Hello,
Just wanted to share a newb experience.
The setup:
-- RPI with StellarMate OS, indi server, kstars and ekos.
-- Skywatcher AZ-GTI mount in EQ mode
-- Nikon DSLR with 180 mm manual antique lens.
-- Everything is connected to StellarMate
-- Using VNC (or Windows client) to control things
-- It's a mobile setup - I need to get the tripod outside every time, do polar alignment, etc.
A couple of weeks ago I tried my setup for the first time.
Everything worked well for a while (I was slewing/plate-solving to different targets) until the plate-solver stopped working. It would just try to solve for long time with no success (for more that 30 min). So I aborted the session.
The weather turned bad and I was playing with the mount and CCD simulator for a while. Updated kstars to the latest nightly and the plate-solver started to work.
Yesterday, the skies cleared and I gave the setup another try.
Installed the tripod, connected everything up to find that the (real) camera was recognized but could not be connected. Spent a couple of hours trying to make it work.
Gave up and restored a backup from two weeks ago to find that the camera now works but the plate-solver doesn't!
Installed the latest updates and boom! everything started to work as supposed to.
Spent more than 4 hours on chasing problems but in the end I got a nice set of pictures.
The target was dead in the center of the frame for an hour. Pretty happy with the outcome.
My only gripe is that the plate-solving is very slow when done internally on RPI (5-6 min) - is this normal?
Today, the sky is clear again and I am shooting the same target but now with Windows KStars client connected to StellarMate server - on-line solver takes 70-90 seconds.
My FOV is 450x300.
Very pleased with KStars/Ekos/Stellarmate.
Thank you very much,
Max
Just wanted to share a newb experience.
The setup:
-- RPI with StellarMate OS, indi server, kstars and ekos.
-- Skywatcher AZ-GTI mount in EQ mode
-- Nikon DSLR with 180 mm manual antique lens.
-- Everything is connected to StellarMate
-- Using VNC (or Windows client) to control things
-- It's a mobile setup - I need to get the tripod outside every time, do polar alignment, etc.
A couple of weeks ago I tried my setup for the first time.
Everything worked well for a while (I was slewing/plate-solving to different targets) until the plate-solver stopped working. It would just try to solve for long time with no success (for more that 30 min). So I aborted the session.
The weather turned bad and I was playing with the mount and CCD simulator for a while. Updated kstars to the latest nightly and the plate-solver started to work.
Yesterday, the skies cleared and I gave the setup another try.
Installed the tripod, connected everything up to find that the (real) camera was recognized but could not be connected. Spent a couple of hours trying to make it work.
Gave up and restored a backup from two weeks ago to find that the camera now works but the plate-solver doesn't!
Installed the latest updates and boom! everything started to work as supposed to.
Spent more than 4 hours on chasing problems but in the end I got a nice set of pictures.
The target was dead in the center of the frame for an hour. Pretty happy with the outcome.
My only gripe is that the plate-solving is very slow when done internally on RPI (5-6 min) - is this normal?
Today, the sky is clear again and I am shooting the same target but now with Windows KStars client connected to StellarMate server - on-line solver takes 70-90 seconds.
My FOV is 450x300.
Very pleased with KStars/Ekos/Stellarmate.
Thank you very much,
Max