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Hi, I continue to get my Star Adventure to perform better. One very big problem if you have a camera that you can not tilt the display at, no tiltable display. I have the Canon 6D. It's almost impossible to see the display and do settings when the camera aim upwards to the zenith. I have until now used a very tall tripod, but that is something very big and not so friendly when travel. Instead of buying a new camera I now test to use an app in my smart phone and used that to see the display in live view from the camera. I have written a tutorial in an early stage of how I do that: http://www.astrofriend.eu/astronomy/tutorials/tutorial-canon-remote-control/page01-tutorial-canon-remote-control.html I will correct and add more information when I get more experience from this. I'm sure most of you alreday have done this, my concern is, how hot will the camera be. I have bad experience from this from earlier test with live view. /Lars

Hello everyone, I developed an Android app - Telescope.Touch - capable of connecting and controlling INDI/INDIGO devices, for those of you who use Raspberry/Astroberry/StellarMate. It's really powerful, and a lot of new features are in the works. Features: Mobile planetarium derived from the Sky Map project Mount and focuser controller with directional pads and speed controls Receive images from INDI CCDs Database full of objects to which you can point the telescope directly from the app INDI control panel compatible with every device Aladin Sky Atlas preview and altitude graphs Astronomy utilities: polaris hour angle, compass, red flashlight Languages: English, Italian and French. Sky maps are translated in almost every language. It is available on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.marcocipriani01.telescopetouch A Pro version is also available, mainly to support the app's development: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.marcocipriani01.telescopetouchpro I hope you enjoy it! I'm open to feedback and improvements!

Hi, I would like to buy a remote telescope subscription as a gift. I have been attracted to the Slooh because of it's catalogue that can be used to schedule the taking of images. I have two qestions... 1. Do you have any remote observatory advice or suggestions for a beginner to take and save images? 2. To compliment my gift, is there such a thing as a book of astronomical pictures with thier co-ordinates that can used to point a telescope? Thanks Lee

As I have got older I am increasingly disinclined to stand in the cold for hours trying to obtain passable astro-photos. I am still however, willing to sit in the warm and spend hours trying to obtain passable astro-photos. I have over the past decade set up an observatory in my back garden using mostly second hand equipment. I now have a Celestron C8 with Fastar that I bought second hand in 1999, a WO Zenithstar 66mm Apo that I purchased new in the US some ten years ago and a TS6 achromatic refractor that I purchased second hand last year. The Zenithstar is piggybacked on the C8 and is used with a second hand Starlight Xpress SXV-M7 for guiding with PHD2. I have an original QHY8, again purchased second hand, that I use with the TS6 or the Fastar and Nebulosity. The mount is a second hand Losmandy G11 with a late Gemini I system attached that I purchased from California some 15 years ago . The observatory is from Alexander Observatories. My aim is to be able to control the mount and equipment from my study in the house. As I work away, it would also be nice to be able to have the capacity for truly remote operation, but one step at a time. It seemed to me that the minumum requirements for remote operation from the comfort of the house were (a) the ability to reliably control the mount and cameras using a remote computer, (b) the ability to reliably see the equipment in the observatory whilst using it remotely and (c) the ability, ultimately, to remotely control the observatory roof, which control would have to have built in safety features to prevent weather and impact damage to the equipment. For remote control of the mount and equipment, I decided to use Windows 10 Pro Remote Desktop to communicate between a computer in the observatory and a computer in my study. Whilst I was attracted to a Windows based system that could be piggybacked on the scopes, I was not willing to pay the high price of bespoke systems like the Primaluce Eagle 3. The solution I arrived at was a HNSUN industrial mini-computer purchased from Amazon for £290. It has a 128G solid state drive, 8G of RAM and has Windows 10 Pro pre-installed. It is also small enough to mount on the TS6 notwithstanding that it has four serial ports, four USB3 ports and four USB2 ports, as well as two LAN ports. Its only drawback is that it does not have the power ports for astro-equipment that solutions like the Eagle 3 Pro give. But it is over £1000 cheaper! Using a wooden backboard, I mounted the mini-PC on top of the TS6's scope rings. On the mini-pc is installed the software for controlling the mount and the cameras via ASCOM and Gemini.net scripts. At present, the computer in my study and the mini-pc on the scope communicate wirelessly over our household broadband, which reaches the observatory by virtue of a wi-fi range extender. Remote Desktop replicates the mini-pc's desktop on the computer in my study, allowing me to control the mount and the cameras. I hope shortly to introduce digital focusing. It is becoming clear however, that this wireless link is not the most reliable. In particular, when others are using up bandwidth the link drops out relatively regularly. As such, I have decided to install a hardwire LAN link between the two computers by running a Cat 7 LAN cable from my study to the observatory. This will involve drilling a hole through the outside wall and running the cable out from the house to the observatory. To view the equipment as it being used, I have installed a Reolink wireless CCTV camera in the observatory, which can be viewed wirelessly on the computer in the study. This allows me to keep an eye on things and to make sure the mount is doing what the programmes on the remote desktop are telling me it is doing. It will also in due course permit me to check that the scopes are parked before the roof shuts and that the roof has closed at the end of the session. The wireless link to the CCTV camera seems to be a lot more stable than that to the mini-pc, perhaps due to using less bandwidth. As to the roof, I am now investigating options for automating the roof. I think the Talon systems looks to be the gold standard but, again, the price for such a bespoke unit is commensurate with its specialist / dedicated nature. Any cheaper ideas would be very gratefully received. The challenge now is to point the scope, centre the target and take the pictures without leaving the house. Wish me luck!

Hello! I'm afraid this will be yet another DIY all sky camera build! 😂 Hopefully interesting though... While developing my all sky software (shameless plug, see signature) one of the biggest problems is that I don't actually have a permanent all sky camera setup myself. I live in the middle of a big city with massive light pollution where the summer temperatures are just creeping up to 40C+, not ideal... So for a while I have been thinking about setting up a remote all sky camera to help with the testing of the AllSkEye app. Initially the idea was to mount it at a relatives house but then once I looked into what would be required to make it fully remote controllable I was thinking that if I go to all that trouble, I might as well look for a location with great weather and dark skies. After a few inquiries I got a really great response from Jose at the E-Eye remote hosting facility in Spain. This was fantastic news because not only will the camera have nice weather and dark skies but the facility also has fibre broadband which is almost a must for what I have in mind further down the road (I am also planning to transfer some image data to cloud storage for archiving and further processing and that could potentially be a lot of data). So this is where it is going to go (all being well and my 3D printer not packing up! I'll try to follow my progress here, maybe it will be helpful for someone. The basic idea is pretty simple: Setup a completely autonomous and remotely controllable all sky camera Sounds easy enough... Well, let me tell you, it is not! To anyone having setup your own remotely hosted scope setup, my hat off to you, it's not an easy task! Initially I split this project into two parts: The camera, lens, housing and everything that goes with it The control box that will control the above Unfortunately I don't have time just now to go into any details but will hopefully be able to do so soon. I just though if I don't start this thread soon I never will 😀. The state of play at the moment is that the control box is pretty complete and the camera housing is nearing completion (3D printer is very busy, not a fast manufacturing process unfortunately). Mike Here are a few pictures of what it looks like at the moment:

Hi, does anyone know of a high resolution (HD?) astro video camera that can feed its signal wirelessly? I am also looking to do the same (wireless control) for the focus mechanism on a SCT telescope. I have a Celestron 925CPC with Celestrons own SkyPortal WiFi module. So I can control everything apart from the focus and receive the video feed. How nice would it be to have a completely wire free set up! Any thoughts, tips or opinions welcome. Thanks...

Read more and download: http://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tweet-remote-control.html Tweet Remote Control is a Windows program written in Visual C# 2015, embedding the Tweetinvi and ASCOM references. It is meant to act as an inconspicuous safety backup, particularly useful to those with remote hosting for their astrophotography equipment. The original motivation behind Tweet Remote Control is for when you lose remote control of the remote computer. This can happen due to various reasons, including TeamViewer failing or their server encountering connectivity problems. It is sometimes necessary to restart the computer, or TeamViewer alone, for example, in order to recover remote control. When all else fails, parking your mount and closing your roof may become necessary measures to protect the equipment against possible collisions and from the elements. It is here that Tweet Remote Control can assist, provided the remote computer has an active Internet connection, of course. This stops you needing to have someone to immediately attend to the equipment physically. Put simply, Tweet Remote Control starts with Windows and runs in the background. It connects to a Twitter account of choice and therefore responds to specific commands, effectively sent by tweeting them via the connected Twitter account. The program monitors this connected Twitter account and reads new tweets made. If a tweet made matches a command written into the program, it deletes the tweet, executes the command received and tweets on your behalf (to update you on what is happening). Since all the program requires to function is a connection to a Twitter account, it need only be running on the remote computer with an active Internet connection - the rest is up to your tweet commands! Many features are supported, including control of ASCOM roofs, mounts and power relay switches (as well as Lunatico Astronomia's Seletek Dragonfly). Tweet Remote Control ensures it always starts automatically with Windows (once you connect a Twitter account, that is), and re-authenticates with Twitter automatically every two minutes. This ensures the program is always active with minimum delay, even if the remote computer's Internet connection drops for a period of time. When Tweet Remote Control starts, if it is connected to a Twitter account, it does so minimised to your Windows system tray as a small, black and white icon labelled TRC. Here, the program will remain with no user input required and with no pop-ups whatsoever. The key is being always-on and always-ready without user input and without hassling the user with pop-ups or messages. Finally, Tweet Remote Control is 100% free. Please feel free to contact me for bug reports or to request new features be added! Current list of capabilities in version 1.4: 1. Restart your computer 2. Shut down your computer 3. Restart TeamViewer on your computer 4. Close an ASCOM roof 5. Open an ASCOM roof 6. Check the current status on an ASCOM roof 7. Park an ASCOM mount 8. Check the current status on an ASCOM mount 9. Open power relays (turn off) on a Dragonfly 10. Close power relays (turn on) on a Dragonfly 11. Check power relays on a Dragonfly 12. Open power relays (turn off) on an ASCOM power relay switch 13. Close power relays (turn on) on an ASCOM power relay switch 14. Check power relays on an ASCOM power relay switch

OK, so its been raining horrifically here for what seems like months, but really only a couple of months. Very unusual for here. An Idle Mind is the Devils Workshop. I grabbed onto TekkyDaves focuser and that went very well indeed after a little help from Dave. I had a working remote controllable focuser added to my telescope. Joy! Another friend mentioned to me how he was looking into Mini Computers as a means to go wireless to his pier outside. I took the lead and ran with it. I'm a Windows 10 user, and have used Windows as my operating system all along. Other OS's I've tried didn't quite work out for me. But there is absolutely no reason that Linux, or Apple users couldn't do this as well. And/or a Raspberry Pi So I acquired one of these little Intel Mini Stick Computers and set to work to make my mount wireless. Or in my case wires less. Or Less wires. If you will Please excuse my laziness, I'd like to paste from another of my posts... "EAA - Electronically Assisted Astronomy. My rainy dayz project. The direction I headed when getting into this maddening sport. Often I said, "All I want is the Hubble." Plain and Simple, can't. But I'm a function sort of guy. I like taking a pigs ear, and trying to make a silk purse from it. Getting the most I can from whatever it is I'm doing. A mutual friend of ours mentioned a new method to me. I took the ball and ran with it. Especially once the CFO here told me to go ahead. I've finally arrived at being ready for the weather to give us a damned break so we can go back out and shoot some stars. Electronically controlled focusing and Stick Computers. My next natural steps towards mount independence. Or going wireless, or in my case wires less. Because after all, things need power. So I do have 2 - 12 volt circuits from my big battery, and a 5 volt, 3 amp circuit feeding up the mount. But the Stick Computer running Windows 10 is alive and wirelessly in control perched up on top of my telescope tube Velcro mounted. (It's not just for shoes anymore. ) The focuser is an Arduino project where an electronic programmable logic controller (USB2), controls a motor driver circuit board and a small geared stepper motor to adjust the focuser in or out to adjust my telescopes focuser. In a nutshell... The Focuser Project came from here. The stick computer is essentially a Mini, fully functioning, Windows 10 OS computer. Its intention is to plug into an HDMI port in a big screen TV display, and turn it into a functioning Windows 10 computer, and to (once set-up) Bluetooth connect to a wireless keyboard and touch pad or mouse. (It requires a USB keyboard (wired) for initial start-up. $10 at Walmart) But we are in dark waters here and following paths of those who have ventured before us. The Stick has WiFi, Bluetooth, and two USB ports. I went low buck, but there are pricier versions and more power and RAM memory available. I've also put one of my mini SD cards (64Gb) in my stick and programmed it to store everything there. (It can use up to a 128Gb mini SD card.) (My point there was to keep the Sticks hard drive light and unburdened) With a hub (I used a powered hub) connected to the USB2 port (works for my 2.4 MHz router), it connects through a WiFi extender to my router. And that let's me log into it with Tight Vnc giving me the Sticks desktop and full function wirelessly of the Stick computer. It has a noticeable lag in function, but it works. And I'm in day 4 of long run testing of function (12 to 16 hours a day). I have my typical programs open and working as much as they can without actually guiding and imaging objects. But my cameras are running and imaging capped scopes, the mount, Stellarium, and PHD2 are running, and all appears well. I had my USB3 hub plugged into the Stick's USB3 port at first. But a guy recommended I connect via the USB2 port and that cured all my problems. USB3 works better over the new C type connections and 5 MHz WiFi. Which this church mouse doesn't have. I have a 2.4 MHz G type wireless router. (Hot item in its day) Set-up, or tear down consists of 4 plugs (Cables) to free the telescope of the mount, or to mount it. (12 V, 5 V, 1 USB, and 1 RJ-11) Hense, why I say Wire Less. Or Less wires. The 1 USB (white), and RJ-11 (Guider) simply jump down to the AVX. So only the 12V (2 wires) and 5V (1 wire) actually exit the mount. Some folks are doing a portable router for remote locations set up. Sitting in their warm car, running their mount outside, wirelessly. (I don't see me doing that, I like being home.) So... this to get rid of what? USB cables for one. And to free up my laptop and dragging it out and back every night. But there is a caveat here, I can connect my desktop, and I can connect my laptop, and recently discovered I can even connect my phone... all at the same time. And any of the 3 can be used to run the equipment wirelessly through my (antiquated) wireless network. (Password protected, of course) Something that held me back was, to go wireless at the mount would eliminate the visual the laptop afforded. Now, a laptop can log on to my network, connect through Vnc, and there is the mounts computers desktop. Folks are sitting in their recliners in their living rooms, and running their mounts wirelessly. It sounded appealing to me. Fine adjusting the focus, and doing anything I used to sitting out in my yard I will be able to do now (except filter wheel changes, and the manual adjustments of an All Star Polar Alignment) from my wireless devices. I've already been doing wireless alignments, just for fun and to experiment. OK, so no pictures = didn't happen. The hardware: (The out-of-place looking white USB cable is connected to the NexStar handset of my AVX. It has to do with Celestron's NexRemote, which replicates the hand control onto the computers display)"