Snapping unattended?

[rnobleeddy]

4 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Power cuts? Cable connections? PC shut-downs? Eventually, if something can go wrong it will go wrong. Some people, for instance, would robotize a roof which required the scope to 'park' first and some would not. I certainly would not. One day it will happen...

Olly

I don't really mind losing data - it's not worse than not having left it running in he first place.

A mount collision may cost me a £70 replacement motor but power cuts are very rare.

Rain is the big killer, but there are definitely nights where I consider the forecasts to be accurate enough.

Edited March 31, 2021 by rnobleeddy

[Clarkey]

I use an app called Rain Alarm. Seems quite good as it uses real time radar data and costs about £2 per year. If the rain is very light or fog it can miss it.

There is weather equipment you can get for observatories etc, but I am not up-to-speed on these.

[Mr Thingy]

11 minutes ago, Clarkey said:

I use an app called Rain Alarm. Seems quite good as it uses real time radar data and costs about £2 per year. If the rain is very light or fog it can miss it.

There is weather equipment you can get for observatories etc, but I am not up-to-speed on these.

I think I would feel most comfortable with some weather equipment. 

Interested to know what is available, short of installing a radar station (wife might not be impressed with a radar on the roof).

I guess you can fit a rain sensor but if it triggers then it's already too late.

 

[rnobleeddy]

36 minutes ago, Mr Thingy said:

I think I would feel most comfortable with some weather equipment. 

Interested to know what is available, short of installing a radar station (wife might not be impressed with a radar on the roof).

I guess you can fit a rain sensor but if it triggers then it's already too late.

 

I guess that's depend. I'd imagine most kit would survive a little rain, so perhaps a rain sensor plus the app would work? 

 

[Mr Thingy]

3 minutes ago, rnobleeddy said:

I guess that's depend. I'd imagine most kit would survive a little rain, so perhaps a rain sensor plus the app would work? 

 

I suspect you are right. Maybe I just need sn emergency tarp to hand, just in case

[KP82]

With DSLR I can't really fully automate my imaging routine as I need to take darks at the end of each session while the temperature remains the same. I usually set it up and leave it snapping away while taking a nap in the bed during the first half of the night. I set an alarm to wake myself up around 4 in the morning to finish up the darks and then pack away everything before the early morning dew sets in (especially in late autumn).

Weather could be a major factor. If the forecast indicates possible rain during the night, I'll just stay awake and maybe watch a movie in my study while the imaging runs on its own, then pack up everything when the clouds roll in.

With regards to theft, I don't need to worry about that as my garden is fairly secured and I live in a generally speaking safe area.

[ollypenrice]

1 hour ago, KP82 said:

With DSLR I can't really fully automate my imaging routine as I need to take darks at the end of each session while the temperature remains the same. I usually set it up and leave it snapping away while taking a nap in the bed during the first half of the night. I set an alarm to wake myself up around 4 in the morning to finish up the darks and then pack away everything before the early morning dew sets in (especially in late autumn).

Weather could be a major factor. If the forecast indicates possible rain during the night, I'll just stay awake and maybe watch a movie in my study while the imaging runs on its own, then pack up everything when the clouds roll in.

With regards to theft, I don't need to worry about that as my garden is fairly secured and I live in a generally speaking safe area.

Are you sure you need darks? Plenty of very advanced DSLR users use dithering and a master bias. The chances of your darks really being at the same temperature are not good, I don't think, and the temperature will have varied during the night anyway. 

Olly

[DaveS]

2 hours ago, Mr Thingy said:

I think I would feel most comfortable with some weather equipment. 

Interested to know what is available, short of installing a radar station (wife might not be impressed with a radar on the roof).

I guess you can fit a rain sensor but if it triggers then it's already too late.

 

I use the AAG Cloudwatcher with its associated Anemometer from Astrograph.

[AstroExploring]

59 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Are you sure you need darks? Plenty of very advanced DSLR users use dithering and a master bias. The chances of your darks really being at the same temperature are not good, I don't think, and the temperature will have varied during the night anyway. 

Olly

This 👆🏻

[alacant]

2 hours ago, KP82 said:

4 in the morning to finish up the darks

Unless you've an ancient DSLR, lose the dark frames or take one set of dark frames and use an app which has a decent optimization algorithm e.g. Siril.

HTH

[Newforestgimp]

I’ve given up on darks after advice from this forum and dither every third or fourth frame, saves SO MUCH time when creating darks of guided subs.

Currently I run bias frames at the end and flats the next day.

messed about with using bias frames as darks too, it didn’t kill anything 😉

[KP82]

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

Are you sure you need darks? Plenty of very advanced DSLR users use dithering and a master bias. The chances of your darks really being at the same temperature are not good, I don't think, and the temperature will have varied during the night anyway. 

Olly

 

55 minutes ago, alacant said:

Unless you've an ancient DSLR, lose the dark frames or take one set of dark frames and use an app which has a decent optimization algorithm e.g. Siril.

HTH

I do use dithering and have a master bias. But I've always taken darks and use DSS for stacking (learnt the whole stacking process online from various resources including astrobackyard). I didn't realise they are no longer needed. Wow. Learnt something new today. Thank you guys. 😄

Edited March 31, 2021 by KP82

[CraigT82]

9 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Power cuts? Cable connections? PC shut-downs? Eventually, if something can go wrong it will go wrong. Some people, for instance, would robotize a roof which required the scope to 'park' first and some would not. I certainly would not. One day it will happen...

Olly

Well if the power goes I can't do  anything even if I'm stood by the scope as it's all running off mains.

Cable issues...maybe. All my connected kit is connected directly to the outside laptop via a bundled 'umbilical' so I avoid the need for a hub. The umbilical is managed carefully and ran where it can't do any harm.  Haven't had any issues with connections yet, touch wood.

PC shutdowns... definitely. Only the other week I came out in the morning to find the outside laptop in the middle of an update. I have done what I can to mitigate the dreaded auto updates now and scheduled then to be done I the daytime, however I'm sure it'll catch me out again. Only thing lost for that error is data and I wouldn't get any data at all if I had to stay up and babysit the scope all night. Sleep is too precious!

[Rustang]

I wish I could leave it out all night un attended but I've experience it starting to rain when it shouldn't have done, thankfully I had just gone back out side so ended up standing over my setup for 10mins with an unbrella!. Now I don't really trust the weather, and to add to that, the weather is never 100% as predicted, taking last night as a classic example where it was "clear" till 4am, there ended up being alot of light cloud around so I kept an eye out and only captured data when clear. I also don't have an observatory so I'm pretty sure everything would be soaked by dew or frosted over by the morning? There are not normally to many other issues to deal with but I would prefer to be on top of an issue (had one last night) to not waste a precious night's imaging. So sadly Im up most of the night, even when out till 4:30am, it does get a bit tiring, especially having to set up then pack down each time I'm out. I'm hoping to put together a more permanent set up in the future which will only be if I can sort an observatory. 

Edited March 31, 2021 by Rustang

[alacant]

1 hour ago, CraigT82 said:

an update

Windows is not perhaps the best platform upon which to build an automated solution. There are however many alternatives.

ASI and StellarMate for example offer commercial systems with inbuilt automation modules which are designed for the task. Simply connect via your 'phone and you're away. Even better, build your own. Linux does what you decide. Add to that first class security, networking and reliability...

Cheers

Edited March 31, 2021 by alacant

[bottletopburly]

21 hours ago, Newforestgimp said:

I use APT to run a lights plan so would fixed duration even if not quite as full on as a NINA style shutdown etc, not managed to get NINA to work yet.

I've bottled it tonight, & ordered a longer active usb extension so I can set laptop up in the shed, will see how that works out 👍

Just set apt to park up after imaging session using the script #park  I’ve used that before working out roughly what time you need it to park and set image plan accordingly 

[CraigT82]

58 minutes ago, alacant said:

Windows is not perhaps the best platform upon which to build an automated solution. There are however many alternatives.

Tell me about it! Unfortunately it's what I've got to work with at the minute. Linux is definitely in my future once this pair of Windows machines I have are on their last legs. I wouldn't go for the AsiAir though, being locked into ZWO cameras is not something I'd want. Stellarmate looks good though.

[Clarkey]

1 hour ago, Rustang said:

I'm pretty sure everything would be soaked by dew or frosted over by the morning?

If I did not accept a thick layer of frost on everything in the morning there would be no imaging. Clear nights here means cold in the winter. (There are only two types of weather in Cumbria. Warm and wet or cold and clear😄 Even if I am with my kit all night it will get covered in ice. Most of the kit seems pretty resilient. Dew can be a problem although less so, but again, most of the kit will tolerate some moisture.

[Newforestgimp]

2 hours ago, alacant said:

Windows is not perhaps the best platform upon which to build an automated solution. There are however many alternatives.

ASI and StellarMate for example offer commercial systems with inbuilt automation modules which are designed for the task. Simply connect via your 'phone and you're away. Even better, build your own. Linux does what you decide. Add to that first class security, networking and reliability...

Cheers

I have been considering Raspberry Pi with astroberry or stellarmate, any experience of the WiFi range ?

at the moment I RDP into my laptop (that is cabled to the mount) to keep an eye on proceedings which is working well, but think a mini PC would just tick the boxes when using away from home.

[rnobleeddy]

3 minutes ago, Newforestgimp said:

I have been considering Raspberry Pi with astroberry or stellarmate, any experience of the WiFi range ?

at the moment I RDP into my laptop (that is cabled to the mount) to keep an eye on proceedings which is working well, but think a mini PC would just tick the boxes when using away from home.

My Pi has worked fine attached to a leg on the mount, with wifi repeater near a garden window.

It suffered from occasional drop outs/slow down when attached to the OTA. Presumably the metal tube kills the signal, and in the garden, there's no walls for the signal to bounce off like there is in the house.

[alacant]

17 minutes ago, Newforestgimp said:

RDP into my laptop

If it works for the laptop, it will for the pi. Use vnc/SSH or WHY.