Importing Cartes Du Ciel Mosaic to APT

[MylesGibson]

As the title suggests, I am trying to import the data from Cartes Du Ciel into APT to make a Mosaic. I have CdC set as the planetarium software for APT, and all I should need to do is set the Mosaic in CdC, click "Send Via Server" then import into my ToDo list in APT by hitting "Import List" then choosing the CdC option. 

I do this, and it tells me that 9 frames (my Mosaic) have been imported. I click OK........ and they are not on the list. I have no idea what I m doing wrong?

If anyone can tell me about any setting I may have missed or if something has changed, then great! Feel free to ask any questions

Here is the CdC screenshot where I hit "Send Via Server"

Here I click "Import List"

Select the Mosaic frames

This is the confirmation telling me 9 frames have been imported. But they don't show anywhere!

[MylesGibson]

About 5 minutes after  posting this, I figured it out. Go to the "Custom" Tab and import there. And in goes the data. Was following a You Tube tutorial that had it on the ToDo tab, but its a few years old!

[Paul M]

Look for them in the "Custom" tab.

Here is how HNSKY mosaic frames look for me:

The items _151   to _156  are imported frames from HNSKY

 

Here is how they look in imaging plan:

[MylesGibson]

12 minutes ago, Paul M said:

Look for them in the "Custom" tab.

Thank you, I figured it out a few minutes before you posted this. Was following a tutorial from a few years ago. But thank you for the reply!

How are you able to create an imaging plan like that? @Paul M

Edited December 27, 2023 by MylesGibson

[Paul M]

37 minutes ago, MylesGibson said:

Thank you, I figured it out a few minutes before you posted this. Was following a tutorial from a few years ago. But thank you for the reply!

How are you able to create an imaging plan like that? @Paul M

I posted a tutorial a few years ago, maybe it was mine?

I'll link it bellow. there is a quite a bit to get familiar with in the imaging plan editor. But maybe there is another way with the latest version of APT using the "Tags" feature that's just been introduced. I've not had a chance to look at that yet. But my old plan as shown above still works.

For each frame generate a Goto++ command. and then another line after it in the script giving the actually exposure/subs details for aech frame. Notice I have the "wait for script to end" box selected, else weird things happen! It won't wait for your subs to complete before heading off to the next Goto++ commands etc.. 

The actual purpose of my totorial was to show how to use the Ascom Sky Simulator form the same stable as ASTAP and HNSKY. It was slightly fiddly to set up. But it eally does allow you to test run an imaging or mosaic plan, such that APT doesn't know that it isn't looking at the real sky! You even get an "image" at the end of it, although it's actually created from online deep sky survey imagery.

Great fun in these times of wild weather.

 

[MylesGibson]

Ahhh thats 

3 minutes ago, Paul M said:

I posted a tutorial a few years ago, maybe it was mine?

I'll link it bellow. there is a quite a bit to get familiar with in the imaging plan editor. But maybe there is another way with the latest version of APT using the "Tags" feature that's just been introduced. I've not had a chance to look at that yet. But my old plan as shown above still works.

That is fantastic! Thank you. I've not experimented with the scripting before. I've usually manually done the GoTo then set up a single image plan and done it that way. This will make things much easier!

[Paul M]

Good luck, and keep us posten on progress!

[MylesGibson]

On 27/12/2023 at 23:59, Paul M said:

Good luck, and keep us posten on progress!

Still haven't had a clear night since doing this post!

[Paul M]

11 hours ago, MylesGibson said:

Still haven't had a clear night since doing this post!

It was a spectacular clear sky here last night. But after a 12 hr day shift and a lot going on at home there wasn't any telescoping getting done!

[MylesGibson]

On 06/01/2024 at 11:54, Paul M said:

It was a spectacular clear sky here last night. But after a 12 hr day shift and a lot going on at home there wasn't any telescoping getting done!

Ahhh I have those evenings too! Wait so long then something gets in the way!

Finally got a clear night tonight and ran into an issue...... When the panel changes to the next one, i lose my guide star and PHD2 doesnt find another automatically...... ive been re-doing it manually for now but any way to set it up to do it automatically?

[Paul M]

I think that must be a setting in PHD2, it just auto restarts for me. I can't remember where I selected that. A quick look through APT hasn't shown anything. Not got PHD2 on this lap top so just booting my imaging 'puter, but right now it's not talking to the VNC connection. I think it's updating...

Watch this space!

[Paul M]

So... Still can't talk to my imaging PC, it does this sometimes, It's headless so I'll have to connect it to the TV tomorrow and see what's going on. It's dual boot Windows/Linux, I use the Windows system for imaging because the Linux (Ubuntu) installation was flakey at imaging... and the Ubuntu installation hasn't currently got VNC server installed... 

Anyway, back on track, I took a closer look at APT and it has a button for enabling auto stop/start of guiding on before/after GOTO. I guess CDC has similar. It'll most likely implement the same functions that are available over the PHD2 server connection.

[MylesGibson]

38 minutes ago, Paul M said:

So... Still can't talk to my imaging PC, it does this sometimes, It's headless so I'll have to connect it to the TV tomorrow and see what's going on. It's dual boot Windows/Linux, I use the Windows system for imaging because the Linux (Ubuntu) installation was flakey at imaging... and the Ubuntu installation hasn't currently got VNC server installed... 

Anyway, back on track, I took a closer look at APT and it has a button for enabling auto stop/start of guiding on before/after GOTO. I guess CDC has similar. It'll most likely implement the same functions that are available over the PHD2 server connection.

Thats brilliant! I'll give it a try next time as my "test run" has come to a finish. When I have another go, I'll try this and see if it works. It says stop/start so I hope that means it'll select a star and e everything too! If it does, then fantastic! 

 

Thanks for all your help by the way!

[Paul M]

23 minutes ago, MylesGibson said:

Thanks for all your help by the way!

My pleasure, and I'm looking forward to you sharing your processed mosaic!

And because you've got me thinking about mosaics again, I'm currently building a mosaic plan for M42. It's forecast to be clear all night tomorrow night so.... 

[MylesGibson]

On 09/01/2024 at 23:52, Paul M said:

My pleasure, and I'm looking forward to you sharing your processed mosaic!

And because you've got me thinking about mosaics again, I'm currently building a mosaic plan for M42. It's forecast to be clear all night tomorrow night so.... 

Well I tried putting it together, it only stacked 3 of the frames. So I tried a different method, same result. Then did the old do each frame individually, pre-process, stretch and stitch in ICE and turns out the vertical overlap didn't happen. No idea why or how that happened!

I'm going to have to take the extra frames manually to stitch it all together then try to figure out what happened. 

I double checked all my co-ordinates and it was fine. I used a 20% overlap both H & V in Cartes DuCiel and all looked ok, co-ordinates imported fine, APT worked fine (except the guide star thing which I will tackle another time!

So a bit frustrating but it was only a test night!

[Paul M]

Did I mention I was building a mosaic plan for M42?

Well this is it: 

Ans last night I got to try it out.  The sky was extremely clear but there was half of a glowing cheeseball making life and gradients difficult..

I used my 10" RC and ASI017 MC Pro camera.

Here they are, playing nicely in my skyglow:

As you can see I only captured 5 x 30 sec for the 9 frames. I processed the mosaic in ASTAP, which can now do the job in 2 ways. As described in my linked thread above: Process each frame a a separate image and then stitch them together. A bit of fiddling but not laborious. And nowadays, ASTAP will just build the mosaic if you load all subs in one go. It worked well for me but:

1) took ages to process

2) it doesn't manage my awful gradients and suboptimal calibrations frames quite so well as manual processing.

Here is the result by using ASTAP original method, then I exported the resultant image as a TIF to P.S. to make it prettier. I'm very happy with the workflow. The residual mosaic artifacts are entirely due to the gradients and my duff flat frames (family crisis cut the session short  ) so I used some from a different session that I think has some field rotation...