JonCarleton

I just started running an OrangePi5Plus as a primary imaging computer running SkyChart, CCDciel and PHD2 with ASTAP for plate solving under Ubuntu Linux. It is working really well and the power consumption versus my X86_64 desktop is spectacularly low. I use Pi4 computers on the scope mounts running just indiserver with the appropriate drivers. That is, the imaging computer looks to the mount computers for the indi drivers over the network (WiFi). To be clear, the only change to my setup is the imaging computer; from a 110V AC standard X86_64 to a 5V DC OrangePi5Plus. The OS and software did not change. The reason for the change was to reduce the power load for use when I go to remote sites and have to run everything from a battery bank. I have also found that stacking with Siril and rough image processing is reasonable with the OrangePi5Plus. It won't run PixInsight, but I prefer Siril for stacking anyway. Add to that Siril has added a suite of fairly robust processing elements that, while they don't replace PixInsight, do many of the processing tasks one would normally perform in PixInsight with equal result.

Alacant and Olly, Alas yes, the ASI178MC is a very noisy planetary camera. I frequently find myself clipping to battle noise, even with NoiseXterminator and some other tricks in GIMP. I also lose a lot with the conversion to .JPG from the .FITS imaging for posting. Probably though, I should just buy a deep sky camera .

Thanks! I have trouble with "Franken-Newt" with longer subs. It is a flex-tube model, and is very heavy, even for an EQ6R Pro mount.

Here's NGC7635 (Bubble Nebula). This is 600 @ 30 second subs with a 10" Newt and ASI178MC. Imaging Software: CCDciel/Skychart/PHD2, Processing Software: Astap (for grading only), Siril (Stacking only), PixInsight and additional color balancing in GIMP. All Linux-based.

I started imaging the Messier List a few years ago with the goal of submitting my images for a certificate from the Astronomical League. Alas, at that time, they only certificated visual astronomy. I was not pleased, as I am not able to view with an eyepiece owing to too many years behind computer terminals, age and general entropy. The restriction has, earlier this year, been altered. Now there is an astro-imaging certification from the Astronomical League for the Messier objects. With that, I am off to the races once again. As of this posting, I am about half of the way complete. I did not start at an opportune point in the year and many of my "un-imaged" targets are either too low on the horizon or on the other side of the planet at night. Hopefully, I will finish sometime before the end of the year. Granted, with the "Astronomical League Certificate for Messier Imaging" and a nickle, you still only have 5 cents, but it is something I want to do. This link https://www.astroleague.org/imaging-messier-observing-program/ is the Astronomical League information page for imaging (and also has links within for the visual page), should you be interested in the program. This link https://linuxastro.com/messier.shtml is a page I setup that shows my progress. I update images as I collect them, though as of this post the site will be a bit static until the earth moves a bit. The images on this link are only intended to prove I was able to acquire the target and frequently therefore are not of great quality. Some of the bright objects, for example, comprise of as little as 10 minutes of data. It is an interesting exercise and did introduce me to several targets that I plan in future to go back to and collect enough data for a proper image. I was also not aware there were so very many different globular clusters around our galaxy.

Here is another of my recent efforts. The "Pillars of Creation" area of the Eagle Nebula (M16). 450@30 second subs with the 10" reflector and ASI178MC one-shot color. This is the .jpg image as the PNG is a bit fat for posting, though it is not as crispy as the PNG (you'll have to take my word on that ). Imaging with INDI drivers (on a Raspberry Pi4), SkyChart, CCDciel and PHD2. Processing with Siril, PixInsight and GIMP (all Linux).

Yikes! Typo. My apology. 30 SECOND subs. I'll edit. But yes, there is some more detail, however exposing it also exposes some significant noise. I probably need as much again in overall exposure to be able to do justice the dark bits of the nebula. You can tel they are there, as they cover up the stars in the background.

I've not posted in a while. Perhaps I'll get back to it now. Here's a 400 @ 30 second subs image of NGC7013 (Iris Nebula) with my 10" reflector and a ASI178MC one-shot camera. Imaged with SkyChart/CCDciel/PHD2, Stacked with Siril and processed in PI with GIMP touch-ups (all Linux). I do use ASTAP for both guiding during imaging and grading the images to reduce the time I have to spend "blinking."

Interesting project

Vilros has Pi4's in stock now. They are packaging them with a lot of junk (eg: case, power supply, fan, etc.) to justify a higher price, but they are new and ship immediately (at the moment).

Another way that works -really- well with Linux and INDI drivers is to just run the drivers and equipment connections at the scope computer. Then, run the imaging software from a second computer connected by networking (wifi or wired). There are two advantages: 1) The computer at the scope can be very minimal. I use a Pi at the scope (Pi4, because it has 2 USB3 ports) and run the imaging software on a more "beefy" machine in the house, or RV if away from home. 2) Running just the drivers at the scope means the images end up on the computer running the imaging software and not on the computer at the scope. No need to transfer files after imaging. This can be done with KStars/EKOS or CCDciel...or other Linux-based imaging platforms.

Excellent detail.

This is about 3 hours of data over multiple nights during the past few winter months. M16 Eagle Nebula.

This is my second attempt at the Flaming Star Nebula. The first one was with my 10" Newtonian, and this, with my 61mm Triplet. It represents 450 minutes of data over many winter nights when the clouds were on break. Seeing was not wonderful, due to the moon, humidity, along with other excuses you may be aware of that I have neglected to remember while typing this post. My area is considered Bortel 4. The camera was a QHY173MC without filters. The mounts were a combinaton of a iOptron GEM28 or SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro. The SkyWatcher yields better guide logs, but the iOptron is light-weight, so the choice of mount was dependent upon how tired I was when it was time to setup and how likely it was that I would have to bring it all in with dispatch for impending weather. I am not completely pleased with this image and believe I may be able to improve it some. But for now, I declare a truce until next season.

Thanks! That's the one. I also found it here: https://www.amazon.com/Washinglee-Control-Skywatcher-Equatorial-Telescope/dp/B07XVQCZBL/ref=sr_1_3?th=1 Glad to see it still exists. Buying one =now= (and warming up the tractor).

I have a SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro. I seem to remember that, a few years ago, there was a cable with a chip in it that would plug into SOME mounts and convert USB to a protocol that worked on the Skywatcher RJ45 port. I would like to get one of these if they still exist and if they will work with a current mount like mine. Now, I know I can connect through the hand unit with a stock USB printer cable. I also have a WiFi dongle that does work and allows me to lose the hand controller, but I have experienced occasional WiFi drops that cause problems. My goal is to lose the hand unit (and perhaps back over it with my tractor) and go back to a single cable, USB connection to the computer. I really wish I could remember what that cable was called, but I believe it translated USB to ethernet, but I am not certain. It did have an RJ-45 end and a USB A end.

I have used Kstars/Ekos, but usually use CarteDuCiel/CCDciel. I used to use PHD2 as well on the Pi, but now that both KStars and CCDciel have internal guiders that work well, I don't bother with PHD2 anymore. Both platforms work really well on a stock Pi4 with at least 4G ram. You can run either on a lesser Pi (even a Pi3) if you just run the indiserver on the Pi and run the software on a Linux desktop. This avoids the need to VNC or otherwise remote to the Pi. The downsides to using a Pi3 are that there is no USB3 port, which can slow camera downloads a bit and the quirk some Pi3 versions have where USB use (such as camera downloads) interferes with WiFi. This is also somewhat less of a problem if you use the Pi3 for drivers only. I also recommend ASTAP for plate solving. The KSTARS internal plate solver is good, but ASTAP is still faster. Alas, I don't recall if it is still an option for KSTARS, though it works exceptionally well with CCDciel. Jon Carleton (Linux Astro)

ASTAP will display and stretch, but i am not sure it debayer. Siril will debayer and view, and works pretty well with large number of images. However, Siril will require a conversion of the files before it will let you see them. The conversion icludes the debayer option. Then too, if you use Siril to debayer, the resultant files should be available to any other image viewing file you choose.

Looks good. Can't wait to try it....=IF= if ever get a break from these clouds. Summer...well, at least I'm not outside getting carried off by bat-size mosquitoes during the setup.

I agree that ethernet is a more bullet-proof method in general. You may have noticed my "or hardwire ethernet" comment. I also agree that stock Pi3 and 4 WiFi setups are generally fair to poor and somewhat unreliable. When I do use Pi WiFi, I use a compute module 4 on a WaveShare board with an external WiFi antenna OR an external WiFi dongle on a stock Pi using a USB port. I do not trust the "printed on the PC board" stock Pi WiFi antenna. I also use an external TPLINK AC1200 external access point that is hardwired to my internal ethernet, mounted about 3 meters from the scope. It is a bit overkill, but I don't have WiFi drop issues. I don't trust home-use WiFi routers, especially to go through a wall. Download speed for my setup runs 6-10 seconds for a 40G image. I use 10 seconds as a download estimate for sequence calculations and session timing and always complete a sequence prior to my calculated estimate by a reasonable margin. When I do use wired ethernet, I get about 5-8 seconds per download...and the occasional cable snag, and am therefore consigned to the fact there is no perfect answer.

There is another option that I haven't seen discussed here. You can just run the indiserver and drivers on the Pi and forget about running the imaging/guiding/planetarium software on the Pi. Run the software on your local, in-house PC/Linux, PC/Windows, PC/Pi laptop or desktop using the drivers on the remote Pi. The added advantage to this method is that you don't have to transfer the files from the scope Pi after the imaging session. They are already on the local machine. Setup goes like this: Configure your Pi to connect to your WiFi (or hardwire ethernet) on boot. Connect the Pi to your scope peripherals as usual (by this, I mean wiring, not software connectivity). Install INDISERVER on the Pi with the drivers you need (instructions on indilib.org). Configure the INDI drivers for your peripherals as necessary. Install or activate (if using Raspbian) openssh-server. (NOTE: You could skip this if you create a script to start indiserver with the appropriate drivers on boot). Install the imaging/guiding/planetarium software on your local machine. KStars/EKOS is a good choice, or CCDCiel/CarteDuCiel/PHD2. Configure your imaging/guiding/planetarium software to use the Pi IP address for the Pi instead of localhost. To start a session: SSH to the Pi and start indiserver with the appropriate drivers. (or skip this if you created an INDI startup script on the Pi as in the NOTE above) Start your imaging/guiding/planetarium software on your local machine (can be Windows of Linux or Mac... as long as the imaging/guiding/planetarium software packages support INDI drivers). DONE. No RDP or VNC. The imaging/guiding/planetarium software is running locally, so the only network traffic is the image transfer and commands from the controlling software packages. This method also works with just a Pi3, but I prefer a Pi4 just due to the lack of USB3 ports on a Pi3. Granted, I have understated the potential complexity for someone unfamiliar with Linux in setting up a Pi to boot with specific parameters, but the learning curve is not horrible and the setup is a one-time task to get past. It is well worth the trouble for reliability and ongoing simplicity of operation once you have it properly configured. This also takes a huge load off the Pi and allows it to be more efficient in operating the peripherals and keeping the WiFi more reliable.

Yep, that adds a level of complication all by itself. Still, if you have what you need and it works, life is grand!

I don't like to "fix" things after they aren't broken any more, but you should be able to use both WiFi and Ethernet on a Pi. I do all the time. However, it can be a bit challenging, so the point of this post is just to mention that it is possible and practical, but not necessarily a good plan if you no longer need it. If you are up and running sans WiFi, you have my applause and congratulations. Ethernet on a Pi is generally rock-solid and significantly faster than any WiFi.

What is the setting for your target precision?

OK, sounds like you have the basic networking setup between the Pi and laptop. You can verify this by pinging the Pi from the laptop: Open a command window on the windows laptop (CMD window) type: ping nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn <--(insert Pi lan IP address here) If that works (because you get ping replies), then you probably have KStars/EKOS still setup with the old IP address from the hotspot and need to update the indiserver IP to the new lan address in EKOS. If you can't ping the Pi from the laptop, then the problem is network configuration. You need to be certain of the problem (network config or EKOS config) first to know what to fix.