Slewing and Centreing in NINA outside of sequence

[symmetal]

I've been looking at NINA for my Dual ZS-61 rig as it has synchronized dither while SGP still doesn't.  It looks impressive, with comprehensive features but I can't see how you slew and centre on a target, or run auto-focus, without them being part of a sequence. Using SGP I normally load a sequence and then select slew, centre and auto-focus, before running the sequence. I tend to stick to one target for a session and if I stop and start the sequence for any reason I don't want it re-centreing or focusing each time.

In NINA I can run a sequence with those options enabled and then stop the sequence, disable them and then restart the sequence, but it would be nice if I didn't have to do that each time.

Alan

[david_taurus83]

In the imaging tab you should have all the sub tabs on screen. Platesolve should be one of them as well as Autofocus. If you use CdC to slew to a target initially you can platesolve after and it will centre to target as long as you have the option selected in the platesolve tab.

You can also pause the sequence as opposed to stopping it. Pressing play again will restart the imaging but if you have autofucus configured to a time based lap then it may autofocus depending on how long you've paused for.

Edited July 5, 2020 by david_taurus83

[symmetal]

42 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

In the imaging tab you should have all the sub tabs on screen. Platesolve should be one of them as well as Autofocus. If you use CdC to slew to a target initially you can platesolve after and it will centre to target as long as you have the option selected in the platesolve tab.

You can also pause the sequence as opposed to stopping it. Pressing play again will restart the imaging but if you have autofucus configured to a time based lap then it may autofocus depending on how long you've paused for.

Thanks David. I didn't notice the little platesolve and autofocus icons at the top right of the imaging tab. That certainly helps. 😀 Having a separate 'slew to target' button would be a convenient option for me to save having to go by CdC. The 'Framing' tab has a slew option but the coords need filling in beforehand as they are not necessarily related to the current target.

Alan

[davies07]

Hi Alan,

Under the framing tab, Coordinates topic, there is a button to the right of the word Coordinates, which when pressed will transfer the coordinates of the target from your planetarium software (CdC). You can then move down to 'Replace as a Sequence' and tap 'Slew' to get you into the right vicinity. Turn on 'Centre target' on the Sequence page and NINA will then plate solve and re-centre the image before the first exposure.

David

[symmetal]

On 10/08/2020 at 22:34, davies07 said:

Hi Alan,

Under the framing tab, Coordinates topic, there is a button to the right of the word Coordinates, which when pressed will transfer the coordinates of the target from your planetarium software (CdC). You can then move down to 'Replace as a Sequence' and tap 'Slew' to get you into the right vicinity. Turn on 'Centre target' on the Sequence page and NINA will then plate solve and re-centre the image before the first exposure.

David

Thanks David. 😀 When I load in the sequence which had been previously created in the framing tab the actual coords used will be slightly different to the centre of the target name, in order to get the best framing. Having to select the target again in CdC to transfer it across seems an unnecessary extra step, and the previous framing centre will be overwritten if I use 'replace as sequence'. Just clicking the 'slew' button next to it would be better in that case. Also after transferring the coords from CdC you have to wait for the image to load from the Sky Survey if it's not cached. The correct coords are already there in the sequence, It's a pity they can't be used with one click for a manual slew. 🤔

Alan

Edited August 12, 2020 by symmetal

[davies07]

If you're trying to line up with a previous image, have you tried loading an existing image and then plate solving it in the framing tab. The plate solver - I'm using ASTAP - will then determine the coordinates you need to continue capturing more frames. If you had saved previous frames from NINA in FITS format, the coordinates are written into the FITS file header and no plate solving of the loaded image is needed.  As David mentioned above, you can then go to the Image screen and run a plate solve and auto focus before going to the Sequence and starting it with the plate solve and auto-focus options switched off. 

As you've probably noticed, there is a set of tools available as sub-tabs in the Image screen but you need to load them from the Tools list at top right. One of these sub-tabs is Imaging and I find it handy to check the framing is correct. Once you've loaded the Imaging sub-tab, open it,  set the camera control to 'Looping', set the binning to 4 x 4 or whatever your camera will support and click on the start button. Now go the the Image sub-tab to watch the images come in and check the framing.

By the way, I'm currently spending time using auto focus with my various filters to work out the offsets of each of my filters from luminance.  I am then putting the offset values into the filter options, so I should be able to get away with focusing with only the luminance filter in future. 

David

[scrufy]

N.I.N.A. is a little confusing in this aspect as you have to use several places to set up Slew To, Centering, etc...

Some is in Options, then when you have the center and slew set up in sequencing it will just platesolve automatically.

Took me a while to get used to it.

I expected the platesolve from the imaging tab to have a center or slew to but it's not at that level.

I did mention it on Discord before.

[Viktiste]

On 12/08/2020 at 02:12, symmetal said:

 Also after transferring the coords from CdC you have to wait for the image to load from the Sky Survey if it's not cached.

To avoid having to wait for the image to load you can  change Image Source to 'Sky Atlas (Offline Framing)'. This option is located just above the Get coordinates from Planetarium button.

[symmetal]

On 13/08/2020 at 17:52, davies07 said:

If you're trying to line up with a previous image, have you tried loading an existing image and then plate solving it in the framing tab. The plate solver - I'm using ASTAP - will then determine the coordinates you need to continue capturing more frames. If you had saved previous frames from NINA in FITS format, the coordinates are written into the FITS file header and no plate solving of the loaded image is needed.  As David mentioned above, you can then go to the Image screen and run a plate solve and auto focus before going to the Sequence and starting it with the plate solve and auto-focus options switched off. 

As you've probably noticed, there is a set of tools available as sub-tabs in the Image screen but you need to load them from the Tools list at top right. One of these sub-tabs is Imaging and I find it handy to check the framing is correct. Once you've loaded the Imaging sub-tab, open it,  set the camera control to 'Looping', set the binning to 4 x 4 or whatever your camera will support and click on the start button. Now go the the Image sub-tab to watch the images come in and check the framing.

By the way, I'm currently spending time using auto focus with my various filters to work out the offsets of each of my filters from luminance.  I am then putting the offset values into the filter options, so I should be able to get away with focusing with only the luminance filter in future. 

David

Thanks David.

It is for imaging over several sessions, but as the image centre coords are saved as part of the target sequence, selecting slew and then centre will automatically point the scope correctly so there should be no need to check the framing is correct. I think it's best if, as previously suggested, I run the sequence with slew and centre enabled and then pause the sequence, and turn off slew and centre to stop it repeating if I need to stop/start the sequence later. I am just used to using SGP and hoped NINA could behave the same. 😀

I used to use auto-focus with filter offsets to save refocussing as you say, but found the offsets weren't consistant from one session to the next and some filters would not be at best focus, so I always auto-focus on a filter change now.

On 15/08/2020 at 01:26, scrufy said:

N.I.N.A. is a little confusing in this aspect as you have to use several places to set up Slew To, Centering, etc...

Some is in Options, then when you have the center and slew set up in sequencing it will just platesolve automatically.

Took me a while to get used to it.

I expected the platesolve from the imaging tab to have a center or slew to but it's not at that level.

I did mention it on Discord before.

Thanks scrufy.

Yes, that's what I found. You can manually centre and auto focus in the imaging tab but not slew. There are all the work arounds suggested but they require sevel clicks and screen switches. 😬

6 hours ago, Viktiste said:

To avoid having to wait for the image to load you can  change Image Source to 'Sky Atlas (Offline Framing)'. This option is located just above the Get coordinates from Planetarium button.

Thanks Viktiste,

Yes that'll work, but requires another click/switch/selection on top of the other requirements. 😉

I'm currently sticking with SGP at the moment as I don't have to think about what I'm doing. 😁

Alan