So great, thank you !

Happy new year to Collimation Circles users! You are great! Thank you for all your support!

I have big announcement to make. Collimation Circles 3.0 is just around corners!

Here is little teaser what's comming in next release.

saimons-astronomy.webador.com/1625584_ne...-collimation-circles

At last! Version 3.0 of Collimation Circles is here!

You can read all about it here: saimons-astronomy.webador.com/1634837_co...-circles-3-0-is-here

And download it from here: github.com/sajmons/CollimationCircles/releases

Summary of changes:

Added Ability to connect to camera stream and display it in background
Added Log file console support
Added NLog library for application information logging to file
Added Option for show keyboard shortcuts in main window
Added Inclination shortcut
Added links to patreon web page and social networks
Added PayPal donation button to About dialog
Added Requirements check on app startup
Added Missing translation

Fixed fatal error when list of shapes is empty and user loads JSON file
Fixed issue github.com/sajmons/CollimationCircles/issues/13
Fixed Segmentation fault on Linux
Fixed AvaloniaUI NuGet packages Fixed VideoLAN.LibVLC references

Change Item visibility CheckBox replaced with ToggleButton
Change About tab moved to is't own dialog
Change Removed keyboard shortcuts from settings Tab
Change Simplified settings CheckBox-es
Change UI/UX optimizations
Change Upgrade .Net 8
Change Updated NuGet packages to latest versions
Change Undock button size and position
Change Code and performance optimizations
Change Translation updates

Best wishes to all!

I very happy to anounce, that new version of Colimation Circles 3.1.0 is awailable.

You can download it here: bit.ly/42yJ3BO

Whats new:
Added UVC and Raspberry Pi camera support by @sajmons in #17
Fix for issue #15 when saving JSON file if UI language is not English app crashes by @sajmons in #16



Best regards

I wrote series of articles about advanced newtonian collimation and how it's done with Collimation Circles application.

All three parts are available here:

• saimons-astronomy.webador.com/1769915_ad...e-collimation-part-1
• saimons-astronomy.webador.com/1769983_ad...e-collimation-part-2
• saimons-astronomy.webador.com/1769983_ad...e-collimation-part-3

I hope you will find it usefull.

Thanks for these Simon. A suggestion - instead of removing the primary mirror, would it not be easier to just hide it by putting a paper/card into the OTA?

I did try that method too. For larger telescopes, that would probably be easier, but for smaller ones it's very hard to squize paper inside OTA and keep it steady.
I found that removing primary mirror is by far easiest method for me.

Good point. I now need to find a suitable camera to try out the software. The ASI cameras I have dont seem to be able to focus even with the wide angle lens supplied.

Yeah, for colimation we need simple UVC Web Camera or something simmilar. If you found one to be sutable for use in telescope eyepiece, please let me know.
Curently I'm using my Raspberry Pi HQ camera for the process, but manually adjusting focus is real pain.

Something like this would probably do the job:
bit.ly/444Cwzs or this bit.ly/3U4H8B6

There is a new Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 available with autofocus and a focus range 5cm to infinite. Should be able to do the job using the python Picamera2 library.

Kurt, I totaly agree with you. Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 seams to be a great option. But I need something more versatile, USB plug&play. No drivers needed.
That's way I think for this purpose UVC compatible cameras (with autofocus and absolute focus support) are better option. Just need to find a right one

I plan to try out with my humble phone camera and share the screen on the laptop where I can run CC Fingers crossed for this weekend