lukepower

Hi Christer, could you tell me what error you got and what you tried exactly to do? Did you use the normal "Sign up" link, or did you try to use Facebook or Google to sign in? Thanks

Hi guys, in the last weeks I have been eagerly working on a particular system for my observatory. In short words I wanted to be able to manage my observations using an online system, no matter if using a computer or a smartphone. Having a few telescopes to feed with work is not always easy, so I implemented a multiuser approach. Basically, one can register himself on the system, insert observation requests, and then the single observatories will fetch the requests and start imaging them at an appropriate time: We have a simple scheduler taking care to avoid the moon when requested and so on. Now, as with all software related things, I would need some thorough testing of the whole thing. So if any of you is interested, please go to https://skygems-remoteobservatories.com and sign up (it's free of course) and play around with the system. Kindly let me know if something is off, of course The images taken during this beta phase will be uploaded for your convenience and you can use them. Maybe I could also implement an open interface to any personal observatory if that would be useful (the coding behind it is not that difficult, I guess). Thanks! Lukas

Hi Max, don't get me wrong, but MLPT looks to mee to be a proprietary solution for Autoslew. It would be fairly easy to implement (I guess), even if there are no official API documents describing the correct way to do so. For sure it would be very interesting

Hi pelle, with my setup (20" Cassegrain at 3414mm focal lenght, 0,54"/pixel resolution), I have a few times been able to go for 20 minute subs unguided, only with MLPT. It worked once temperature equilibrium was reached, so basically a bit further into the night. I personally think that with a perfect setup (no flexure, no hysteresis) and ideal skies (perfect seeing, no temperature changes) one could basically push this to infinite as it's not a matter of mount...

Hi guys, finally I got back to processing some data which has been acquired the last 90 days (talking about 200GB of stuff). IC 342 in LRGB, using about 6 hours of data from my Cassegrain. I had to test several ways of dealing with the calibration - of course I had to deactivate the scaling functions as I was using RBI'ed frames. As for the processing, I really feel rusty now, need to improve it at some point

Wow, this is a beauty! Well done John!

Yup, tried it and its working I will try to setup a Linux system for my observatory and post the results here. I am confident that I can archieve this without needing to resort to Virtual Machines or that stuff. Would be quite nice

Hi Bernard, the thing is, I am exploring new options for the software side. As I do not use Sequence, I can live with it not working without MaximDl I think that a port of Autoslew (and Sequence, for that matter) might be relatively easy, but it is using (and providing) quite some ASCOM functions, which are not supported under Linux (again, unless you run it with WINE). The easiest approach would be to integrate INDI into Autoslew, still leaving it running under Windows.

Hi Bernard, happy new year! No, what I was considering is building a free/open source control system. If you consider the costs of all the software components under Windows (Maxim, Focusmax etc), Linux gets very attractive. Plus, the software is new and being developed way more actively than what you see with the "old" softwares around under Windows.

Okay so let's get things straight: After I found out that Linux basically offers most of what one would need to operate the whole observatory - including cameras, focusers, domes and so on - I began to wonder if there would be a way to use ASA mounts under Linux. It became quickly clear that there would , right now, only be two ways of doing this: run Autoslew on a windows computer (or maybe in a Virtual Machine), install the wINDI wrapper and let Linux access the mount interface over the network (which cna be on the same computer, actually) run Autoslew under WINE (WINE is not an Emulator) under Linux, and use it again "over the network" with wINDI. I am quite impressed what happened and is available on the software front under Linux, I want to give it a try and install Linux on my old Laptop and see what I can do. The free applications seem to be able to replace, at least in my workflow, all applications I am using except Photoshop and Pixinsight - but luckily, those two are available as native Linux versions. Would be great to have at least a basic Linux driver or our mounts, though I see that the market is (very) small... Maybe these infos can help one or another

Any news on this front? I found out about KStars and all the automation provided there, would be a nice (and free) alternative to CCD Autopilot and the likes...

Lluís, the humming sound, if too great, could indicate - besides being basically a PID parameter problem - that the motors are taking too much current, and this can result in a voltage drop on the USB hub/lines. This, in turn, could be interpreted by the computer as being an USB logoff event. Try to test a bit the PID values first. Another option could be that the pier is a bit loose (or the connection between mount and pier). Those vibrations can cause alot of troubles...

Admin is unnerving... Luckily I am running all observatories under Win7 (x64) and no worries here. Of course, ASCOM is a hell of a beast, who knows what will happen here in the future...

Thats weird... Have you tried to run everything once as Administrator? Maybe the registry virtualization is doing something unexpected...

If it helps, I have: Telescope Api, And under Settings, "Generic Hub", to which Autoslew is then attached...

Antonio, now you got me curious Actually, we are here searching for a place to host a Veloce 200RH in Spain, and we found a nice place which would be, well, not really in your corner but further South. Cheers

Congrats!

Hello guys, finally I come up with a new image. This is a result of images taken in october and november 2015 from my remote observatory in Spain running under the Sky Gems Network, Total Exposure Time: 24:40 hours Bin1:Ha 96 x 10 min.;Bin1:RGB 19,18,15x10 min.each. Processed with Pixinsight and Photoshop, this is a result of a collaboration with Harel Boren. Feel free to comment. Personally I like the result, especially considering there is no luminance (just Ha). Seeing has been very good, and most images have ben aquired automatically without intervention over several nights. I will sooner or later document what I did to get a ttoal of three observatories scattered around the globe to work in parallel and autonomously, for now the image should be enough

Hi there, scanning through the Pixinsight forums I noticed that right now little workshops (astronomy-related, that is) are to be found in 2016. We had once an imaging workshop with Gerald Rhemann here in Val Gardena (I run a hotel here, so it was quite convenient to make it here ). Anyway I wanted to see if there is any interest of other members of the forum for an imaging workshop at some point in 2016. I actually wanted to organize a Pixinsight workshop, but never got an answer from Vincent Peris. So, what I was considering is to make a workshop with some ASA users here of the forum, together with maybe one or two guys with good processing skills or an ASA guy for the technical part. Exchanging ideas and know-how could be a good thing, at least that's what I feel. I'd appreciate any ideas coming in Best regards, Lukas

Hi Daniel, I guess you'd need the (new) hardware in addition to the new software... At least it sounds like buying a "black box" which is doing everything and you control from outside with a tablet...

I just found out some interesting infos on the News section of the ASA site: www.astrosysteme.com.

Daniel, Sequence will calculate it by itself. You can only specify how far apart you want the MLPT measurements to be (like, 15 minutes).

Hi Max, Jay, that's something that the developers of CCDAP/CCD Commander would have to do. Basically calling the MLPT routine right before starting the images. In ACP you can do it yourself, for CCDAP I don't know, maybe there is a way of doing it. The alternative would be the SuperFit-Autoslew model. I tried yesterday and actually got 5 Minute unguided (and non-MLPT) round stars at 3550mm focal... No idea if it actually works over the whole sky, that's something to try.

Mike, well, this really depends... usually you want to have all running on one PC: You slew to an object, focus, and start the imaging from one computer. You can of course attach a camera to the scope with some storage inside, but then you'll have to focus manually at the camera...

Mike, I guess any computer running windows /,8,8.1, 10), both x86 or x64, works. Autoslew is not consuming that much of resources, you should consider if you need more CPU/RAM for image processing or the like.