A section for pictures of your setup - a proposal

Roy Hagen:
In my opinion, the different telescope setup and observatories, is at least for me, a natural part of a picture gallery as I can see the setup in the right context with the images, and for newcomers a valuable source of information on which type of scope, camera and mount to choose.

To be clear, I am NOT suggesting banning equipment images from the main images page, rather providing a special place for those that can be used if the user wishes.

I have also added the suggestion that one have optionally the ability to link from an astro-image to a picture of the equipment used for that image (regardless of where the equipment image is located).

Alternatively, images and descriptions of setups would seem a good subject for a dedicated Forum, that would let people compare and contrast setups and share challenges and fixes — including for remote imaging.

Or is there already such a forum on AB?

CS, Bob

Preliminary screenshots (work in progress):

The problem is when the images are a result of collaboration, in fact even some users they mentioned like 6 scopes at once they used for their images, that confusing me so much really, lately with so many IOTD winners from collaborations it is like they have full page of setup alone, so how that will be posted then.

Salvatore Iovene:
If it's a collaboration and there's a lot of telescopes and cameras... then that's the way it is. What are you suggesting? That the interface be simplified by showing only one of the telescopes and then the text  "+ 5 more" or something?

In any case, this is unrelated to the original post: Bill is talking about setups that you can save so you can reuse in other images, while you're talking about equipment associated to an image regardless if it's in a setup or not, if I understand correctly.

I didn't understand Bill's request in fact, maybe he was looking for a separate place to show equipment to be like a reference, and that is why some replied that no it should be within gallery of images, so that is how i understand it.

And for collaboration there could be an idea but i need to think about, well, it is not just collaboration, but even a single user, for example now i have like 14 scopes, didn't use most of them yet, but later i might use 10-12 out of them, what i have to do then? i also might use like an array of scopes for one target, should i post only one setup which is identical for all others or if they are almost similar but little different such as like two 100mm one 80mm and one 120mm all together.

Salvatore Iovene:
Hi Tareq,

I'm sorry but I really don't understand what problem you're trying to solve here:

Tareq Abdulla:
for example now i have like 14 scopes, didn't use most of them yet, but later i might use 10-12 out of them, what i have to do then? i also might use like an array of scopes for one target, should i post only one setup which is identical for all others or if they are almost similar but little different such as like two 100mm one 80mm and one 120mm all together.

What do you mean?

I can't answer you until i understand this thread topic here first, as i mentioned from my understanding that Bill is looking for a place where users or members here are showing their setup, i don't know if that means showing one setup or all what they have, so i said i already have 14 scopes and it is increasing, so if i am uploading images out of those 14 scopes should i show all my setup?

Salvatore Iovene:
Okay, I can help you understand what Bill meant.

On AstroBin, you can save a setup by a name, so you don't have to enter your equipment items one by one on the next image.

For instance you could save a setup as "Remote observatory 2024", or "Balcony setup", or "Solar setup", etc.

A setup is a preset of multiple equipment items, that you can later associate to an image in a single click instead of adding them one by one.

Bill wants a section in the user's gallery where people can see your setups and pictures of them.

Explain to me that last line please?

Salvatore Iovene:
The user's gallery is where you see all of a user's images.

Bill wants a new section in the gallery, perhaps with tabbed navigation, where AstroBin will list the user's setups.

I don't know how to say it more clearly than this

Salvatore,

I think it is just a language barrier misunderstanding, maybe i couldn't understand you or you couldn't understand me, and maybe we are talking about the same thing but we describe it differently.

If you click on the user name then there you will see like three tabs, one of them called "Sorts", and sub into that you can see "Equipment", and it listed whatever setup or equipment the used or rented, and part of that it is written "Equipment images", many times i click that and i don't see anything, it is like you installed it there but people are not using it, are you going to change that or does Bill asking to change that?

Salvatore Iovene:
Does this help understand?

Interesting.....  That was not quite exactly what I had in mind but would serve the same purpose and is much more sophisticated and useful.  Can I assume that instead of the following icon:



One would instead see something like this thumbnail:



And that clicking on that thumbnail would send the user to a full-sized version of the equipment photo?

Or would the stock icon remain the same but still be clickable to go to a real full-sized photo of the equipment (assuming the user has uploaded one)?

If clicking the icon (either of the above options, whichever is used) does lead to a full-sized equipment image, I assume there would be someplace (perhaps other than or in addition to the main gallery?) where one would upload the (full sized) photos of the various equipment configurations?

If that is wrong, please explain.

Your post also made me realize I need to clean up and thin out my various equipment configurations! 

Bill McLaughlin:
Can I assume that instead of the following icon:
One would instead see something like this thumbnail:

Yes, in my screenshot you saw the placeholder icon, but you can already set an image by going o any of your images, Edit menu, Equipment, and clicking on the Edit button for the setup:



You can add a main image, and a description with as many images you want. That information will be visible on your profile page once I release the update I mentioned above.

Bill McLaughlin:
And that clicking on that thumbnail would send the user to a full-sized version of the equipment photo?

It would show a page with the full list of equipment in that setup, the description that you provided, including any additional images, and a list of images that you took with the equipment in that setup.