Voyager Software Review

[diegocolonnello]

Voyager Review

 

I am an astrophotographer that started looking up with a camera on a Telescope around September 2016, my start on AP was like every other person, Didn’t know how an equatorial mount works, and had no idea about the celestial pole…

My first experience with an observatory was with a Nexdome, Plastic wonder, easy to assemble, rotation and shutter opening automated, this set up started to raise my imaging level and step by step you want things to work over night and gather photons while sleeping…

Then, things started to happen, one night it was PERFECT, the next, nightmare, mount not parking, shutter not closing, meridian flip failed, or simply the focusing routine went bananas and everything fell apart…

I hate the case of constant “Downloading” that made me loose a complete night….

I started to go deep into settings, scripts, adding devices as Cloudwhatcher, Dragonfly, new power supplies, energy backup, etc////

But always a weak point, Software….

Then I moved houses, sold the DOME (personal economy reasons)…

Next day I started to look at a disassembled shed with passion, thinking, how hard can it be to build a roll off roof…

I did it, cheap, easy to figure it out, Nice roll off roof on my backyard, all the toys…

Imaging computer

Mount

Telescope

Camera

Dragonfly

Cloudwatcher

Roof Motor

Flat panel

EVERYTHING…

BUT

Same software, I could not tame, same issues causing problems…. AGAIN…

 

So I started to look for OPTIONS!!! (low on money)

 

First looked at other packages, Maxim, CCD Commander, The sky x, ETC, all of them industry standards but EXPENSIVE, and on top of that I needed a Director, a MANAGER to take care of the orchestra………

Enter ACP, CCD autopilot, Maxpilote…….. all of them needed someone from the above list and also more money on licenses and more complexity to the game…

Then….. the day came….. looking for options, google is my friend and somehow ended reading some posts on a forum and some guy asked something about VOYAGER software…

Wait, what?

After more google mastering, I found this simple Webpage, downloaded a demo and off I went….

I met the paradise of astrophotography…

Somehow, an Italian astrophotographer wrote a piece of software that I immediately understood, the software was in English nut the manual in ITALIAN…. No problem, is so intuitive that I found my way around….

First time EVER that I used something for astrophotography and it all worked…

For example…

Setting up equipment was a breeze, after reading the options I found all the right settings in one go, Telescope, Camera, Filter wheel, Flat panel, Cloud watcher EVERYTHING fell on its  place…

Then, something called ON THE FLY…

I found a way to tell the software what Target I wanted,  then I created a simple sequence and after a Plate solve and Sync, it was imaging!!!

This is nice!!!

So I moved on to check out Guiding, I was amazed to find ROBOGUIDE, in short, is like having a person decide all the best settings and working wonders with PHD2…… Amazing…

Next, Focusing………… back then it was based on a star, the software has a feature called ROBOFire……… oh boy, hit a button and the software finds the right settings after running a routine where it sets the perfect curve….. after that, every focusing routine was fast and precise….

(these days Voyager also has a mode called Local Field that uses the entire frame where the target is)

I was IMPRESSED….. all of this on the same night!!!! It all worked like a charm

 

 

Night 2…..

Moving to the advanced stuff………

I started to use look at Viking, a piece of software from the same developer that controls Ethernet relay boards….. I asked Leo if he could control the Dragonfly….. wait for it, in a week he sent an update and Dragonfly was implemented……. Even the inputs…….. WHAT!!!!!????

I started to organize my ideas and make sense of the complete puzzle…

The tool, the DIRECTOR!!!! Dragscript!!!!!!

Dragscript is a super clever way of scripting, drag and drop commands in order to create a sequence of actions and decisions……

Took me 3 hours to test functions and sections of scripts divided in blocks…. How to wait for astronomical darkness, how to fire up the relays on the dragonfly and how to call out a sequence…

ITS ALL WORKING…. But wait

I needed the most important part…..

Suspend and restart the session with the safety status from the cloudwatcher….

After realizing how the SUSPEND EVENTS AND EMERGENCY EVENTS work on Dragscript, I built my first complete Script…..

That night I was supper happy it was not perfectly clear, patchy cloud sections coming my way, what better opportunity to test the whole thing….

Picture this…

All clear, about 10 pm, the script starts and confirms that astro darkness began…

Then it continues on to connect to Dragonfly and rest of equipment

Goes on and Switched on Mount, Camera cooler, Observatory, focuser and telescope FAN

Opens the ROOF and waits for the REED SWITCH to report back the OPEN status… Brilliant!!!

Then it orders the mount to slew to a defined Alt AZ position and perform a Blind plate solve…

It does, and following that it starts the sequence….. this sequence instructs the mount to slew and precisely point to a target….

Injects a Focusing routine and after a minute the complete setup is imaging…….. I could only be impressed…

This is the best part!!!

The Cloud watcher detects clouds and inmediately the roof closes, the mount stops tracking and the camera stays Cold, all in stand by…… waiting….

15 minutes after…….. clear again…. Cloudwatcher reports Safe and the resume events kick in…..

Open the roof.

Blind solves

Goes to target.

Focusing routine and resume imaging…..

 

Clouds passed by 3 more times…. And 3 more times the story repeated……….

What a beauty…

After all the sequence finished, the script ordered the mount to Park…. Close the roof, Warm up the camera and wait for 10 minutes…..

Disconnect from equipment and then switch off the gear….

I could not be happier…

I had a ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY.

 

 

 

 

[Gasman]

Nice review Diego, is this http://www.carinasoft.com/voyager.html

the Voyager software you refer to please?

Oops no it isn't found it thanks!

Edited May 29, 2019 by Gasman

[harry page]

Hi

Yes I too was looking for automation capture software , even though as much I like SGP reliability has become a problem to me with crashes and how it handles them

I too found voyager ( https://www.voyagerastro.com/ )  and like all new software a little learning is required but the basic were not too hard ( still more to learn ) , but the stability is no 1 concern to the

author ( Leo ) and if there is a hard ware failure ( or driver ) it can be set up to notify you ( text email )  , the software is devolving rapidly and the author gives great back up and considers new ideas

and requests almost daily - new beta appear every few weeks.  

At the moment dual cameras are a suggestion that are under consideration ( no beta yet ) something that I know would interest a lot off people

def worth a look for the current price of 69 euros and I encourage you to look soon as the price is going up to 129 euros in a few weeks time ( still cheap )  and there is a 45 day free trial to get you

going

Cheers

Harry

[AngryDonkey]

Last chance to get Voyager (no affiliation) at 69 Euros 😀, tomorrow it will be more expensive (not sure how much, hopefully not 70 😂). I've been trialling it a bit over the last few weeks and think it's worth changing over to. A lot of work for sure but I'm hopeful it will pay off. I really love the flexibility in this application, you can pretty much decide to do anything with it and are not restricted to what's on offer. I can even write my own program and use Voyager as the engine for it.

The website linked above seems to have been removed, the only page to access it now is: http://www.starkeeper.it/software.htm