Grant Fribbens

I only use an OAG on my Edge 8 HD. Although before I got the OAG I used the Altair 60MM guidescope without any issues. I have the ZWO OAG-L due to the larger prism size which I think really does help along with an ASI174MM 😄

I started out with the 2" L-Enhance and tried an L-Extreme but did not like the halos so went with the Antlia ALP-T Gold and really love it and use it with my Altair 26C across a range of different scopes.

I love my Raspberry PI's and I have them setup running Home Assistant doing my home automation, 3d printers using Octoprint and really wanted it to do my Astro automation but even a RPI4 8GB with SSD I tried Astroberry, Stellarmate and IndigoSky and each one had strange quirks but my biggest issue was that I ended up in losing imaging time. I use Linux all the time in may daily job and was very shocked when I came up against these issues. I caved in and have an Intel I5 based W10 mini PC on one rig and on the other rig I have a Beelink U59 W11 and they are loaded up with everything I need (NINA, APT, ASTAP, Sharpcap, ASCOM, PHD2, Firecapture, Astrosurface, Stellarium, Sky Chart) and most important is I find them much more reliable. My RPI 2 W powered AllSky camera with https://github.com/thomasjacquin/allsky works really well and just have to power it up and it just works unlike any attempts I have tried with indi or indigo.

I have been using Astrosurface for a while and really like it.

I am only out at night at the moment but have got some solar film and some designs from Thingiverse to print so watch this space!

I went with the William Optics GT-81IV with Flat6AIII. I also got the Hotech SCA Flattener as well. Although I think since then there have been some other scopes released and I think the Askar PHQ range look really good and would now be an option in this range.

@drjolo I am interested in you PPEC results as on the GreenSwampServer board someone has asked about the CQ350 which does not report a PPEC capability to EQMOD or GSS and I think the author has contacted SkyWatcher and they have said that it is not supported. I have found the manual online and it does state that it has 200 segment container for PPEC data so am confused. Maybe you can only do PPEC training via the Synscan Handset and not controlling the mount via PC direct. If it does not support PPEC then this would be a backward step.

Welcome back Andy. I have an AZ-GTI and I use a Samyang F2 135 or WO ZS61 on it with an IMX571 camera and filter drawer. This setup with a Windows based mini pc is great when I go camping automating it via GSS Server, PHD 2 and N.I.N.A. I have to admit the Zwo AM5 is catching my eye!

It is the Oklop EQ6-R Pro bag 😀

I went and here is the evidence! It was great to see everything up close. I could not beleive the size of the cq350 tripod! I came away with a few goodies and enjoyed the talks and spoke to a few people, will be going again next year but will need to save up!

Hi and welcome from down the road!

I am able to go this year so look forward to meeting some of you there

Welcome and that is a great first shot of M42 you have there. Good luck with the rabbit hole adventure that is astrophotography!

I find that vnc is too slow especially over wifi so I usually use nomachine which is so much better and does not has the lag that vnc does.

I use linux most of the time especially for work and I really wanted to use it for Astrophotography but I have to admit I ended up in trying Astroberry and then Stellarmate but always kept getting random hangups and found it so frustrating. So got a MiniPC with Windows 10 and now use ASCOM, ASTAP, NINA and PHD2 and have not looked back and works well with non ZWO cameras. I just attach it to my mount with velcro and remote desktop in and control my equipment in the warm after getting cold doing the polar alignment.

I have my fingers crossed! I expect I will do some narrow band due to moon. So typical that it is quite often clear on a full moon! Trouble is that I need to remember how it is all set up because it has now been a while 😂

I have had this with an ASI2600MC equivalent the Altair 26C. This was taking the camera down do -15 and I had the dew heater turned on on the camera as well as a dew strap around the lens of the scope but I got a fog that appeared during imaging which got larger and larger. Some say that you have to do the cooling down slower which can help or that you may need to insulate the area between the camera and the scope or even include a dew heater at this point on a very LOW setting so as not to introduce nasty thermals in the system. Even though it has been clear the last couple of nights I have not bothered as everything is covered in dew.

I use a 2x power mate but attached it to a Baader Steeltrack focuser. If you are not using a barlow then I do not think that the distance is an issue. I had many issues finding the target but ended up in putting a Altair MG60 Guidescope with an ASI290MM attached and then adjusted the scope rings so that the centre of the image from the guidescope matched the centre image of the Edge 8 HD. Then I could use Stellarium and NINA to position the mount via the Guidescope and then I would do my focusing once I was on the target.

I use the ZWO f4 30mm mini with the ASI120MM mini and it is a fantastic little guidescope. I also have the Altair MG60 F3.75 60mm with helical focuser and an ASI290MM mini which I use with scopes with longer focal length.

Here is my first attempt at planetary imaging. I used a Celestron EdgeHD 8" native 2032mm F/10 with an ASI224MC on a EQ6R mount. Had to remove my 2x Powermate as I had trouble getting alignment but now need the skies to clear again so I can try with that and get the red spot. Tried autostakkert but could not get registax to work so used Astrosurface which came out really well.

When looking for a replacement you need to look for the best cpu, the most amount of ram and decent amount of storage space that you can get for your budget rather than the minimum. You may also want to consider the screen as well as this needs to be good but an external monitor could be used. You should be fine with Windows 10 but you might want to check if the second hand laptop can be upgraded to Windows 11 just incase MS decide to no longer support Windows 10 which currently is October 14 2025.

I have been looking at the OnStep project and I think it looks really great. It is interesting that Sharpstar have now brought out a commercial mount which has an OnStep controller being used. As I have had to take a look at my EQ6-R mainboard when you look at it there is only the two stepper motor controllers TMC5130 and then a STM32 processor running the show which is exactly what OnStep does as well. There should be no problem using OnStep from a PC as it supports the LX200 protocol and there is an ASCOM driver. The great thing is that you could go with 0.9 degree stepper motors and got for some TMC5160 as well as Teensy 4 and get a much higher resolution out of your mount.

Wifi can be a difficult beast. I would double check to see how many wifi signals you can see in your area as in many places the airwaves are so saturated with wifi signals that any wifi device is going to get interference and struggle. Also try and make sure that your devices are not connecting to the SynScan WiFi adaptor and then giving up on the connection as there is no internet connection. You may need to turn off auto connect on the other connections that you have configured to stop this from happening.

I think that there is some echo happening as when I tried Synscan Relay 4.2 into the hand controller and connected that every time that I tried the update button of the MC Firmware Loader 1.78 a value on the hand controller screen kept increasing. There was an R with and number and then a T with a number being displayed in the bottom part of the LCD screen. When connecting USB it is still appearing under the device manager under Windows as COM5 as a Prolific Serial device. Normally when I program STM32 I just use my own FTDI and let VS Code do the upload, this is especially the case when doing Arduino code. Sometimes you might have to pull pin 60 high which takes it into DFU mode. Might have to do some reverse engineering of the firmware loader to see what it is doing.

Here is a picture of the board. I purchased the EQ6-R in 2020 and it only stays out if it is not going to rain so has had plenty of tlc!! I play with STM32 chips all the time with other devices (Sonoff devices, TUYA Devices, 3d printers and Betaflight flight controllers on drones) that I have but I can only presume that the MC Firmware loader 1.78 may have caused the bootloader to fail. I think that this software requires a firmware version from the MC before it will upload the new firmware. If you know of a way that I can get the firmware onto the STM32 in another way then I am open to suggestions and am very handy with a soldering iron, but what I am hoping is that there is a way to get the MC into DFU mode and somehow getting the firmware back on it that way (maybe using SW2). SWD1 connections look interesting as well 😀. It would seem the handset has this when you hold down the zero and 8 keys together at startup, so surely there must be a way to do this with the motor controller. Thankfully I had a spare board so was out imaging last night with that as well as with the AZ-GTI.