Hyperion Astronomy

When you need assistance, please email me screenshots and descriptions of your hardware and the issue you are having so we can proceed properly here : Hyperion.astronomy@gmail.com

I remain at this comminity’s disposal for any questions. 

Just now, harry page said:

Hi

thanks for the reply--cant beat a good video    , I have just made prism crash on my first go with my sx h35 camera

now this may not be a fair go as I have had problems with this computer using other programs as well so may be hardware related

I wish to try prisim on my shed computer can I do this ? or am I restricted to 1 computer

 

Harry

You absolutely can try it on any computer you want. We offer a fully functional trail with 0 restrictions on functions and best of all, you get to choose what version of prism you wish to test everytime you start it. 

Thanks Harry, I will certainly put an indication about the size of the file. Also, huge fan of tour work and tutorials.

Some equipment is supported without ascom such as : Atik, OPTEC, SBIG, ZWO to name a few. As for stability, a software developer such as Cyril or anybody else will ensure his own work through great coding and exhaustive testing as we do, this leaves the environment said software lives in or changes to the drivers that said software supports. An example: one of the latest Windows updates caused a major panic in ASCOM ( DCOM Components in Windows) which caused my dome controller to lose functionality and I was unable to close the shutter. Thank goodness there was no bad weather to occur until we could physically close it. 

To answer your question with the knowledge I have, I used PRISM and ascom in Chile for months on end without a hitch, remotely and automatically. This is where I will not speculate what the limitless number of configurations out there will do. What I guarantee is support through these issues if they ever arise. 

Of course, all questions are welcome. The temperatures delta trigger has been replaced with focuser temperature compensation by the developer which seems to be more efficient( opinions will differ of course).

I use a 14.5” f/4.5 Newtonian in the Atacama desert and focus every 45 minutes all year round. The great thing about temp comp is that it is adjusting focus all night for you. This leads to less focusing and more imaging. 

2 minutes ago, RayD said:

That's great news, thanks Hamza.

You’re welcome. There is also an hour long video tutorial explaining everything about automation in prism in the tutorials section for your reference. 

3 minutes ago, RayD said:

Thanks John you beat me to it 

Just be aware, and others too, because the plate solver is built in to this programme, the download is big (around 587MB from memory) so watch your data if you're limited.

Apologies, I am on a plane to NEAF and it is hard to juggle things on a phone 

indeed, the GSC-ACT catalog is built in and is very good for wide to medium FOVs. I have the USNO and UCAC4 on my site if you wish to grab them from the download section. These are massive. 

Thanks. Meridian flips are handled in the automatic observation (automation in prism) and it is a rather simple procedure. One thing of note here: the driver of your mount must be set up properly for your equipment. Let’s take an example. Imagine that you want to perform a meridian flip at the meridian ( or time 0), you just tell prism to stop 5 minutes of time before the meridian and go 5 minutes after the meridian to intercept the object. What will happen is that PRISM will stop 5 minutes before the limit you set, then asks the mount to go 5 minutes after. At this point, as soon as the slew command is given, your driver will flip the meridian. 

Prism will position the scope 5 minutes after the meridian and stop sidereal tracking to wait for the object. At the intersect, resumes tracking, plate solves, refocuses( if you wish) and resumes imaging. 

20 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Hi Hamza, interesting astro' program, just one query, do you do all this single handed ? I only ask as there have been a couple of cases in recent times of astro' software / hardware suddenly being unsupported due to the demise of the sole owner / designer.

God forbid anything should happen to yourself but just wondering if you have a backup plan ?

ATB

Dave

Great question Dave. Cyril Cavadore of Alcor-system.com has been developing PRISM since the 90s and as you can see, it is in version 10 now. 

We have a solid partnership in a way that he supports the French speaking countries and I take care of the English speaking ones. He has worked for European Southern Observatory as a CCD engineer and is fluent in English as well. 

We have taken a divide and conquer approach to support as many people as possible across the world. I have made over 25 video tutorials to explain most of the features and will make a lot more when we are done with NEAIC/NEAF.

If this is allowed, I have written a post about him on my blog: Meet the developer.

Dear Admin

i have used the contact form to send you a message earlier right after I told AngryDonkey (sound advice by the way) that I would. I think it is a timing issue. I am here to support this community an am also trying to do it across the continents.

Coming up as an amateur astronomer myself, I did also notice the lack of direct help so the community feels there is an actual presence to support them is cardinal in my opinion. 

Understood, will do that shortly. Thank you you for the information. 

2 hours ago, Jkulin said:

Thanks Hamza, so does Prism have a guiding software built in then? The reason I ask is that you demonstrate the above image with no guiding using the NOVA120, but sadly many of us don't have mounts as good as that so need to guide?

You bet, PRISM has multiple autoguiding function, you can guide using:

1. star centeroid (conventional autoguiding) : calculated to 1/100th of a pixel

2. Multiple stars : The entire image using FFT intercorrelation

3. Slit guiding

4. It supports Sharplock

5. It supports adaptive Optics

PRISM has EVERYTHING you need, it is all built in.

17 hours ago, Jkulin said:

we can setup multiple equipment profiles and set up individually?

You bet, this can be done by saving all the parameters of the software in a single file, you can have multiple setups.

17 hours ago, Jkulin said:

Does the equipment need to be connected to set up

Not at all, but it is recommended to allow PRISM to pull information such as focuser step size from the driver

17 hours ago, Jkulin said:

Is there a choice of platesolving or are you aligned to a preference.

You bet, we have two local plate solvers: a narrow and very FAST solver as  well as an allsky (50% of the visible sky): with known parameters or blind. Also, we have full support for Astrometry.net local and remote. I have a fully detailed write-up about how to setup an offline version here: How to setup Astrometry.net offline

17 hours ago, Jkulin said:

Can I also ask if you can use PHD2 as an option for guiding?

No, PRISM is entirely self-contained and standalone. In my remote observatory, all I have installed is: PRISMv10, ASCOM and my equipment drivers. This is one of PRISM's most powerful features, it absolutely needs now other software, none!

7 hours ago, Fellside said:

Hamza

A very nice image.

Can I ask what software was used in the prossesing. Priism I see has some prossesing tools built in.

Graham

You absolutely can! I have acquired the image from Chile using Mr. Bob Sandness' equipment (14.5" newtonian + Nova120+QSI532) then pre-prcessed it with PRISM ( of course). The post-procesing was done by my good friend Stuart Forman with Pixinsight. The image was published here : Photographing Space IOTW. PRISM has a complete set of pre and post processing tools built in, we also provide a full set of export options to continue working on your images in another software package such as Photoshop or Pixinsight.

Thanks John, here are the links:

Youtube Videos Tutorials: Apologizes here, It seems I have to link to a video rather than my channel so here is an hour long tutorial about automation in PRISM. Other videos are available at the same link as well.

Forum: http://www.prism-astro.com/forum_us/index.php

I made an account here at SGL to be accessible for questions, please do not hesitate.

Thanks a lot and clear skies t all.

Good morning from Phoenix, Arizona

First, a quick introduction. My name is Hamza Touhami and I created Hyperion Astronomy to bring a new face to the representation of PRISM into the English-speaking community.

I had purchased PRISM PRO for $499, sometime around 2015, for my personal use from PRISM America ( my predecessor ) and used it for years. After I became aware of a decline in Prism's representation over time, I decided to take the reigns and start a venture of my own. I felt Prism was an incredible software with massive potential, something to impressive and instrumental to let die out in America.

As an amateur astronomer myself, I have had many frustrations with the market coming up: Lack of support, lack of video tutorials, fragmentation of software packages, steep learning curves, short trial periods and the list is long. Since I took over, I have implemented the following for Prism users:

• Increased the trial period from 45 days to 80 days, which is close to 3 months. Knowing that there were/are many of my fellow astronomers who are dealing with some really inclement weather all year long.
• Dropped the price of all three products : Lite from $299 down to $149, Pro from $499 down to $349 and the Advanced from $800 down to $499. Please understand, I did not lower Prism's prices because I didn't believe I couldn't sell it at Prism America's existing prices. I KNEW it could, Prism is an impressively powerful software with an absurd amount of features and is capable of serving a wide range of our customers needs. I did this to make Prism more affordable across the board.
• Recorded and published more than 25 video tutorials to YouTube, covering a range of many subjects. I made the decision to do this precisely because other companies just haven't provided this kind of help, and I felt that my customers deserved this advantage. I think I need at least another 30 videos to cover all topics...and more to spare. Currently my remote observatory is under construction but is near completion, once it is finished I will resume making videos.
• Offer one on one help with customers, beyond emails and help on the forum. I also use remote control software to help my customers get going. This is a business model that I plan to grow on, and carry on, throughout my time as a Prism representative.

Me belief is that the customer should have ample avenues to be successful and I strive to provide all the necessary help for them...YOU, to succeed.

As to why PRISM is not known, I can state a couple of reasons here:

1. It has been developed, since the 90s, by a French physicist named Cyril Cavadore ( www.alcor-system.com ) who worked at the ESO. Cyril decided to bring professional astronomer tools to amateur astronomers. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Prism users in the French speaking community. Unfortunately, Cyril was unable to break through a language barrier to bring Prism to America, on his own.
2. My Predecessor ( Prism America ) tried to promote the software within the states, but was not successful in attracting enough attention for one reason or another. One can say that the language barrier had again played a role here. This is where, and yet another reason why, I have entered into Prism's re-birth so to speak as I am a French speaker myself.

To conclude, I hope I have answered all your questions here. I hope my input comes with acceptance and is helpful to everyone.

Cheers and clear skies to all.

P.S: The attached image was taken from the Atacama Desert using only PRISM for automation and completely UNGUIDED. There is not autoguider on that system whatsoever. PRISM also generated the pointing models for the NOVA120 mount.