gilesco

I'll just leave this here:

https://www.gov.uk/accepting-returns-and-giving-refunds

Just now, stash_old said:

Not for an 8gb RPI4 , decent  case, good PSU,cables ,SSD and fan(if reqd)

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).

1 minute ago, Paul M said:

HDMI dummy dongle, to fool my Ubuntu mini PC that a monitor is connected to allow it to run headless.

 

That was quick 😀

1 minute ago, Stuart1971 said:

£120 for rpi4 8gb 😮, no, no ,no, they are £68.... so even better 👍

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...

6 minutes ago, Paul M said:

Just waiting for the dummy monitor dongle, due any time and we're off!

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! 😀

1 minute ago, david_taurus83 said:

Surely not???

 

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...

3 minutes ago, johninderby said:

These are the ones I use. Mitutoyo are expensive but you can’t get better.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/calipers/2455676/

Shop around and you should find a better price. Don’t buy on eBay though as most on there are cheap fake copies. Stick to a proper dealer. 

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

48 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Just measured and it’s 29.95 just under the thread. 🤔

 

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.

1 hour ago, Paul M said:

I took the plunge after my painful divorce from Astroberry/RasPi :

I took many weeks to decide whether to stick with Windows/APT or have another go at KStars/Ekos on a bigger Linux machine.

I decided on the latter which also saved the cost of a W10 license. This unbranded machine came with 8Gig of Ram and a 240 Gig SSD, preinstalled with Ubuntu. I particularly liked this machine because it's got plenty of USB ports so hopefully no need for the USB hub and it's native 12v input. I know the intel NUC's can run on 12v but there is anecdotal evidence that 12v is the very bottom of their stable range.

Now it begins; installing everything. Which will have to wait because I have no USB keyboard for initial set-up.  I found the keyboard I knew I had but it's the old PS2(?) plug type. There is an on-screen keyboard but that doesn't appear to be accessible for initial user account set-up...

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.

24 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I really don't think that's the case.

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!!

22 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

It’s a Stargazers‘ Lounge acronym for electronically enhanced astronomy.
Embryonic, and viability not yet proven 🙈

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.

3 minutes ago, shirva said:

Lol,, think video astronomy,, this is where it stemmed from,, and some of still regard it as that,,, but we're not dinosaurs we move with the times and technology,, 

EEVA,, what is it,, it's a very easy going part of astronomy,, combining most elements,, visual EEVA, to view the dark skies using a camera and monitor in live or near live time,,  

It's also short exposure live imaging,, whether you stack it or not,, 

How long is too long and would it then be classified as astrophotography,,, thing is,, who cares,, it's a hobby,, can I use my astrophotography kit,, of course you can,, most of us probably have pretty much similar equipment,, 

Think of video astronomy as easy going, no rules,, no pressure in doing thing's by the book,,,,,,  it got ripped up and burnt years ago,,  😂

One thing,, that doesn't change,,,  no one scope does it all 

You have some coma in your reply

8 minutes ago, cfpendock said:

What does EEVA mean?  According to Google it is something to do with embryo viability.  Are you sure you have the right forum?

Chris

Electronically Enhanced Visual Astronomy

10 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

But how to connect it directly. Currently my lakeside goes direct from the Pegasus via RJ45/DB9 cable. No idea if you can change the RJ45 to a USB or would you use the GPIO of the Pi ?

Ideally everything would work using EKOS so I think some sort of INDI driver would need to be written. My knowledge of PYTHON etc is zero.

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.

10 minutes ago, wormix said:

Good to know - that’s essentially what I want to do - have power distribution and usb all together, and maybe dew too.  Was going to use strip board for distribution to separate ports. 
 

I have most of the components, so just want to incorporate them all neatly. 

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.

10 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

Looks like a similar idea. Once it gets to the stage where it can replace the Pegasus completely I'll be up for one. 

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).

Just now, MarkAR said:

That's interesting, I was thinking about if it was possible to build something like this. Basically a Pi and Pegasus Powerbox all in one.

The only thing that seems to be lacking is for auto focusers, he does state it's for Astroberry/Stellarmate but there's no INDI driver so will it work under EKOS?

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.