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I'm coming to NINA and remote imaging from ASIAIR Plus and backyard/travel to dark sites imaging. I've already started to study the program. Any tips on learning what seems to be far more complex than ASIAIR? Jerry |
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| Jerry the are many valuable youtube videos on the use of NINA. I highly recommend the Patriot Astro videos and he even has numerous downloadable advanced sequence scripts. |
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| Also Dark Rangers has a multipart setup set of videos for putting together NINA. |
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Here is the link to NINA on Discord.... • Discord | #general | N.I.N.A. - Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy |
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| Thanks Bruce! |
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I moved from the ASIAir to NINA a few months ago and I'm very happy that I did so....it's a very comprehensive set of routines. I agree that the Patriot Astro youtube channel is absolutely invaluable as a NINA resource. One tip that I can offer which addresses one the first issues I came up against is to make sure that you have proper focus before any plate solving is required. I wasn't able to get polar alignment to complete at all until I had good focus dialled in. Good luck, I'm sure you'll find NINA worth it. Frank |
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As well as all the great resources mentioned so far, NINA's own online documentation has always been a great help to me in understanding how it works. Best as a quick reference guide. https://nighttime-imaging.eu/docs/master/site/ CS John |
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Hello Jerry, I recently made the switch from ASIAIR to N.I.N.A. using with an EdgeHD 8 with 0.7 reducer. On YT I watched Patriot Astro, Chris Woodhouse, and James Lamb. When I got stuck I reached out to a friend who has a similar Imaging configuration. If you need any help, please reach out |
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Miguel A.: Will do! Thanks Miguel, much appreciated.. Jerry |
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Cuiv the Lazy Geek also has a number of good NINA videos on YouTube. And +1 for Patriot Astro’s great NINA resources. I think you will that it is more comprehensive than complex. Once you’ve plugged your head into it, it’s intuitive and easy to use. Good luck on your NINA journey. Jeff |
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Jeff Rothstein: Thanks Jeff. I've been studying NINA all day, watching videos, reading the manual, trying things out. Hard to believe such a well-organized, ergonomically-pleasing and comprehensive program is free. As soon as I get my first image I'm going to make a donation to help keep this software alive. |
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If I may, let me offer one suggestion: skip the Legacy Sequencer and learn the Advanced Sequencer from the start. The drag-and-drop, step-by-step programming is highly intuitive, especially if you start with Patriot Astro’s templates. As Miguel A said, there are many who will be happy to answer questions as you learn, both here and on the NINA Discord server. Best, Jeff |
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Just to chip in again, I will second Jeff's excellent suggestions of Cuiv's videos. And also the suggestion to skip Legacy and learn the Advanced. I stayed with Legacy for quite a while, 'worried' about the learning curve for Advanced, but it was indeed intuitive and whilst I am still getting my head around all its functionality, it is very easy and quick to get up and running with a simple sequence in Advanced. I just keep adding new instructions/features to my templates as I discover them. I just wish I had made the move to Advanced sooner! John PS Just realised we are '3 Js', Jerry, Jeff and John! Sorry, just amused me ... |
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I've got another question about NINA: Can I autoguide successfully without having to install PHD? It appears to me that NINA has autoguiding capability as well, yes? no? Thanks! Jerry |
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| Autoguiding in NINA essentially just opens one of the allowable guiding applications (such as PHD2 or Metaguide) and interfaces with them so you still need to have an autoguiding program installed. |
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Jeffery Richards: *hmm, that's interesting because when I open Nina without having installed Metaguide or PhD I see the guider window and settings.. |
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| I've never looked at that so maybe it does have stand-alone capability, just going by the online help files. |
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Jerry, I didn't think NINA had it's own guider functionality. Direct Guider is there just for the purpose of allowing NINA to directly do dithering using the main camera. It does not do "guiding" and you must load one of the approved guiders from the dropdown list. CS, Jeff |
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Jeffery Richards: Got it, thanks. I installed PHD and I think NINA has recognized it. I'm learning "blind" because none of my equipment is connected yet at the dark sky site.. |
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Just to confirm, Jeffery R is right. Direct Guider is a dithering tool for unguided imaging. Best, Jeff |
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Jeff Rothstein: Jerry, I was just about ready to recommend the opposite of what @Jeff Rothstein suggested in the above quote and start out using the Legacy Sequencer. But after reading Jeff's comment, I am backing out of what I would say. Partly it is because I know from other forum posts by you here on AB that you are looking to set up a remote system. Under such cases, there are many elements that will need controlling and monitoring and I think it well worth learning the Advance Sequencer. Also, I have no experience with the Advanced Sequencer! I never used the Advanced Sequencer in the 3-4 years of operating my systems! But my imaging sites are all local to where I live and/or soon to be close to where I will park my RV. I never went Advanced because I still have not found a case where I needed it. But I typically set up every night, polar align, run only guiding, autofocus, meridian flip, and one or two sequences in OSC during the night. I still often never link my Pegasus PowerBox to NINA, since it runs great independently of the Switch connection in NINA. Regarding the comments suggesting to be sure that you focus decently before doing an autofocus, I think this is generally common sense. First off, I always do a polar align before I do an autofocus, and to use the NINA 3-point polar alignment, you want decent (not perfect) stars for the plate solving needed to do that. If you use other means, then you will know the demands on that method regarding star quality needed. If you were to set your autofocus so that it could actually achieve a decent focus with a grossly out-of-focus telescope, then your autofocus routine that you set in NINA would be a terrible routine to do the fine focusing you want during imaging. Example, if you want NINA to be able to take you from an FWHM of well above 10, then that is just asking for trouble and if you want precision, then you would have to add so many increments that the number of increments needed would make the whole process a waste of much time during sequencing. On the other hand, for example, if your focussed stars are FWHM of 2.5, then you want you farthest out of focus start point to be something on the order of 5-6. And then step increments of ~4 each side of focus. NINA will add more anyway if it wants a better read. But I cannot imagine that this would be any different for any sequencer you would use. Patriot Astro has a nice video on the autofocus setup in NINA. Alan |
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Alan Brunelle:Jeff Rothstein: Understood. When I use autofocus in the backyard with the Edge I always try to get the stars close to focus manually before engaging autofocus. |
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Jerry Gerber: *I thought you would already have that understood, but wanted to be clear to be sure I did not confuse the issue, just in case. In any case, I do not think the issue is handled any differently in NINA than any other sequencer. At least as worries about setting it up. |
