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Oh bother!

Ags

By Ags
in The Astro Lounge

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Ags

Ags

Posted
Posted (edited)

I am down to just one scope at the moment, my C6, and only one mount that can carry it, my AZ-GTi. I thought I would retract the legs on the Berlebach Report tripod slightly as I was only doing photography. While trying to loosen a leg clamp, there was a crack and now the knob just turns freely without loosening or tightening the clamp. I hope Berlebach can send me a replacement and explain to me how to get the broken knob off...

Once set up outside I discovered the Synscan Pro app does not work with the latest version of Android. And the Synscan app is no longer available from the Android store but only from some well dodgy source. Once that was solved - AZ-GTi batteries flat. The power tank worked instead but I suspect it is dieing, it always shows the Needs Charging light.  But at least everything was now powered, connected and ready for imaging. I figured the skies would be dark enough by midnight, but it turns out high haze was making the midnight sky an annoying shade of (literally) white.

By now my enthusiasm was evaporating, but I decided to shoot a quick sequence of M57 as a record of the evening. Collimation was out but I thought I would leave it till next time as I have not yet fitted Bob's Knobs and didn't want to wake the household rootling around under the stairs for a screwdriver. (When I got back in, I saw I had actually fitted Bob's Knobs months ago and clean forgotten! I am not the sharpest brick in the woodpile at 1AM...).

So here it is - only half an hour exposure, no darks or flats, intervening thin cloud and messed up collimation.

m57.thumb.png.6d348eb8bc1c805a0522ad9a65c062bb.png

Edited by Ags
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Ags

Ags

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Posted (edited)

Image doesn't look right. Here is a reprocess on my mobile phone. Looks like Gimp PNGs turn dark when comoressed in WhatsApp and SGL.

m57.thumb.png.8e353fcfb294c1dacd9cb81758d44654.png

Edited by Ags
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badhex

badhex

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1 hour ago, Ags said:

I am down to just one scope at the moment, my C6, and only one mount that can carry it, my AZ-GTi. I thought I would retract the legs on the Berlebach Report tripod slightly as I was only doing photography. While trying to loosen a leg clamp, there was a crack and now the knob just turns freely without loosening or tightening the clamp. I hope Berlebach can send me a replacement and explain to me how to get the broken knob off...

Once set up outside I discovered the Synscan Pro app does not work with the latest version of Android. And the Synscan app is no longer available from the Android store but only from some well dodgy source. Once that was solved - AZ-GTi batteries flat. The power tank worked instead but I suspect it is dieing, it always shows the Needs Charging light.  But at least everything was now powered, connected and ready for imaging. I figured the skies would be dark enough by midnight, but it turns out high haze was making the midnight sky an annoying shade of (literally) white.

By now my enthusiasm was evaporating, but I decided to shoot a quick sequence of M57 as a record of the evening. Collimation was out but I thought I would leave it till next time as I have not yet fitted Bob's Knobs and didn't want to wake the household rootling around under the stairs for a screwdriver. (When I got back in, I saw I had actually fitted Bob's Knobs months ago and clean forgotten! I am not the sharpest brick in the woodpile at 1AM...).

So here it is - only half an hour exposure, no darks or flats, intervening thin cloud and messed up collimation.

m57.thumb.png.6d348eb8bc1c805a0522ad9a65c062bb.png

Nice image despite the challenges! This is actually a good representation of what it looked like visually through my ZS73 a couple of weeks ago from Bortle 4 skies. 

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Ags

Ags

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Yes but that that bounces you some upside-down alternative app store to actually do the download. 

I'd never heard of Aptoide before and didn't appreciate having to trust it and grant it broad system permissions just to get a simple app.

Edited by Ags
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Gfamily

Gfamily

Posted
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3 hours ago, Ags said:

Yes but that that bounces you some upside-down alternative app store to actually do the download. 

I'd never heard of Aptoide before and didn't appreciate having to trust it and grant it broad system permissions just to get a simple app.

You might want to run an anti-malware checker on your phone, as it looks as though you were subject to a redirect - and I'm not absolutely convinced that you can be sure of apks that come from Aptoide rather than direct from SkyWatcher. 

I would suggest  you uninstall the app from your phone - then get a download direct from

https://inter-static.skywatcher.com/downloads/synscanapp_1190_store.apk

or if you want the 'pro' version

https://inter-static.skywatcher.com/downloads/synscanpro_1190_store.apk

(if necessary download to a laptop/PC and then copy it to  your phone by USB/Bluetooth)

Hopefully, all will be OK - but I do wonder why you were redirected and why you were required to give permissions over and above what you would expect. 

It would also be worth checking if Aptoides has installed its own app and permissions - get rid of them as well if you're not sure about them

 

Edit to add: Aptoides says that a green tick next to a package should indicate that it's safe. That may be reassuring.  Up to you. 

Edited by Gfamily
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Ags

Ags

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Yes i had to install the Aptoides store, but uninstalled that immediately afterwards. The Synscan app doesn't need any scary permissions, so I think I'll leave it. The SkyWatcher support page is still offering me the Aptoides APK.

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badhex

badhex

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I think Aptoide is reasonably legit but tbh I would have the same misgivings. One thing of note, I used the skywatcher site a while back to get the app but even the earlier stable versions did not work with my version of Android. 

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Ags

Ags

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20 hours ago, Gfamily said:

would suggest  you uninstall the app from your phone - then get a download direct from

I did uninstall and installed Pro from your link, but this version has the crash-on-start bug. I will have to go back to the Aptoide version.

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badhex

badhex

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Just now, Ags said:

I did uninstall and installed Pro from your link, but this version has the crash-on-start bug. I will have to go back to the Aptoide version.

This is the same issue I had. I was lucky in that I have a spare phone which I use exclusively as a handset which isn't updated, so still works fine. 

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Ags

Ags

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18 minutes ago, Ags said:

Maybe the support page Aptoids you if your phone doesn't support the older version.

Went back to the Aptoide version and all is good once more.

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