GrumpiusMaximus

I know they've u-turned on it a bit in the last couple of days but Microsoft talking about 'security' and TPM 2.0 requirements and then announcing something like Recall is just laughable. Especially when Recall was going to use an unencrypted SQL database. According to a few things that I've read, Recall was developed by a small team at Microsoft and then suddenly announced and it appears to have caught the rest of the business slightly off-guard. There's been another 'security is a priority' memo as a standing item at Microsoft for a while now but the Recall team seem to have forgotten about this and reading between the lines it looks like they've had their knuckles severely rapped for it. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/06/microsoft-delays-data-scraping-recall-feature-again-commits-to-public-beta-test/ Nevertheless, the fact that a small team in Microsoft does just have the autonomy to go ahead and do something like this and then announce it without the rest of the company being fully aware is a massive red flag as to their internal structuring. Siloing is one of the biggest threats to any company. Granted what I do is a lot less complex but within the company I work for, I've implemented a change management service that we can use internally and with our customers and it's totally painless. It follows basic ITIL principles and seems to work quite well. Because we have a continual improvement mindset, systemic issues get picked up and I go away and work on those in consultation with the rest of the team. The fact that Microsoft don't seem to able to get even basic, ITIL-Fundamental level process management working internally makes me seriously worried.

@Martyn87 Firstly, this is definitely not a mount recommendation for what you're trying to do as it will be inadequate - but just experience-sharing in reference to you looking at an AL-55. I have an AZ-GTI that I use with my 70mm Altair ED Refractor. A very different telescope to a C6 (but I do also own a C5). Whilst the smartphone control is fine I really dislike the lack of tactile feedback. This is mainly a problem with visual observing, as I'm having to look at my phone screen the whole time to adjust the view and as a result what little dark adaptation I have gets partially lost each time, even with the brightness turned down and in night mode. When I can justify it to myself (and when I get back from my Swedish holiday in a month, having forked out for a very expensive sleeper train...) I'm going to buy a handset controller for the AZ-GTI to make life easier. The Sky-Watcher Synscan Pro app is pretty decent but I think having to look at a screen during visual sessions is an inherent flaw with the idea. This is absolutely not an issue if you're imaging, I grant you!

Agreed. For a first timer, stick with Debian-based (or RHEL-based but this is a little more niche) and you should be fine. Within the main 'families' (Debian, RHEL, Arch, etc.) the main differences are the user interface. You can pick and choose from a vast array of different user interfaces. As Xilman says above, XFCE is a good option. Some like Cinnamon, some like LXQt, others like GNOME or KDE and there are loads of others to choose from. For Debian-based distros, Ubuntu is still a decent option because it does tend to have better driver support out of the box than some other Debian-based distros. Debian itself is a valid option but I've found graphics driver support a little trickier - although it's not too much effort to find the driver and manually install it if you have a few minutes. Ubuntu itself comes in different flavours (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu) with some of the UI options pre-installed. Linux Mint is supposed to be very beginner-friendly, too. You can, of course, download additional UIs and choose between them at login as well. The great thing is that they're all available to you to download and try. It only takes about ten-fifteen minutes to actually install most Linux distros on any semi-reasonable hardware so if you don't like one distribution, you can try another. All you need is a USB stick and a program called Rufus to write to the USB. Obviously, it's easier if you have two computers so that you can make your bootable USB drives on one and try it in the other device. This is especially true if the device you're installing onto doesn't have any data - because installing will usually wipe your hard drive (unless you're very careful). Usually, however, you can try the operating system out without having to install it first - it just runs straight off the USB. As with everything though, for every Linux user there is a slightly different opinion on their favourite configuration - so it pays to fiddle around.

I have a couple of X250s that came with the i3 chip, 4GB of ram and the rubbish 768 display. One now has an i7, 8GB of RAM and a 1080 display, the other has an i5, 8GB of RAM and the stock display. I also have a stack of removable batteries for them. My old employer was literally throwing them away so I nabbed a half dozen. Great laptops and I just fiddle about with them, trying increasingly obscure operating systems. My main personal laptop at the moment is a Thinkpad A285 with 16GB of RAM that I bought for 100GBP on eBay a couple of months ago. That has proven to be an absolute bargain.

I work for an IT Managed Services Provider so had to deal with Windows every day. The minute I was no longer directly customer-facing I asked our MD if he was OK with me using Linux day-to-day on my work laptop. This was four months ago and I haven't looked back since. I am unbelievably sick of Microsoft and their drive to monetise every part of their Operating System. I just want to get work done. If I set something a certain way, it stays a certain way. I can actually turn all notifications off. Nobody is collecting my data. There is no 'push' to use particular applications. Furthermore, my work laptop's performance has improved enormously. The only time I have to use Windows is for getting audit search results from 365 and I use a VM for that - and that's only every couple of months. I've been on and off with Linux since 2006 and I've also used Macs extensively in that time. The only Operating System that I've used that has actively got in my way has been Windows. I cannot stand it. I'm currently saving for a new Mac so have an old Thinkpad with Debian 12 installed on it for personal use and it's been excellent.

A good Polar Alignment is one of the most critical parts of astrophotography and also one of the trickiest. I'm terrible at it and it's why I don't do it anywhere near as often as I would like to. Whatever makes it quicker and easier is a win in my book. You're better off spending a little money on a tool to help you than struggling with it, getting frustrated and giving up. And with a C6, the issue compounds itself.

There are a lot of decisions but in all honesty, the best thing to do is go out there and start playing around. In theory, I know what to do. In practice something dodgy always happens - and its a case of applying the theory to find the pitfalls in your own process. Here's a handy website for various things: https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability

AstroBuySell is properly old school and is only a classifieds site. I've never had a bad experience over there but there is no buyer protection as they are not brokering the deal. It's a great resource but just make sure that you're careful. Got a few bargains over there. To go back to the ASIAir for just a moment, my Dad has one and can get Polar Alignment really quickly. It's super-slick and easy. He gets excellent results with it. I have an Altair Hypercam183C which is a good camera which is why I've set up an Astroberry. Ironically, my Dad (generously) gifted it to me as he went all-in on ASI after buying the ASIAir. With a C6, you'll definitely want to use an automated Polar Alignment tool of some sort as it would be challenging for even an experienced astrophotographer to align adequately for any decent exposure rate given the focal length of a C6.

The ASIAir does only work with their hardware. The first generation was just a Raspberry Pi with their own OS on it. The newer versions are much the same. I have an 'Astroberry', which is a Raspberry Pi with the Astroberry OS on it. It has all of the software that you need for imaging and can be accessed via your home network in the browser by IP or host name. You can theoretically set it up to run over the Internet too obviously. It's effectively an open-source Raspberry Pi-style solution that works with a variety of devices and has drivers, etc. loaded by default. It's not difficult to get set up - but I work in IT too. It's just an ARM Linux distro with some applications and drivers installed. The main issue I've had with mine was getting Polar Alignment but that's a skill in and of itself and I find the routines a bit tricky. The ASIAir's Polar Alignment options are incredibly slick by comparison. I'd also definitely recommend getting a real-time clock installed on any Raspberry Pi you use if you go down the Astroberry route. My WiFi doesn't extend well into my garden, so I control mine via a laptop connected directly to the Astroberry's own hotspot but without direct Internet access, it can't reference an NTP server and without the RTC installed you have to set the time manually each boot, which is a pain in the rear. And you absolutely need it to have an accurate time. Setting up cameras and sequences is very easy, as is setting up GOTO. I haven't tried any guiding with mine (I don't have a guidescope) but I gather it's similarly straightforward. You can choose a save location of images, too. Plus it will do platesolving, etc. etc. If you have Raspberry Pi kicking around (who doesn't?!) and source a 5-Quid CMOS-style RTC from eBay you can give it a go. I'm using a Pi4 with 8GB of RAM but a Pi3 should run it OK too. The more RAM the better, obviously.

Those are absolutely fantastic.

Mine is half Lab, half Golden Retriever. Looks like a black Golden Retriever. Two supposedly intelligent breeds seem to have mostly cancelled each other out in that department...

I have a dog that is almost completely black and quite large. She also has a habit of sitting right behind me. Bit of a shock when you try to step back from the eyepiece for a quick moment...

Clear here with decent transparency. Some turbulence high up but apparently the jet stream is South of me at the moment. I only looked at one object and amazingly for me it wasn't M81 or M82. Instead, M13 was in a good spot from my garden and Vega stares at me from the back door - so it's trivial to find. Tried the 'dressing gown over my head' trick again to block out some of the ambient light and could feel my observing improving as I went on. Could have stuck out the C5 but (for whatever reason) decided to keep the Altair 70ED refractor on the mount with my trusty WO 20mm Swan eyepiece. Good detail, decent contrast and some traces of individual resolution towards the very edge. Obviously small in my FOV given the magnification, so I tried my 2x Barlow but it just muddied things, so went back to the native magnification. Was a lovely thing to observe and spending a little time to let the view develop was very worthwhile. I really need to get my eyes tested. I can't observe with glasses on but I do have an astigmatism in my right eye. My left eye was showing odd traces of 'snow' or unnecessary fuzz even though it was marginally sharper as a result of having less astigmatism. I have tried contact lenses in the past but never had much luck with them. I just don't feel like it's ever quite in focus and it's nothing to do with the optics of the scope, which are fairly immaculate. I think I'm going to see if there's any advice for my situation out there. Day-to-day eyesight is absolutely fine but with the lower contrast of the Summer months I'm finding it proportionally harder than I should. I'm only (just) 36 for Goodness' sake... Nevertheless, a very enjoyable time and I'd have slapped myself tomorrow if I hadn't taken the opportunity.

I agree with this notion initially and once you start branching out, it's worth knowing roughly what to expect 'on paper'. Eyepieces with eye relief that is too long and hard to use, for instance. 20mm and 12.5mm are great starting point eyepieces. However, if you want to buy more you need to have a rough idea what to expect. So learning about things like exit pupil, magnification formulae, AFOV and eyepiece types will be eventually be greatly beneficial.

Living in the UK, as many of us do here, this is an astonishing thought...