Just checking my setup now the sun sets far enough again.
I have anEQMOD mount (syncan upgrade kit on a Vixen GP mount)
I have set park with scope pointing due East (alt 90 AZ 0)
INDI target pier side is auto
EKOS reports pier side west pointing East
If I goto ALT 20 AZ 50, it tries to rotate RA 310 degrees, Alt does the right thing. Of course this means parts of the mount crash into each other.What do I do to make it rotate 50 degress the other way?

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Iain replied to the topic 'Canon 6D, slow data transfer' in the forum. 1 year ago

Oh! looks good, I'll give it a try

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Iain replied to the topic 'Canon 6D, slow data transfer' in the forum. 1 year ago

I am using a Raspberry pi 4 with a canon Ra, and transfer takes around 4 - 5 seconds on USB2 and 3 - 4 seconds on USB3, I am not saving the files on the camera SD card.

I store fits files on the sd card.

The raspberry pi is using s Sandisk ultray32Gb class 10 A1 micro sd card.

I did try running the raspberry pi entirely on an nvme disc using a USB adapter. In speed tests it is dramatically faster, and it speeded up boot and loading apps a bit, it made no difference once taking sequences of images.

I find the serial operation of ekos / indi really annoying, and it also means the camera heats up more, increasing the noise.

I have found that when the camera is not taking a picture it is heating up quite quickly, when taking long exposure photos it cools down while the shutter is open. On my camera the temperature is recorded in the raw and fits file.

Using libgphoto2 (which is what the indi dslr driver uses I believe), kit is quite easy to :

  1. open shutter
  2. close shutter
  3. open shutter for next image
  4. transfer image while next image being taken
This only works well if the transfer time is less than the exposure time!

I suspect that ekos / indi architecture means this approach is impractical / wopuld require major changes in several different areas

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Iain created a new topic ' Convert raw to fits "later"' in the forum. 1 year ago

I want to take a bunch or photos using RAW (without using indi / kstars, and then convert them to fits files that will be compatible with later lights, darks etc I take via kstars / indi. Then I can use them all in stacking software without confusion.

Can I convert RAW to FITS via command line or similar?

Why I want to do this:
I'm using a Canon EOS Ra and stellarmate
I have found that when running my camera through gphoto2, the camera quickly heats up when it is idle or taking short exposure photos (it cools down again when I start a sequence of longer exposures - 30 secs or more). This makes it really difficult to get a set of bias (in particular) frames at temperatures that match the lights / darks I take because it takes 2-3 secs per photo even when the exposure time is 1/1000 sec. The camera warms up by several degrees per minute while doing this, so I only get 1 or 2 frames at the temperature matching the lights, If I take a sequence of 24 bias frames, the sensor temperature will typically have risen by 10 - 12 C, and the readout noise is significantly worse.

If I take a burst sequence by hand of 24 frames, the temperature only changes by 1C at most. If I could then convert these to FITS that would match the other frames I take using ekos / indi it would make preparing Bias frames (and other short exposures frames like darkflats) much easier.

The heating up seems to be pretty much down to gphoto2, I have written a small test program that drives gphoto2 directly and as soon as I open the camera in gphoto2, the temperature starts climbing until I start taking longer exposure photos.

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Iain created a new topic ' Optical train in metadata?' in the forum. 1 year ago

It would be really useful to have the "name" of the optical train in the metadata.

At the moment in the metadata the fields that come out of ekos I can see (exiftool) appear to be :
Instrument : The camera / sensor name
Telescope : The mount driver name
Focallen : focal length from the optical train (lens / telescope modified by the barlow factor)
Aptdia : aperture from the optical train

I currently use a Canon 400 F5.6 prime lens and an Orion 8" reflector with an 800mm focal length. I also use a 1.4 extender and a 2.0 extender.

For the various combinations I use, I have setup 5 optical trains. It would make things much easier when searching through metadata if the optical train name was in the metadata as well.

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Which is annoying as I use a 400mm F5.6 and sometimes with a 1.4 extender giving a focal length of 560.

Seems to be an arbitrary restriction.

I am putting it in as a refractor, which means I have to put in the aperture calculated from the F stop and focal length.

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