Bart wrote: Interesting thought! You could do automatic exposure based on the histogram of the picture.

Maybe an interesting option for EKOS in any case? Perhaps with different preset histogram profiles for DSOs, Galaxies and Star Clusters.

wvreeven wrote: A little bit of searching online gives this:

www.indilib.org/forum/general/1604-new-p...-tutorial-is-up.html

Have you looked into that?

Hello,
I have started to learn Python. I believe its great both for my profession and also for this hobby.
One of the first things I did was learn how to use astropy and get data out of my fits.

I would like to create an script that mimics the Automated Flat Frames application, but with lights. So for the relevant filter, it increases the exposure in given intervals until reaching a certain median ADU.
I want it to be a bit more "smart" than that (reading for several regions, finding the darkest areas, compare vs the dark frame, etc).

What stops me at the moment is that I am very new and I am not sure how to make my script communicate with EKOS or INDI to request it to shoot the subframe with the options I have in EKOS.
Ideally this script would "talk" to EKOS, rather than doing it independently, as my camera is already configured there.

Any one can point me to some documentation it might be helpful?

Many thanks

Read More...

I wasnt a fan of the internal guider until ive tried the multistar guiding in the last clear night we had around here. Cant believe it wasnt the default option. So good!

Couldve been an extraordinary good balance and seeing but got down to 0.5", my personal best, with 8.5kg equipment in a eq6r, with 240mm guidescope.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Read More...

Hello,
please move this topic to another category if its more appropiate.
I have contacted Pegasus support and they referred me to here as the problem lies on the driver according to them.

The problem is the following:

I usually power the EQ6R as a standalone but connect it to the RPi4 via USB. All works great.

I bought a cable to power the EQ6R mount through the Pegasus PPBA and when I start EKOS, connect all drivers and switch on the mount , the Pegasus driver goes offline with multiple communication errors:
PCdggVT

I can hear how the ZWO camera fan stops and starts again when doing so.

If I Stop and Restart EKOS, it works again.

To be honest, it is not a big deal as I think that if the mount is parked, there shouldnt be an issue with PPEC (please correct me if im wrong) but I dont think this behaviour is normal.

Many thanks

Read More...

I would like to avoid having another thing hanging around the telescope. Its definitely not about the money after spending more than £3,000 on this hobby
I am very happy with the temperature sensor of the Pegasus PPA so why should I add redundancy?

If EKOS uses the temperature from the focuser, then I might have to as you suggest but otherwise I would rather not.

Read More...

Thanks for the quick reply. I was thinking the same logic but the ZWO EAF temperature was constant all morning long so I thought it was a wrong reading. I
will check tonight again to see what value I get as my fridge isnt big enough

Read More...

Hello all,
just seen this and there is an Autofocus if Delta Temp is bigger than a certain amount of degrees.

I have recently purchased a ZWO EAF and I have a Pegasus PPA (Pocket Powerbox Advance). I dont have a temperature sensor on the ZWO EAF but I do have on the PPA.
Which temperature is used for this condition?

The issue is that the ASI EAF has got a temperature channel which is clearly wrong (28C degrees at room temperature vs 20C read by PPA).

Read More...

Just a little shameless bump in case anyone has any suggestions or can check on their Astroberry install? :_)

Read More...

Hello
I have had a few crashes recently and was trying to access the INDI logs. When I do so, it says that the folder /home/astroberry/.indi/logs doesnt exist.

More annoyingly, INDI server and INDIHub Agent folders dont exist either, but INDI has been working fine (apart from those seldom crashes mid-session).

Is that normal? Should I just create the folder or is it indicative of something that might be wrong?

Many thanks!

Read More...

Yesterday night, 4 arcsecs error and the solver error is massive. I try to solve on the wixard nebula and is way off again.

Read More...

Glad it works! I do have usually less than half an arcminute error but I do see a drift when I replay my subs in Pixinsight from my imaging sessions and its evident when i stack them in DeepSkyStacker.
I am confident that in my case, it will be solved with guiding so I am not worried.

Read More...

I am relatively new to astrophotography and EKOS and mainly use the standard PA assistant so I will help the best I can and hopefuly somebody wuth more experience will jump in.

In my experience, an error of half an arcmin should be decent for up to 30secs or even 1min unguided subs.

Considering that the earth spins at 15 arcsecs per sec at the celestial equator, so having a drift of 0.08 arcsecs per sec (5arcsec per min) seems very decent!

I use a 600mm SW 80ED with a ZWO 1600, that combination results in ~2arcsecs per pixel. Having 5arcsecs per min drift would mean that for a 1min sub , there would be a 2.5 pixels drift. For an unguided setup, I think I could live with that. If you cant, then indeed that PA error needs to be reduced.

The bigger problem is that for a long imaging session, the drift would cause issues with the composition. Using the same maths, after 1 hour, I would be 150pixels off... The only solution I can see to do is either further improve PA accuracy, do plate solving every now and then or use guiding.

Regards

Read More...

Hello,
Should I worry about the error seen during the polar aligment?
It is usually huge but I imagine I should forget about it as the documentation it says never to solve near to the NCP.

Also, after doing the polar aligment I find that my error when plate solving is big and takes 2 to 3 iterations at first. It doesnt get better after multiple targets.
I usually leave "Slew to target" as the default solver action, even when Polar aligning.

Could the error seen later in the plate solving be related to the mount being sync'd for every solve done in the polar aligment when the mount is being sync'd?
Should I set the Solver action to "nothing" for the PA and back to "Slew to target" when plate solving?

Many thanks

Read More...