KStars/ Ekos Polar alignment

[wornish]

I use my iMac Desktop indoors to remotely access my mount using VNC.  My mount is running Kstars/Ekos on a RPi4 with Raspbian Buster. The whole system works very well.  

I am trying to use the Ekos polar alignment tool to replace the need to run Sharpcap for polar alignment which only works on Windows.   The Ekos polar alignment tool works very well and at the end of its process starts taking images every second to show the stars with an arrow showing the error in alignment.  You then simply adjust the RA/Dec settings until the selected star has moved to the tip of the arrow and alignment is achieved.

The problem is this image is only visible on my desktop so if I go out to the mount I can't see it!   

Seems I have a choice to either run my remote access from a laptop and then take that out to the mount for polar alignment or maybe there is someway I could use my mobile phone.   

I have had a look at KStars Lite which does seem to work fine on my Nokia phone but it cant access the polar alignment tool running on the mount.  On reading some of the forums it says it might be possible in future to do that but no date given.  Is KStars Lite under active development as all the sites I can find don't say very much?

Anyone got any alternative ideas?

[Ouroboros]

Post deleted. Later suggestions were so much better I decided to delete my post. 

Edited October 14, 2019 by Ouroboros

[Guest]

Hello Dave, 

I did never have to think about such a problem, but did you ever see if ASCOM ALPACA could deliver a solution for your problem ??  

https://ascom-standards.org/Developer/Alpaca.htm

• Astronomy programs and devices to be connected across Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.
• Observatory systems to include programs and devices on multiple platforms
• Devices that can operate via WiFi or Ethernet and avoid the problems with USB
• Interoperability between astronomy programs and devices running under different operating systems
• Implementation of astronomy programs and device control logic written in different languages on different operating systems
• Current unmodified Windows astronomy programs to use ASCOM compatible devices connected to any networked PC or other platform via Alpaca, or a self-contained Alpaca device.
• Current unmodified Windows-resident devices (mounts, focusers, etc.) to be used by astronomy programs running on networked PCs, Macs, and mobile devices that use Alpaca for device communications.

Cheers

Martin

Edited October 14, 2019 by Guest

[dazza1639]

do you have an ipad, if so use realvnc viewer on that and remote into your RPi, you can then make the adjustments at the scope using the ipad screen.

[Ouroboros]

4 minutes ago, dazza1639 said:

do you have an ipad, if so use realvnc viewer on that and remote into your RPi, you can then make the adjustments at the scope using the ipad screen.

That sounds like a 'runner'.  🙂

[dazza1639]

I'm quite lucky my warm room is only 1.5m from the mount in the observatory so I can clearly see the desktop screen from the mount. I run Kstars on the windows pc with everything connected to the RPi on the mount. But I have used real VNC on my iPad to both monitor what is going on, on the RPi desktop and the PC desktop its free and really straight forward to connect too using the different IP addresses. I have found that running TightVNC server on the windows PC is better than the offering from RealVNC, and TightVNC is free, RealVNC's viewer is still the best I've used.

[wornish]

33 minutes ago, dazza1639 said:

do you have an ipad, if so use realvnc viewer on that and remote into your RPi, you can then make the adjustments at the scope using the ipad screen.

Yes I do have an old iPad Air and I just tried what you suggested it works fantastic.   Thank you very much.  

 

Now just need the clouds to go away!

[dazza1639]

You’re very welcome. Glad it works for you

[david_taurus83]

I use VNCViewer on my phone to control everything. I've had a go at the Ekos PA but found it a bit fiddly compared to Sharpcap.

[david_taurus83]

*double post*

Edited October 14, 2019 by david_taurus83

[wornish]

3 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

I use VNCViewer on my phone to control everything. I've had a go at the Ekos PA but found it a bit fiddly compared to Sharpcap.

I have used Sharpcap for nearly two years now and it is so easy and quick I agree. I thought I would give the Ekos polar align tool a go and see how it does.

What did you end up using ?

[david_taurus83]

1 minute ago, wornish said:

I have used Sharpcap for nearly two years now and it is so easy and quick I agree. I thought I would give the Ekos polar align tool a go and see how it does.

What did you end up using ?

Sharpcap lol

Both times I tried the ekos version the final alignment star went off the screen so I gave in and brought my laptop out for Sharpcap with my guide scope. It takes me a few minutes to PA that way. That said, the Ekos version does use the main camera and scope. So might prove very useful if you were guiding via OAG and dont have a separate guide scope. Or if you dont have a laptop to bring to the mount.

[JamesF]

When I did my mount alignment I couldn't see the display in the warm room of my observatory, so I ended up installing Kstars/Ekos on the laptop, plugged it into the mount directly and did it that way.  Perhaps in the future I'll try to be a bit smarter about it :)

I have much the same problem with focusing, but I think that just means that remotely operated focusers lie in my not-too-distant future...

James