Software setup for observatory

[chrisvdberge]

I'm planning my backyard observatory which I will start building in february. Part of that is of course the whole matter of controlling everything and the matter of choice of software. Right now I'm working stand-alone without any software to control my imaging and guiding, so I'm still not invested in anything and pretty much open to any solution or suggestion for a setup that works. 

My current setup is; 

- DSLR's (nikon's), but probably will add an ATIK460EX very soon, with an ATIK filterwheel

- NEQ6 (probably will upgrade to EQ8 in the future)

- Lacerta MGEN for guiding. But have an Altair GPCAM AR0130C available for guiding as well if needed. 

So I'm doubting between a setup where I place a cheap mini-pc in the observatory which I can use to control the equipment, and which I can take over using remote desktop/teamviewer from the house, or work on it directly from the observatory. Or I can go for a more 'direct' approach and for this I stumbled on INDI, which looked rather promising; 

Placing only a powered USB hub and raspberry PI with INDI running on it in the observatory, and connect to that with a client running EKOS / other software to work and control everything. 

Right now I kinda like the 2nd option the best, but my main concern would be if I'm stuck with EKOS then or if I'll still be able to use other software as well? I was kinda considering buying TheSkyX as that looks quite impressive to me, but I guess that would only work on the first setup with PC in the observatory. 

Any suggestion/tips/experiences? 

[Tinker1947]

I use the ATIK software to run the CCD and Filter Wheel, PHD to do the guiding. Bat Mask and Moonlite electric Focuser to get DSO's Sharp, Stellarium for the GoTo side of things, the hardware needs buying but the software is free, my next step up will probably be Sequence Generator Pro, is not free but it does do all the things i presently have in one package, Obby PC that Teamviewer can run from my PC room works ok.....

[pete_l]

Placing only a powered USB hub and raspberry PI with INDI running on it in the observatory,

I would not recommend this approach.

RPis are completely dependent on having a working SD card -- or micro SD, depending on the model you have. First of all, unless you manage to get all your frequently changed files onto a RAMDISK (and have a way to mirror these to some other medium so you don't lose the data when the RPi is switched off), the these memory cards have a finite life. I've been running RPi's 24*7 and find that, without this feature, the cards rarely last more than 6 months and sometimes only a couple of weeks.

Further, the metal contacts that connect the card to the RPi aren't designed for "industrial" environments - specifically the heat / cold, humidity and mold/insects that inevitably find their way into garden sheds or observatories and seem to make a bee-line  for the electrical stuff (esp. when they are nice and warm and winter's coming on ... )

If you're going to have some thousands of £££s worth of astronomical gear, then I wouldn't suggest adding the complications of running it all on a cheapo, hobbist's, computer platform.

[ Edit: ] I just noticed you're in NL. That should read ... some thousands of €€€'s worth ...  

[chrisvdberge]

I would not recommend this approach.

RPis are completely dependent on having a working SD card -- or micro SD, depending on the model you have. First of all, unless you manage to get all your frequently changed files onto a RAMDISK (and have a way to mirror these to some other medium so you don't lose the data when the RPi is switched off), the these memory cards have a finite life. I've been running RPi's 24*7 and find that, without this feature, the cards rarely last more than 6 months and sometimes only a couple of weeks.

Further, the metal contacts that connect the card to the RPi aren't designed for "industrial" environments - specifically the heat / cold, humidity and mold/insects that inevitably find their way into garden sheds or observatories and seem to make a bee-line  for the electrical stuff (esp. when they are nice and warm and winter's coming on ... )

If you're going to have some thousands of £££s worth of astronomical gear, then I wouldn't suggest adding the complications of running it all on a cheapo, hobbist's, computer platform.

[ Edit: ] I just noticed you're in NL. That should read ... some thousands of €€€'s worth ...

Thx about the point about the SD Card.. something to keep in mind! 

As for the 'designed for industrial environments'; doesn't the same apply to any PC you need to have present in the Obsy? I figured I would be able to protect the RPi even better than I could a PC with just some tuperware and silicon gel  

And even if it would fail, I'd rather have a 40$ RPi fail on me than a 400$ PC. 

Unless you have another PC-less alternative I should be looking at  

[pete_l]

Unless you have another PC-less alternative I should be looking at

Have a look at Olimex's range of embedded machines. A lot of these have on-board flash, run various forms of Linux and are price-comparable to Pis.

[chrisvdberge]

Have a look at Olimex's range of embedded machines. A lot of these have on-board flash, run various forms of Linux and are price-comparable to Pis.

I had not. Thx!

Not sure if it is supported though. Don't see Ubuntu listed as distro for Olimex, and only see INDI for Ubuntu on the downloads page... (apart from the RPi download).. 

[Tinker1947]

Have a look at Morgan Computer's they do refurbished desktop, just spray all the connectors with a electrical cleaner damp proofer and they're good for years to come.....

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/c/407/Desktop-Tower-PCs-Systems/

[chrisvdberge]

The BeagleBoneBlack seems to support Ubuntu and has 4GB NAND, so this might be a good option. 

I sure like what I see from EKOS, which seems to have mount control, camera control, guiding, focussing, etc. all in 1 package. 

[chrisvdberge]

Just an update in case others are interested:

Decided to buy an RaspberryPi 2 and test and see if I can get the INDI/EKOS setup running already, before I even have the observatory  

Just did the install of INDI server today on the Pi and that was easy enough. Already had EKOS running on my MacBook and connecting to the server running on the Pi was easy enough as well! 

Next step; connecting my Nikon camera via the USB hub to the Pi, and trying to control it from my macbook. After some initial challenges to connect to it I'm now able to control the Nikon from EKOS. 

So far so good! 

Next step will be controlling the NEQ6, probably will try this next weekend  

[MCinAZ]

Another option you might consider is a mobile computer with a docking station in the observatory. This makes it very easy to connect and disconnect the computer without having to fiddle with a lot of cables, and you can carry your data back to the house at the end of a session. As far as I can tell, all of the Dell business class machines built for at least the past five years use a common docking connector, so you might be able to find lease returns for a very reasonable price. In the office where I work, many people dock and undock their systems multiple times per day and I've not heard any reports of wear-out failures, so the mechanism seems to be robust.

If your observatory accumulates a lot of moisture or dust, you might cover the dock between sessions, but I don't think a lot of special consideration needs to be made otherwise. The dock in my observatory, right in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, survived the summer with no apparent ill effects despite the temperature in the building reaching near 50 C regularly from mid-June through August.

[michael8554]

Good thinking MCinAZ

The high temps you get in AZ can dry out the electrolytic capacitors in Tower PC's, the trouble in the UK though is damp, of which we are getting bucket-loads (geddit?) at the moment.

So in both cases the laptop safely indoors between sessions, and the dock ouside, sounds good.

I have had several cheap XP Tower PC's die on me in a waterproof but uninsulated warm room, so you've got me thinking....

I believe you can get docks for  Lenovo's too.

Michael

[chrisvdberge]

I'll probably be going for the safest route I can imagine; the RPi will download the photo either straight to my NAS, which is a Raid1 setup so will be automatically backed up immediately, or to a location on my HD from which I do an automated upload to the NAS. 

 

[RobRob]

I use Sequence Generator Pro (plate solving with PlateSolve2, auto focus, filter wheel and camera control), Stellarium (with Stellarium Scope), ASCOM with EQMOD. PHD2 with a Lodestar X2 for guiding. I'm using this icw an EQ8. PixInsight for image processing. ATIK 383L+ mono as camera and I have 2 60D's (one modded, one standard). I also used BackYardEOS in the past, but SGP is so much nice to use with the ATIK camera!

Feel free to visit me in Limmen (NH) to exchange ideas!

[chrisvdberge]

Thx RobRob! What I'm wondering about with that setup is; can you use the last picture of your last imaging session on an object, upload it and use it to slew to it? 

That's what possible in EKOS and what I like so much about an integrated solution  

[RobRob]

Thx RobRob! What I'm wondering about with that setup is; can you use the last picture of your last imaging session on an object, upload it and use it to slew to it? 

That's what possible in EKOS and what I like so much about an integrated solution

Yes you can!