Andrew INT

His anyone see the bright meteor last night at 21:56? Captured on CCTV from south Lincolnshire, passing close to Arcturus (Right - centre of frame). Polaris is obscured by cloud at bottom left of frame. 1713774521031.mp4

Hi, I know there are a few websites which predict ISS transits of the Sun and Moon (ISS Transit Finder, for example). However, I cant find any that send notification emails of transits. I remember there was one a few years ago but I don't think it is running any more. Does anyone here in SGL get automatic notification alerts? Many thanks, Andrew

Thanks - that's another one I can look into! It's currently £79.99 on amazon...

That's perfect, than you. I currently have a dome camera to monitor the telescope, but that can't point upwards without risking water ingress. I had been looking at the C310. Not heard of Contacam - will look it up. Is it free? Also, does it check the video in realtime?

Recently, I have decided to control my telescope indoors via remote access to a laptop over the WiFi. This has worked very well. I've also added a cheap CCTV camera to give me a bit of reassurance that nothing nasty happens to the telescope when it slews. I have noticed that although far from a sensitive astro camera, the little £30 WiFi CCTV camera can detect the brighter stars, Jupiter etc. Since it has an IP address, has anyone here ever tried to use these for meteor detection - or even fireball detection? I know they would never be as good as an ASI or similar, but is this feasible?

Thanks I'll order a new usb 2.0 cable today - cheers.

Hi all, From time to time when running PHD2, connection with my guide camera (ASI 120mm mini) is lost, so I wanted to try a new cable. My windows 11 pc has a thunderbolt port so I tried that using this cable: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B094CCJMFV/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=A3GPEFDFS3MO1G&psc=1 Unfortunately, the laptop couldn't find the camera. Is that to be expected? I also have a spare usb 3.0 port. Should this cable work ok: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B08XJPC2Y6/ref=ox_sc_act_image_2?smid=AXZ3JQ1GVFPIF&psc=1 I wasn't sure since the ZWO supplied cable is usb 2.0 and a much slower transfer speed. Many thanks, Andrew

Thanks Dave - all sorted now :)

Thanks Alan. After an uninstall and install it worked fine! Sorry for the delay in replying - wife was ill. Thanks, Andrew

Hi All, I have recently acquired a new laptop and am in the process of installing all my software and drivers. I'm running Sharpcap Pro to control my Starlight Xpress filterwheel. Although I can rotate the filters using the SX control software, SharpCap does not list the filterwheel under the File-Hardware tab. ASCOM is finding the camera ok, so I'm guessing I may be needing another ASCOM driver for the filterwheel. However, there doesn't appear to be one anymore on the website. Am I in need of a driver, or have I made some other mistake? Thanks, Andrew

I only thought of a cardboard box since it may give a little more insulation than a plastic storage box. The Astroberry sounds like a good solution. Do you find the WiFi link is reliable enough? My pier is about 20ft from the house.

I have a 15m powered USB cable - I'll try running things that way next time. My plan it to build an observatory with a warm room next year. That will solve most of the problem...but generate a load more I expect Thank for the advice!

Hi All, It's a bit below freezing tonight. I was wondering if anyone has any tips for protecting a laptop in the cold? I doubt the screens like temperatures this cold. I'm not going to be imaging for long - an hour at most for Jupiter and Mars. What do people do to protect their laptops during all-nighters in the cold winter? Are rugged laptops the way forwards, or some form of heating...or just an cardboard box or something? Andrew

Yep, that fixes it - cheers. I'll try and test the mount controls tomorrow (in the daylight!)

I have installed the latest ASCOM and EQMOD, I see that there is also an ASCOM driver on the starlight express website- I may have missed that off the file transfer. I'll see if that fixes things - cheers StevieDvd!