GeekTeacher

Hi, for reasons I won’t go into, I need a stand-alone hand controller for my Celestron Focus Motor when used on a SCT with a EQ6-r Pro mount. I’ve seen several DIY home brew projects which create an interface between a game controller and the motor but I’m too hamfisted with my arthritic hands to make one myself. Does anyone here know where I can buy one from someone who makes them, even if not a commercial product. I’m currently controlling it with the touchpad on my laptop using the Celestron software but this is not very usable and a hand controller would be much better. Any help or info would be very welcome. Cheers.

Sorry, I misunderstood. Buying a travel router seems to be the best option and yes, I understand how it generates IP addresses for a private network so that two or more computers can connect to each other. But are you using a variant of VNC, as the version of RealVNC I've downloaded seems to connect to VNC Services on the web. If there's no internet connection I don't think it works.

Remote Desktop How do the two computers see each other if they're not on a network? I'm in a dark site in the middle of nowhere remember. No connectivity of any sort, except the possibility of connecting the two Windows computer together.

Thanks, yes I'm starting to think that the portable travel router is best solution. Unfortunately Remote Desktop is not enabled on my version of Windows 10 Home, but Team Viewer should work.

Exact;y, How do people connect to a mini PC for mount and camera control when out in the middle of nowhere? No phone signal, no internet, no network? Just a laptop in a nice warm place such as car or house and a headless mini PC. out in the cold. Can the Window 10 mini PC be set up as a WiFi hotspot or Access Point and share its desktop with a laptop via Team Viewer or something similar (I believe VNC needs an internet connection)? The portable router mentioned above seems the best option up to now, but I was hoping not to spend any more money. Will it allow me to share the mini PC desktop with my laptop or iPad mini through Team Viewer. I presume the portable router has DHCP to generate IP address on a private network. If it does, it will work. Thanks

Is your RPi connected to your home network or the internet?

I've got VNC running, but it needs a LAN and internet connection.

Hi, I hope this is the right place to post this. I want to connect my Windows laptop ( or preferably my old iPad Mini) wirelessly to a headless mini PC for controlling my mount and cameras etc so that I can use it in a dark sky location with no WiFi or wired network or internet. I am familiar with Team Viewer and VNC but they both work through being connected to a local area network (LAN.) I think what I want is a wireless AdHoc network between just two computers but I've not had any success with setting one up. Both computers run Windows 10 but the mini PC network adapter doesn't support hosted networks although the laptop does. Windows 10 no longer supports setting up AdHoc networks by default. So I do have some idea about what I'm doing, and I've had success using Team Viewer and VNC connecting through my home network, but this won't work out in the field. Does anyone have a wireless solution for this problem or even one where I connect the mini PC to my laptop with an Ethernet cable, perhaps a crossover cable. If not, does anybody use a headless mini PC for control out in the field and how do you operate it please? Please understand that there will be no WiFi network available unless one is setup between the two Windows 10 computers. Any helpful solutions, suggestions or comments will be very welcome. Thanks, Martyn P.S. If it can be done with an ASIair, it should be possible with Windows 10 computers.

Many thanks, I missed this.

Yes, it was suggested by someone the other day for me, but thanks. However, the point still is that I shouldn’t need to go trawling the internet for basic instructions and info like this. There should be a manual for a high priced commercial product like APP.

I am all When I said 'all-in-one' I meant not having to go down the PIPP-A!S3-Registax route or similar. I meant using just one package for converting, calibration and stacking before finishing in PS , GIMP or Affinity etc. However, I do believe that some people with the right skills could just use APP on its own, without the need for further processing in another package. And I am always astounded to hear of people who say they use both APP and PI - are these people made of money? They are not cheap software packages. Shouldn't an either / or be sufficient? PI is not all-in-one either which amazes me for such an expensive package. Why should it be necessary to need to use PhotoShop, GIMP or Affinity after using PI? But most people do. But all this is getting away from the main point of my topic - where's the manual for APP or at least some comprehensive and well-organised tutorials that cover the all the possible settings buried in the menus? There's not even a third-party book on it as far as I can see.

Yes, I've got DSS, AS!3, PIPP and Registax as well as PhotoShop. But I work mainly on a Mac and I want an all-in-one processing solution for it, rather than to need to use several packages and still end up needing to do the final work in PS. APP fits the bill nicely and I'm slowly learning it but in a very inefficient way, fumbling through it like many people already have. A manual would help me be more efficient and Mabula has said several times that he is working on one, but it's been four years now, so where is it? This is a commercial product, not someone's hobbyist freeware. You wouldn't expect to pay 198 euros for other software without any instructions from the company you bought it off. Siril is free, works on a Mac and is good in parts, but still a little clunky and not as slick as APP. PixInsight is too expensive and too complicated for me - I don't want to spend hours trying to understand the maths and processes. APP with a manual would be perfect. I mean, can you tell me what the lanczos-3 filter does for pixel interpolation?

Thanks, that's a start.

Hi everyone. I want to bite the bullet on some serious astro processing software and APP is my current choice. I've seen some great images from people who use it and it seems generally well regarded. However, after running the trial several things worry me about it. The first is the lack of an available manual which has been requested many times over the last four years but which still doesn't seem to have appeared. For a commercial product costing so much it is unthinkable that there should be no documentation for it. Yes there are a few video tutorials on the website and others scattered around the internet, but surely there should be a proper PDF manual for such a relatively high priced piece of software. I might expect this of a free program but it's fair to say that many open source programs are much better documented than this commercial product. And it's OK to say that people never read the manual and that it's easy to work out for yourself and to a point that's true, but there are so many options available in the program which I don't understand and want to know more about but I can't find the info. The next thing is that the main developer, Mabula, doesn't seem very active in the group forums any more. Is APP still being developed? Has someone else taken the lead? I know some other admins/moderators have been appointed so are they they main point of contact now? Finally, where are Tabs 7 and 8 in the preprocessing section? It sort of smacks of space for future development but makes the program seem unfinished. Or do they magically appear at some point? So I'm asking you all which tutorial do you find the best for a good introduction to APP and then some very basic processing using just a DSLR with OSC lights, darks, flats and bias frames to stack. Nothing too complicated. Any thoughts and help appreciated. Martyn

Hi all, Can anyone please point me to a clear and complete set of instructions for both setting up and using the MGEN-II autoguider with Astro Photography Tool. I need to start right from the beginning. Many thanks Martyn

Hi, I bought a secondhand Lacerta MGEN-II standalone autoguider and I'm looking for the Windows PC software that allows you to download the guiding data and analyse it. I've looked in all the obvious places including the Lacerta website and German dealer but I can't find it anywhere. The company now seems to be concentrating only on the new version (MGEN-III). Does anyone here have a copy which they could send me or have a link to where there is a copy to download. It's not essential for using the MGEN but I'd like to have a look at the data. Thanks in advance. Martyn.

I am also very interested in this comparison as I have a friend who is advising me to get a 183mc for the finer resolution and detail in images. I am worried that the resulting images of some galaxies will be too small and that it may be difficult to focus. Can the 183mc use binning to equate to approximately the same resolution of the 294mc and thus generate similar results. Or have I got that principle wrong?

Any help appreciated.

I suppose what I basically need to know is, is the ASIAIR to HEQ5 Pro EQMOD cable just the same as a normal HEQ5 Pro to USB laptop cable.

Hi, I bought an EQMOD USB to serial cable for my HEQ5 pro mount from AliExpress which uses an FTDI FT232R chip. However, it was labelled ASIAIR to HEQ5 cable when I received it. I'm aware that some mounts use 5v cables but others use 3.3v cables and I'm not sure which this one is. Can I try connecting my HEQ5 Pro mount to my laptop USB port without fear of it damaging anything, especially the mount motherboard and the laptop, but also the cable itself? Any help appreciated. Martyn

Hi High guys, astro newbie alert here - I've just bought some secondhand gear and I'm trying to set up guiding with a QHY5P-IIC, a Skywatcher ST80 and PHD2 all connected via ASCOM. The trouble is I don't think I've got all the bits that would come with a new ST80 and I've got all sorts of extension tube odds and ends, very few of which seem to fit together. (I also got a SkyWatcher 200p scope with it, so some bits will be for that, but that's not the issue here.) At first I couldn't seem to focus on anything, but by adding a 40mm extension tube and a weird cone-shaped thing (what's that all about?), I've managed to focus on land-based objects. Anyway, the photo shows the best I've come up with for trying to achieve focus with the QHY5P-IIC and ST80. Does this look about right for guiding on the stars? So I can focus during the day on neighbours' houses, but I'm struggling at night to get sharp focus on stars in PHD2. Can you tell me the best gain, looping and any other camera settings I might be missing for the QHY5P-IIC. I've set my target area to 50 pixels, my scope size to 400mm, and pixel size is 2.2. I've also calibrated a dark library. In addition, after I've set everything up and start looping in pHD2, the stars are constantly moving in my onscreen image, despite having pretty good polar alignment. This isn't right, is it? But why? Something to do with the mount settings? Any suggestions for where to go next with this please? All help will be much appreciated. Cheers, Martyn P.S. Excuse the curtains!

Hi Guys, sorry for the late reply. I worked out where it had come from when I realised it was only the switch for the white headlight. It just needed connecting to a positive power point on the circuit board and I'm assuming the one I chose is the one it came off. Anyway, it now works. <Carbon Brush> There are two fuses on the outside of the case, one is removable and is rated at 2A the other is a resettable 15A type. <Paul M> I hope you didn't take all those flipping' screws out for me! Thanks for your offer of help.

Yep, I've attached the best photos I can take. I've since realised that the top switch only controls the large white light (I thought it was the main on/off switch when I originally posted). In the photos the loose (thin) wire is shown dangling over the larger circuit board. I think it should probably be attached to the smaller board to provide power to the light. One of the light's wires goes to the top switch and the other of the light's wires goes to the smaller circuit board. So it just needs a connection to be made (by sliding the switch) to supply power to the large white light (not shown). The new battery is powering my mount, the USB sockets and the radio as it should, so I only need to know where the loose switch wire goes to, thanks. If anyone is interested the Powerline PL17-12 from Tayna.co.uk fits inside the case OK. I don't know how good it is yet but it was only £25. Thanks

Sorry if this is in the wrong topic area, newbie here. I've bought some used gear which includes a Skywatcher 17Ah mobile power bank with a dead battery. On opening the unit to replace the battery one of the wires to the sliding switch on the top of the handle has come away from its circuit board and I can't tell where it should be attached. I've found some internal photos of this unit in this forum, but none are clear enough to show me where the switch wires go. Does anyone have a photo with the details I need or perhaps even a circuit diagram please? I believe my unit is identical to the one badged as Celestron. Or if anyone could point me in the right direction for finding the info I require it would be greatly appreciated. Here's hoping ...