Getting back into imaging after a long break

[Gina]

Yeah - same here - looks like rain!  😕

[JamesF]

The sky looks as though it's clearing, here.  There are a few patches of clear sky forecast overnight.  Imaging might be limited to lunar though, unless the clear periods are longer than expected (yeah, like when does that happen?)

James

[DaveS]

Nope, nothing here, and I think Gina's about halfway between.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Surprisingly, the earlier stiff on-off breeze has dropped & it not looking too bad, so I'll chance my arm....

https://www.metcheck.com/HOBBIES/astronomy_forecast.asp?zipcode=kt15+1ss&locationID=59338&lat=51.4&lon=-0.5 

[JamesF]

Black as anything here at the moment, and I can see the light dome of Weston-super-Mare (I think) reflected off the clouds on the horizon to the north east.

James

[Gina]

Difference of opinion here for tonight's forecast - CO says cloudy, BBC says clear.  If clear I have OIII subs I would like to collect.  Otherwise, I need to take a look at the remote focus system as it isn't working but I'll leave that as the rig is fine for OIII with good focus.

[JamesF]

Met Office says clear after midnight here, though with a little cloud between 2am and 3am.

James

[Gina]

There is also a question of dew.  With the rig pointing upwards the chance of dew falling on the lens is very high so I might need a dew heater.

[Gina]

Looking to the future, with two ASI1600MM-Cool cameras and pairs of lenses it would make sense to produce a dual imaging rig.  That would save refocussing between Ha/SII and OIII.  I have had dual imaging rigs in the past but using Windows software - I shall have to see how KStars/Ekos/INDI can handle dual imaging.  Anyone done this?

[DaveS]

No, sorry I'm strictly windoze

I poked my head out just after 11 o/c last night as I was locking up, and blow me it was clear. Well, clear-ish there were gaps in the stars that suggested high cloud. Too late for me I'm afraid as I was getting ready for bed. Isn't it always the same?

[Dr_Ju_ju]

I hope its on their 'list to do', but the first issue must be properly identifying the 'correct' camera if you have two identical, which should be a Linux issue, but I wouldn't hold out much hope for it being soon, especially as it may well entail getting ZWO to treat its cameras as individuals, as opposed to generic types.

[Gina]

There a short thread in the INDI Forum on the matter which I've added to.  I reckon it can be done with two RPi control units, one for each rig with one controlling the mount, and two instances of KStars/Ekos on my indoor desktop under Mint but I would have liked to have just the one RPi.  OTOH one advantage of two control units is redundancy (if one goes wrong I could still capture with the other).

[JamesF]

Stellar Mate apparently has some sort of "helper" to assign specific device names to similar devices, so if you always leave the two cameras plugged into the same ports then it may be possible to tell them apart reliably.  Ultimately though, it would be really helpful if manufacturers gave a unique serial number to each device (or perhaps allowed it to be set when the firmware is installed).

I imagine the tight coupling between Kstars and Ekos probably won't help, either.  Having to run a second planetarium program just so you can control a second camera seems a bit excessive.

James

[Gina]

The way I see of doing it is one instance of KStars/Ekos running the main rig with camera, focuser, EFW, mount and another for the second rig with camera, focuser and EFW (if fitted).  Set up and slew to target with main system and get imaging then run second instance of KStars/Ekos, choose the other RPi name and start imaging with the second rig.  Separate instances of Terminal would be required to run the separate RPi remote systems.

[JamesF]

I wonder if you could set up two separate instances of the indi server on the one RPi, potentially running under different user ids, and listening on different ports.

That might allow it all to be done from one machine at the pier end.

James

[Dr_Ju_ju]

you maybe able to do it if you ran VNC with 2 or more virtual machines.... ??

[Gina]

Well, I've been sorting through my huge collection of "stuff" and found a couple more RPi 3 boards so I'm not short of them.  I also ordered a couple more RPi HATs from China which arrived a few days ago so I'm not short of those either.  Thing is, I can finish getting the single rig working properly and then I can add another imaging rig later as an independent unit.  Overall, I think this is the most sensible way to go.

The dual rig would use the EQ8 mount and wouldn't look as much like "a pimple on a pumpkin" (or whatever the saying is... ) as the single widefield rig.

[tekkydave]

Have a look at persistent-serial-port-mapping on the indilib.org site.

I have made it work with my mount so it always appears as /dev/mount regardless of which port it is plugged into. I dont know if it will work with 2 ZWO cameras but worth investigating.

[JamesF]

20 minutes ago, tekkydave said:

I dont know if it will work with 2 ZWO cameras but worth investigating.

That's really why you need the serial numbers.  There aren't many ways to tell identical devices apart at the USB level when they connect.

James

[Gina]

After a day of clear blue skies with barely a single little cloud in the sky, the clouds are now gathering for the night!!!  😕

[Dr_Ju_ju]

For me, it looks clear with odd conn trial, but time will tell....  I just want to finish a sequence on M63....  started months ago !!

[DaveS]

5 minutes ago, Gina said:

After a day of clear blue skies with barely a single little cloud in the sky, the clouds are now gathering for the night!!!  😕

Same here, lots of wispy high cloud appearing. Bother. I *may* be able to try and sort out a niggling software problem with ASA Sequence, even if it's not worth actually imaging anything.

[Gina]

So far few clouds so I've set up ready for imaging.  Living in hope...

[DaveS]

Setting up here too. Looks promising.

[JamesF]

I have the observatory flap open.  The roof is still on though.  There's a huge amount of dew forming at the moment.  Just been out to shut the chickens in and my shoes were soaked by the time I got back in.

James