Amit replied to the topic 'Feedback from a user leaving Stellarmate' in the forum. 1 year ago

Thank you Jasem for your hard work.

For what my personal opinion/suggestion is worth, I think the following would really help with the live stacking:

1. Basic histogram control: adjust the black, mid and white point. Most other stacking software offer this, and these controls are enough for most adjustments. I have not used AsiAir, but I have read that it stacks on the pi but offers the histogram controls in the app. The existing controls in the Stellarmate app may be working this way too, I don't know.

2. Ability to use darks and flats. I know that Stellarmate has the capability to manage a dark library on the Pi, I don't know if a similar "flat library" exists. In any case, being able to incorporate that into stacking will improve the result (noise, dust motes, vignetting, etc.)

3. I don't know what it will take and whether this is even feasible, but if live stacking is incorporated into Ekos that would be great. Currently as a workaround I used to use Ekos to capture the images and save them in the remote folder, then use Sharpcap on Windows in folder monitor mode to stack. If that can work, so can Ekos on the remote computer.


I would also suggest to think about a workflow for EAA that runs like a wizard in the app. This is similar to how astrophotographers can set up complicated sequences and then just let it run. But EAA users want ease of use more than technical capability, and are often more unfamiliar with what needs to be done (e.g. I had no idea what a dark and flat was and how it would affect my result, I was just looking to stack. If an app guided me through steps on what to do for each session, it would make the experience much smoother for newbie users). I would like to think that Kstars/ekos and even the app already have most of the functionality needed for this, its a matter of presenting it in a manner that is easy to follow.

Time and again, users come on Cloudy Nights and ask if it is possible to do EAA using a mobile phone, without lugging a laptop around. There are only two choices that I can think of: Stellarmate and ASIAir. ASIAir is recommended to new users because Stellarmate is "buggy and looks like a work in progress" (not my words). ASIAir currently wins in ease of use. But Stellarmate supports so many more devices, can be installed on any Raspberry PI 4 and most importantly, does not force somebody to buy into the ZWO ecosystem. The stability and ease of use issue is what is pulling it back. Having used Stellarmate for about a year, I see the potential and want it to succeed. I hope you get there.

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