373 replies to this topic

[Psionmark]

I've been making good progress, too - I've now got what appears to be a repeatedly working system, so more time looking rather than configuring 

 

One thing I cannot fathom how to do, though - how do you clear the current image being displayed in Stellarmate (using the iPad app) and start afresh? Sometimes I'd like to reset the image and start afresh. It also seems to retain the "old" image even if I slew to a new target and try imaging that.

 

Tried the usual Googling etc but no luck. I'm sure it'll just be a button to tap somewhere.

[Joey44]

 

 

One thing I cannot fathom how to do, though - how do you clear the current image being displayed in Stellarmate (using the iPad app) and start afresh? Sometimes I'd like to reset the image and start afresh. It also seems to retain the "old" image even if I slew to a new target and try imaging that.

The image is supposed to clear and reset when the next image is being acquired, but it doesn’t always work. In spite of recent updates which have improved this issue, I also have it from time  to time. I have reported it to the developer (along with others I am sure). Bottom line-getting there but not done yet. 

[jkelly]

I just realized that you can control your Stellarmate mount from iOS app SkySafari 7 now.

 

This give's you a planetarium view as well as detailed target information.

I assume it would run on your iPhone if you put it on stellarmate wifi.

Only SkySafari 7 iOS app works now (Indi support is built into 7).

SkySafari 7 is not yet out on Android.

 

Here are some quick directions from what I did. Not all steps are listed.

 

You have to vnc into stellarmate, (stellarmate.local:6080)

Disconnect Ekos,

edit Ekos,

assign SkySafari to one of the AUX selectors on the right.

I entered the IP of Stellarmate which was 10.250.250.1 and a port of 7624.

Start Ekos running again.

EDIT: Can this be done from the Indi button on the stellarmate iOS app???

 

In the iOS Skysafari app, 

go to Settings on bottom menu right,

Telescope Presets,

Add Preset,

and add Indi Connection.

You will put in the Stellarmate ip, mine was 10.250.250.1

and enter the Port 7624.

Hit "Check IP and Port for Devices" and you should be connected.

Save the preset on the next page.

Go back to the presets and select Indi Connections preset, which should be the name of your preset on stellarmate.

Go to the main page and hit the Scope button on the bottom menu and then Connect button.

Don't forget to unPark the mount.

 

We may be pushing it with both SkySafari and Stellarmate app running together. I'll test both next time out.

Edited by jkelly, 07 February 2022 - 07:51 PM.

[Psionmark]

The image is supposed to clear and reset when the next image is being acquired, but it doesn’t always work. In spite of recent updates which have improved this issue, I also have it from time  to time. I have reported it to the developer (along with others I am sure). Bottom line-getting there but not done yet. 

Ah! Thanks for the info. Wish I'd known that before I'd spent a fair chunk of time searching for what I was doing wrong haha! I just assumed I'd missed the "Reset image" button lol.

 

What do you do to get around this? I've tried force-quitting the iPad app, but that doesn't seem to help - do you need to restart the Pi itself?

[Joey44]

Ah! Thanks for the info. Wish I'd known that before I'd spent a fair chunk of time searching for what I was doing wrong haha! I just assumed I'd missed the "Reset image" button lol.

 

What do you do to get around this? I've tried force-quitting the iPad app, but that doesn't seem to help - do you need to restart the Pi itself?

I normally just close everything down for the night and wait for a fix to the OS or app. The developer has been making frequent updates to the IOs app, although the current version in the app store (2.4.4) hasn’t changed recently. The best way to follow current changes is to check Stellarmate’s facebook page. For example, the most recent post from 2/5, “iOS users who experience instability using Ekos tab are encouraged to try 2.4.4 (Bundle v99). You need to delete existing profiles and create new ones to fix the Ekos tab white-screen issue.” Actually, the current bundle is v103, which I downloaded yesterday. Just checking for updates in the app store will not show an available update, because the app version has not changed.

 

My guess is that updating the “bundle” (whatever that is) and skipping the assignment of a new app version bypasses the Apple approval slowdown that Jasem noted with the last update.
You will need to delete the app and reinstall from the app store. You can check the bundle version in the about tab of the app.

 

The other thing that should be helpful is giving feedback to Jasem through Stellarmate support, noting the app version and bundle, and OS version that is problematic. All indications are that he is actively working on the app, for obvious reasons.

Edited by Joey44, 08 February 2022 - 09:29 AM.

[Psionmark]

I normally just close everything down for the night and wait for a fix to the OS or app. 

Ha! That's probably the best advice ever 

[jkelly]

Well even with a pretty bright moon tonight I had a lot of fun with the setup.

I am still using EQMOD and polar aligning. The polar aligning in Stellarmate

works well and is getting easier. I was able to run 60 second exposures.

Ran each image for 5 - 10 minutes each. Used monochrome tonight.

 

I added an Optolong UV/IR cut filter which helps with the star bloating.

Here are a few images. Scaled for upload. Target names are on each image.

Images don't look as good as they do on the iPad.

No glitches!

 

M31

 

M42

 

M81

 

M103

 

M97

 

NGC 5458

 

Polar Alignment

Edited by jkelly, 09 February 2022 - 10:55 AM.

[jkelly]

Two questions if anyone knows.

Is there a way to add darks to the stacking feature in Stellarmate app?
And in the app, in Ekos in the Indi section, can I add a aux item there so I don’t have to VNC into stellarmate

and do it there? Done. 

Edited by jkelly, 09 February 2022 - 05:22 PM.

[rahuljp]

First truly successful night! I've been waiting nearly 6 weeks for no clouds. Finally a clear night and after a few hiccups and getting focused,as any amateur astronomer would I pointed it to M42. My jaw dropped when I saw the first image and I immediately ran inside to show my wife and then I was sitting in the warmth of my home watching the image building!

 

There's a lot of noise, and some bright street lights nearby, but I'm happy with the initial results. These are the original images (target names in the file), but I downloaded them on my phone and did a quick adjustment for highlights/contrast etc before sharing with family. I need to learn how to do this in stellarmate directly.

 

Equipment used

Skywatcher Az-GTi (connected directly to raspberry pi based on jkelly's suggestion)

Orion ST-80

Raspberry Pi 4 with Stellarmate (Updated to 1.70 beta 64-bit)

ASI385

Mobile battery pack powering the raspberry pi

For a total investment of $900 I'm super happy!

 

I have a mesh network at home, so stellarmate was able to connect well and stay connected and I was getting the images in quite fast. I had a few crashes, but no major issues.

 

Couple of questions

I need to figure out how to add darks. I took a dark frame at the beginning of the session and I thought it automatically uses it, but maybe not? 

 

If you notice the M81 image, initially, m81 was in the center. But with the live feature and plate solving on, I noticed M81 drifting to the right. No complaints since I notice M82 in the corner then. But this was a consistent issue. Am I doing something wrong here?

 

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[bips3453]

If you notice the M81 image, initially, m81 was in the center. But with the live feature and plate solving on, I noticed M81 drifting to the right. No complaints since I notice M82 in the corner then. But this was a consistent issue. Am I doing something wrong here?

It would be caused by drift in the tracking. It will be good to check that the mount is levelled, scope is balanced, datetime/location settings are accurate. If you are using the mount in eq mode, it will be good to check the polar alignment. 

Edited by bips3453, 10 February 2022 - 08:39 AM.

[jkmonroe]

...

 

If you notice the M81 image, initially, m81 was in the center. But with the live feature and plate solving on, I noticed M81 drifting to the right. No complaints since I notice M82 in the corner then. But this was a consistent issue. Am I doing something wrong here?

Is your mount in Alt-Az mode?

 

I'm not using Stellarmate, but I see varying drift as well.  I think it has to do with how well the tripod mount is leveled, balance, and where in the sky you're pointing (basically what bips said above).  I'd be interested in a more technical explanation if anyone can offer one.

 

bad drift and rotation - E about 33deg 

 

 

 

good drift and rotation - NE about 45deg

 

 

 

Edited by jkmonroe, 10 February 2022 - 09:44 AM.

[rahuljp]

 

Is your mount in Alt-Az mode?

 

I'm not using Stellarmate, but I see varying drift as well.  I think it has to do with how well the tripod mount is leveled, balance, and where in the sky you're pointing.  I'd be interested in a more technical explanation if anyone can offer one.

 

bad drift and rotation - E about 33deg 

 

 

 

 

 

good drift and rotation - NE about 45deg

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, its in Alt-Az. I did check that the tripod was level, and balance seemed ok. The scope wasnt falling forward or dipping back. Wth the Az-Gti's design with teh scope hanging off to one side, maybe I need to be more conscious about that as well. My tripod is quite light weight, could be that as well

[alphatripleplus]

There is a discussion of drift issues with alt-az trackiing in this very long ongoing EAA topic. As mentioned, there could be multiple reasons including the mount not being level.

[jkelly]

In addition to mount setup issues, it could be an example of field rotation.

I just went back into a 100 ten second exposure folder and took the first and last.

I was in Az Alt mode, tracking with stellarmate.

You can see the movement of M31 in the two images:

 

M31

 

M31

 

Not sure how much time expired between each of your shots. This was ~ 16 minutes.

 

 

 

[Psionmark]

I just realized that you can control your Stellarmate mount from iOS app SkySafari 7 now.

 

Oh wow! Thanks so much for this! Viewing wasn't terrific last night so I spent some more time exploring Stellarmate and then remembered your post. I actually found it even easier than I expected. I just used the Stellarmate app on my iPad to set it to use SkySafari and, amazingly, it just worked! It does seem to struggle when I'm using Stellarmate and SkySafari on the same device - when I switch back to Stellarmate it seems to lose the connection to SS and then go back to the last thing I aligned to via Stellarmate, but when I switched to using SS on my iPhone with Stellarmate in the foreground on the iPad, it seemed to work a treat! Display somewhat cramped on the iPhone, so I'll try using SS on my MacBook next time out.

 

The only issue I seemed to notice was that SS doesn't seem to keep a highlight on the object the scope is pointing to the way it does when I control the scope directly from SS. If I tap something else in SS, it's not then obvious what the target was that I was previously pointing to, even though it does keep tracking it okay. Do you know if there's a setting for that?

 

Thanks for the fantastic tip. This is a bit of a game changer for me as I really struggled with the Targets functionality within Stellarmate and this makes it a breeze. Another tick box. This is becoming a workable platform 

[jkelly]

The only issue I seemed to notice was that SS doesn't seem to keep a highlight on the object the scope is pointing to the way it does when I control the scope directly from SS. If I tap something else in SS, it's not then obvious what the target was that I was previously pointing to, even though it does keep tracking it okay. Do you know if there's a setting for that?

I have to fire everything up to check that. 

 

Just want to make sure that under Observe - Scope Display, you have either Crosshairs or Telrad circles (or both) and a field of view selected?

 

I'll start a new topic at Astronomy Software & Computers so we can flush it out.

Edited by jkelly, 11 February 2022 - 10:02 AM.

[rahuljp]

In addition to mount setup issues, it could be an example of field rotation.

I just went back into a 100 ten second exposure folder and took the first and last.

I was in Az Alt mode, tracking with stellarmate.

You can see the movement of M31 in the two images:

 

M31

M_31_Light_100_sm.jpg

 

M31

M_31_Light_001_sm.jpg

 

Not sure how much time expired between each of your shots. This was ~ 16 minutes.

Roughly about the same time 15-20 minutes and thats about the drift that I saw as well! But I assume while it was being stacked, the target was centered?

[jkelly]

Yes. The object stays centered you’ll just notice the rotation effect on the edges when stacking.

[seasiderht]

Hi all- just completed this great build and thanks to Cuiv for the YouTube video.  Lots of great and helpful discussions on here and thought I'd chime in.  My setup is the following:

 

Equipment used

Skywatcher Az-GTi With USB cable connection

Apertura 60EDM

Raspberry Pi 4 with Stellarmate 

ZWO ASI485

Pegasus Focuscube 2

Sky Safari for target browsing and selection

 

I have the Pi connected to my home mesh network and the mount hard-wired so I can get into the system from anywhere inside the house which is great.  I tried running KStars on my laptop with Stellarmate running in server mode but had some issues doing it that way so I'm just running it through my browser at stellarmate.local and it has been working nicely. 

 

I'm still getting focus, solving and tracking dialed in, but each day is an improvement.  I'm still having intermittent success/failure with GoTo accuracy but what has seemed to work best for me is doing a Capture-Nothing each time I select a new target, followed by a Capture-Sync and then the final GoTo seems to land me pretty close to center on targets. 

 

I've also been experiencing some of the drift issued noted.  FWIW I saw somewhere else that the setting in SynScan for Sidereal Guiding Rate seems to be pre-set to .5x.  When I changed this to "Sidereal" I noticed significant improvement and now can at least do 20 second exposures without any drift.  I think my precision on mount leveling is probably the remaining issue.  

 

Sky Safari seems to be playing pretty well with Stellarmate and it's a great platform for browsing the sky.  Last night I got about 4 hours in and still can't get over the fun of sitting inside next to a warm fire and skwatching, Managed to get my first shot of M42 with a decent period of stacking- looking forward to clear skies tonight to keep at it!
 

Edited by seasiderht, 16 February 2022 - 04:53 PM.

[jkelly]

 

I've also been experiencing some of the drift issued noted.  FWIW I saw somewhere else that the setting in SynScan for Sidereal tracking seems to be pre-set to .5.  When I changed this to "1" I noticed significant improvement and now can at least do 20 second exposures without any drift.  I think my precision on mount leveling is probably the remaining issue.  

 

 

This is a great tip! I'll give this a try next time out. Nice image of M42!

[Joey44]

I saw somewhere else that the setting in SynScan for Sidereal tracking seems to be pre-set to .5.  When I changed this to "1" I noticed significant improvement and now can at least do 20 second exposures without any drift.  I think my precision on mount leveling is probably the remaining issue.  

 

In the SynScan App the default for GUIDING is 0.5 Sidereal, but I don't see any other option  to vary from plain Sidereal for TRACKING in either the Synscan App or in the mount option in the Stellarmate App. Are you using the Skywatcher Alt/Az driver and not setup in equatorial mode? If that photo is a stack of 20 second exposures in alt/az mode  from the app you are doing something right; I cannot get stars that round with 10 second exposures. What setting did you change and where?
 

[jkmonroe]

The AZ-GTi can do it.  Not Stellarmate but the same drivers Stellarmate packages (I use Astroberry).  AZ-GTi in AZ mode with my ZS73 and 385MC from Feb challenge.

 

ARP6/NGC2537 - 12s exposures

 

[seasiderht]

In the SynScan App the default for GUIDING is 0.5 Sidereal, but I don't see any other option  to vary from plain Sidereal for TRACKING in either the Synscan App or in the mount option in the Stellarmate App. Are you using the Skywatcher Alt/Az driver and not setup in equatorial mode? If that photo is a stack of 20 second exposures in alt/az mode  from the app you are doing something right; I cannot get stars that round with 10 second exposures. What setting did you change and where?
 

Sorry- it was "Sidereal" and not "1."  Under Settings>Advanced Settings I changed the "Guiding Rate" field.   Mine was ".5x Sidereal" and I changed it to "Sidereal."  Here's a screen shot:

 

 

I'm using the mount connected via USB to my PI, mount is not in EQ mode and I am using the Skywatcher Alt/Az driver.   I also felt last night like re-capturing and solving with "nothing" as the action each time I moved the mount seemed to help with both tracking and accuracy, but I may be imagining that.  FWIW I also found last night that if I just let the stacking in live view do it's thing, after a few minutes everything looked better than the first few shots. I think I was quitting it too soon in the process on the couple nights I'd tried it before.  Anyhow, just a few days since I set it up so still not sure what exactly is helping and what isn't.  

Edited by seasiderht, 16 February 2022 - 04:53 PM.

[Joey44]

Sorry- it was "Sidereal" and not "1."  Under Settings>Advanced Settings I changed the "Guiding Rate" field.   Mine was ".5x Sidereal" and I changed it to "Sidereal."  Here's a screen shot:

According to the Synscan app manual, that setting applies if you are using an autoguider. I don't see how it could affect your setup if you are not autoguiding-perhaps someone else has an idea.
 

[jkelly]

Using Stellarmate with SkySafari7

 

First frame.

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