Countdown To Starfront Observatories Has Started

[@NikonJax]

Very cool! Hope you do a video when you have it nailed in :)

[@AstroVagabond]

Will do. Just got my Deep Sky Dad Flap panel for my RedCat this afternoon. Works seemlessly with NINA Flat Wizard.

[@calimark7448]

Hi Bill, very nice to follow you on your journey as I am on a similar path. Getting my FRA400 rig ready to go remote. You'll like Austin. Lots of live music down on 6th street. Don't forget the bats under the bridge.

[@AstroVagabond]

Thank you! I'm looking forward to a new era of astrophotography and I can't wait to see what you're able to achieve with your remote setup.

[@gomanastro]

looking good, getting it all dialed in!

[@AstroVagabond]

Thanks Greg! If you'd be interested in doing a video with me to review your work, ppromote your channel, and talk about your astrophotography journey let me know. We'd do it over Google Meet. Concept is "meet an astrophotographer".

[@Thunder_Dome45]

I drove mine to there on new years eve. It was running the next night (new year's night). That was a lot faster than I thought it would be.

[@AstroVagabond]

I dropped mine off Sunday at 1 pm on the 29th and I was able to access them the next night. Nate was the person who received them and I think did the install. I just walked in the door. We spent New Year's in Austin and had a blast.

[@Thunder_Dome45]

@AstroVagabond yeah Nate met me too. He looked busy so I just gave him the stuff and left. It was just an 9 hour round trip for me. I live close to Oklahoma city.

[@AstroVagabond]

57 hours (3,774 plus miles) for me. I had my CFO with me so we decided to make it an adventure out of the trip and see some fantastic scenery. Both me and Laurie are into volcanism so it was fun seeing the ancient lava fields and cones in New Mexico and Arizona.

[@paulsmaglik5063]

When I sent my rig down, I did not include a UPS with it. I had purchased a UPS because I was getting power fluctuations which cause my ethernet control power switch go back to a default configuration. I also had another issue a power spike which reset my eagle and all my NINA sequencer to be deleted. I have had the UPS for a couple weeks with no power issues at all.

[@AstroVagabond]

Ouch! Glad things are now sorted out. 👍

[@robertgrenader858]

In watching Starfront's channel, don't they manage cables when they mount your scope?

[@AstroVagabond]

Well while that may be true in particular any cables that have to travel down the pier like power, no harm if I organize the USB to hub and hub to device power cables myself in advance to remove any strain on cables before I hand the scopes over to them. My thinkiong any way. I expect if they see a better way they'll make necessary tweaks.

[@AstroCapture325]

Nice video. I am driving my rig from West Virginia to SFO in January. I note you have a UPS. Are you concerned about stability of power?

[@AstroVagabond]

Thanks and cool on your drive! As to the UPS, I've been a traveler using Jackery powerstations that provide clean DC power. I also have data center experience where we always backed up our AC power with UPS and gnerators. I don't know if Starfront is connected to multiple grids for redundancy. I do know thunderstorms are common in some parts of Texas. I've been hanging out on the Starfront Discord and became aware some people used small UPS devies at the base of their piers. I asked Starfront what most people who use UPS device use and I bought that UPS. I think it was about $70. The UPS should mitigate AC spikes or momentarty voltage drops caused by the utility switching things to manage load. So I went this route.

[@AstroCapture325]

That sounds like a smart play. The UPS connects to the external power and then the smart switch connects to the UPS, correct? Can you tell me the ups model you purchased?

[@AstroVagabond]

You are correct the UPS connects into the house power and the Kasa Smart Plug Power Strip HS300 plugs into the UPS. I purchased this UPS on Amazon: amzn.to/3ZmLwhA I purchased this Power Strip on Amazon: amzn.to/417JCDT