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Second night out with KSTARS/EKOS

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Here was my first night out, which I'm sorting through some issues with if you follow the thread.
First night out...

On my second night out with KSTARS/EKOS:

I immediately began the evening by using the hand controller on the AVX to run a 2+4 alignment and polar align.
Connected to EKOS/INDI and got the equipment running.

I ran a focus routine to focus, then picked M101 as a target and slewed to it using the EKOS mount control.

Here's where I started running into a new issue. I went to the align tab, and told it to Capture & Solve/Slew to target. Every time it said solving for M102 not M101. Then it would say it's off target, and slew to M102. I repeated this multiple times with the same problem. I eventually pointed to a few different targets and Capture & Solved with Sync, then came back to M101 and it worked this time.

I loaded up PHD2, calibrated, and started guiding.

Went back to EKOS, loaded up my LRGB sequence, and pressed run sequence.

Imaged for about an hour and started to notice how grainy my images were, then realized I forgot to turn on the cooler for the camera. I don't know if this can be saved into the sequence or not, but if It can, I must have forgot to set the temperature in my sequence. So I turned on the cooler, and it ran for the rest of the evening at the correct temperature.

About two hours into my 4 hour session, I think the guide camera locked up. The sequence aborted, and I went into PHD2, which seemed to think it was still working, but there was no guiding data, and the screen was not refreshing. This required quitting PHD2 and restarting, new calibration and started guiding again.

I went back to EKOS, and even though PHD2 returned to normal, EKOS was not displaying any guiding updates from PHD2. But since I knew I was guiding again in the other program, I resumed my sequence. I never saw any data coming to EKOS again for the rest of the session, but EKOS seemed to think I was guiding, and continued the sequence despite not seeing any data in the EKOS guide windows.

Also, one other issue came up. I noticed that on focusing, the focus routine did not automatically come up on filter change. I'm not sure if this was supposed to happen or not. So about 2 frames into my second filter, I pressed the auto focus routine, which stopped the sequence queue mid frame. It focused, but then I had a problem resuming the queue for some reason. I had to stop the queue and restart it, and this resumed.

At this point I noticed the setting to refocus focus every hour, so I turned this setting on, and after one hour it automatically paused the sequence, and said waiting on focus. The focus automation never happened. I went to the focus tab, and had to press the Auto Focus button, and after it completed, the sequence automatically resumed. So it seems it was waiting on my input for the focus routine? I'm not sure why it didn't work automatically then return to the sequence.

Other than these issues, I completed 1 full sequence on a single object. Very happy to get this far. I think there are a few more issues for me to work out to have this fully automated. Some things I have not attempted yet are a meridian flip, and multiple object sequences. I've also not taken any darks, flats or bias frames yet. I'll build a sequence for those and attempt it soon.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq
6 years 6 days ago #24402

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Yes, temperature is saved into the sequence. For M101/M102 it is weird, it is probably the reverse lookup confusing the two, the solver would really just work on whatever RA/DE is currently there, the object name is just for informational purposes.

For the focus, did you set up the filter manager? In the capture (or focus) module, there is a little filter icon that you can open to help you select how you want to control the behavior of focus + filter locking. Make sure to set these settings first. You cannot perform autofocus mid-sequence without causing havoc. Once the sequence starts, ideally you do not touch anything until it is complete. Even guiding should not be touched until sequence is either complete or aborted. I guess this would probably lead to other weird states in the whole program as well and would be only resolved by a restart of KStars.
6 years 6 days ago #24419

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I've not tried the filter manger. I saw the button, wasn't sure what it did, but really only focused on modifying the settings that are present on the main screen of each tab. I'll explore those settings tonight and see if I can get it refined.

For external guiding through PHD2 to work, do I need to have the guide scope and guide camera defined in INDI? Since the profile I created intended on using the internal guiding software, I have those devices in there, but have to disconnect the camera in INDI to start the guiding in PHD2. I'm wondering if I can remove the guide camera from the INDI setup and guiding will still work properly through PHD2?

One other thing I wasn't sure of, regarding guiding was whether or not dithering works through PHD2? I had the dithering settings on in EKOS, but wasn't really sure if it was being used or not.

I do intend on getting my camera working for guiding again through EKOS, but just wondering some of these options as I switch between the two.
6 years 6 days ago #24427

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One other question that just came to my mind. If a sequence fails during operation, what is the best course of action to take? Should you save the progress of the sequence, restart EKOS, then load that aborted sequence to continue?
6 years 6 days ago #24428

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If the sequence fails, just try to run it again and it would resume.

For PHD2, I presume you're using "INDI camera" and "INDI mount" in PHD2? if that's the case, then you can keep your profile as is. You can also remove the guide camera completely from your profile, but then PHD2 should support it natively.
6 years 6 days ago #24443

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And here’s the first image I captured over the two nights. Only 4.5 hours of integration.

File Attachment:
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq, Eric, Jim, Jose Corazon
6 years 1 day ago #24550

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Wow, this is what you get from just outside of Houston!

Beautiful! This is what I got with my ES102 from the middle of the white zone (Bortle 9) in Dallas...

Leo Triplet

I used a full color camera, though, not LRGB integration. Perhaps I should make that jump?
Last edit: 6 years 12 hours ago by Jose Corazon.
6 years 12 hours ago #24579

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Thanks! I don't know what happened with your image, it shows up as a tiny thumbnail. Can you relink it?

It's taken some time to get to this level of quality. I'm going through some of my first shots with my 102, and ugh, they're terrible. Haha.
6 years 11 hours ago #24582

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www.indilib.org/support/community/photos...um.html?albumid=1901
Sorry, I haven't figured out how to link to that full frame image. Here the link to the entire album in my profile. Just select the Leo Triplet image there to get a larger view.
Are you using a light pollution suppression filter in addition to LRGB?
6 years 11 hours ago #24585

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No light pollution filter on this particular image, though I have used one extensively in the past on my one shot color camera. Your camera and integration time can certainly have an effect, but also you probably have more signal noise due to light pollution, so that means you'll need more integration time to counter for it. Also, your processing technique can certainly effect the final quality as well, though looking at your images, there's so much noise I'm inclined to believe this is the removal of the light pollution that's causing this.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jose Corazon
6 years 10 hours ago #24594

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Yes, my processing technique has to improve a lot, but the light pollution is a huge factor. Here one recent image of M81, already processed in PixInsight (270 1' images stacked). The persistent noise is quite obvious. The single FITS frames look terrible, so this final stacked product is a huge improvement. The ASI1600MC-Cool was running a -10C. Still, I haven't been able so far to figure out how to extract more detail of the spiral arms in PixInsight. What I do for post processing is to subtract a background frame from the entire image. That is causing the apparent noise as there is just not much signal over background in the fainter portions of the spiral arms.
If you know how to improve on that, please let me know. As I have learned, image acquisition is one thing, image processing is at least as complex, if not more so.



This is a screen shot of a single FITS frame from that series, opened in PixInsight and autostretched, no other manipulation. I am surprised I was able to wash out as much detail as I could.

Last edit: 5 years 11 months ago by Jose Corazon. Reason: Add another image and more detailed description
5 years 11 months ago #24618
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That's not too far off from where I'm at in terms of how my unprocessed stretched calibrated images look. There are some features in PixInsight that can tackle the noise issue. One thing you can do is extract the luminance, adjust the curves so that all the background of the luminance is dark, and only the stars and object show through. Then use that as a mask on the color image to desaturate and darken the background, which removes all that noise color, then apply MultiScaleLinearTransform to blur that noise into a generally solid smooth color. Then reverse the mask and increase the contrast and color on the stars and objects you imaged without effecting the background.

Also, and this can't be stated enough, the worse your light pollution, the more integration time you need. I would push your times to 6-8 hours of data and see how much that improves your images. Imaging the same object over multiple nights feels like a misuse of a clear night, but if you're interested in better quality, this is what you need to do.

One other thing with regards to imaging. Some online studies by really diligent amateurs have shown that running the ASI1600 at -20C cuts noise in half. So that's something minor you can do right way. And, regarding mono. One way to battle light pollution is to shoot narrowband (which mostly limits you to nebulas). Narrowband images at frequencies that are not effected by light pollution and the moonlight. Depending on the filters you use, they can be to some degree, but the better filters block 95% or more of the light pollution and moon glow.

Also, I find Astro Pixel Processor (for me) is better than PixInsight for integration, light pollution removal, and color calibration. I then take it into PixInsight and enhance everything with their very unique tools.
5 years 11 months ago #24620

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