Category: Astronomy
The stars within us, the stars above us.
Elemental Remote Observatory
The Elemental Remote Observatory was commissioned on November 28, 2024 at Howling Coyote Remote Observatories, near Pie Town, New Mexico. It is the culmination of a goal set in 2015 to design and procure a science-grade remote telescope sited under the darkest skies reasonably available. This is a multi-use system Read More …
InfluxDB Exporter
InfluxDB Exporter is a NINA plugin that transmits periodic hardware, guiding, and image metrics to an InfluxDB time-series database. From there, the metrics may be graphed using tools such as Grafana or InfluxDB’s own built-in graphing features. A time-series database is optimized to collect and store temporally-oriented data. This data Read More …
Astro-imaging and timekeeping
It’s somewhat often that I see an astro-imager get befuddled with a time-related issue. Sometimes their mount will be found pointing 1 hour ahead or behind the target after being commanded to slew to the target’s coordinates. Other times an axis will inexplicably jump, or guiding will slowly degrade over Read More …
On N.I.N.A. as free and open source software
Time to time, the question of “what astrophotography software do I use?” is asked on forums. Users of various software relate their impressions and preferences and, presumably, the person who posed the question is armed with the knowledge and clarity needed to make their decision. N.I.N.A. is usually mentioned during Read More …
Astromechanics Aperture Control
The ASCOM Canon Lens Controller from Astromechanics is a popular device for those who wish to combine a Canon EF/RF lens with an astro camera and control the lens focus mechanism like a traditional ASCOM focuser. One of the features of this device and its ASCOM Focuser driver is that Read More …
PlaneWave Tools
This plugin includes the following instructions: PlaneWave Tools is a plugin for NINA that enables the control of various support systems on PlaneWave mounts and OTAs directly from the Advanced Sequencer. These instructions allow one to fully automate typical PlaneWave session workflows from power-on to power-off, including fan and heater Read More …
Using N.I.N.A. with Astro-Physics mounts
Introduction This document is to serve as an explainer/FAQ for using N.I.N.A. with an Astro-Physics mount. While there is nothing specific to N.I.N.A. that one must set in the Astro-Physics ASCOM driver, APCC, or the mount’s Control Panel settings, there are a number of helpful configuration tips and capabilities within Read More …
Ground Station: Notifications for NINA
Alerts and remote notifications are undeniably useful and can bring peace of mind when running unattended astrophotography sequences. NINA has lacked this feature, however. Not because it was seen as unwanted, but NINA’s rapid internal evolution and the myriad of ways that people prefer to do alerts made the prospect Read More …
1Q2021 changes and improvements in NINA’s native QHY interface
I’ve been working on some improvements to NINA’s native driver for QHY cameras over the past several weeks. Part of this post is just informational in nature, explaining some new features, but there is also some important information that I want to make sure that all users of the native Read More …
QHY294C Pro conversion
I bought a QHYCCD QHY294C in 2017 and have been using it on top of my main imaging rig as a secondary camera, as well as a test subject for the development of the native QHY driver in N.I.N.A. Its normal astrophotography configuration has it attached to a Canon EF Read More …