Rallemikken

Sounds like wrong coordinates in the handset, or wrong time/elevation/timezone. It is far to easy to mess up this in the handset, when you are fiddling with the knobs in the dark. Is the location given in degrees (hours)/minutes/seconds? My SynScan don't use decimal notation as used many places elsewhere. As for drivers, you must choose one corresponding to the way you wire the mount. I can control my HEQ5 in three ways: USB-cabel computer:handcontroller, EQDirRJ45-cabel computer:mount or SkyWatcherSynScan_USB-PC_Interface_Cable computer:handcontroller. Today I use my EQDirRJ45.

Well, you don't use theese trackers for visual, so I assume the payload capacity is for imaging. That aside, I totally agree on having some slack, weightwise. This guy have a tracker, he have a DSLR, and he wants to image galaxies. Galaxies, as in "more than Andromeda". This could be a challenge for one of the youtube-guys out there. Hang a Sky-Watcher Explorer 130P-DS on a tracker similar to what he ownes, and fit the DSLR to the focus tube. With a laptop with Kstars/Ekos (which is free (as in speech)) you can do platesolving with your DSLR (but not goto) and one-axis guiding if you fit a another camera to the finderscope. Maybe Astrobiscuit, he does strange things all the time, or Nico Carver, he has done a lot of work with theese trackers!

Seen this on my own newt sometimes. Comes and goes. Only a minor annoyance. Is the direction consistent? Can it be moonlight or other stray light entering over and into the top of the tube? Maybe a long dew shield? If your scope isn't flocked, I'd start with that.

Maybe I'm making a fool out of myself: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescopes-in-stock/skywatcher-explorer-130p-ds-ota.html Not even sure if it is possible, but this beauty is just 4kg. The payload of the Ioptron skyguider pro is said to be 5kg. It has a guide port, that means that it can guide in one axis at least. I have a Startravel 80 that comes with the same finderscope. I removed the eyepiece in the finderscope and installed a mini guide-camera, worked like a charm. Or you can pull it off and save some grams..... Very few galaxies are wider than a half moon. That means that you need focal lenght. With a small-sensor astrocamera this scope can pull theese targets close enough to resolve some details. I'd say you can do 30sec exposures with this scope unguided, maybe even more if you learn to polar align. I do galaxies with a DSLR with a crop sensor and an Explorer 200 PDS at 1000mm focal lenght. As I have grabbed the lowest hanging fruit, the targets quickly gets smaller. This scope takes beautiful pictures of DSO's, just spend some time searching. And if you decide to upgrade the Ioptron to an EQ-mount, you can keep the newtonian. Anyone else done something similar? Will it work?

Not using NINA. Im an Ekos/INDI user. In Ekos the internal guider does a complete calibration after each slew. Done in two minutes. And it is done pointing to the target you soon are to image...... Picks up perculities regarding unbalance, wind etc. After guiding is active, I give it half a minute to "settle", the curves tends to flatten out a little. If you are imaging 2-3 hours, this is well worth your time.

Done M101 myself recently. It was almost straight above my head, and guiding was a nightmare. Can't this be at least a part of the trouble?

2021-10-30-raspios-bullseye-armhf-lite.zip -- Headless. On the Astroberry website you find instructions on how to add their repo: https://www.astroberry.io/docs/index.php?title=Astroberry_Server#Configuration Their repo is based on Buster, and I pulled in some packages from there. Take a look at http://www.agle.no/astro/kommeigang.html In norwegian, but it should give you a few clues. Maybe simpler to use a buster raspios image......... http://www.cs.tohoku-gakuin.ac.jp/pub/Linux/RaspBerryPi/2021-12-02-raspios-buster-armhf-lite.zip ????????

So be it! Those tiling wm's is prolly a little to hard-core for this audience. Have to moderate my last post, on closer look a lot of indi-drivers are lacking in Debian testing. Those I need are present, but many are lacking. Maybe they'll turn up. Should wish someone could maintain a complete Debian/MX/Ubuntu/Mint indi-repo that you could add with a line in /etc/apt/sources.list. With the ppa-way-of-doing you are exluding Debian and MX. You mentioned Astroberry and headless pi indi-server: I installed a minimal RaspberryOS (which is Debian based) on a Pi3 B+ and connected the Astroberry repo with the indi drivers in the /etc/apt/sources.list. I got excellent performance: Max ram usage never over 152 mb, and max cpu-usage never over 7,1% while operating my Canon 600D. The bottleneck will be transfer speed of your images. The wifi on this board is capable of 10mb/sec.

I run Kstars on Linux Mint, with Xfce or Mate as desktop environments. Everything works and looks just fine, it's just a matter of installing the proper icon themes. I'm hesitant to run any Ubuntu flavour on mission-critical machines, especially with KDE on the desktop. Mint is buildt on the Long-Term-Support version of Ubuntu, and is refined a bit further, to offer even better stability. Xfce and Mate are much leaner then KDE as desktop environments, and thereby more stable and resource-friendly. Will probably get some whining on this issue, but I stand my ground. The latest Debian Testing (Bookworm) has the complete set of INDI drivers in their repo. On the next crossroad, I'll most likely switch, as I use Debian everywhere else.

Go here -- https://www.astroberry.io/docs/index.php?title=Astroberry_Server#FAQ Scroll down to "Advanced installation". Not sure, but I think Jasem's PPA is for Ubuntu/Mint only. If you have Raspian on your Pi, then it is Debian-based. This repo is for Buster, but I have used it on Bullseye. Some additinal buster packages must be installed if you use Bullseye (which is the latest). Check out http://www.agle.no/astro/kommeigang.html for some hidden clues.

"Unable to find any valuable window provider." That means that python can't find any running window manager. Does the machine you want to run this software on have a graphical interface? If so, how are you trying to connect?

Anyway, don't think you can run Kstars under Windows, maybe I'm wrong. Nevertheless, Linux is a much better option if the laptop you have is skinny. You can start this journey by installing Linux Mint. Shrink one of the NTFS-partitions and install it alongside windows if you are dependent on it for other things. The best option which don't risk anything on your harddrive would be regular install on a big USB3-stick, say 32 or 64gb. You will need another stick as install medium. Do as follows: - Get the most recent install image of Linux Mint 20 - Write it to a USB-stick - Get another, slightly beefy USB-stick for the final install - Plug both into your laptop - Boot, while hitting the magic key that takes you to the boot menu - Boot from the install stick - Install Mint onto the second stick. Do your homework regarding partitioning. - Install the boot loader on the second, beefy stick with the fresh Mint install. - Unplug the first stick, boot, hit the magic key, choose the remaining USB-stick, and then choose Mint in the boot menu (it may also have windows). - Make yourself familiar with the new OS, add Jason's PPA, and install Kstars-bleeding and indi-full. - Try to manage your rig with this. If you succed, continue with a Pi as an indi-server, and you are on your way. If this scares you, open your laptop and REMOVE the harddisk inside, eventually put in another and install Linux on that. The reward for putting in some effort is big. Linux is technically superior and very resource-efficient. The combo Kstars/Ekos/INDI is one of, if not the best, total-solutions for this task, and it is open-source and free. It is buildt for Linux, and runs best in it's native environment. PS: My advice is to choose either MATE or XFCE as your desktop environment.

Turn your Pi into a headless pure INDI-server, and run Kstars/Ekos on a real computer. All the benefits, and a few bonuspoints to. You sit in your livingroom with a laptop or tower. You manage your rig over wireless, and get the pictures directly into the machine inside. Only bottleneck can be wireless speed, depends on your router. The Pi3 B+ should be able to transfer a 25mb sub in 5 seconds. You can always use ethernet, if distance is not to long. I have a guide here - http://www.agle.no/astro/kommeigang.html - norwegian, so you'll probably understand zero, but you will get an idea of the path. You'll have to set the Pi up from the ground. Running Kstars/Ekos on a Pi sounds stupid in my ears. Slow on CPU-intensive tasks, and no real storage solution. Better use it where it shines, as a tool to tie your rig into one piece, and use proper computers to do the heavy lifting. In this way, you can check your subs as they roll in, delete, move, even stack, without beeing afraid of chooking the rig.

Maybe. But I want the subs listed by lightness, so I can use this criteria together with FWHM and roundness when I use the plot and filelist to check/uncheck subs. I can use the command line and select the PP-sequence, issue a "boxselect 100 100 200 200" followed by a "seqpsf". Does what I want, but I don't want to wait the extra time. I want to put theese commands in the script, so everything is tip-top when I resume with the stacking. But I can't.

See what you mean. Always wondered what hid under the greyed-out dropdown that said "Registration". But this telemetry thing is a little overkill for John Doe. And if I did a "huge" selection, nothing happened, but an error message: "Current selection is too large. To determine the PSF, please make a selection around a single star". If I selected a small area around a single star, things was set in motion. The blue line started to crawl. I mostly use the OSC_Preprocessing_no_stack.ssf and sort the subs before stacking. Maybe I can figure out a command and put in the end of that script, that does this for me? A preset selection, regardless of star density?

Maybe, but I've decided to stick to open source. Gimp and Siril mainly. What I'd really want is this feature in Siril, but untill then I sort manually in my image viewer (Geeqie). A glance at the histogram, and a quick "delete" and "return" on those clearly lighter. Not overexposed, but lighter in the sense of less signal. With 200-300 subs this takes time, and it isn't very scientific. One or two bad subs can occur between good ones. Maybe I'll try to scramble a bash script myself.

Nope. I live under the arctic circle, and use long scopes. Very rare with with satelite trails. And the rejection methods is discussed, both here and elsewhere. I prefer to have a as-good-as-can-be dataset before stacking, then giving the stacking software the best possible slack.

I shoot DSO's with a DSLR, and I'm always doing a check on my subs before stacking. I delete subs with elongated stars, satelites and such. And I delete those subs that are obvisouly lighter than the rest, most often caused by skies or haze, sometimes light from passing cars. I'm in the process of mastering Siril, but untill further I also stack in DSS and Sequator. Why the childishly simple stacking in Sequator often beats both Siril and DSS is another topic... Siril has excellent features when it comes to roundness of stars and FWHM, but nothing on exposure/overall lightness. DSS seems to make all decisions on its own. What I lack is an application or a script that will traverse a folder of lights, and move/delete the x% lightest of the lot. Then I can take a visual check on the remaining, and maybe run the app/script once again if I still find some frames I consider to light. I'm a Linux guy, and would prefer a bash script, but I'm willing to try anything. The best would be something that could be used by everybody, regardless of OS and favourite stacking software.

Not with a newtonian. With diffraction spikes wall-to-wall it's impossible to take mulltisessions if you have bright stars in the FOV. You can never reach such an accuracy that your spikes will be crisp and sharp. We'll have to learn to live with it. And then there are the flats. They behave in a special way on newtonians. If possible, I always mount my camera with the pictureframe along or at a straight angle to the telescope tube. That makes me able to reuse TWO sets of flats on most of my work, as long as I use the same camera. On those rare occasions I set my camera at an odd angle, I always take new flats for that session only the next day. I can take multisession shots as long as I don't loosen my camera, and within a limited timeframe. If I don't have clear skies again in a week, it's not worth trying.

I've been trying to get a good shot of Alnitak, Flame nebula and the horsehead since I got my rig last year. So this will be my testbed for so long. It is a difficult target with the composition I have choosen, and my location at 64 degrees north. Low. Pictures taken with same camera, but modded on the two last. Don't be fooled, at first glance the darkest seems the best. Pay attention to the foggy mist around the star. The halo's on the two last is caused by overexposure, or so I belive. This is details from RAW files, no adjustments, from the same Canon 600D. I have learned the hard way that this target don't cope with long exposures, due to the spillover of light around the bright star. Next session (whenever that will be) will be spent with 30 sec @ ISO 800. I have two aperture rings, one upper and one lower. The first sits sturdy on the spider, and shields the spider nuts from light. I also think it shields the edges of the primary mirror of some extend. The cutout is for the seem on the tube. The lower one looks almost exactly the same, but has additional cutouts for the mirror clips (which themselves are camouflaged with small pieces of flocking material). Primary mirror is flocked on sides and bottom. Had to remove the three filt pieces in the mirror cell to get it in place. As for the long bolts on the cell; on occasion I raise the mirror in order to get rid of the protruding focus tube, depending on which camera I use. I use 15mm aluminium spacers between the upper part of the cell and the springs. Here's To You, all brave men (and women) that choose reflectors! When the clouds roll in we can spend time tinkering! I know theese telescopes can take incredible pictures, and I'm learning for each mod.

No, unless you have stray light from windows, torches or cars around you. But I don't like it. I have made two mods to remedy this: First I made a ring out of plastic with the inner diameter like the outer diameter of the mirror, and the outer diameter like the inner of the tube. I have flocked it on both sides, and gently pressed it down around the mirror (after taking it out first). Slots for the clips, and the clips themselves is hidden with small patches of flocking material. The ring sits a few mm below the top of the mirror. The sides of the mirror is also flocked. Almost like a mirror mask, without restricting aperature. And tight fit against the tube, no light leaks any way. I've also made a sort of string-bag to tie around the bottom of the tube. Inside it I've hidden a small dew-heater band. Actuall keeps both mirrors from icing up. Must keep an eye on focus through the night. Tmp often drops below -10 C. This mod gave me better frames, less mess around the bright stars.

Hold down the 'Alt' key, right-click inside the window, hold and drag upwards.

When I do this, I line them up as a whole. There will be differences in height and shape of each column. Very rare to line them up perfectly. If you have prewiev of both the image and the histogram updates itself as you drag the sliders, its just a matter of taste. In Gimp I use the Color -> Levels for the one overweigt channel to do this, usually I just move the mid point. I also have had some luck with the Color -> Components -> Channel Mixer.

You have serious star-trails there. I'd say focus looks decent. What mount? Is it tracking? Polar aligned? DSS will not stack unless stars are round, or almost round.

I do. Very satisfiied. Image with a DSLR, guiding with a mini camera in the finderscope. But pretty small FOV. Good for big galaxies and small nebulas, and all between. Fun rig to tinker with. http://www.agle.no/astro/index.php