Solved Avalon Linear and a Mac

Dear friends,
This is my very first post so let me share my salutation and my appreciation for Avalon products.

As a Mac user, I have searched for software allowing me to use my platform of choice for astronomy as well. Some time ago I stepped into Cloudmakers, a software house that develops a suite of programs for imaging and guiding. I have a SynScan Linear and it works fine with AstroTelescope, the application for mount control by Cloudmakers. Has any of you experience on using such kind of setup? It would be interesting to understand how the guiding suggestions for PHD2 can be migrated to AstroGuider by Cloudmakers.

Clear skies
Gaetano

Dear Gaetano,
KStars in combination with INDI is available for the Mac. Please checkout the indilib.org pages for support.

But maybe you should think about using a Raspberry PI 4 for controlling your entire gear, so you can keep your nice Mac inside. That's how I am running my equipment, both with Avalon Linear and Avalon M-zero.

Cheers
Wolfgang

Hello Wolfgang,
Thank you for your kind reply and for your suggestion.
The RasPi option is indeed valid, INDI platform can be easily integrated with the Cloudmakers suite as well as with KStars.
Consider that, due to light pollution, most of the times I drive away from the town to find a decent sky so my only “inside” is in the car.
May you give me some more information on the software installed on the RasPi?

Thanks in advance
Gaetano

Hi Gaetano,
my setup is a RPi 4 with Raspbian 10, INDI and KStars. If you are familiar with compiling sources, it’s not that complicated and well documented.
There is also the option buying a StellarMate which brings a full package and everything already installed.

Sorry for my late response
Wolfgang

Hi Wolfgang,
thank you for the answer, it is not late at all.

Just to mention, there are also the options of AstroPi3 and indigosky which are full fledged ready-made distributions for the beloved RasPi.

I hope I’m not intrusive but I see you have very nice gear, do you control everything from the Raspberry? I mean shooting, guiding, plate solving, etc.

Thanks in advance
G

Hello, guys,

Hope no one will mind if I step in but your stories resemble mine and I might have a few tips.
I started with a Mac and KStars. But I was forced to have the cables for the mount, cameras etc. plugged into my mac through an USB hub.
So I've decided to move to Raspberry Pi and bought the Model 3, installed Raspbian on it, the INDI library and I was using KStars on my Mac to remotely connect to the INDI server running on the RPi. But soon I realized KStars on the macOS is pretty far behind compared to the Linux version and I wanted to not be dependent on a laptop anymore. So I bought the RPi4 and Stellarmate which runs Ubuntu Mate and comes preinstalled with everything (INDI library, KStars etc.). I should mention Stellarmate is developed and maintaned by the same guy behind INDI and KStars.
And soon enough, I realized the "ready made" solutions are not enough for me, I wanted more control over the the Linux running on RPi.

So, I've purchased a miniPC (www.amazon.co.uk/MAD-GIGA-Fanless-Proces...aphics/dp/B07FXF972F), bought and M.2 SSD for it (www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07KG2KFSX/r...01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and I installed Kubuntu on it. Then I've added the INDI repository and installed the INDI library and KStars (no compilation/building from sources needed).

Now when I go out, the Kubuntu running on the miniPC connects either to my home wifi either to my iPad's wifi (when I'm in the field) and I control it remotely via VNC Viewer. EVERYTHING runs on that little computer (alignment, guiding, polar alignment, platesolving, image capturing etc.).
I usually create a plan in KStars and go to sleep. When the time is right (my target has risen enough and it's dark enough) KStars knows and automatically starts everything (slews to target, platesolves, calibrates guiding, starts guiding, starts shooting). When it finishes it parks the mount and shuts itself down

Let me know if you need anymore advice, I'd be more than happy to help.