XIDAX PixInsight Powerhouse Part 1 of 2!!

Intro It's been eight months since my last blog post or YouTube video. I'd planned to keep adding value-packed content based on Astro and technical stuff, but life and work intervened. It's been a crazy eight months, but I won't bore you with the details. I will just...

ASIAIR ANYWHERE

Intro So this question came up on the ASIAIR Facebook group about controlling your ASIAIR and Telescope equipment from California and all your gear would be in New Mexico. I thought I would tackle it with some information and also a little know-how since I love doing...

ASIAIR PRO + PI 5

Intro So I have officially gutted an ASIAIR PRO and replaced the internal board with a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB of RAM and the new Active Cooler. Based on the benchmarks from Core Electronics, the speed we are looking at is almost double from the RPi 4 to the Pi 5!...
iOptron HEM27 vs ZWO AM5

iOptron HEM27 vs ZWO AM5

Preface *All links in this article are direct links. I do not generate money from your clicks For the reader of this article, I am not going to break down every single technical detail about these two mounts. Instead, it will include the following points. The switch...

Balance, even if it’s Ugly

Balance, even if it’s Ugly

Yeah, it looks ugly I know even looking at it while I am writing this post I am thinking why the hell am I posting this? Simply put if you use an EQ mount you need balance! If not it will cause you headaches if you don't. I have been running my new RedCat51 II since...

Hacking the ZWO ASIAIR Plus Kernel

Hacking the ZWO ASIAIR Plus Kernel

Well, I did it! It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. As a matter of fact, here is the Kernel for anyone that would like to load any operating system you want on the ASIAIR Plus with working USB ports. Basically, you need the changes I made to the...

Hello Open Astro

Hello Open Astro

So it begins, the ever-changing revolving door of Astrophotography. I recently gave a speech at ALCON 2022 All about the ZWO ASAIR Pro and Plus and the Open Astro Initiative https://www.openastro.net/ https://alcon2022.org/ So what is the Open Astro Initiative all...

Super Sonic Speed with PixInsight

Super Sonic Speed with PixInsight

So in my last article, I posted about increasing the speed of StarNet++ as long as you have a CUDA-enabled NVIDIA Graphics Card. This article is about speeding up PixInsight with a little thing called RAM Disk. What doe this cost? Well, some time to set up and 10GB...

Speedy Gonzales your StarNet++!

Speedy Gonzales your StarNet++!

So in the never-ending need to go faster with processing images, I purchased a new computer. The Dell XPS 8950 to be exact. I was going to build a PC but after pricing it all out Dell was the cheaper route to go and it included one year of pro support and Windows 11...

William Optics Z81 & Orion Flattener Review

William Optics Z81 & Orion Flattener Review

Since I sent back what was supposed to be my forever scope I ended up pulling the trigger on the bigger brother to my Z61II and ordered the Z81 from Agena Astro. It arrived on May the 4th be with you. What I should know by now after dealing with the same issue with...

Light Panel

Light Panel

So I have finally purchased a light panel. It set me back $17.98 from Amazon https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B079HMW4BV?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details *The link does not give me money it's linked with smile amazon so you can donate to a charity of your...

Fixing pinched optics on the WO Zenithstar 61II

Fixing pinched optics on the WO Zenithstar 61II

So last night I was able to make it out to the GNTO and worked on my pinched optics. It's been pretty bad, to say the least as you can see by my Starship Enterprise looking stars Beam me up, Scotty... I made some initial adjustments as all the screws were super loose...