After quite a few years off I've decided to brush the dust off the old gear and have another play around. I forgot my forum username and password so I'm starting again from scratch, hence the low post count.
I'm building a new observatory as I've moved house and had to leave my lovely observatory behind, so I'll post a few photos as it progresses.
I'm surprised my astro computer still booted up after nearly 7 years in storage. It's still running Windows 7.
I used to use PHD2, Deep Sky Stacker, Startools, Gimp and Backyard EOS for processing.
Are there better options out there now? (I'll start off with free or low cost stuff for now and upgrade later, including the camera)
Hello Kev
I would recommend having a look at NINA for you capture software. Free, powerful and easy to use.
I run my observatory, mount, camera's, focuser, sequencing,everything from NINA. PHD2 integrates very well with it for your guiding.
I mean you can still use what you've been using in the past (if you get new hardware you may have a problem)- but yes NINA is great - I just wouldn't connect windows 7 to the internet!
I’ve always run my applications individually for AP which of course is less prone to gremlins due to the endless checklist of things to do to ensure they talk to each other under the Ascom umbrella.
ASIair and programs like NINA have made AP very efficient but I didn’t go down that path , still old school with modern apps. APT does connect to PHD2 for dither commands and also my camera , ZWO filter wheel and ZWzo focuser connects through APT.
DSO
I use PHD2 for guiding , APT for capture ( it caters for both DLSR and cooled CMOS , I use both ZWO2600MC and 2600MM ) , EQMOD and Stellarium for Goto and navigation ( some folk have jumped across to Green Swamp Server GSS and some folk have come back to EQMOD as it’s a workhorse of a driver ) , ASTAP for Stacking and data analysis ( DSS is an old engine recently revamped , I used it for years but found ASTAP and its leagues ahead ) , Startools for post processing ( version 1.8 and the latest 1.9 are superior compared to years and years ago )
PHD2 has come a long way in the past 3 or 4 years with a profile wizard to help you set up your rig for guiding as it eliminates most of the cockpit errors folk tend to make when manually setting up profiles and equipment. Also an improved GA or Guiding Assistant and recently a CA or Calibration Assistant which takes all the guesswork out of Calibration. Both my rigs ( which are located 220km apart ) are permanently set up and Ive saved and reused the same Calibration at both locations for 3 years or so with no issue at all. These days it is really Push Here Dummy !
Planetary
Still use the old DSLR with Televue Powermates in my Newts
Still use BYEOS
Still use Autostakkert 3
Still use Registax 6
Clear Skies
Martin
PS: I only started astronomy in late 2016 ( hobby in retirement )
I also came back to astro in 2023 after a long break (2016).
I'm now using NINA, PHD2, EQMOD, SkyChart for deep sky image acquisition (all free). For processing i'm using PixInsight (which I already owned a license for from previously), however if I was starting again (without PixInsight) and wanted to use free software for image processing whilst also keeping things simple I would probably use DSS for image calibration and stacking, and then Siril and Gimp for post-processing. (Siril can be used for image calibration and stacking as well, but its probably not as simple to use as DSS)
For planetary I'm using Sharpcap for acquisition and then AutoStakkert and waveSharp (the successor of Registax) for processing. (again, all free)
