gilesco

I'll just leave this here: https://www.gov.uk/accepting-returns-and-giving-refunds

Agreed, I've tended to pimp my Pi to the extreme, and then followed on to disable HDMI, disable Wifi, disable Bluetooth etc... - reducing idle power consumption as much as possible. So it is kind of a £150-200 solution now... of course, I didn't do that all in one go, but it now feels like working with a PC (SSD seems to be a major improvement).

That was quick 😀

I think once you add PSU, Large, high-quality high-capacity microSD, USB cable, HDMI cable, Network Cable and Case then you often surpass £120. Not to mention, 12V powered USB hub, 12V --> 5V 3A converter etc...

I hope that works for you. If it doesn't come back here, I would have suggested installing the Ubuntu Server minimal install (without a GUI), and then installing a desktop environment on top of that. It avoids a lot of the gunk that an Ubuntu Desktop install puts in, a lot of which is unnecessary and unneeded for a build which is for a specific use, rather than a general purpose PC. https://phoenixnap.com/kb/how-to-install-a-gui-on-ubuntu

This is a bit off-topic. I began to get serious budget-wise about astronomy and astrophotography only about a year ago. However, I have had an interest for over 25 years, when I was playing with XEphem on Sun Workstations at University - I thought the software was really cool and the idea of using software that could control a telescope / observatory set up was something that I guess seeded the actions I'm going through now. Having grounded myself in UNIX at University, and Microsoft Windows was still in its infancy I took to tinkering with Linux after dropping out of University. I eventually came across Kstars, and soon became aware of Ekos. Anyway - back to last year, when I decided to get serious about this hobby I was certain that going the INDI route with Kstars/Ekos, I was going to be on the fringe of things and everyone else was going to be using ASCOM under the Windows platform. I was of the mind that I wouldn't get much help from the manufacturers and the mainstream forums for my software set ups and hardware interfacing, and would have to exclusively get and give advice and experiences on INDI specific forums. I'm happy to say that I've completely changed my mind since then - I no longer think that INDI is a fringe, non-mainstream way of working, and while I have near to no idea of how the ASCOM framework works, and what proportion of users use ASCOM compared to INDI, I am grateful of the abundance of people using INDI, and the wealth of knowledge exchange on all forums! 😀

impossible!! Do you have a secret postcode or something?

Question about things already ordered, can we assume that stock levels on the site, don't include orders already placed? So if we've placed an order 40 days ago, and it still shows as 40-60 days away, that our order might be fulfilled before that? Just questioning, will email you seperately about my specific order, in a week or so...

Yes, I don't touch ebay even with a bargepole.

I'm more interested in the calipers, where can I buy some good ones like this?

Last season I was setting up my OAG and getting my guide parfocal with my main CCD, involved adjusting with a hex key. Of course the entire OAG mirror and guide scope fell sharply onto the patio, I've now upgraded to use a helical focuser with pressure fitting. Guide scope is fine BTW, shows an impact scratch on the back though.

What's the model / link? It looks like one of these: https://www.inside-tech.co.uk/fanless-quad-core-intel-mini-pc-dual-display?gclid=CjwKCAjwiOv7BRBREiwAXHbv3KgxbljV9WYTXWx8bz-NDvk8bQujI8p4kuMnGoBd5iJlVTBquoVQNBoCW1EQAvD_BwE

I'm not a huge expert, but would suggest that you take longer exposures even though you'll get fewer in the time. Appreciate you're trying to avoid washing out Andromeda, but you need longer exposures than 2s, otherwise you're just compounding noise on more noise?

The acceptable DPI for any picture depends on what the picture is consisted of, if it is a sparse picture then people are going to look at detail (searching for it), if it contains a single point of interest then people will step back and (hopefully) admire the whole. It's even better if it looks good as a whole, and yet when you move in you see further detail without loss of quality.

Quite, if you can see the pixels then the detail is lost, because each pixel and its surrounding pixels will only be your post processing, your detail comes about around 50 pixels square, looked closely.

Not wanting to hijack this thread, but if anyone would like to go to Dark Sites, in Devon, possibly Dartmoor, then please join the Devon and Cornwall club on here. I'd like to get involved, although socially distanced, with dark site visiting, but would feel a lot safer and less bored (AP schedules through the night) with likeminded company!!

It's somewhat supposed to be a bridge between visual astronomy and astrophotography. Visual astronomy says look through this eyepiece and see what you see. Astrophotography is more - look what I can see if my pupil had an exposure time of x hours. EEVA tries to bridge that gap, look what I could have seen if my pupil could have seen all that data over the last 30s, or another arbitrary value.

You have some coma in your reply

Electronically Enhanced Visual Astronomy

The Lakeside focuser either has RS-232 serial port UART interface or a USB interface? FTDI Interface... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-cables-leads-accessories/lynx-astro-ftdi-usb-to-serial-adapter-for-original-lakeside-focuser-controllers.html If it's a RS-232 serial port UART (looks like a standard 9-pin COM port), then you'd use a USB Serial Cable Adapter and use the Lakeside INDI driver that is as standard with the INDIlib package.

I had considered something like this for fusing https://www.amazon.co.uk/Negative-Blade-Holder-Indicator-Marine/dp/B07K4232VG ... but if I keep spending £15 here, £5 there etc... then I'll never get round to something which has the Dew Control, environmental sensors and such like.

I'm essentially connecting a load of cables to one of these at the moment: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DN92HVB The DCHUB2 will essentially do the same with a fused cigarette lighter plug, plus a 2 x 3A 5V USB cable & plug, which is kind of what I'm using, this just puts all that it in a neat little box. So while DCHUB2 looks better than what I now have I want to move to something better - I would want something where each output has its own fuse, this looks like it just has a fuse on the total draw. I also want Dew heater control, on/off power control, environmental sensors, USB3 hub... (see my other thread in this forum). But I'm not looking to break the bank right now... so will probably soldier on with what I currently have until budget permits something else.

Yes, I'm sure it is modelled with it in mind. As I used a Pi4 I need a 3A USB power port, so to consider a Pegasus it looks like I would need the Advance model, which is a good £100 step up from the ordinary Powerbox PPB, so too much for me, this one as a hat can power the Pi4 via the GPIO, everything looks cleaner and more compact in one box (for the way I want to work).

No, the guy who built the ECAD/MCAD files says he's not too good with software development, only hardware development. I'm not too good with either, but probably better with software and I'm OK with Linux and the Raspberry Pi, so I'm sure I'd be able to get the GPS to connect to GPSD INDI driver, and I reckon I could get a python / RRDscript to graph the Temperature / Humidity / Pressure sensors, might be able to python something using the generic INDI weather driver. Similarly for the 12V outputs / PWM DEW heater outputs, could probably easily do some python to control these via the web interface on Astroberry. As for Focusers - the Astroberry INDI drivers can take care of that.

Does anyone know how someone goes about getting a company to construct one of these: https://github.com/tikiss/PowerShield And wonder what the price might be to construct one? I'm OK with assembling, but not soldering or any electrical bits.