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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

New Bahtinov Mask Assistant Tool

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Hi all,

Since yesterday afternoon (4th of May 2020), the Bahtinov Mask Focus Assistant have been integrated in the main branch of KDE/kstars. So it is now available for everyone and will probably be available in the next release of kstars.
Good luck using this feature. Let me know if you have any questions of encounter any problems regarding the Bahtinov Mask Focus Assistant.

Kind regards,
AstroRunner
The following user(s) said Thank You: Radek Kaczorek, Wouter van Reeven, Rick Wayne, Bill
3 years 10 months ago #53260

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Cool! I can't wait to try this out on my StellarMate!
3 years 10 months ago #53269

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Cool! Me neither!
3 years 10 months ago #53270

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Looks like it's working for me. Seeing was terrible, btw.

3 years 10 months ago #53273
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    screenreco...5.18.mp4

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Hello again, thanks for the tips. I was able to get the flare with considerable zoom at 1.5 seconds exposures.
By comparison using the live view in Ekos the flare was bright and large regardless of zoom level; but using loop with the Canon...was quite dark using FITS or Native settings.
Nothing to do with this logic addition as this seems to be normal with my Canon.
Thanks for including your video Herrhausen, It did help.

I will try my asi183, if there are stars tonight.

Quick question , can you add this flare vector to the live view for DSLRs?

Thanks
Equipment

Sky Watcher Esprit 100ED APO
QHY5L-II Mini Guider
Pegasus PPB, DMFC
Xagyl Filter, LRGB+Ha
CGEM DX
RP4.4

William Optics RedCat 51
Star Adventurer
RP4.1
Software
KStars phd2 , Ubuntu, StarTools, Mac OS
AstroDSLR AstroGuider AstroTelescope, AstroImager, Astrometry
3 years 10 months ago #53275
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Hi,
Unfortunately the flare vector can't be added to the live view. The other star detection algorithm results are also not available in live view. To make this available requires quite some restructuring of the code to make it work. Maybe it can be submitted as a feature request. But I think the live view was not intended to support this behaviour (but I could be wrong here, as I am quite new to developing to kstars and ekos).
Regards, AstroRunner
The following user(s) said Thank You: Andrew Couture
3 years 10 months ago #53284

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You're correct. The Live View does not support these features. I suppose some features can be added but it requires quite a bit of work.
3 years 10 months ago #53285

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Thanks for the replies. For the amount of effort required, not worth the reward.
As this is now, it will work best for me when I move to automated focuser.
Equipment

Sky Watcher Esprit 100ED APO
QHY5L-II Mini Guider
Pegasus PPB, DMFC
Xagyl Filter, LRGB+Ha
CGEM DX
RP4.4

William Optics RedCat 51
Star Adventurer
RP4.1
Software
KStars phd2 , Ubuntu, StarTools, Mac OS
AstroDSLR AstroGuider AstroTelescope, AstroImager, Astrometry
3 years 10 months ago #53294

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Is it posible to use the Bathinov Assistant without a motorized focuser? How? I've been able to see the assistant working on previous version occasionally, but since I've installed 3.5.2 I haven't been able to get the assistant working.
2 years 11 months ago #69923

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The Bathinov Mask Assistant is in operation!    Oh wow!   I'll have to look for it!

Right now I do this (a link to my post in this thread):  How I use the Bathinov Mask
 
2 years 11 months ago #69929

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+1 for the non-motorized focuser. Is it possible to do that? Cause I can't see how it could be done :-(
2 years 10 months ago #71102

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Hi,

It's nice to hear that the Bathinov Mask Focus Assistant Tool is used. Here a detailed description on how I use this tool without an auto-focuser.
I don't have an auto-focuser too, so it is definitly possible. The steps are as follows:
  1. Point your telescope to a bright enough star to be able to use your bathinov mask
  2. Place your bathinov mask
  3. Go to the kstars-ekos focus assistant tool
  4. Set the correct exposure time and select detection mode 'Bahtinov'
  5. Take a first shot by clicking the small camera icon next to the stop button to take a single shot
    • A shot is taken and (only the first time after starting kstars) the message window shows a message to select the star to focus on
  6. Click in the photo on the star that you want to focus on
    • After you have clicked the star to focus on a new shot is taken automatically and the bathinov pattern recognition is executed and shown as overlay on the photo
    • Increase the 'box size' so it will contain about 60-80% of the whole bahtinov diffraction pattern. If you choose it too small or too big it will have difficulty detecting the diffraction pattern lines.
    • Verify that the lines of the bahtinov pattern are overlapping the diffraction pattern in your photo, if this is not the case, increase or decrease the 'number of rows' value and take another photo (the 'number of rows' values is used to in a similar way as binning. it groups several rows of pixels in the image to get a better detection of where the diffraction lines are in the image (higher resolution images or a more bold diffraction pattern required a higher 'number of rows'.
  7. Note the two circles with a line in between in the overlay, they are an amplified graphical representation of the HFR. At the bottom of the focus tool the HFR value is shown
    Strive for the smallest HFR possible, preferably less the 1. I usually try to reach values of less then 0.5. Note that an HFR of 0 is almost impossible, that would mean perfect focus, which is hard to do when you are on earth with a thick atmosphere above you :-)
  8. Manually turn your focus knob a little to one direction
    Remember the direction, if the focus becomes worse, the next step you need to turn to the other direction
  9. Press the small camera icon to take another photo
    The bahtinov pattern recognition overlay is shown and the HFR is updated
  10. See if the HFR value has gone down and the distance between the two circles has become smaller
    If the HFR value has gone up, you need to turn the focus knob the other way and repeat the steps starting from step 7
  11. Repeat the steps starting from step 7 until you have reached the smallest HFR value
  12. If you are in focus (reached the smallest HFR), tighten your focus lock screw gentle (if you have one) to prevent your focus from slipping​​​​
  13. Take another photo to verify if the focus has not moved when tightening the focus lock screw
    1. if ok, then you are done
    2. if not ok loossen the focus lock screw a little and repeat the steps starting from step 7 to get back in focus
Note 1: Due to for instance atmospherical turbulence the value of HFR can vary from one shot to anoter. So to be more accurate you can take multiple shots to see how stable the HFR value is. I don't know (haven't tried yet) if the 'Average over number of frames' will do the same. If so, that would be a nice feature :-)

Note 2: When you are using manual focus (pressing the capture single shot button) the HFR graph won't be updated. This is also not the case for any other detection method when using the capture single shot button)
Sometime I do want to use the graph, in that case I press the start capture button (button right of the small camera button). That will take photos continuesly, so you have only a very small time to adjust the focus knob. Since I have an old camera which takes about 5 seconds to download a photo, i have about 5 seconds to turn the focus knob. Another alternative to gain extra time with an DSLR is to increase the mirror lock timeout to about 5 seconds. That will flip up the mirror in your DSLR and wait 5 seconds before taking the shot. Unfortunately that won't work for mirror-less cameras.

I hope this description is clear enough. If you have any questions, don't hasitate to ask. Also improvement suggestions are welcome.

Clear skies!
AstroRunner
The following user(s) said Thank You: Rafa Barberá, Euripides, Rafael Schlegel, AstroMuni, Chris Farrell
Last edit: 2 years 10 months ago by Patrick. Reason: Updated description with some more details.
2 years 10 months ago #71143

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