han59

For those who are interested, I have released a free sky simulator for ASCOM. This program can be used to test your (Windows) image capturing program, test sequences, test centering using plate solving, test the focusing tool, for demonstrations or for software development. For the sky simulation it uses either online deepsky survey images or a build-in planetarium program. Download and forum: https://sourceforge.net/projects/sky-simulator/ Feedback is welcome. Han Sky simulator for ASCOM using online DSS images or an artificial sky. The camera simulator will show a "deep sky survey" or artificial image based on the mount and focuser position. The image will be blurred/defocused based on the focuser position. In imaging programs CCDCiel/NINA/APT/SGP you should select the camera "Sky Simulator" and the mount "Telescope Simulator for .NET". The program will download images and feed the camera simulator with these. Set the image size in "Sky Simulator" the same as in the program. And select as image file documents\image.jpg. With this simulator you can test focuser routine, centering using plate solving and sequences. Some screenshots: Setup screen: Setup of the programs: DSS downloaded image: Artificial image in focus: Artificial image out of focus:

Fivel, With respect to solving, did you give it an initial ra,dec position?. Looking to the copied FITS header, it doesn't contain a ra,dec position. That's no problem if you give it 180 degrees search range for blind solving. but it is better to give it an initial position by entering it in the viewer. If a known object is visible or nearby, you could also double click on the ra field and enter a known deepsky object. Or just type a rough guess of the the ra,dec in hours and degrees. For stacking it doesn't need a initial position. Ask for help at the ASTAP forum https://www.hnsky.org/forum/index.php and provide a link to some images for testing. Han

From Pi 3 to Pi 4, the lost time between exposures is reduced with little more then a factor 2: https://www.indilib.org/forum/ccds-dslrs/5416-raspberry-pi-4-vs-pi-3-performance-test/41015.html

Installing INDI is cumbersome on the Pi4. For those who are interested, I have prepared an Pi 4, Raspbian Buster image for a 32 gbyte memory card: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1c15nmRsHeIMaFBQ6NXHEfRpuXNhltnwU A 4.1 byte rar archive, Unrar it with Winrar, 7zip or unrar Use win32diskimager to write the *.img to your 32 gbyte memory card If you get error 5, first format the card with SD formatter. Installed software: INDI 1.8.1 CCDCiel + ASTAP solver PHD2 HNSKY planetarium program XRDP for remote desktop control from a window PC If you want to install it all yourself: Installation instructions:

The down sampling factor 2 helps to combine the red, green, pixels (bayer matrix) of the OSC/DSLR raw format. That helps with star shape and therefore the star detection. Reducing the number of stars you better do with the solver parameters then higher sampling factors. If you get solving in 4-6 seconds there is not much to improve.

Before buying a new one PC, consider that In some cases there are too many (solver) indexes installed. This by specifying a too small field during installation. This will slow down solving signficantly. Normally indexes up to 20 % or 30% of your field size have to be installed. Consider that also when installing on a faster PC. As said before an other primary solver PlateSolve2 or ASTAP could solve your images on the old PC as fast as ASPS (Astrometry.net) on a new PC. My old PC from 2009 solves images in a few seconds (not with ASPS)

With respect to the solving problems: For setting astrometry options, there are only two screens (camera and astrometry) to configure in the menu edit, preferences. See screen shots. Loading the nightly produced FITS file in a viewer will tell you if the sensor pixel size and focal-length are set correctly by the reported FOV. Both PlateSolve2 or ASTAP will do that for you. CCDciel will write this data in the FITS header. Personally, I prefer to set these settings independently of the driver. Focal length is expressed in mm and pixel size in micrometer. If it all fails, you could try ASTAP as solver. For DSLR camera set downsampling to 2 en search area to something like 30 degrees rather then the default 5 degrees..

NGC6914 is a small bluish reflection nebula of 3 to 5 arc-minutes size and not visible on this H-alpha image. Here an annotated image taken from Wikipedia. (North at 02:00 hours:

The image below contains the small nebula NGC6114 in the middle and a very nice (unidentified) dark cloud. It was created from exposures taken during three clear nights in august 2019 and one night in 2018. The large annotation in the top is LBN80.79+3.15/ LBN292 classified as a bright nebula. Astrometric (plate) solving makes it possible to image the same area during several clear nights. No other software was used then indicated. Maybe the documented size of NGC6914 is wrong. Something to investigate. Han Telescope 100 mm APO astrograph APO100Q, F5,8 ASI1600MM-Cool Camera Filter H-alpha 7 nm 133x200 sec on 2019 & 2018 (four nights) CCDciel en ASTAP stacking & plate solve program link to full resolution image

I don't use SGP except for some testing, but any other gain then unity gain =139 will reduce the ASI1600 dynamic range and give virtual no improvement in noise values. For proper stacking, you have to use the same gain for darks, flats and bias images so I always stick to unity gain. I can't help you with the offset setting. In my humble opinion these settings should be only adjustable in the ascom driver or not adjustable at all.

You can run the Pi 4 remotely with 4k desktop using XRDP but I don't understand the word video in this context. Remote desktop works fine and probably better then VNC. It creates a new session so local screen is different then the remote session. VNC just copies the local screen.

Transport & saving of images while the next exposure is running will solve all delays except the transport time from camera to Raspberry Pi. Patrick has already created the code for an experimental CCDCiel version which does multitasking. So starting the next exposure and saving the previous image goes in parallel. First test indicates the lost time between exposures will be half or less. Note the above test results where for local ram-disk option. Transport via INDI localhost where 10% or 15% slower.

I did some experimenting. CCDCiel has a temporary and capture folder. Created a ram disk and set the path's to the ram disk. No performance improvement. Dropped the question to Patrick, here.

The speed difference of the USB3.0 is significant. I assume you could also gain with a better memory card but the 2.5 seconds are fine for me. The RAMDISK could be interesting. This a technology used in the past. But CCDCiel has already the image in memory, if it could start a new thread and save the image in parallel while starting the new exposure this saving doesn't count anymore. Maybe it is already done. I could redo the test with only viewing the image and see how much time that takes. If it is shorter, that means time can be saved by starting a new separate thread. If so we could ask the CCDCiel author Patrick Chevally to implement a new thread for saving the image. But in any case these "lost times" are already pretty good. Han

Maybe of interest, a practical performance test between the Raspberry Pi 3 and Pi 4 Both system where running Raspbian Buster. The camera an ASI1600-MM Cool was connected using an USB 3.0 cable. The imaging program was CCDCiel and ASTAP was installed as the solver as described here. PHD2 was installed for guiding but not used in this test. The results show that the Pi 4 is in average twice as fast as the Pi 3. A lot of time is lost by downloading and saving the image. A class 10 memory card was installed. The time lost is the time between the exposures for downloading the image via USB and saving it to the memory card. So in the Pi 4 if you operate the ASI1600 camera in bin 2x2 mode there is 2.5 seconds lost between the exposures. That's pretty good for deep sky imaging. The solving time is the time required for plate solving the image. Han

Good you managed to install Ekos & Kstars . This means you store the images locally on the RPi4. Are the image download and disk storage speed as fast as expected? I had already planned to buy a passive heatsink with a plastic case.Your experience is worrying. I'm not familiar with Kstars, but I remember it was CPU hungry. I assume CCDCiel&PHD2&ASTAP will be less CPU intensive but time will tell. Han

I have updated the instruction for installing the latest INDI drivers. Installing INDIstarter.deb using the file explorer popup menu installs INDI v1.7.5 over version 1.7.9 wrecking the INDI driver installation. See INDI forum

Yes but if you use local time, you should also specify the time zone and day light savings. So local time, time zone, day light savings, latitude, longitude or universal time, latitude, longitude where universal time (UTC) := local time - time zone - daylight savings difference. e.g. Winter, UTC is 21:00hours or London 21:00 hours local time is 22:00 hours in Amsterdam local time. Summer, UTC is 21:00hours or London 22:00 hours local time is 23:00 hours in Amsterdam local time. Most planetarium programs can select daylight savings automatically. Han

Did you make any progress? My Pi4 will arrive in about 2 weeks, but in preparation, I installed the binaries of LibINDI, CCDCiel and PHD2 on a Pi3 with Raspbian Buster. This should also work on a Pi4. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/337128-updated-pis/page/4/?tab=comments#comment-3673195 Han

I have fixed it now. Han

My Pi4 will come in about 2 weeks, but in preparation, I have installed the binaries of Libindi, CCDCiel program, PHD2 and ASTAP on a blank Pi3 with the new Raspbian Buster (32 bit). I expect this should also work on a Pi4 : 1) Install libindi and 3rd party driver #Follow ALL instructions in README.md to compile and install INDI and 3rd party drivers at: #https://github.com/indilib/indi/blob/master/README.md sudo apt-get install libnova-dev libcfitsio-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev zlib1g-dev libgsl-dev build-essential cmake git libjpeg-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libtiff-devsudo apt-get install libftdi-dev libgps-dev libraw-dev libdc1394-22-dev libgphoto2-dev libboost-dev libboost-regex-dev librtlsdr-dev liblimesuite-dev libftdi1-dev cd /home/pigit clone https://github.com/indilib/indi.git cd indimkdir -p build/libindicd /home/pi/indi/build/libindicmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ../../libindimakesudo make installcd /home/pi/indi/buildmkdir 3rdpartycd 3rdpartycmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ../../3rdpartymakesudo make installcmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ../../3rdpartymakesudo make install #note for some unknown reason the QHY_CCD driver is missing but could compile&install it separately. #For QHY5 or QHY5-II and probably some other cameras to make them work you have to install fxload: sudo apt-get install fxload 2) Install indistarter from SourceForge Download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/indistarter/files/indistarter-2.0.0/indistarter_2.0.0-140_armhf.deb/download Don't use the standard file explorer package installer. It will not see INDI 1.7.9 and wrongly install INDI 1.75. as dependency wrecking the INDI driver 1.7.9 Installation. See INDI forum First install GDEBI: sudo apt-get install gdebi Install the INDIstarter by file explorer right mouse click popup menu "GDEBI package install" 3) Install 32 bit libpasastro (required by CCDCiel) from: webpage: https://sourceforge.net/projects/libpasastro/ File: https://sourceforge.net/projects/libpasastro/files/version_1.1-20/libpasastro_1.1-20_armhf.deb/download Install the .deb installer by right mouse click, "GDEBI package install" 4) Install CCDCiel from: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ccdciel/files/ File: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ccdciel/files/ccdciel_0.9.59/ccdciel_0.9.59-1621_armhf.deb/download Install the .deb installer by right mouse click, "GDEBI package install" 5) Install PHD2 Download https://launchpad.net/~pch/+archive/ubuntu/phd2/+files/phd2_2.6.6.rev20190524-0ppa1~ubuntu18.10_armhf.deb Install the .deb installer by right mouse click, "GDEBI package install" There are two dependencies. I used GDEBI installer (sudo apt-get install gdebi) which takes care of the dependencies. If it doesn't install do first sudo apt-get install libwxbase3.0-0v5 sudo apt-get install libwxgtk3.0-0v5 6) Install solver from http://www.hnsky.org/astap.htm 6a) Install solver program astap_armhf.deb from: Download https://sourceforge.net/projects/astap-program/files/linux_installer/astap_armhf.deb/download Install the .deb installer by right mouse click, "GDEBI package install" 6b) Install solver star database g17_star_database_mag17.deb from: Download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/astap-program/files/star_databases/g17_star_database_mag17.deb/download Install the .deb installer by right mouse click, GDEBI package install SOFTWARE SETUP: A) Setup indiserver program: -Start program indiserver. -Add drivers for your equipment, mount, camera.... -Start Start up CCDCiel - Set in menu FILE, DEVICE SETUP your equipment.... - Menu EDIT, PREFERENCES, ASTROMETRY, select ASTAP, set binning at 2 - Set any other preference in EDIT, PREFERENCES - Connect all equipment I'm not a Linux expert. Please correct me if there is a better method. I could not connect to ppa's Han

For the Pi4, besides a micro-HDMI (HDMI-D) male --> HDMI female extension, you will need an USB-C male to USB for the power supply. Supply of 5v 3Amp is specified. See https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/ With some low load and luck it will hopefully work on 2.5 amp supply temporary but no guarantee.

It is already some time ago i played with the Linux, but can't you just install it by: sudo apt-get install ....? See also https://indilib.org/download.html For CCDCiel, you could use indi starter for armhf: https://sourceforge.net/projects/indistarter/files/indistarter-2.0.0/ It is time to experiment with my Pi3 till de Pi4 has arrived.

The USB 3.0 is a game changer for me. I have ordered a Pi4 4GB and intend to test a CCDCIEL, PHD2 and ASTAP setup. The Raspian Buster 32 bit operating system is fine for me. 1Gb memory would have been enough for this setup. Han

FYI, the free ASTAP program (v0.9.239) has been extended with several photometric tools for measuring the magnitude of: point sources (stars, minor planets) Extended sources. (global clusters, galaxies, comets) Variable stars over time. The usage is pretty simple as long the image can be astrometric (plate) solved it goes fully automatic. By solving the program can use the supplied star database to calibrate the flux to magnitude relation fully automatic. Example of the measurement of extended sources: Load a single (raw) image and select “Astrometric (plate) solve”. Hold the right mouse down and pull a rectangle around the deep sky object, release mouse button and then select "Measure total magnitude within the rectangle" The magnitude will be plotted as shown in the image below. For best accuracy the image should be monochrome and one of the Gaia Johnson-V star databases should have been installed and selected (G16 or G17 Colour/Johnson-V). The image should have taken with a Johnson-V filter or none (clear). The measured pixel values should be below saturation. YouTube demonstrations Photometry in the viewer Measure variable stars The Windows and Linux version are available. An update for the MacOS version is outstanding. -- Han Example of the magnitude measurement of the M5 global cluster: