12 replies to this topic

[SKYGZR]

Have to give a BIG thanks for this Author (Robert Nufer) & his program. Great work to be able to assist in this experience. After modifying and working on the "standard' exposure table to enhance it, those little tweaks made all the difference. (Yet some of my own "fiddling" didn't work out, yet that's me, not the program.)

 

The exact timing of an event like this (considering all the potential variables), is mostly a "crap shoot", yet his effort(s) have probably assisted many to capture an experience like this with acceptable results. (I for one am one of them)...

 

To offer software like this @ "no charge"..deserves a major THANK YOU !!!!

[bunyon]

Yes, it's a great program.  I need to figure out where I went wrong in using it. Either I entered the coordinates wrong or I didn't sync up with UT well enough.  Or the program miscalculated but I think user (me) error is much more likely.  In any event, the program started the sequence a little over a minute into totality.  Still, I didn't have to futz with the camera or computer and I got a lot of great shots. I couldn't be happier.

[Darren Bly]

I'll add my "THANKS" to Robert Nufer and SETnC.  It worked PERFECTLY.   The hardest thing about SETnC is leaving it alone once it has started.    I look forward to multi camera control. 

[APshooter]

+3!  My fellow eclipse chaser and helper was able to tweak the software and expand the exposures of the Baily's Beads from +7 seconds before totality to 30 seconds, giving me two full sets of wonderful images, not to mention 3 sets of totality images!  The program worked flawlessly, and allowed us to fully enjoy the visual experience.  After making some last minute 'centering' checks, and a small adjustment to my Hinode Solar Guider, we put on our glasses and only had to worry about pulling/reattaching the solar filter.  Practicing before the eclipse certainly helped, and the only 'failures' we encountered were on our end, which eventually were corrected.  I'm glad to hear others had then same good results we did.  I hope to post my series of images soon, and I will be mentioning the program in my posts.

[PaulEK]

I agree completely! Mr Nufer was very kind and helpful when I reached out to him after finding that SETnC would not work with my new Canon T7i. He tried to fix the issues, but was not able to do so, which is completely understandable for such a new camera model. I especially appreciated his forthright telling me that it was not going to work, so I could let that go and get to setting SETnC set up with my (actually, now my son's) T1i.

 

It worked flawlessly, and did just what it's clever name says: it let me set things up, so that I could simply enjoy seeing the eclipse! I only found it a few weeks before the eclipse, and it was such a great gift to use it for this, my very first total eclipse.

 

Here's a crop of one of the images it took while I ignored my camera and enjoyed totality:

 

 prominences.jpg   118.41KB   0 downloads

 

I do also want to credit my very bright 16-year-old son. Getting the photos taken at just the right time was possible because of his very accurate plotting of our latitude, longitude, and elevation. We don't own a smart phone or GPS, and he used maps that were not made for accurate plotting of lat. and long., a ruler, some string, and simple geometry to figure out to within a few seconds of arc, and a few tens of meters, just where we we were when we were in the middle of nowhere. I know this because our eclipse photos were taken at just about exactly the right times during the actual event.

[Zebenelgenubi]

Me too.  I will be forever grateful to Robert Nufer and his SETnC software.  The August eclipse was my fourth total eclipse but it was the first one I actually watched from second contact to third contact.  I spend the previous that precious time during the total phases of the previous three working with my camera equipment.  With SETnC I had the eclipse and images too.  Great images at that.  Thank you Robert!   

Edited by Zebenelgenubi, 01 September 2017 - 02:17 PM.

[bunyon]

I should add to this in case anyone reads it down the road: I didn't successfully change the coordinates after we moved NW about 75 miles.  Drat.  

 

But the program worked great. It just needs a better user.

[Zebenelgenubi]

I should add to this in case anyone reads it down the road: I didn't successfully change the coordinates after we moved NW about 75 miles.  Drat.  

 

But the program worked great. It just needs a better user.

We made a last minute location change as well about 60 mi west to improve weather conditions.  I entered the new coordinates and generated a new exposure table while my wife drove the car.  Got 123 exposures each one spot on.  Great piece of SW.

[orion75]

Totally agree! SetnC turned out to be such a great tool..... I was able to capture some very good shots with minimal practice...

[Robert Nufer]

Dear all,

 

“After the eclipse is before the eclipse!”

The next total solar eclipse will occur in less than two years, on July 2, 2019 over South America.

 

Some of you used the program SET’n’C and/or were in contact with me, the author of SET’n’C.

 

I am new at Cloudy Nights. Please let me introduce myself for short. I am technican in biology, but retired since last June.

My special hobbies are astronomy and (astronomical) computing. It is a pleasure to write applications that people

like to use. Windows users may know my programs FInspektor and LInspektor, which are very nice didactic tools for solar and lunar eclipse analyses.

 

For the program SET'n'C, I got a lot of proposals for improvements, but there were problems with some camera models, too.

I will try now to fix these problems step by step, but your help is required, because only with your input I can find (and hopefully correct) issues with camera models that I do not own.

 

Information can better be shared in an open discussion forum than with individual emails.
Therefore I have created the YAHOO! group SET_n_C, and you are cordially invited to join the group.

 

I made some corrections in SET’n’C version 4.4. It creates a more detailed log file, and maybe the most severe error is already solved.

 

Kind regards,
Robert

[3snows]

Robert, I also want to thank you for your efforts.  I used it and it worked flawlessly.

[dane lambson]

I too would like to echo the sentiments of the others in this thread.  All my friends on Facebook were raving about my pictures that I was able to get of the eclipse from Casper, WY, but here was my response to them, posted on eclipse day. 

 

"The real talent here is people like Robert Nufer, who I don't know but who takes time to develop software and let the public use it for free, to take these kind of pictures. His free program let you set up the photography sequence for the whole eclipse and more or less walk away and enjoy the eclipse.
Totality was so amazing that time wasted worrying about taking pictures will absolutely ruin the experience and the program allowed for a great experience. It is called SET-n-C and tells you the exact second things will happen and takes the pictures you tell it to."

 

My FB link: https://www.facebook...10710994&type=3

 

Again Robert's program let have the best of both worlds during the eclipse, the visual experience of my first total eclipse and getting some amazing shots.

 

Thank your Robert!!!

[Jay Lawson]

 Total eclipse processed 9 6 17.jpg   405.42KB   0 downloadsMy thanks also to Robert and his fantastic software.  I pre-made many site profiles ahead of time to account for the possibility of changing locations at the last minute.  I just had to load the right profile for my final destination for the eclipse.  Luckily I wound up at my preferred spot on the center line.  I was able to watch the entire eclipse without messing with the camera and got 68 photos (3 cycles) from 1/4000 to 4 secs. This allowed me to do a great HDR composite photo.  I never could have done that manually.

My only issue was not properly setting my camera to not go into power saving sleep mode.  I saw that happen during my practice runs, but did not fix it before the eclipse.  As a result, I was trying to "reconnect" the camera (Canon t5i) with less than 1 minute before totality.  Doing that caused me to mis-operate three other cameras, and it all would have been prevented by paying attention during the pre-testing.

 

Robert, thank you so much for creating this software !!  I will never forget the experience of that day and I have great photos due to your excellent work.

 

Jay Lawson

Edited by Jay Lawson, 05 November 2017 - 12:28 PM.