AstroMuni

Agreed This is where choice of right software helps. I use Ekos which comes with Simulators that you can practice almost the entire journey without waiting for clear skies and this has helped immensely.

If you have a paid subscription to SG Pro then the bad news is it doesnt work with INDI. The good news is Ekos has pretty much all the features (if not a few more) of SGP but there is always the learning curve.

As soon as it connects to your home network it should update this automatically. Mine does that.

I think you have the right combination - remember my images are without guiding using the HEQ5 pro mount and the 130EQ scope. You have a much better WO ZS61 in my opinion. You just need the right software to control the mount. As I have an old laptop that cant run windows, I loaded Linux and I used Ekos and set it up to realign after every 10 subs. Each subs was 5-30secs. So any drift would get corrected at end of 300sec 🙂 You could try NINA which works on Windows. If you prefer Ekos, you either need to have Linux in a multi boot windows environment or like me repurpose an old laptop for Linux. Otherwise more money needed to buy a RPi 😉 but remember once you have done that you can sit in the luxury of your warm room and control your mount and cameras remotely!

I joined a local club here and and folk are extremely helpful to join a zoom call at short notice to help out. So my suggestion would be for you to find a local astro club and make friends with like minded folk nearby.

Hi Daz, I use the RPi for AP (mount control, cameras, guiding, image capture). As its a linux based OS, your choice of software is a bit limited (as compared to Windows). You can run software like Kstars/Ekos, CCD Ciel, OACapture or Firecapture. I use a laptop on which I run Ekos and use INDI server on RPi, so the HDD is on the laptop. RPi has a 64Gb SD card.n EDIT: I also use astroberry as it comes preloaded with all the astro software. And use an ethernet cable between laptop & rpi to avoid pitfalls of wifi drop outs. But several folk run all software on rpi and remote into it via phone or tablet. You just need to get a larger capacity sd card. Also Note that you cant use ASCOM drivers at the moment.

I have the ASI224 but havent used it for solar photography, but friends of mine have used it with good results. I have been using it mainly for the brighter DSOs as you can see in my signature link. If costs are your concern then go for the ASI120mc as it comes with IR/UV filter. The filter costs around £25 but its still additional cost right 🙂

@Grant93 if you are considering a colour camera, You should also consider the ASI224mc.

I use a similar configuration. I am assuming you are planning on using Kstars/Ekos to control mount, camera etc. You will need an FTDI cable to connect HEQ5 to RPi. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/lynx-astro-ftdi-eqdir-usb-adapter-for-sky-watcher-eq5-pro-heq5-syntrek-pro-az-eq5-gt-az-eq6-gt-and-eq8-mounts.html The camera comes with USB cable so thats taken care of. I connect my laptop to RPi using a long ethernet cable, so if you choose to go down this route, you will need that too. You might need a wifi extender if you decide to connect to RPi using Wifi. And if there is no power point outside your house you will need an extension cable. And make sure you have a SD card reader as you will need that to upload astroberry on RPi. Good luck.

I like your keen nature to deal with challenges 🙂 There is a lot to learn so I didnt take that route when I started a year ago. I went for the bright DSOs (see my journey in the link attached to my signature). With small exposures you can get a lot of detail from these brighter objects and then comes the challenge of learning to process them. I have just recently purchased a guide scope and hoping to get longer exposures when clouds clear....a long wait in this country it looks like.

Hi @alacant, Nice shot. I notice there is some haze around the stars. Not sure if this is due to image convertion due to upload or just my screen 🤔

Looking at the FLO page for this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescopes-in-stock/skywatcher-explorer-130.html you can see their comparison of 130 vs 130P. Choose between the two depending on your plans going forward. As others have already said, if you can get a sturdier mount then go for it. And also look at Dobsonions. Skywatcher/Orion do have several good ones with similar apertures. And as budget is a concern, look out for second hand ones too 🙂

hi, Welcome to SGL. It would help us if you let us know more details about your new telescope - model, lenses used etc.

Its all the wonderful gulf stream that runs past our island

I have the ASI224mc as main camera and recently purchased the ASI120mm mini for guiding. These are connected to the RPi and I remotely access these from my laptop running Ekos. The connection to these seems to a bit of hit and miss. There are times when they launch beautifully and there are others when only one of them or none will connect. I have tried with the ZWO CCD driver and using the ZWO Camera 1, 2 drivers I have ALSO tried using Kstars on RPi and connecting with a local connection and with same results. As the ASI224 supports USB3 and ASI120 mini only works on USB2, I tried connecting these to various USB ports on the RPi 4b with similar results. RPi is using Astroberry v2.0.4 build so has the INDI drivers from v1.9.3 is my understanding. My laptop is running Kstars/Ekos 3.5.6. Any help is appreciated!

You should be able to get near focus in daylight. If thats not working then it will be quite challenging at night. Thats my experience. During daytime use a very low exposure less than a sec.

This is tutorial for SIRIL a free software. I know you are trying to use PS but this gives you an idea of sequence of operations. https://siril.org/tutorials/tuto-scripts/ Several folk here use SIRIL to do the initial stretching etc and then do the final processing in PS.

Take a look at Skeye app which has a Push-To capability. Using this you should be able to get your scope close to where you wish to be. Final steps would need to be done using your finder scope or red dot finder. Its not as bad as it looks though, you should be able to capture atleast the brighter galaxies using short exposures (even as low as 5sec) without tracking. Once you have cracked that bit, you can then send those images to stacking software. Good luck.

What I was suggesting is just an extension of this wherein you have a hub to which the cameras are connected and a cable running from hub to your laptop (albeit a long one ). This to me is the simplest solution as there is no introduction of additional software in the middle. You could connect the mount to the hub as well, but as you've pointed out, you are able to use Wifi connectivity for that. The RPi solution using INDIGO/ ALPACA seems to be viable. So good luck with that. My reason for asking what RPi is used for was because with the RPi running INDIGO it would seem that all the grunt work is still being done on laptop and RPi just becomes a mediator between INDIGO & ASCOM.

Perhaps I havent understood this fully. How do you connect laptop to cameras now?

What are you planning to use the RPi for? In your case it sounds like a powered USB hub that is located outside connected by USB cable to laptop would do the trick. I dont have a solution off hand on how to bypass the USB cable to laptop (ie wireless), but I am sure there are ways around this.

My suggestion is try the INDI/INDIGO drivers. If you have trouble then try ASCOM route. As INDI/INDIGO is running on RPi, as per my understanding, all that ALPACA will do is create a bridge to ASCOM drivers running on a Windows box. That sounds like additional traffic back & forth RPi. Happy to be corrected on ALPACA. What agents are you referring to? All that runs for me on RPi is INDI server and it will initiate loading of relevant drivers. Nothing else is running there at the moment. Now that I have a guidescope, I may consider using PHD2 to run from RPi at some point (as that will be closer to. mount, guidecam) Ekos internal guider works just fine for the moment.

I am viewing my laptop screen so it works fine. The more your resolution the slower it would get to screen grab

@vlaiv as you are using RPi, INDIGO or INDI seem to be the way to go. As to what software you use on laptop you have a choice of CCD Ciel, etc. EDIT: And if INDIGO drivers dont work you have the fallback of using INDI drivers as INDIGO is meant to be compatible with INDI

I use Team viewer to see my laptop screen on my phone while I am focusing. Ekos has a polar alignment assistant which you can use in same way.