NINA Thread

[TerryMcK]

I have been a user of Linux for a number of years now to acquire images but wanted to try out NINA as it seems to have matured now since I last looked at it probably 3 years back. Unfortunately it only runs on Windoze but hey ho.

I was spurred on by Glenn's (AstroBloke) excellent YouTube video on installing NINA along with the dreaded ASCOM etc. I say dreaded because it always used to seem to take me ages to get it configured to run. INDI is so much easier but I digress.

 

I bought a NUC called a Mele Quieter3Q 81E which is smaller than the size of a small paperback. It is preloaded with Windows 11 Pro (great for RDPing in without having to resort to using 3rd party remoting software) a quad core Celeron N5105, 128GB MMC disk and 8GB of RAM.

More importantly it has 4 USB 3.0 connectors.

I also bought a Samsung T2 SSD 1TB drive and opened the PC up and installed it.

 

Windows setup was a breeze and then ASCOM was installed along with drivers for my hardware, ZWO, EQMOD, DeepskyDad, Lakeside focuser etc. I also installed PHD2.

 

Then I spent a couple of hours getting to grip with NINA which seems quite intuitive and tweaking the afore mentioned ASCOM. So I am going to try it out on one of my rigs during the day as currently don't have any imaging going on at night. If an opportunity arises I will take 2 rigs out, imaging with EKOS/KStars on one as normal and trialling NINA on another rig.

[AstronomyUkraine]

On 5/19/2023 at 12:01 PM, TerryMcK said:

I bought a NUC called a Mele Quieter3Q B1E which is smaller than the size of a small paperback. It is preloaded with Windows 11 Pro (great for RDPing in without having to resort to using 3rd party remoting software) a quad core Celeron N5105, 128GB MMC disk and 8GB of RAM.

More importantly it has 4 USB 3.0 connectors.

I also bought a Samsung T2 SSD 1TB drive and opened the PC up and installed it.

I use virtually the same kind of setup on my rig, except I'm still using Windows 10. The remote desktop used by Windows Pro is very stable and never drops out. I have the connection hardwired to my NUC, for better connection.

[Padraic M]

Same here, I've been using the Quieter2 and Quieter3 for a few years now and find it with NINA very reliable. Still Win10 though too, but the latest miniPC I bought has W11 installed and the astro software suite has installed happily on it. Haven't actually managed to get that one in action under the stars yet though.

 

[TerryMcK]

I might have some clear nights over the next few days to trial NINA at last. No astro dark but I do a bit of narrow band.

[Astrobdlbug]

Thats a few of us using NINA for imaging, I went over to NINA after my mini meltdown with astroberry, I did look at the Quieter 3 but went for the Beelink Mini S, was slightly cheaper on amazon I think.

 

Anyway - I fully agree with the comments regards 'dreaded ASCOM' as that was one of my issues when using APT in my beginner days, but so far with limited experience using NINA and only one image 'M101' using NINA for aquistion I  can agree its a fairly intuitive package - but thats from the perspective of a reasonably seasoned imager and I know what needs to be done and in what sequence and for how long etc... 

 

So Terry summer solar imaging time with this new NINA config ? Look forward to your posts..

 

Bryan

[TerryMcK]

It failed tonight. I was going to use the Polemaster to polar align as previously I would do that with EKOS polar align (which is excellent). However the Polemaster driver fell over with Windows 11 and wouldn’t play ball. I know that NINA also has a polar align routine built in but too early for me to be playing with that.

Threads in the US forum Cloudy something also mention that the QHY CCD driver has issues with Windows 11. I managed to find that is was Memory Integrity that needed disabling in Win11 as per this post from Mickeymousesoft https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/a-driver-can-t-load-on-this-device-8eea34e5-ff4b-16ec-870d-61a4a43b3dd5

 

However although after doing that Polemaster would run and connect to the camera it wouldn’t show any image using the Polemaster software. By that time clouds came in and I couldn’t be bothered doing anymore so canned it. Tomorrow I may polar align with the EKOS method and then connect the gear to the PC and start experimenting with NINA again.

 

Anybody want to buy a useless QHY camera shaped doorstop?

[TerryMcK]

7 hours ago, Astrobdlbug said:

So Terry summer solar imaging time with this new NINA config ? Look forward to your posts.

Yes Bryan I will get both the solar rigs out and try with NINA in conjunction with old faithful Sharpcap.

[TerryMcK]

It appears that the Polemaster camera can be used with Sharpcap so might try that out. Hold off being resigned to being a doorstop 🙂

https://forums.sharpcap.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=4405

 

[TerryMcK]

I was out experimenting last night with Nina. I used Sharpcap to polar align my scope first of all as it hadn't been out in months. This proved to be a useful experience as I used Sharpcap in conjunction with my Polemaster camera. It went without hiccup and PHD2 logs confirmed that the setting was within 1.6' of the pole which is pretty good. I had never used SC to polar align before but it is excellent and really easy to do.

 

I set off a sequence capturing 40 x 360 second images that kicked off at 23:45 (it doesn't get dark now until way after 22:00). It finished around 03:40 in the morning and I managed to get 31 good subs. The initial subs had some star trailing and the last few began to get the morning sunrise so we discarded.

 

When I analysed the PHD2 logs I could see star loss in the initial guiding so probably hit a canopy of a tree. Later on I could see SNR sloping off at dawn. All good so far and expected.

 

 

I had turned dithering on but at its default values. They are around 5px which is a bit larger than I normally do in EKOS so will set it lower at 2px next time.

 

I had altered the image naming convention but had left an extra dollar $ at the end of the file name by mistake. This was only apparent when I dragged a random image into PixInsight and it couldn't open the file. So I simply edited the names of all 31 subs and removed the $ sign. I have also modified NINA configuration to remove the $. All a learning curve but not too onerous.

 

When it came to integrating the images in PixInsight I couldn't work out after processing why the image appeared to be over corrected and in fact had given a negative correction to the amp glow.

 

Then I discovered I had indeed set the gain of the camera ASI294MMPro at 100 instead of the unity gain of 120 that I normally use with an offset of 8.

I had simply used library darks of 120 gain against the captured subs of 100 gain. Never mind I can still use these subs and am currently shooting some 100 gain 360 second darks. I will also do some 100 gain S2 flats too.

 

I have set Windows 11 active hours to 5PM to 9AM so it won't attempt to reboot after doing an auto update.

 

 

I have also paused updates for a month and will make sure that is always the case when I am scheduled imaging.

 

I am warming to NINA and it might end up replacing EKOS on one of my rigs at least.

[TerryMcK]

I had another experiment last night and the session failed miserably with just 13 subs. When I had a look at them I could see that guiding had failed as every sub had star trailing. I had a look at the PHD2 logs and found just the calibration part. It seemed that PHD2 has stopped but allowed the imaging session to carry on. Very odd as when I use EKOS with its inbuilt multistar guider, or PHD2, if the guiding stops for any reason it will pause the session and continue trying to reacquire the guide star. When it finds a guide star it carries on and permits the session to continue.

That doesn't appear to happen with NINA triggered PHD2. I must have a look deeper into the guide settings.

[TerryMcK]

Another failure with NINA and PHD2 last night. I’m not sure I can cope with Windows based imaging again as I rarely have problems with INDI based EKOS on the Pi4.

 

I think the problem was after a meridian flip and PHD2 reaquiring a guide star. I seem to remember having such issues years ago and that was one of the reasons I ditched Windows.

 

More investigation needed and late night nursing.

[TerryMcK]

I found out what the issue was. After reconnecting to the Pi4 and running EKOS it was apparent that the gain of the guide camera was set much too low as it too was failing. In fact it was set to just 1. The dreaded ASCOM had set this as a default. I reset it back to 50 and EKOS was happy with not loosing guide star.

I reset the PC version of ASCOM guide camera to 50 and good service was resumed. 

 

To quote Mark Twain "The report of my death has been grossly exaggerated." - in other words NINA is not dead and buried from this authors point of view.

[RaDec]

Well tracked down Terry. These flipping gremlins creep in from nowhere it seems!

[TerryMcK]

I've had some success with NINA 🙂 . I set off an experimental sequence last night of around 4 hours in 3 narrowband filters, guiding was good and the whole sequence finished. The camera warmed up and the mount parked.

All in all a good one.

 

I fixed an old Philips SPC900NC CCD webcam onto the end of the scope yesterday too and plugged it into an available USB port. I am now able to use that as a cloud cam whilst imaging taking the advantage of the increased processing power in the PC over my usual Raspberry Pi4.

[Demon]

I cant say I particularly like windows and would ideally prefer the light weight Linux-RPi, however when I tried to get to grips with Indi I found my Linux/RPi experience lacking. Instead I had to upgrade my little Atom miniPC when I moved across and started switching features on in Nina and eventually got a second hand Dell 9020M i5 gen4 off ebay (£70) with 6xUSB3 ports and a wired antenna for wifi which gives a strong connection, also added bigger SSD - its pretty stable now. Definitely more work but coming from a more windows background I sadly am sticking - that said I'm slowly getting to grips with Nina and liking it also. Good luck and hope it all works out for both of us without too much pain.

[Graeme]

My switch to NINA came about when I bought my ASI294MC Pro and APT didn't seem to want to talk to it. I'm now a big fan. I use it with Stellerium for target selection and rotation calculations to find a star for my OAG.

 

I've just started using the Advanced Sequencer which is a bit more learning curve but well worth it for the extra features. I just set up a Smart Exposure inside a Loop Until and away we go. I say just started but I've been out of action for a good while but NINA also has simulators for all the equipment you would want to connect in the real world. Prior to that I used NINA with the Simple Sequencer. The auto focus is simple and accurate.

 

Some of the Plugins are brilliant! I created a horizon in Horizon Creator, I use Ground Station to send a notification to my phone in the event of any failure and at the end of the session in case I nod off on the settee. The Three Point Polar Align plugin is also simple and accurate. I can polar align my CGX to within a couple of arc seconds in a very short time. It will lose a few arc seconds as soon as it slews but that still leaves you with a good polar alignment and I've got a pier now so that should improve.

 

My imaging pc is connected to my indoors pc using Team Viewer so I don't have to sit in the cold all night any more! 

 

Regards

 

Graeme

[TerryMcK]

Wow I've just found this video from Chad at PatriotAstro.com on the advanced sequencer in NINA. EKOS does not have anything like this and I am mightily impressed.