How to schedule automatic photos through the night

[cmitran]

Hi,

I have put astrophotography on the side for more than 20 years and I am getting back to it now so, please bear with me; many things have changed since I stopped.

First of all, I have been reading quite a lot about technological improvements that occurred in the last 20 years. Then I have unboxed my old, but in perfect state, TAL 200k OTA. It's a Klevtsov / Cassegrain. I have also just bought a second hand EQ6 Pro Goto mount, ordered a scope guide and an autoguider. I already have a Nikon D4s and adaptor for the OTA.

 

My intention is to schedule the telescope to take photos by itself through the night. To program it to track and take multiple photos of same target without me being there to do this manually. Using, for example, my raspberry Pi 4 to control it. I am quite handy with software and development, generally.

I don't intend yet to take photos of different objects, I know that this involved autofocusing and filter changing and I am not yet there.

Can you help me with some advice in terms of which software already exists, to allow me to program automatic shooting of a specific objects for multiple hours, auto tracking included?
 

Many thanks,

Cristian

[ApophisAstros]

APT..Astrophotography Tool has been an admiral friend and colleague through muliple nights with a hiccup and with a dual rig now running two versions at the same time i get the same results. With the ease of setup and use i will never use anything else. With the addition of platesolve and automatic acquestitios of Stars and Targets in less than 1 minute , its just super.It switches guiding on and off as needed when needed.

check it out.

 

https://astrophotography.app/index.php

 

HTH

Roger

[TerryMcK]

Hi Cristian and welcome to the forum.

For your Pi4 you can use Astroberry, a flavour of Debian Linux, that has EKOS which is a full observatory control suite built in. Go to https://astroberry.io for more details. It is free.

You will need a suitable EQMOD aka EQDIR cable for your mount to connect to any computer, be it Windows or Linux (PI etc) regardless of what astro control software you decide use.

[Dmack1]

Like Roger above I have used APT for some years now and see no reason to change. It works for me, allows full sequencing of a nights imaging, will run automated meridian flip and park the scope when its finished. I find it easy to set up and run. I believe it can run on Pi4

 

For possible alternatives (though I cant speak for either of them) there would be NINA and Sequence Generator Pro (SGP)

 

 

[TerryMcK]

APT can't run directly on a PI but if the PI has indigo server or indi server installed you can control it using APT (which runs on a Windows platform). So you would have the PI at the scope connected via Ethernet back to your PC running indoors (via an Ethernet switch) and APT can then be used to control the indi server.

I've never tried it but see no reason why it shouldn't work.

 https://www.astrophotography.app/usersguide/indigo___indi_and_raspberrypi__rpi_.htm?ms=AAAA&st=MA%3D%3D&sct=MjI%3D&mw=MjQw

 

Ages since I used APT in my Windows days and my license expired long ago but it is only 18.7 Euros for the version that doesn't constantly nag you to buy. I think it is 6 Euros a year after initial payment which is peanuts.

 

 

[ApophisAstros]

14 hours ago, TerryMcK said:

APT can't run directly on a PI but if the PI has indigo server or indi server installed you can control it using APT (which runs on a Windows platform). So you would have the PI at the scope connected via Ethernet back to your PC running indoors (via an Ethernet switch) and APT can then be used to control the indi server.

I've never tried it but see no reason why it shouldn't work.

 https://www.astrophotography.app/usersguide/indigo___indi_and_raspberrypi__rpi_.htm?ms=AAAA&st=MA%3D%3D&sct=MjI%3D&mw=MjQw

 

Ages since I used APT in my Windows days and my license expired long ago but it is only 18.7 Euros for the version that doesn't constantly nag you to buy. I think it is 6 Euros a year after initial payment which is peanuts.

 

 

I am happy with it now so no more money , only needed for future updates , unless i change kit which is unlikely soon.

Roger