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What is your imaging workflow when using Ekos?

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Hi there,

A noob question, so apologies.

I'm relatively new to Ekos and astrophotography. I was wondering what workflow people use when using KStars/Ekos for their imaging session? How do you step through the various tabs? Do you use a specific order?

Thanks in advance?

Rene
4 years 9 months ago #39961

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Sure, here is what I tend to do:

1. Setup your profile and connect
2. Go to Focus module, roughly focus, and then do an autofocus
3. Go to Align module, Slew to a couple of stars in different parts of the sky and plate solve on them
4. Go to a target you want to image.
5. Go to Capture module, do some preview images, get the frame set up nicely
6. Go to Guide module and get guiding set up.
7. Go back to Capture Module and set up the sequence.
8. Start imaging.

But there are many ways to do things, that is just my usual method.

Thanks,

Rob
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4 years 9 months ago #39965

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Rob - you forgot the polar alignment... : ) (my setup is mobile, so I have to do this every time)
0. Level tripod, point scope to the North Pole as accurately as you can.
3. In Align module, Slew to a couple of stars in different parts of the sky and plate solve on them
3.1 In Align module, do Polar Alignment
3.2 In Align module, again slew to a couple of stars in different parts of the sky and plate solve on them
-- Max S
ZWO AM5. RST-135. AZ-GTI. HEQ5. iOptron SkyTracker.
TPO RC6. FRA400. Rokinon 135 and other lenses.
ZWO ASI2600MC. D5500 modified with UVIR clip-in filter.
ZWO ASI120MM Mini x 2. ZWO 30F4 guider. Orion 50mm guider.
ZWO EAF x 2.
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Last edit: 4 years 9 months ago by maxthebuilder.
4 years 9 months ago #39966

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My workflow for my mobile setup:

1. Set up telescope and point at the north
2. Start Ekos and INDI and verify that all devices are connected
3. Go to the mount tab and unpark. Enable tracking.
4. Go to the CCD tab and take a test shot. Usually this is reasonably well focused since I don’t take the camera off the telescope.
5. If the image was not reasonably well focused, focus by hand
6. Go to the Align tab and perform a polar alignment. Don’t forget to unpark the mount afterward and enable tracking again!!!
7. Still in the Align tab go to a reasonably bright star and use plate solving to center it
8. Focus using a Bahtinov mask
8a. Recently I added a motor focuser so I now focus manually using the motor focuser

From here it depends. If I want to do some simple imaging:
9. Slew to the object and use the Align tab to center the object.
10. Go to the guide tab and start guiding.
11. Go to the CCD tab and set up a sequence for imaging
12. Image!!!

Those last 4 steps can be repeated for different objects. However, if I want the setup to image without the need for me to start a new sequence I will create XML sequence files for the objects that I want to image and then load those in the Scheduler tab with the appropriate job priorities and let Ekos do the rest.


Wouter
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4 years 9 months ago #39970

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Nope, I didn’t forget it. My setup is mobile too, but I use a polar align scope. So I take care of the polar alignment before I turn on Ekos .
4 years 9 months ago #39977

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It actually was a mental note to myself because that behaviour changed a few months ago and I still forget it sometimes...

Wouter
4 years 9 months ago #39978

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My CEM25P has a pretty good polar scope, but the Polar Alignment Assistant invariably does a better job than I can with the scope. Well worth the five minutes IMHO.

My workflow is close to those above; since I do a lot of narrowband these days, I'll note that I usually do a rough focus using the scale on the Stellarvue's focuser and rough polar align with the scope. Then, using one of the broadband filters so that short exposures suffice, I'll focus by eye on the stars around Polaris enough that plate solving is reliable. Then the Polar Alignment Assistant to really dial the alignment in (usually to within a few tens of arcseconds).

Next is Capture & Solve/slew to target on a bright star such as Vega. Once I've got that centered, I switch to the taking filter, slap on the Bahtinov mask, and compose my soul in patience for frames to download.

That flow lets me do most of the plate-solving and get close to the focusing mark using short exposures through the R, G, or B filter, and get centered on something bright enough that the diffraction pattern will be usable with only sort-of-long exposures through Ha or OIII.

Polar aligned and focused, I'll either do Load & Slew, if I have a previous FITS of the target, or select the target in KStars and do Capture & Solve. (The former is excellent when I'm pointing elsewhere than the officially accepted center of a target, e.g. my Pelican/N.A. of last night). Might have to use longer exposures to ensure a solution, but that's OK, usually it only takes 2 or 3 frames and it's all automated -- not like sitting there watching the screen with your hand on the focusing knob, waiting for the next frame to finish so you can see whether to turn the knob or not.
4 years 9 months ago #40003

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