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Astrophotography

Vizy applications
#15

I am no expert on the various image file formats to be sure the RAW format is uncompressd and larger and is essentially unprocessed in any substantive way. They are reputed to give the maximum ability to post process and edit image information. For stacking and background subtraction. When converted to JPG the processing and compression reduces information in exchange for smaller size = Los of information. This is a synopsis of the various formats: https://digital-photography-school.com/understanding-all-the-different-image-file-formats/

Additionally, there is the concept of binning pixels that effectively reduces resolution but sums several adjacent pixels into one sum.
The astropicam program I referred to earlier incorporates this concept. I believe it is an inherent capability of the camera chip, if I recall correctly. Again, I am very new to dabbling and not proficient, to say the least. There may be something to learn from that application; it is based on the older camera routines rather than the libcamera one in more recent releases.

#16

  1. I played with RAW format a bit using this project: https://github.com/schoolpost/PiDNG.
    It did work, although that was before the switch to libcamera, so I don’t know if it still works or not. It generated AdobeDNG format RAW files which can be processed by lots of different software.

  2. By the way, I have tried to image the sky with pic taker. I tried focusing on the moon and wasn’t able to get it very sharp (my lens isn’t the best). I think focusing on a distant subject during the day would be the best approach. Also, I had trouble with the exposure for the moon - it’s very bright and I couldn’t lower it enough to see any detail. It’s probably something I’m doing wrong.

#17

Hi Ed,
Do you remember the exposure settings? You should be able to adjust the exposure and gain lower enough to get a decent exposure, although the slider might be a little fiddly with the lower exposure values.

Edward

#18

No, I don’t remember the exact settings.

Actually, thinking about this, over exposure shouldn’t be an issue - we can always just stop down the lens.

It looks like it’s going to be clear again here tonight. I’ll try to do a more controlled experiment and report back.

#19

I tried again last night and was able to focus on a bright, distant light with preview and take some long exposure photos.

A couple of questions:

  1. The WiFi signal in my back yard is weak. Once Vizy lost WiFi, it never re-connected to the network even when I brought it back inside. Should it reconnect automatically?

  2. I was powering the Vizy through the USB C connector and this worked fine. But when I tried to do a safe shut-down by holding the button, I think it worked - but the button was still lit. Is this normal?

#20

Hi Ed,
Glad you got some pics :slight_smile:

Currently Vizy will try to connect to the last network it successfully connected to. It will attempt to connect only one time upon boot up. If it’s unsuccessful, it will go into access point mode.

If Vizy connects successfully and then loses connection, it doesn’t do anything. It should probably do something… it should probably go into AP mode. (AP mode is a good fallback because it allows you to connect and reconfigure networking, etc.) There are some challenges with these kinds of things because losing the network can be difficult to detect. But for now at least you can power cycle Vizy and it will reconnect.

That’s correct – when powering through the USB C port, you’re bypassing the power board and Vizy can’t switch off power. It can still shut itself down cleanly though. The beep will tell you that things are shut down and you can safely remove power.

Edward

#21

Hi gentlemen

Is there anyone connecting vizy to telescope to have an external pc control?
Wiring details will be welcome.
App will be released?

Thanks in advance

#22

Hello,
We expect the first versions of the astronomy app to be out this summer. Sorry for the delays – we’re running a bit behind schedule with the software development.

What do you mean by “external pc control”?

Edward

#23

Hi
Dreaming of telescope control via app, http://vizy.local/?

Is this too crazy?

Regards

Fernando

#24

Hello,
The astronomy app will control the telescope mount if it’s motorized and has serial input/control. We are targeting the Celestron NexStar (alt-az) mounts first. What telescope mount are you using?

Edward

#25

I have Celestron NexStar 127SLT, happy to see it in your target

#26

Hello Edge has there been any developments been dragged away by busy stuff now back to look at this a bit again for a bit?
love to hear where things have got to.
Jim

#27

Hello,
Our apologies, the Astronomy application is overdue. We’ve been focused on other things (improving CNN performance, adding texting support), but we do plan on working on the Astronomy application after we get this next release out, which will be before the end of the year.

We do have basic motion control of the Celestron NexStar series working – this is fairly recent. To give me a better idea of your specific needs/wants –
What type of telescope do you plan on using with Vizy?
What kinds of objects do you want to visualize the most? (e.g. planets, galaxies, nebulae)

Edward

#28

I have a suggestion, that might be a good first step, put in a solar eclipse mode.
It should work with a static scope. if I pull out in scope once in ten years I ain’t got that figured out.
It should save the data such that it can be post processed with some widely available tools.

#29

Hello,
I think solar astronomy is often overlooked. You are interested in gathering images during the solar eclipse? What are you interested in imaging? The timelapse, the corona, (?)

Edward

#30

I was thinking just a time lapse, but I was also just trying to think of a simple minimum base that you could start the project with. Rather than jumping for the all of the complication of a goto scope, get images off of a locked scope. the really high end is filled with cooled ccd cameras, so you have to have a painless imaging handling solution,
And get it working before April.

#31

Hello,
Taking time lapse with a short lens is seems to be popular so that you capture larger sections of the sky. What are you wanting to capture?

Edward

#32

Hello
Sounds like you are making some progress. I have a Celestron Nexstar 8i. Still learning how to use it but making some progress. I think that I mentioned earlier that the ability to collect stacked images for lower light image collection. Binning is something I have also read about that can improve image collection sensitivity from what I understand ythe camera sensor has that capability inherent to it.
Jim

#33

Hi Jim,
I’m glad you have a Nexstar :slight_smile: It’s a really great scope for the price in my opinion. “Live image stacking” is one of the things we’ll implement. Binning is on the list too as well as “plate matching”. There is an impressive amount of Python code for this kind of image processing in the community that we plan on using. The first astronomy app won’t be out quickly enough though, so my apologies. :frowning:

The next release won’t include the astronomy app, unfortunately. It will be released in early January. Work on the astronomy app will begin shortly thereafter.

Edward

#34

In April the effort would to get the solar eclipse.