Linux versions

[iandix]

hello all

does anyone know of any linux versions of something like BackyardEOS, or packages that may work under wine?

Thanks
Ian (always making life harder for myself)

[joe_smith]

There is a program called Entangle http://entangle-photo.org/

[skysurfer]

Never tried this app, but if you have an Android device you can use DSLR Controller ($7, Canon only, better) or DSLR Dashboard (free, Canon or Nikon, rather good). Both can be downloaded from the Play Store.
An Android device is easier to take to the field than a laptop.

[iandix]

thanks Joe, "Entangle" looks interesting I will install it and see what I can do with it. As I rather not be forced into installing windows on my laptop.

@Skysurfer I already have DSLR Controller on my phone ..it's rather nice little app, I want to try and see what else is out there.

[malclocke]

Darktable is another app that can do this, although I personally haven't used that feature in anger.

[Astro_Bot]

Hi Ian,

I spent ages looking for apps for Linux (my preferred OS) but gave up and now dual-boot with Windows.

BackyardEOS is a very good program, but it means I can also use ASCOM/EQDirect without issues.

[iandix]

Astro_bot ..thanks for the information. I was thinking the type of people who are attracted to astronomy and science are similar to the people attracted to Linux so as a result there would be a bit of cross over.

I guess I was wrong ... oh well one day we might have some packages we can use. ... I feel dirty saying this, but it looks like a dual boot is coming :ashamed:

[malclocke]

Ian, in general professional tools in astronomy are UNIX based. For astrophotography, and to an extent for amateur science work, Windows seems to be the norm.

[pluto]

I used to use a suite of applications called gphoto2 which had excellent Canon DSLR camera control, it was shell based but I think there were GUIs around for it. It would allow you to do all the capture stuff that BYE does but without the handy liveview based stuff that BYE does (like focusing and planetary video). Maybe you could find a GUI tailored to DSLR AP(?) or you would have to make some scripts yourself.

- Just checked now and it looks like it's still going strong: http://www.gphoto.org/

[iandix]

this looks interesting
http://arnholm.org/astro/software/wxAstroCapture/

and

http://arnholm.org/astro/software/wxAstroCapture/scopeserver/index.html

[iandix]

looks like I found gold... One stop place to download astronomy related software for linux (well it's a whole linux distribution) .. How good is that

http://www.distroastro.org/features/

some points
Astrophotography

Distro Astro includes tools for astrophotography. Capture software wxAstroCapture was written specifically with astronomy in mind. Image tools such as GCX Astro-Image Processor, Iris, and Registax are installed by default. Lastly, tools like iMerge and the Gimp are included for post-processing.
Future versions will include Ekos, a tool that provides autoguiding, autofocus, polar alignment by drift method, and capture of single or a stack of images with filter wheel support.

Observatories

The INDI Library built into Distro Astro provides telescope control for common telescopes from Meade, Celestron, Orion, and other major telescope brands. It also provides observatory dome control for commercial domes such as Sirius Observatories, and support for devices like focusers, filter wheels, and a cloud sensor.
It also includes support for a large set of imagers from SBIG, Apogee, Starlight Xpress and Finger Lakes, and common amateur astronomy webcams such as the Philips ToUCam, Mead LPI, and Celestron NexImage. See the full list of hardware support (http://www.distroastro.org/hardware/).
Access to the INDI library is provided by supported clients such as KStars, XEphem, and Cartes du Ciel, all of which are built into the distribution.

[lazjen]

That looks like a great find. I think I'll have to scratch up another machine I try it out on.

[pmrid]

Looks great but out here in the bush, despite the NBN, bandwidth is very, very limited so downloading a 2GB ISO file will break the bank for the month. Damn!
Peter

[iandix]

Peter

I'm downloading the ISO file now, trouble for me I don't have room or a spare computer. I might have to look around for something to play with. Anyway, seeing I'm downloading it if you wish PM your address and I will send you a copy.

when they release the version with Ekos included I think this will be kickass

[lazjen]

What would be the linux equivalent to Astrotortilla (plate solve, slew scope to target)?

[lazjen]

I should have read about Ekos first... :)

[lazjen]

I was looking around and discovered a v2.0 version of distro astro has been released - they haven't updated the links yet. You can find it here - http://nebul.ae/distroastro/ - in the same place as the v1.0.2 version.

Of course I only discovered this after downloading the older version...

[iandix]

Damn... I just download 1.0.2 as well. I was thinking maybe version 2 is for the developers and might not be ready yet? .. oh who cares that just means more fun :-)


Edit

I just found this comment "Distro Astro 2.0 Pallas was released on Nov 20, 2013 at the SEAYAC 2013 conference in Bandung, Indonesia" so no I guess it is the full thing

[joe_smith]

just tried this one out and it heaps better then Entangle I have Darktable installed with my distro (Ubuntu studio) and just tried it and it works unreal.

[pmrid]

Thanks Ian. Chris is going to do hat for me thanks. Until last night I did have a spare computer to lode it onto but then a sudden electrical storm caught me off-guard and blew the gonads off my spare - and the mount it was attached to.
As they said on that great Toyota advert a few years back - Bugger!

Peter

[iandix]

the guy behind Ekos (which is included in Kstars) has just uploaded a video on using this program. Its getting better every day by the looks of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt4Gb3Yfh9g

[iandix]

looks like Distro Astro have updated their website with the latest version (V2)

Here is the link to the release notes
http://www.distroastro.org/releases/ (http://www.distroastro.org/releases/)

If you have already installed version 1.02 there is a script you can download to help with upgrading.

[pmrid]

I just watched that Ekos tutorial on YouTube. I must say I am pretty darned impressed. I've seen KStars before - it was installed on some old ASUS 7" subnotebooks I have had - but that was before Ekos became part of it. Now, it is looking like a real alternative to Maxim and SGP AND has the great attraction of being a step away from Microsoft and the evil empire.
Peter

[2stroke]

Pixinsight is made for linux and freebsd http://pixinsight.com/sysreq/index.html

[Astro_Bot]

I've been watching PixInSight for a while. Assuming I'm still going in a year or two, I'll probably switch to it (on Linux) for processing although I'll still use Windows in the field for capture/control. But, as I have no job right now, I ain't buyin' nuthin'.

[rogerco]

Anybody know anything about support for QHY Cameras (8 & 5II) the website for QHY doesn't mention anything in the download section.

[lazjen]

According to the hardware list (http://www.distroastro.org/hardware/), it seems only QHY5 is supported. I note that a number of other manufacturers - e.g. QSI, SBIG and Starlight Xpress - don't have a specific model listed, yet QHY does.

[iandix]

yep try these drivers from the Indi Library http://www.indilib.org/devices/ccds/qhy.html

[pmrid]

I've been gives ISOs of Astro Distro 1 and 2 recently (thanks again Chris) and also have the latest (version 16) of Linux Mint and have been giving them a quick run. The Astro Distro 1 loads easily enough but it's KStars is not bundled with EKos. Distro 2 is the same and in any case had boot-loader problems on my machine. But Mint 16 does have EKos built in with a full INDI library. It's a nice Distro and is currently top of my list.
I'll see what PI says and give it a whirl. All up, it's looking very promising.
Peter

[Astro_Bot]

Mint is the distro I usually recommend to new Linux converts. I use it myself in one of my virtual machines.

[pmrid]

Ah, I see that PI requires a 64 bit Linux OS. Pity, because I only have a 32bit lappie to play with at the moment. But there's always GIMP. Anyone used it for astrophotography processing?
Peter

[2stroke]

What cpu have you got? if its a socket m you could cheaply fix that.

[AstralTraveller]

I switched to Mint when Ubuntu changed its GUI for the worst. Nice distro. Also have SUSE but haven't been bothered playing with it as Mint does all I want.

[pmrid]

Socket P. Alas.
Peter

[Astro_Bot]

It might still depend on CPU. AFAIK, Core 2, inluding Socket P, were 64-bit, though mostly they shipped with a 32-bit OS. There were also older CPU's shipped with that Socket, but even so, some of them are still 64-bit, IIRC.

To be sure, you can check the CPU flags:

In Windows, you can use the CPU-Z (http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html) utility to determine your CPU architecture. In the linked example, look at the Instructions line, where you'll see the flag EM64T - that means it's capable of 64-bit addressing.

In Linux, open a terminal, copy and paste the following line to the command line and execute (press Enter). You'll get a printout of all the flags per core (they should be identical) - you're looking for the flag em64t or lm:

cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -e flags -e "model name" | uniq

Edit: Updated that flag - can be different in Linux! LM literally means "long mode".

[rcheshire]

I have Windows XP installed in Virtualbox on my Linux desktop, sharing folders, so no need for a dual boot.

I was also running XmCCD, controlling an SBIG camera in Linux - INDI - Xephem - ds9 - FITS Liberator in Wine.

StarTools is a cross platform Astronomical post processing program - 32 and 64 bit Linux, Windows, Apple.

Xubuntu (Xfce desktop - low resource demand) is a better choice of desktop, in my view. Linux Mint also has an Xfce version.

There are adequate options.

if you are tight on resources you can extend your memory by adding the following line in /etc/fstab

none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0

[Astro_Bot]

That mounts a temporary file system at the /tmp folder, which has the effect of wiping the /tmp folder at shutdown (when the temporary filesystem is unmounted). It's a useful security measure (in some circumstances) but doesn't "extend memory" and in fact, tmpfs is usually (I think always) coded to use memory rather than reside on disk. I use this mechanism for certain small system directories that would otherwise store permanent files that I would rather be transient.

As for memory management: The default Swap partition setup by the distro installer is probably sufficient - swap is the equivalent of Windows' page file, i.e. the swap space where memory pages are stored when not actively in use, assuming memory is ever full enough to cause it to be used. A swap entry in /etc/fstab is also written by the installer but needs no alteration, unless you want to encrypt it. You can adjust the size of the Swap partition during installation if you think it's too small, but usually the installer picks a healthy size based on system RAM size. The Swap partition can also be re-sized manually, and its (new) full size will be used at next boot up.

[pmrid]

Interesting. Here is part of what I get:
" model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU U7700 @ 1.33GHz
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU U7700 @ 1.33GHz "

So I see that one of the flags is lm . I haven't opened it up yet so I can't say if the CPU is hardwired into the MB but assuming it isn't, what does this mean. Do you think it might run PI in 64 bit mode?
Peter

[Astro_Bot]

It definitely shows the lm flag, so it's 64-bit capable.

It means you can install a 64-bit distro (e.g. the 64-bit version of Mint), and that will then let you install and run 64-bit PixInsight.

Edit: Although you can run PixInsight, it mightn't run too well on that hardware:



And here's a comparison between the "minimum reasonable processor" and your processor (on the right):
Intel CPU Comparison (http://ark.intel.com/compare/27248,33920)

[pmrid]

Thanks for all that. I've just finished loading the full INDI library of drivers for CCDs, Guidecamss, FWs and the like and am busting to try our EKos/KStars with my gear. My Apogee Alta just came back from a full service today as well. It's all go!
Peter

[rcheshire]

That's a good explanation - and you are correct. I have been using tmpfs to free up space for certain programs that lodge temporary files and eventually limit space on the disk. Wiping tmp at shutdown is handy. Alternatively, with Pixinsight I moved the location to my home directory on a separate partition.

Yes the installer usually gets swap right. I started on Slackware a long time ago, compiling kernels, partitioning disks, installinv drivers and so on. But its a distant memory.

[iandix]

great news, If you have any problems ... you should also install the latest INDI drivers from here http://www.indilib.org/download.html just cut and past those commands into your terminal window, they are more up to date that ones found in the standard repositories.

[pmrid]

Thanks Ian, yep. Done that. Some disappointments though, the 3rd party ATIK CCD drivers do not work on my CCD (4000LE) and I haven't been able to persuade INDI/Ekos to connect my Apogee Alta U8300. Not sure why but I'll persevere. I have a SXVR_H16 to try as well yet so all is not lost.

Funny how the gods of printed circuitry seem to know when you are feeling like you've had a win. I had no sooner managed to get all this Linux stuff assembled and loaded than my laptop keyboard has decided to go into permanent retirement - the plastic underlay seems to have deteriorated in several places so keys are "dead" - meaning a drop-in keyboard replacement before I can do much more. Ahh, thank you EBay.

Peter

[rcheshire]

http://www.astro.louisville.edu/software/xmccd/

Is this likely to be of help for your Apogee camera? Though somewhat standalone. Supports Apogee Alta.

I installed XmCCD SBIG drivers and it worked beautifully. Following the instructions very carefully...

[pmrid]

Thanks Rowland. I love that little caveat - it's a bit like finding "some assembly required" on that thing you ordered from Ikea. Takes an engineering degree and a month of preparation to accomplish.
Peter

[rcheshire]

I must admit to being a little nervous. A bit like a first date. Though I can barely remember that.

[netwolf]

Wow impressed with the Ekos tutorial, I would love to use Linux for astronomy. I have tried various distros, had mint running on a home server box before that became the home internet caffe PC for all to share. I think I may have a VPC of mint on my laptop used it once to try pixinsight on linux.

Has there been a Ekos video on the polar alignment routine?

[netwolf]

Can anyone confirm support in indi for Losmandy Gemini 1 controller? It seems the eqmod has extensive support but am wondering how good this is for other goto controllers.

[pmrid]

I think there is a Gemini connection. I just did a new install of KStars (bundled with Ekos) in a Linux Mint Version 16 setup. I also downloaded the full INDI library and did a full update on the Linux OS. The idea was to get the basic system working first, before I tried to do much with it.

In KStars, under Tools, is Ekos which brings up a page for defining your equipment. Losmandy Gemini is on of the choices under Telescope. Since I want to run a Gemini 1/ Titan setup with this system, I am interested in this question too.

Also, it looks like there is an alignment module as well - using plate-solving methods - see here:

http://www.indilib.org/about/ekos/alignment-module.html

I didn't get a chance to try to make the connection because as soon as I loaded KStars, the system became progressively slower and slower to the point of being in virtual lockup. So I rebooted and loaded System Monitor before opening KStars and Ekos again. As far as I could see, the CPU usage was not excessive (a 3 GB Core Two duo and both processors ran between 10 and 15 % most of the time). KStars itself said it was only using 4-10% of the CPU, Network activity was light and memory usage was also light. So I don't know what the devil is going on. Anyone got any ideas?

My first thought is that KStars and/or Ekos busies itself polling the system looking for devices and if you haven't got them switched on yet, gets locked up in the search process. Anyone got any other ideas?

But since KStars was using so little resources, I'm onto second thoughts which is the video drivers are not up to the task. I'm going to try getting hold of replacement drivers and see how they perform.

Also, I tried connecting to the Gemini but couldn't do it so there's something else to follow up. Bugger.

Good thing the weather is such rubbish!

Peter

[Terry B]

I downloaded the iso file. It was a slow process even on my NBN connection. I assume it is the server at the other end that is slow.
I'm just experimenting with it at the moment and have just loaded it as a live distro and am posting this from the live distro.:thumbsup:
I want it mostly for IRAF so will experiment more.

[pmrid]

I'll keep posting updates on progress in the hope that it may be of some help to other Linux luddites such as myself.

I've identified the cause of the system slowdown/lockup. It was in fact the video driver. I had added an aftermarket video card to this PC so I could use an HDMI connection. I removed it and switched back to native VGA and the thing runs fine.

I've tried to connect to Gemini and the rest of the kit without success. I get a message asking if I have read/write access to the port. Not sure what the hell that means. There is no indication it's finding my cameras, FW or focuser. Those all load via a powered hub at the scope at the moment. It may be I'll have to ditch the hub and go back to a cable jungle. Pity but I don't know enough about Linux to see my way to any other solution.

Peter

[lazjen]

Peter, you're inspiring me to get off my backside and get underway with setting up my laptop with Linux.

I've managed to connect to G11 Gemini 2. I also got the error about needing read/write permission. I've got a temporary fix for that, but I'll try to find the proper solution.

The temporary fix: If your port is something like /dev/ttyACM0, then in a terminal as root, type: chmod o+gw /dev/ttyACM0

After that restart kstars and try again.

[pmrid]

In the INDI control panel, the scope defaults to /dev/ttyUSB0 (or similar). Since the scope connects via a serial connection, I've been resetting that to /dev/ttyS0 and INDI then says it is connected to the Gemini and KStars seems to know (from the Gemini controller) where the scope is pointing. But it won't obey any commands (slew etc). So there's a disconnect there somewhere and the connection seems to drop out. I suspect there is some device contention going on for that serial port.

Also, from one restart to the next, INDI doesn't remember that I have reset that Port. It keeps coming back to the default USB0.

No other devices will connect - no doubt because they are all behind a USB hub and I'm guessing INDI doesn't know how to find them. Not sure about the solution.

Persevere.

Peter

[lazjen]

Ok. I'm using a USB connection to the Gemini 2, so it's coming up differently.

I haven't got it to move the scope yet, but it does see the scope moving around.

I was using the live Distro Astro 2.0 to trial this. I had some difficulties trying to install it on my laptop (not helped by me trying to keep the Windows already there and installing on to another disk). I failed with the Distro Astro, so I'm now trying the latest Ubuntu and installing kstars, etc. I'll see how that goes.

[mithrandir]

On my Linux box the answer would be make the logonid a member of the tty group.

Do a "ls -l /dev/ttyACM0" to check the ownership.

[lazjen]

Spot on Andrew, that was the real fix. I also had to add myself to the video group for a CCD camera.

EDIT: also need "dialout" group according to ekos FAQ.

[pmrid]

I've done the
Sudo adduser xxxx dialout

So, I have to do the same for tty and video?

Peter

[lazjen]

dialout's the important one, the others are "maybe". However adding them won't hurt.

[lazjen]

Ok, discovered some more info regarding the G11. I think the Losmandy Gemini entry might be for the older version, not G2. I couldn't get it to work.

For the G11 G2, using LX200 Classic works much better - it's actually driving the scope around now.

Moonlite focuser connected fine and appears to work ok.

For CCDs:

I've had no luck with the SBIG ST-i. Indi seems to have trouble initialising it. And I found that the camera got quite warm after being connected for a while.

The QHY 5 doesn't connect but no error appears.

For the DSLR, the OS recognises the 6D fine, and I get indi connecting ok, but I can't seem to get it to take a photo/preview just yet. I'll have to investigate gphoto2 further to check how well the 6D is supported.

Also, I'm in the process of going to "kstars-bleeding" and building from the latest sources.

[netwolf]

Chris/Peter

In the video they talk about pointing model, is this a independent pointing model in Ekos or does it work in conjunction with the Gemini pointing model and parameters?

The eqmod looks quiet cool, almost wish my g11 was synscan based. Maybe time to look at the AstroEQ project.
https://github.com/TCWORLD/AstroEQ
Or maybe look at the sitech again but the don't have Indi support.

I really like what I see in Ekos and it's free, compare that to the cost of equivalent on Windows. Best of all it's on Linux. Wonder if this works under BSD.

I'm trying to get my Mint setup going but i think I will need to download the latest version and rebuild. Also I'm out of space on my laptop need to backup and move old stuff of to my archives.

Regards
Fahim

[pmrid]

I am wondering if there is any editable Config-like file behind each of the scope, CCD, FW, focuser choices.
Peter

[pmrid]

The dialout got my Gemini 1 recognised - step 1 I guess. But like your G2, it says it's connected but doesn't actually do anything.

I'll try the tty and video connections today and see if that gets me some more connections.

Peter

[lazjen]

I wonder if this means that the driver is only partially developed if both G1 and G2 don't work fully.

[lazjen]

Fahim,



I can't confirm this yet, but I think it's a dual system. Each solve improves the current Ekos model, but also updates the scope's model as well. It looks to be very similar to the way Astrotortilla works and I won't be surprised if digging into it there was some shared library/code there.



I'm hoping to go full Linux this year for all my astro needs. This means I'm going to put my effort into things that are INDI based as I feel it's got the best chance going forward.

INDI is using the approach like Window's ASCOM which is obviously successful, so I'm hopeful.



Actually, under Windows, you can go pretty cheap. There's a few things around that are free/near free to do what Ekos can do.

However, it's Windows which is quite annoying to use. :)

If you want to build from source, I suspect getting it to work on BSD should not be an issue.



Is Mint a Debian style based OS (I can't remember)? If it is, you should be able to go ok. It's very ubuntu/debian centric the closer you go to bleeding edge. I'm in the process of moving to full source build. If I get it going that way, I'll switch back to my favourite distro: Gentoo.

Chris

[Astro_Bot]

Yes, "Debian-style", but based on Ubuntu upstream with additional packages included and available in repos. Ubuntu is itself based on Debian's Unstable (or sometimes Testing) package set with further customisation - they mess about with it a bit.

[pmrid]

Hi guys.
Some progress. I connected my SXVR-H16 tonight and bless me, it was recognised and I was able to take some lights. BUT I wasn't able to find any cooler control. Neither on/off nor set point control. Zip, nada!
I haven't yet tried connecting the SX guider (these are integrated in the SXVR design). But it's a start. I discovered why my previous attempts failed. The USB powered hub at the scope had died and my devices just weren't being seen. So the next step us to try to connect a focuser and FW.
Has anyone figured out how to run a Gemini 1 yet?

Peter

[iandix]

One thing I have noticed with the INDI libraries has been the daily updates. (maybe too many :-) ) so they really seem to be putting some work into it

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Peter
What is the trouble running the Gemini 1. I don't have access to the Gemini 1 now because I gave the mount to my son. However I was able to control the Gemini 1 using the Meade protocol.

I wrote a control program in Qbasic (the only language I can program in) that could access all the Gemini functions.

I then modified the program to run in QB64(Gl), actually a c++ program with Qbasic commands and runs Qbasic source, so it will work on modern O/S's

I have a version of QB64(gl) that runs perfectly in Ubuntu Linux and runs all my Qb64(GL) source code. It works on my LX200 so I expect it will work on the Gemini 1

Barry

[pmrid]

Hi Barry,
like most things, the problem is probably located between the keyboard and the seat. But I haven't been able to get it to actually do anything. It connects but won't track or slew.

The answer is probably somewhere in a configuration/option setting I haven;t found yet. I'll try again later.

UPDATE on SX CCD connections and COOLING:
I posted a question about this on the INDI forum an hour or so ago and have my answer already. Great!! There IS another options setting in there that I hadn't seen. The bleedin' obvious is what I tend to overlook most often.

Peter

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Peter

Another problem I had with a Toshiba lap top was the USB/RS232 adapter.
I have one that works with win 8.1 great but does not work with Linux and vice versa, the one that I have that works in Linux does not work in Win 8. Beat that for inconvenience!

Barry

[pmrid]

LX200 Classic works my Gemini 1. Still getting the hang of defining site parameters etc though. The thing wants to default to some site in Siberia it seems. But we're getting there.

Peter

[lazjen]

I think the default option is to update the site information in the Gemini upon connection. It seems to use you kstars location for that. It forced me to set up my location properly. :)

[lazjen]

An update:

I've completely reinstalled the Linux on my laptop to switch to Gentoo. I've built indi, kstars and the device drivers from source. I've now got the SBIG ST-i working, plus the Canon DSLR. I've got a little bit of work left to hook up the focuser and mount again. I've also got astrometry installed and working, but have yet to check the integration with kstars.

During all of this, I found out that the only QHY camera supported at present is the QHY5 - no variants on this, so the QHY5L-II is definitely out.

[pmrid]

Well done Chris. Over the past week or so I've been doing testing for Peter Polakovic (INDI) on rewriting the drivers for my SXVR_H16 CCD and guider. Seems the old drivers were expecting 16-bit data from the guide camera and only getting 8-bit - so had a hissy fit and went home. Should be a rewritten driver available later today if anyone is interested. Oddly though, even with a rewrite, it seems the driver will only control one camera at a time, so one can either guide or image but not both simultaneously. A work in progress!!

Peter

[lazjen]

I noticed your posts on the forum.

Tonight, I got the mount and focuser going as well, so the next session I get outside I'll set up for a run using this setup and see what shakes out.

The only wrinkle that I haven't solved yet is the tty device for the focuser changes if I unplug/plug it in again. In the normal usage it shouldn't be an issue, but it's something I'll have to keep in mind.

[iandix]

This looks pretty good, The only thing stopping me using Distro Astro was the lack of Ekos support ...

Some plans for Distro Astro 3.0:

1. Ekos, a complete astrophotography solution by Jasem Mutlaq.

2. An extension to Cartes du Ciel by John Barber containing 1 million DSOs.

3. New feature: set your location (on KStars, Cartes du Ciel, and Stellarium) by IP Geolocation - lets you have the correct coordinates even when travelling.

[lazjen]

I saw that last night. I'll have to hunt down the Cartes du Ciel extension sometime.

I haven't had time for this recently, but I got stuck with a problem around my DSLR - kstars/indi wouldn't download any images from the camera. I suspect I'll have to run up a "remote" indi server and debug it further.