gilesco

Yes, if you mix different standards and different manufacturers I have found that they generally work, but will step down to the lowest speed across the board, e.g. 2 devolo 1200+ and a Tplink 300Mbps, means that everything will operate at 300Mbps max. If you're starting afresh then go with the latest and greatest and continue to match (as you can see, my home network has grown, but I started with just two of these devices until networking requirements around the house grew and grew). I also eventually ran a Cat6 cable from the ground floor to the first floor of the house to ensure that throughput was even higher (RSTP takes care of ensuring it is used in preference to Powerline).

I have one consumer unit, and then another consumer unit which is a sub-unit of the first (due to an historical home extension). My devolo Powerline units still work throughout the house, although lower speeds to areas that are on the sub-unit. I say slower, it is still by far faster and more reliable than my Wifi is. Mine are a bit older than what is currently available, a mixture of the following: https://www.devolo.co.uk/dlan-1200-powerline https://www.devolo.co.uk/dlan-1200-wifi-ac-powerline Dining Room and Conservatory are connected to the secondary consumer unit. (Dining Room shows up --- just because there's no device using it there).

If it does, then a modern powerline rather than WiFi might be better (you can still mix powerline with Wifi, but the backhaul will be over powerline). All points need to be on the same consumer distribution unit. https://www.devolo.co.uk/products/magic-powerline

I'm just going to recommend a cooled version, there's lots of reports that cooling is not necessary for the results, especially with some of the newer sensors out there, but bear this in mind: When you start imaging the ambient temperature might be around 12 deg. Half way through the night the ambient temperature might have dropped to 6 deg. I notice a difference in the exposures taken uncooled as the sensor temperature changes through the night. I only cool to around 10 to 20 less than the ambient temperature, not necessarily for the cooling, but for the temperature to be regulated throughout the night.

There is an endless list of things that will interfere with WIFI networks, some only should interfere with 2.4Ghz bands, other will also affect the 5Ghz bands, but in truth all radio interference will interfere regardless of frequency. Some of the things: Other wireless networks in the vicinity, be it wireless networks in your own home that you're not even aware of (yes these exist), or they might be wireless networks in your neighbours homes, and the more wifi extenders they install the more they will interfere with yours. Bluetooth can interfere as well, it's constantly frequency hopping can make issues very intermittent, and more likely to occur on devices that have both Bluetooth and Wifi capabilities. Any radio devices - Wireless door bells, video door bells, baby monitors, walkie-talkies list goes on. The Microwave oven - classic one this. Then there is passive interference, walls, be they dry-wall, walls with metallic frames, concrete, bricks, thick timber. Further water radiators can cause havoc, especially if your APs / Extenders are situated on low level coffee or hall tables or worse on just plugged into low level plug sockets. Further any electronic device will cause some radio interference, televisions, radios, computers, computer monitors... as I say the list is endless. A shielded Category 5 / 5E or Cat 6 cable is eventually the only sure fast way of ensuring a reliable and fast connection - range of 100 metres without any degradation in signal.

Looks cool, expected more specs on their website e.g. output command format via the serial port (for INDI integration development) . Is it supposed to be hand held or fixed on on a mount?

It might be a price rise due to exchange rate changes, Sterling has taken a real hammering recently, expect more across the board price rises I'm afraid...

Looks very similar in spec to the Nevada PSW-30 - practically identical, although the Nevada can apparently deliver 25A continuous, while this one states 20A continuous. They are both built for the same application - CB / Ham Radio Enthusiasts.

Well Hubble introduced the Hubble Palette, so I guess we will have a Webb palette, but would probably still expect nearly all images to be predominantly red, perhaps some oranges and yellows for contrast.

I bought APP first, and later PI, I do the same - I work with Mono frames, so I tend to use APPs combine RGB tool + light pollution, then work on the resulting composite in PI - both linear and then non-linear. Although I must add I'm very much still getting to grips with PI.

I think he got the point, but was making his own, there are a lot of voices in this thread - making valid standalone points about what works for them, all getting replies about what worked for them didn't appear to work for others. Kstars / INDI, NINA / ASCOM - they all work, just use what fits your prior computer experience.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/category-537/zwo-counterweight-shaft-for-am5.html FLO are quick...

Nice to see one set up in the video. Do FLO have the counterweight and shaft on their website or compatible? Apparently the shaft needs to have a M12 screw.

Looks like an Evolux 82ED ?

The problems for HO UK have been in plain view for quite some time, when I come across a web site with the bespoke design that they have I often check contact details (lack of an actual address), , try to locate their premises via Google maps (not present), and google street view (no such business on the industrial estate). It's in forums such as this that I also do my research (which is how I came across this thread in the first place). I don't believe, however, that they are scammers in the sense that they're going out to get cash from people without even trying to provide a service. I just think that it is a business that's gone wrong, and the money (deposits) have been mismanaged (i.e. taken out of the business for the business owners personal needs). It appears that this has then led to stress, and a nervous breakdown. I have some sympathy for the situation, but I have more sympathy for the people who have lost out expecting a product. Buyer beware, and I would certainly not fork out a deposit via bank transfer without a written contract.

I'm not a teacher, I see a request for information and i impart what I know, to the best of my ability. If it is too much information then I take the reader to intake what they can understand and follow up at a later date for further clarification. I'm not going to purposefully drip-feed information on a forum.

It really depends on how you set up. Yes if you connect the camera to your laptop then the camera is powered through the USB power on the laptop. The downside to this is that your laptop needs to be within a few metres of the telescope (limited by the length of your USB cable, and the longer the cable you try to use, the more likely you will run in to problems). So many mount a mini-PC or Raspberry Pi to the OTA and connect all the devices to that, they they run a ethernet network cable, or use a WIFI connection (less stable) to connect their Laptop or even desktop PC to the mini-PC / Pi, either via INDI client, or by connecting to the mini-PC / Pi via a remote desktop protocol such as VNC etc... In that case, the camera will be powered by the mini-PC / Pi, as that is what connects to the USB. There are lots of solutions, and which way you go depends on your circumstances. I personally like to set everything up outside and then go indoors to my home study with a comfortable PC to command the set up from indoors through the night. Ideally, I literally only visit the telescope to set up and polar align at the beginning and then at the end of the session to bring everything back down again.

The 17ah powertank will power everything, how long for depends on exactly what equipment you have and how it is set up, a poorly balanced scope on a mount can suddenly take up a lot more power and will shorten the time you have available. Dew heaters are also a drain if they are needed. I usually power everything out the back of the house via a mains PSU. I have got 2 17ah powertanks, but have only ever used them a couple of times. I tended to power the mount via one and everything else (via a Pegasus PPBA) via the other one (The PPBA, although expensive can report on power usage, so helps to estimate total time available). ZWO Asiair under the hood is essentially the same driving hardware / software as a home made Astroberry Raspberry Pi. I think it will also tie you in to ZWO cameras though, so bear that in mind. As others have mentioned, gonig straight to a full set up, with guiding, imaging, filter swapping, dew heater management, mount aligning, plate solving etc... etc... is a really steep learning curve, and when limited to a few hours on a single night (particularly during the Summer months in the UK), this is a recipe for a lot of frustration. So it is wise to go step by step, get acquainted with what you have, and slowly add things along the way that you anticipate will resolve the problems you experience as you experience them.

If you want to guide, then you will need a mini-PC. The ZWO120MM-mini is really just a cheap camera, it doesn't actually have any built-in star tracking functionality. Also, if you choose to go down the Raspberry Pi route as a mini-PC, be sure to check about the compatibility of the ZWO120MM-mini as this particular camera has lots of problems with Linux which the Raspberry Pi runs on. As for power, this camera can be powered over USB (from the mini-PC).

Couple of things to note. 1) The thepihut.com website always shows the popular Raspberry Pis as out-of-stock, and have done through the entire pandemic. This does not mean that if you place an order you won't get your preferred Raspberry Pi - it will usually go on backorder and your order will be fulfilled when the Pi arrives. Unfortunately the backorders exceed the production availability of the Pis, so when a delivery arrives at thepihut.com all the popular Raspberry Pis in that order are already sold, so they still don't appear in stock. 2) Getting the 8GB Pi4 may seem great, but to my knowledge the astroberry image is still based on the 32-bit version of Raspberry OS. This means that any single process running can still only access 4GB of memory. 3) Stellarsolver was developed as an improvement to speed up platesolving, and also remove some dependencies that made it difficult to run under certain OS's there are several ways that it achieves this. On the Pi, you don't have to use Stellarsolver, I believe you can still use a local or remote astrometry. It just requires you to change those settings. Astrometry will be slower, but will probably work better on the lower end Pis.

Of course, I do visual every night I set up. I find Polaris in finder, then I find Polaris again in Polar Scope. Then I remove polar scope and finderscope and retreat to the nice indoors and plate solve a few positions. Then in the warmth of my home I perform star alignment until everything is working nice. Now I open a bottle of wine and start viewing. I might image in a way to obtain an end result or I may just go exploring, nice in the comfort of my study.

I'm not so sure it is young people imaging and older people doing visual. I'd think it the other way round. My eyesight is so awful I can't visually see much through a telescope, but I can see the images on my screen just fine.

Did you check DHL? I don't think they've got optical instruments on their exclusion list.

I think they're trying to educate you about the motion of the stars at night, take a look at the following video:

If you are really lazy, take one of your pictures, and upload it to astrometry.net: https://nova.astrometry.net/upload Once submitted and processed you get lots of information (e.g.): You can additionally just plate solve your picture locally and a lot of information will be present in the logs. This is quicker, but using astrometry.net online, while it takes a while, you get lots of information about your picture, annotated versions, overlays on the World Wide Telescope etc...