SiD the Turtle

Completely agree, it'll come down to your requirements and available cash at the end of the day. For me personally I find the semi-regular release of new RPIs and my love of tinkering means buying the top end model might not make sense as the next new model might have something I want that would replace it- for example USB 3, faster processor etc. So the most demanding requirement gets the new RPI, then the others get downgraded to less taxing duties. For example the RPI2 I started experimenting on with Astroberry is now a PiHole.

Connection- are you thinking of running ethernet outside then? I would have thought that'd be a pain/another cable coming out of the house. Case- yep I'm using the FLIRC case that's been mentioned previously. It does get pretty warm in the standard case: https://thepihut.com/products/flirc-raspberry-pi-4-case. I've not worried about water ingress or anything like that as I'd like to think I'd run everything inside if the heavens started to open, but you can get rubber caps if you are worried. When I bought the Pi 4 the choice was between 2GB and 4GB, there was no 8GB model. I opted for the 4GB model and to be honest I don't see that the CPU or RAM has been maxed in its lifetime. Even plate-solving, would you believe it. In hindsight I would probably have been okay with the 2GB, though the 4GB does give you a bit of future proofing if you ever decide to re-purpose it for something else in future. You are right about plate solving- focus on getting an image out of the setup first. But once you have the image if you set up plate solving if you want to hit that target again, you feed it a pre-existing image and it'll solve then auto rotate the whole setup to exactly the same place. I'm targeting Andromeda at the moment and it makes it super easy to frame, seeing as it fills my FoV.

Just wanted to add my 2p- my setup is an RPI4 with Astroberry. I use PHD2 more than the internal guider just because it's more popular and easier to get support online for. If you haven't already, look into plate solving. It used to be very involved to set up but with the latest release it's all out of the box and indeed faster in my limited experience. Once set up it'll vastly reduce your setup time. On wifi my crappy router will barely go through a sheet of paper, let alone several walls, but I was lucky enough to have a shed with a power point in it. So I bought a cheapo TP-Link PoE wifi extender and it does the job. Now I can set up and control everything from the kitchen, rather than sitting on a laptop in the cold. I also set up a network share to save the images rather than going to SD card- else I'd fill up the card super quick and add needless writes to the SD card. Again works fairly well with little lag. Honestly I have the Pi400 too and I wouldn't use it outside, even in the dry. I'd switch it for a Pi4 and an appropriate case. With everything connected the power draw isn't nuts. I have the whole setup running of a Celestron Powertank Lithium. Though I did invest in a Pegasus Power Box as it can deliver more over USB than the RPI can, plus it has build in dew control, power management etc. I also managed to hack in control of the QHY PoleMaster so everything is run through the Pi- the laptop is only needed for VNC.

Hi all, I have a William Optics ZS73, which has their lovely carry handle which fits finder shoe type items. I have my Skywatcher EvoGuide ED50 attached to it, but this is the model before they started bundling it with a mini-dovetail, so it's attached via a finder shoe which introduces flexure and looks a bit janky. I also have a power box and Raspberry Pi I'd like to somehow bolt to the OTA to reduce cabling issues. So what's the name for a mini dovetail that would fit in such a finder shoe gap/do they exist at all? I'm thinking of getting a long dovetail to attach to it so I can bolt the powerbox and Raspberry Pi to the front of the OTA, so it's out of the way and to help with balancing.

Hey all, just wanted to bump this and say thanks, it was a simple as the calibration needing to be reset. My guide graph is now a lot more healthy, with an overall RMS of 0.74' on both axes! Thanks to the weather I've only managed to get 10 subs so far, but the stars are round and Andromeda is surprisingly clear for my crappy suburban skies. Here's 10 subs stacked, stretched and de-greened. Looking forward to some clear skies to get a whole bunch more!

Thanks all, I bet it's calibration- I'd completely forgotten about that and in the last month I did get a new scope (the William Optics) and haven't re-calibrated since, it's got to be that! Just got to wait for clear skies here again in SE England. Flexure is also probably an issue with the crappy mount that the ED50 has. The William Optics does have a kind of handle with a long saddle mount in it, I wonder if you get a compatible dovetail to replace it? I see if I were to buy the ED50 today it comes with one.

Hey all, Looking for some help diagnosing this issue. Basically, my PHD2 guiding seems to be fine for a few minutes, then the guiding goes nuts in both axes and tries to do increasingly larger corrections. If I stop and restart guiding, again everything will continue fine for a few minutes before it happens again. The effect in my imaging is I get a few minutes of pin-sharp stars then a spiral around them. Here's the graph: Kit as follows: HEQ5-PRO + Rowan Belt Mod Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED guide scope ZWO ASI 120MC-S guide cam Polar alignment via PoleMaster Guiding using Astroberry (ASCOM/INDI/KStars) This problem has been happening for some weeks now. Things I've considered: I don't think it's the belt mod as it was occurring before I installed it and I've been looking for an excuse to mod- the only impact is that my guiding before it goes nuts is much better than it used to be. I don't think it's cabling as I have almost everything connected so it moves with the OTA, minimising moving cables. I don't think it's polar alignment as I'm using the PoleMaster and if I capture without any guiding, it's fairly good with minimal drift (obviously not good enough for taking a photo though). It's balanced well (I think), and besides I have the same issue with both my William Optics ZS73 which needs to be almost hanging off the mount to balance, and my Celestron 127MAK which sits nice and central. It's also a problem for targets straight up, close to the horizon and anywhere in between. The star mass and SNR seems fairly constant (or at least doesn't go nuts in time with the mount). My focusing seems fine too. Any thoughts?

Thanks @vlaiv, given me some new concepts to read up on/Google, much appreciated.

Hi folks, Got a new refractor on its way to me, but as a relative beginner I have no experience in knowing what I'm looking at in terms of it being correct on arrival. How do you test your new scopes for astrophotography in particular? Of course the answer is probably look down the scope/take pictures and see if the stars are round, are they clipped, any fringing or colour distortion etc. But are there any more scientific ways of testing? To spot things as a beginner I might not spot? I have seen some people post images that almost look like heatmaps or heightmaps, which of course I'm struggling to find now I'm looking for them!

Hey guys, fantastic job so far, must be frustrating that there's so much demand and no stock! What are the chances of seeing a Williams Optics scope in this side of Christmas? Looking at the Zenithstar 73 or something similar, but it looks like I'm more likely to see stock of WO than SkyWatcher at the moment? Though I see at least one retailer is saying January for WO at this point!

Anybody able to comment?

Looking for my next scope to start some proper deep sky imaging and after some advice. Current setup is: Celestron 127 MAK HEQ5 unmodded Skywatcher 50ED guidescope + ZWO ASI120MC-S guide cam. Canon 600D but looking to invest in a dedicated camera next year. Controlled via Astroberry/Raspberry Pi. As you can guess, the very high focal ratio was good as my beginner's scope but a) it takes some long, hard to track subs to get a decent picture and b) the reduced field of view means I can't image anything really beyond galaxies. So what's next? Budget is probably around £500-£700 for the scope and any associated bits like field flatteners. I like the look of something like the William Optics Zenithstar 73 and William Optics in general. I know there's the argument that they're pricey but a few pros are: Built in top rail to mount my guidescope (don't like dealing with the flexure issues with the way it's currently mounted). Built in bahtinov mask. Decent focuser mechanism I can hang a camera and maybe later a focuser and filter wheel off of without issues. Refractor which is lower maintenance than a reflector. Downside is needing to purchase a field flattener, but that seems to be the case with pretty much all scopes. The exception is the RedCat but they're like gold dust thanks to COVID and I'd like to have a scope I can attach a motorised focuser to in future. So questions: Is that a suitable scope for a second purchase, considering my existing kit? What's the deal with these scopes and CCD suitability? According to the calculator such a scope with my Canon 600D or something like the ASI1600-Pro comes in as under-sampled, and even more under-sampled with the flattener/reducers. But I see so many of the big YouTubers, people on here etc with similar combos. Thanks in advance!

I never even thought to try EKOS' internal guider, will give it a punt!

Thanks for that spot, I had a darks library but hadn't realised it wasn't using it. that helped too.

Cheers all, I think there was a much less sinister and much stupider reason. I can't think why this didn't come to mind before but I pointed the scope at Vega, which is nice and bright on my main scope and there was nothing on my guide cam. Then I played with the focus ring and realised it was massively, massively out of focus. What I thought were stars must be noise, or some pattern that appears when the focus is off. I refocused right down and now I'm looking at more like 2". Still not perfect, but the sky was very hazy last night. Can't believe I missed that, no idea why the focus was off massively, but there it is.

I am flummoxed with my guiding. I had PD2 working nicely but the last 3 or 4 times I've been out the guiding has been absolutely nuts. Here's my graph: Note the scale is at +/-16 and it's still off the scale. If I try any long exposures it's a wobbly mess. No guiding seems better! I thought my polar alignment was off so I have tried every type of alignment in PHD2 and can't get the graph to settle. I then even went out and bought a Polemaster and it seems to be spot on. This is PHD2 through Astroberry, on HEQ5 and a Skywatcher 50ED guidescope. Nothing has changed as far as I can tell. Any ideas where to start?

I'm still learning this stuff myself, but you must match your telescope to the correct pixel size to prevent over or under sampling. Here's a useful calculator: http://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability

Thanks all. Initial feedback then is a £60 brick isn't required!? @MarkAR why do you have the Pi on its own cable? As you say it could go in the first USB3 port, which has a higher amperage than the others. Then also I think it'd deliver the required voltage.

I'm looking at getting a Pegasus Powerbox Advance (when they're back in stock) and wondering how to power it. I'm fortunate enough to be using my setup primarily from the garden and I have an outdoor 3-pin socket being installed that I hope to use. They have a branded 12v/10amp power supply but it's £60, which is way overpriced for a power adapter brick in my opinion. Here's what I think my power draw is (numbers are via Googling so could be wrong): HEQ5: 2 amps. Raspberry PI 4: 3 amps (though I don't think it draws that much unless I was to load all the USB ports) 2x Astrozap dew heaters: 1 amp ZWO ASI120MC-S guide cam: 1amp (total guess, can't find the numbers online) Canon 600D battery replacement: 1amp That's a total of 8 amps, though I reckon it's closer to 5 in reality as not everything will draw max at once. The Pegasus Astro power adapter is 10 amps. The adapter on FLO is 5 amps, I can get a variety of third party ones on eBay, Amazon etc. Am I missing something as to why the Pegasus one is so expensive? Obviously there's the quality/performance question. A cheap eBay supply might say 10 amp but might actually catch fire it it drew that much!

Out of curiosity, what's the benefit of AstroDMx Capture? I run Astroberry on a Raspberry PI 4 and use Ekos and Indi which allows me to do my capturing. Is this easier, more feature rich etc? Do you use it alongside other tools?

Cheers, I got it! It looked like it was completely not moving, not a mm of wiggle. So I ht it from beneath with a rubber mallet a couple of times and it popped off! For reference in case any one finds this post in the future, this was a mount bought in 2020 just before lockdown so yes, Skywatcher hasn't changed anything! I didn't have to fully remove the grub screws but I left them in to the point where another turn and they would have fallen out.

Hi folks, FLO just delivered my new ADM saddle to replace the stock one on the HEQ5 however I'm having trouble getting the old one off. Apparently I just have to remove the three grub screws around the base of the saddle. I've done that, even to the point of removing them entirely but the saddle won't come off. I've wiggled it, pulled it, rocked it to the point that it overcomes the clutches so I am worried about damaging the gears. What am I missing? Here's a picture of the grub screws I'm talking about: There are smaller, much deeper holes below the grub screws, but from the guides I've found online I don't think they're holding the saddle in place.

Seconding this. I have the Pi4 velcro-ed to the side of the mount, running Astroberry and it's very stable. I use a Chromebook to VPN to it as it's light, the battery lasts forever and I don't have to fight with Windows to get it working. I'd suggest a laptop over mobile purely because once you've got Kstars, Indi, PHD2 and anything else running, suddenly even a laptop screen gets crowded. Plus it's more forgiving to drop than a tablet.

Sorry I should have updated what I did in the end. The Powertank is a bit of a bondoggle as it can't support power on the DC jack and USB at the same time. So I have the Raspberry Pi 4 connected to an old 'emergency mobile phone' charger from Anker, which is strapped to the side of the power tank which powers the mount. No problems for the last couple of months, though to be fair all it has to power is the Pi and a guide cam. I'm waiting for the Pegasus Astro powerboxes to come back into stock then will switch to all of that then powered off... something to be decided. I have an outdoor power socket now so might be okay to use the good old mains!

Thanks Olly, great explanation.