5 replies to this topic

[dllblue]

Hi

Is anyone successfully using Kstars/Ekos with an EM1?

I am running Stellarmate on a Beelink mini s12, and find Ekos does not see the camera connected by USB cable.

In command line, gphoto2 sees the camera and will take a photo with gphoto2 —capture.

Any help would be much appreciated

[scanner97]

Welcome to CN!  I'll be interested to hear if anyone has suggestions.  My general experience has been that AP drivers (s/w) and adapters (h/w) are almost always available for Nikon, Canon, and to a lesser extent, Sony.  Anything else is a crapshoot.

[vidrazor]

Is anyone successfully using Kstars/Ekos with an EM1?

I am running Stellarmate on a Beelink mini s12, and find Ekos does not see the camera connected by USB cable.

I'll assume you're referring to the original Olympus E-M1 from 2013, and not the Om System OM1.

 

The E-M1 should readily work in Ekos. Did you set up a profile first? You need to select GPhoto CCD as the "DSLR", and save the profile. Make sure the camera is on and set to BULB before starting the session. I'll assume you have the proper USB cable.

 

When you first connect it and start a session, a small camera parameters box will pop up asking for the resolution and pixel pitch of the camera, which in your case is 4608 x 3456 and 3.72 µm (x2).

 

However in the latest versions of Ekos, when you first start the session up, this box can easily be obscured, because in the new versions of Ekos, very annoyingly, Ekos immediately pops up the Optical Trains box, which is associated with the main planetarium screen, and can wind up burying the camera sensor parameters box. If you miss entering this information, you will not be able to use the camera.

 

So what I suggest doing is dumping the profile you've already created and create a new one, and when you start up the session, pay attention to the small camera parameters box that pops up. It will almost immediately be obscured by the optical trains box and the main planetarium screen, but if you look on top you'll see multiple tabs for the different opened windows. Select each tab until the camera parameters box comes to the fore. Enter your camera parameters, and click OK. The camera should now be recognized. You will only need to do this once.

Once past that hurdle, go to the INDI Control Panel window, which should still be up. Go to the Image Settings tab, and set the file format to RAW and Native, as it will probably be defaulted to FITS. You should also set your starting ISO, which in the case of your camera should be 800 or 1600 (do not use intermediate ISOs). Then go to the Options tab and click on Save. You can close the INDI Control Panel then.

Your camera should now be recognized by Ekos, and you should be able to continue setting up your hardware. I use an E-M5 Mk II from almost the same era, and it readily works in Ekos.

Edited by vidrazor, 13 June 2025 - 09:46 PM.

[dllblue]

Thank you so much vidrazor for your detailed helpful response.

That seems to have done the trick!

The camera is EM1 mark ii, on a Sky Adventurer GTI. 

My key hope was to use Ekos to polar align via the camera. I have had minimal success with polar alignment using the built in visual scope (in Australia)

Now I need to learn to use Kstars/Ekos.

[vidrazor]

My key hope was to use Ekos to polar align via the camera. I have had minimal success with polar alignment using the built in visual scope (in Australia)

Now I need to learn to use Kstars/Ekos.

Using DSLR/mirrorless cameras for polar alignment won't work because you need to be able to continually refresh your screen while polar aligning. That menas the camera is constantly taking a new pic and downloading it every second. I did not find that to work for me. I use my guide camera instead, which has an electronic shutter.

 

However I noticed the last time I used the polar alignment tool in the recent Ekos, it would not update the live view. I don't know if this was a bug or intentional, but it was annoying to me to say the least. If it was intentional, it may have something to do with using DSLR/mirrorless cameras with the process, not sure. There are two arrows on the bottom of the screen telling you with way to move the azimuth and altitude. You could possibly use this approach to polar align, but without continuous refresh, you will need to run the polar alignment routine again after you make the adjustment. Just remember to send the rig in the opposite direction from the initial routine, so for instance if you went 30° west x2, now go 30° east x2, which will bring you back to where you started initially. If you need to take another reading, you will need to set it back to west, unless you still have clearance eastward. Hopefully this all makes sense.

 

For some good tutorials on Ekos, watch this series. They date back to Astroberry time, but for the most part are still accurate. Make sure you download the astrometry files so you can polar align and plate solve to position. I just downloaded all the files, because I have different scopes and cameras, but I think it's good to have everything anyway. These downloads can take some time tho. You should still use your optical scope to get you into a rough position when polar aligning before running the process in Ekos. If you aren't using one, download the polar scope alignment software, either from SkyWatcher, or a third-party app like Polar Scope Align Pro for iOS or PolarFinder Pro on Android.

 

I'll assume you meant you have a Star Adventurer GTi, which is a GOTO mount. Ekos will be able to control your mount and plate solve to your target, once you have the proper (or all of the) astrometry files downloaded.

Edited by vidrazor, 14 June 2025 - 01:45 PM.

[dllblue]

Thanks again for your very helpful detailed response.

Now I’m waiting for a clear winter night to try it out.