I've been trying to use my Astrid for at least one potential occultation each clear evening (rare!).? Some additional updates:
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I am still very impressed with it.? Mark continues to upgrade the software several times a week.? Once a bunch of these get deployed (combined with our ability now to have excellent predictions), the number of positives will skyrocket further.? I still highly recommend getting one as soon as they are available.? I will likely get one more eventually to use as a local loaner--some of our club members are interested in trying it.
I may not have related that I managed to "break" it by accidentally snagging the power supply wire and pulling it off the battery while the Astrid was running.? I couldn't get it to boot after this happened.? Mark had to help me, and found that a file on the USB stick had become corrupted due to the off-nominal shutdown.? Once I restored the file using his directions, all was good again.? I know it is still early, but if possible I'd really like to see it become more robust to things like this--this stuff regularly happens, especially when you are a person with no coordination like me.? I understand it is likely difficult to make bullet-proof--so maybe having backup micro SD card and USB stick is the short-term solution?
I've gotten good quality data down to mag 11.9 targets with my C-5 system, running at 10 Hz.? I'm going to push it to 13 tonight (if clear), and see if that is at all usable.
Plate solving is relatively fast (few seconds) and almost never fails (the couple of times it failed, I had bad focus).? Push-to for prepoint is as easy as it can be, with the similar few seconds wait each iteration.??
Still having focus change issues with the C-5, but that isn't an Astrid issue.??
I wish the stretch function for the displayed image was a bit more sophisticated, but I'm guessing that will be improved as things go along.? It does (at least for me) make it a little harder to look for focus issues.
I'm using mine on a manual Voyager mount--which is well matched to the Astrid and the C-5.? I use the inclinometer on my phone to preset the elevation angle, which saves a bit of time.? I've "calibrated" my manual Alt/Az knobs--they are 3 degrees per turn.? Knowing that makes life easier.? What I'm going to do today is to put direction labels on the mount--for some reason (age?), I can't remember which direction the azimuth knob needs to turn to go left or right.? Typically takes me ~5 movements to get to within 10% of the field (including at least one in the wrong direction).
I still haven't managed to get a positive with it, but that's mainly because the events I'm finding are in the 5 to 25% range.? I still haven't taken it on the road yet (that will happen tomorrow night if clear, or down at my father-in-law's over Christmas).? It is nice how it really minimizes how many things you need to carry along.
I haven't measured the current draw, but I can go at least 6 hours on a Celestron Power Tank Lithium Pro (160 Whr), running both the Astrid and my dew heaters (50% power).
There are still a bunch of features I haven't used it for (controlling a go-to mount, predicting exposure times required, etc.).
Steve C