How to schedule automatic photos through the night

[cmitran]

Hi,

I have put astrophotography on the side for more than 20 years and I am getting back to it now so, please bear with me; many things have changed since I stopped.

First of all, I have been reading quite a lot about technological improvements that occurred in the last 20 years. Then I have unboxed my old, but in perfect state, TAL 200k OTA. It's a Klevtsov / Cassegrain. I have also just bought a second hand EQ6 Pro Goto mount, ordered a scope guide and an autoguider. I already have a Nikon D4s and adaptor for the OTA.

 

My intention is to schedule the telescope to take photos by itself through the night. To program it to track and take multiple photos of same target without me being there to do this manually. Using, for example, my raspberry Pi 4 to control it. I am quite handy with software and development, generally.

I don't intend yet to take photos of different objects, I know that this involved autofocusing and filter changing and I am not yet there.

Can you help me with some advice in terms of which software already exists, to allow me to program automatic shooting of a specific objects for multiple hours, auto tracking included?
 

Many thanks,

Cristian

[BCN_Sean]

If you've already got a Raspberry Pi4, have a look at the Astroberry project; that has the kStars/Ekos software suite built in to it which offers a full pacakge of scheduling, image capture, guiding, and a lot more.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

There are indeed many options for sequencing software, but if you want to use a RPi 4 then I would also suggest the Astroberry package recommended by @BCN_Sean.
Depending on how familiar with software other than Windows based stuff, it can be a little tricky to set up (but not too difficult - I managed and I am hopeless) but it is really easy to use.
Also when it comes to it do not be afraid of setting up different targets, auto focussing, different filters, auto meridian flip and so on, EKOS handles then with ease and again s very easy to set up.

If you do use Windows on a laptop instead then as a starter I would recommend APT, that is reliable and again easy to use, a little more advanced but a really great piece of software is NINA. 
NINA is what I am using now after using EKOS for quite a while (and nothing wrong with EKOS but I struggled with Linux based software) and I love it, possibly turning out to be the best sequencing software I have used so far 🙂 

Steve   

Edited February 17, 2022 by teoria_del_big_bang

[StuartT]

+1 for NINA. It's a real game changer and the developers are constantly on line ready to help if need be.

[malc-c]

This is just a generalisation.  It also depends on your own knowledge of Linux as to what road you go down, the Pi based systems or traditional PC and windows.

Years back it was common to have separate applications for each aspect, one controls moving the mount and tracking, another guiding, another to select targets and yet another to control the camera and take the images.  These days there is a lot more integration.  APT for example has come along way form just sequencing using  Canon dSLRs and can now control the mount through EQMOD and features a lot more than simple sequencing.  NINA has been mentioned and that too is becoming the single application as it is a jack of all trades rather than the master on none.  The good news is these are offered free and open source (or should that be donationware).

We all have our own work flow.  My gear is old, and wasn't supported by modern software such as NINA, and the developers were not interested in enabling the function for my dslr even though it was in the initial brief as the option is there.  So I still use Cartes du Ciel, EQMOD, APT and PHD2 to control the gear and take the subs...  You're workflow will be different

[AstroMuni]

22 hours ago, cmitran said:

My intention is to schedule the telescope to take photos by itself through the night. To program it to track and take multiple photos of same target without me being there to do this manually. Using, for example, my raspberry Pi 4 to control it.

As others have already said Astroberry  (free) is the easiest way to start off on RPi. There is also StellarMate OS which sells for around $50 which also does the same. Stellamate is run by the developers of INDI, Kstars, but the software is also available for free. I use Astroberry on the RPi.

Ekos has a scheduler that allows you to automate the tasks of startup, align, track, focus (if you have autofocuser), guide, capture and shutdown once the object of interest is out of view. It can then restart the following day to continue where it left off. There is plenty of documentation available online. And ofcourse there are plenty of users here who can help too.

Edited February 17, 2022 by AstroMuni

[alacant]

+1 for indi/kstars. We do local and remote. Client-server under Linux is the only way we've found to go all night, every night.

[rickwayne]

And another. I particularly like how I can use my Pi at the scope, or connect a laptop to the scope, or use my Pi at the scope and remote into its Linux desktop, or use the app on my phone to control it...it's quite the adaptable system.

Astroberry is a good choice if you're a software person; you can also buy the turnkey StellarMate OS as noted above, which gives you the option of using phone app to check in on the system or control it as it's sequencing.

It's quite amazing what the software can accomplish now. The Pi 4 has plenty of snort to do plate solving, which enables fun tricks like polar alignment without a view of the northern half of the sky, or automatically zeroing in exactly on your target.

[wimvb]

+1 for RPi and INDI/Kstars (Astroberry). I run everything on an RPi4 on top of my scope, and use remote desktop from inside the house. I just set up a sequence and let it run through the night. In the morning I ftp all images to my laptop and close the observatory roof.