I'm not using a router, VPN, or tablet. As I mentioned, I'm using a Linux laptop connected directly via ethernet cable to the Stellarmate.

Where do you mean I should check the connection IP? Which IP?

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How do I connect my Linux laptop to my Stellarmate via ethernet?

I've been having a lot of connection trouble when trying to communicate with my laptop in the field with my Stellarmate. I transferred the Pi to a new cooled metal case, because the Pi gets quite hot at times; the metal case apparently increased wifi connection issues, so I added a wifi antenna. That improved things, but not much. I still get frequent dropped connections, frozen connections, etc. And the connection speed is so slow that it seems like every time I try to focus or redo alignment is another 30-60 minutes of wasted time.

The connection issues are bad enough that I bought an ethernet cable and an ethernet adapter for my Linux (Linux Mint) laptop, hoping to get a solid, fast connection that way. I cannot, however, figure out what actual settings to use to connect to the Stellarmate via ethernet. What are all the netmask, gateway, etc. etc. etc. settings I need to use? What Method do I use -- Automatic (DHCP), Link-Local Only, Shared to other computers, or what? What Additional DNS servers? There are so many different connection settings... I don't know which ones to use. And it seems like almost all sources on the web about connecting a laptop to a Raspberry Pi assume the laptop is running Windows.

The documentation on the SM website is somewhat contradictory, making it hard to know what to follow. I wrote to Jasem to get support, and he suggested I set the laptop IP to 192.168.100.2 and gateway to 192.168.100.1. I can do that, but if I'm on the laptop and ping 192.168.100.1, I get "Destination Host Unreachable". When I log into the Stellarmate via wifi, it shows the same info in the ethernet connection window: address 192.168.100.2, netmask 24, gateway 192.168.100.1. I don't know what to do next. I wrote back to Jasem, but apparently he's away from his computer, and I'd really like to get this working before this weekend (a new moon, after all).

Can anyone help? Thanks!

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El Corazon wrote: My 2 cents:

If you want to save money, I would suggest getting the ZWO ASI120MM-S (the USB3 version, NOT the USB2 version) camera for guiding, which costs ~$100 less than the ToupTek and works unfailingly.

That's a very interesting idea. Would it work well to have two ZWO cameras connected at the same time? If I can save that money, I definitely should.

As for an imaging camera, I have found that the 'walking noise' (presumably you are referring to the noise that looks like driving rain in the final stacked image) is an inherent feature for one shot color cameras and difficult to get rid of completely, even with dithering. At least in my experience.

Yes, pretty sure we're talking about the same kind of noise. Walking noise is the standard name, isn't it? It's also called correlated noise, at least in the popular parlance. But "walking noise" is what I've seen people call it the vast majority of the time. And yes, I'm certain that what I'm dealing with is walking noise.

I'm not expecting to get rid of it completely, but if I could reduce it a bunch, that would be nice. Walking noise is probably my #1 concern with my images as they stand today. (Well, except for things I'm really not able to do much about at all, like the weather and light pollution.)

It is no issue when using a mono camera, but then you obviously have to use filters. However, the mono camera also allows you to do narrowband imaging, which is invaluable for getting the most out of nebulae. In principle, you can do narrowband also with a one shot color camera, but you are losing sensitivity and resolution.

Narrowband just isn't practical for me. I'm lucky to get a few hours of imaging a month; I don't want to start a series and only get GB with no R, or whatever. Also, I'm mostly interested in galaxies. Nebulae are great, but my real focus is galaxies. Oh, and: Narrowband would imply needing to dump a whole much more money into this than I already don't have. So, really not the direction I want to go in.

PS: I forgot to mention: Make sure that the imaging camera you are ending up buying is COOLED! That is perhaps the most important feature. Cooling will cut down the noise tremendously. Especially during summer, cooling is absolutely essential in warmer climates.

The 533 is cooled. That's a big part of why I'm considering it.

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knro wrote: Both cameras are well supported and should work well. I have used several Toupteks with guiding before and they worked great. The ASI 533 should work fine as well (I have one)

Thank you! That's very good to hear.

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My current setup is unguided, using a micro-4/3 camera with a William Optics ZS61 on an iEQ30 Pro mount. I've had some pretty good results, but walking noise is a persistent issue. So I want to take the plunge into guiding. I really want to use Stellarmate (I'm a big supporter of open source software) for mount control, especially dithering.

As per my previous thread , my camera isn't in the libgphoto2 supported camera list, so it looks like not only am I going to need to buy an autoguider, I'll need to get an imaging camera as well. I don't have a ton of money to throw at this, either, so I need to choose equipment carefully.

I'm currently thinking of getting the ToupTek GP-2000-KMA Deep Sky Mono camera for guiding, and the ZWO ASI 533 MC Pro Color for the main imaging camera. Are these cameras well supported in Indi/Ekos/Stellarmate? Will they work well together when being controlled by a Stellarmate? Are there pitfalls I should look out for in using these cameras? (Should I reconsider this combination entirely?) I'd greatly appreciate any advice you have, before I dive into this rather large expense.

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Oh, I hadn't understood that. Hmm, I guess I have some things to reconsider. Thank you for that information.

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My assumption is that I could set the actual imaging camera and the dummy camera to have the same sub lengths, with a pause after each sub, and have the dither happen in the middle of the dither. Say, 30 second subs for actual and dummy cameras, followed by a five-second pause, with the Ekos-controlled pause including a dither in there somewhere. That looked doable from the interface, at least? I clearly need to experiment with this and see how possible it actually is.

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Yep, I understand that. I have Kstars/Ekos installed on my desktop and have already played around with it a bit, including with the simulator. What I meant is, I'm wondering if other folks have used the simulator as their main capture device to do dithering with an unconnected camera, and had success with that setup.

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I'm assuming my camera would be supported, but I mostly just kind of want to keep the process simple and just 'acquire' images with the camera itself.

Using the simulator is an interesting idea. Can anyone confirm that that would work? I don't want to spend a bunch of money, only to find out that what I want to do is impossible.

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Hi all,

It looks like Ekos assumes that dithering will be done after Ekos completes capturing an image from a CCD attached to the main imaging telescope. However, I'd like to use a Stellarmate to do guiding and dithering, but still use my micro-4/3 camera on my telescope, with the micro-4/3 camera controlled by a good old intervalometer. I'm planning to have a CCD for the guidescope, but that doesn't seem to be what Ekos is assuming. I'd rather avoid buying a new CCD camera, when my micro-4/3 works well enough for now. Is there a way to set Ekos to dither based on a specific number of seconds (say, 30 or 60 seconds) rather after than a given number of CCD exposures?

Is there a way to do what I'm trying to do? Am I misunderstanding something?

Thanks in advance!

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