Raspberry PI in exactly the same was as their turnkey hardware device. ...and then, for once, I found I was looking at just the right time, with the launch of the Raspberry PI 4, a much upgraded PI with USB 3 ports, gigabit ethernet and 4gb of RAM. I've bought a PI 4 with 4gb and the Stellarmate OS beta release for the PI 4, and I'm very impressed with it. I've put it in the "official" case and added a 30mm fan and real time clock (the Stellarmate supported one). Even though the 4gb PI is at a premium rate at the moment ( a seller's market ), my total outlay has been £75 for the PI, £43 for the software OS, £5 for the case and £1 for the fan, making a total of £124, still quite a bit cheaper than the ready-made Stellarmate or ASIAIR, which are still based on the much slower Raspberry PI 3b.

I'm a self-confessed tight-wad, so even £30 or so seems a tad expensive to me, so I always just make mine, out of flat aluminum bar. 5mm thick bar is quite cheap via Ebay and is quite easily bent, cut, and drilled. Here's my Skymax 180 which I converted to rings from the original bolted on Vixen. (Amazingly, the standard vixen is bolted on to the thin OTA tube with just two tiny 5mm bolts and non-captive nuts, without even large washers to spread the load !! 😲 ) The aluminium handle is practically weightless but very rigid, and makes handling this fairly heavy scope much safer.

I've just started Solar observing this year and I my newly acquired (but still limited 🤓) knowledge on this subject is: Yes, front mounted filters are the only safe method with anything other than Refractor telescopes. (scopes with no mirrors inside) Refractor scopes can use a "Herschell Wedge" instead, at the eyepiece end, which most users say shows more surface detail than front filters. They mustn't be used with any sort of mirror telescope. Front mounted solar filters come in two types, flimsy looking thin film, and thick glass. Contrary to what one might expect, the thin film ones are reckoned to give a superior sharper view, wrinkles and all. Bitten by the bug. I then bought a used dedicated starter HA solar scope (a Lunt 35) which not only blocks the harmful suns rays, but can be "tuned" to highlight the surface detail, sunspots, and flaring round the edge. I was then a little disappointed to still only be able to see the Sun as a perfectly plain round disc, (albeit now yellow, instead of white), with no spots or flares. I asked a question about it here on SGL, and got prompt and helpful replies giving me the disappointing news that the Sun's activity is really low this year ! I now keep a regular eye on https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity which occasionally shows a sunspot that I can they have a look at. (So when you get your solar filter, don't be worried if all you can see is a white disc ! 😀)

Adjustment of the secondary can be very confusing to anyone who has not done it before because it involves the very slight simultaneous adjustment of four screws, each of which affects the other three, so it can seem impossible. In addition, that mirror has to be adjusted simultaneously for rotation, tilt, and distance in from the front of the telescope, so that it is exactly opposite the centre of the eyepiece focusing tube. Once a Newtonian is reasonably well collimated, only the tilt needs very occasional adjustment, via the three smaller screws, and the trick is to tighten or loosen them in very small increments, less than a quarter of a turn, whilst maintaining the rigidity of the mirror by gently tightening or loosening the screw(s) opposite the one you have loosened. If all three are loose at the same time, the mirror will just slop around under gravity. Think of it as pivoting on the point of the large middle screw with the three smaller outer screws holding it tilted at a precise angle. You have to minutely loosen at least one before you can tighten any of the others. If however, it is well out of adjustment after a failed attempt to adjust it, then it's probably best to seek the help of a someone who has mastered the art.

Yes, I was wondering if it would vignette, the C mount is indeed a tiny opening. I tried to visualise it by holding my ZWO camera's c -mount adapter up to the front of my EOS M50 in approx the position the narrowest part would be. The circular hole is indeed a shade smaller than the diagonal of the APSc sensor, but I'm hoping that the image rays are still diverging as they go past into the camera, so it may even act as a useful extra baffle...... 🤓