Setup NINA Auto-Focus Quickly and Correctly
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2024
- Learn to quickly and correctly configure Auto-Focus in NINA. This process works in both v1.10 and v1.11. Follow these simple steps and basic rules, and you will be up and running in no time at all! In this video, I will configure Auto-Focus 3 times using different sets of equipment each time. The equipment used is listed below. Plenty of examples to ensure your success!
I also cover the new R2 Threshold (R Squared) and why it is important for you to understand and configure its value.
Please Subscribe, Like, Comment, and Share!
Telescopes and Focusers used in this video:
Setup 1:
- Celestron 8" SCT (bit.ly/3ePADii)
- Pegasus Astro FocusCube2 (bit.ly/37NJ2Pb)
- ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro (bit.ly/3qYX5Z7)
Setup 2:
- SharpStar 61EDPH II Telescope Kit (bit.ly/3gwMDVo)
- ZWO EAF Electronic Focuser (bit.ly/3gDeMKC)
- ZWO ASI533MC-Pro (bit.ly/3tP0qLv)
Setup 3:
- Canon 200mm f/2.8 L II USM EF Lens (amzn.to/3wRoXBM)
- Astromechanics Canon EF Lens ASCOM Fouser (www.astromechanics.org/ascom....)
- ZWO ASI183MC-Pro (bit.ly/3tP0qLv)
For more of my Astrophotography related content, go to:
www.PatriotAstro.com
/ patriot_astro
I am an Amazon and OptCorp Affiliate and may be compensated if you use the links above even though it will cost you no additional money for your own purchases.
-------CHAPTERS-------
0:00 - Introduction
1:34 - How to AutoFocus in NINA (FocusCube2)
13:42 - R2 Threshold Usage
16:29 - How to Focus in NINA (ZWO EAF)
20:31 - How to Focus in NINA (Lens Focuser)
23:07 - Wrapping Up
![เกิดใหม่ทั้งทีก็เป็นสไลม์ไปซะแล้ว ซีซั่น 3 - ตอนที่ 57 [ซับไทย]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pNhft3YZFRE/mqdefault.jpg)
To any other idiot out there wondering why they can't fix their backlash, pay attention to the video and make sure you set your compensation method to OVERSHOOT and not ABSOLUTE. Once I set to overshoot everything worked out great for me, no more backlash! Thanks again for the well explained, and easy to follow video.
You have saved my life. I watched your video last night and tried some of your suggestions. I got autofocus down to under 2 minutes and all 4 times I used it last night, my R2 number was either 1 or .99. Thank you!!
Great! Now go take some beautiful pictures! :) Clear Skies!
Once again, Thank you. I was completely off on my step size and backlash before. Now, I have a U-shape from your tutorial. I would pay for your tutorials!
That’s great news! I’m so glad the video was able to get you working correctly. Now hopefully you have some clear skies and can go take some great images.
Best explanation of the process I've seen. Appreciate the video. It got me right on track setting up my C8. I now have a much better idea of what's what :)
Glad it helped!
Thank you so much. Now i am going ahead and buy me an HD8" Edge. A very clear and straight forward explanation has made me to cross that bridge. Thank you
Glad to help. Sorry about getting you to spend money though... :( That's the dark side of this hobby. :)
Great info. Looking forward to trying out your tips tonight to improve my AF
Good luck! Let me know if you need anything!
Thanks, from Spain!!!
Your videos are THE BEST I've found. I've been struggling to understand and fine tune my focus routine with NINA. It all makes sense now...Thanks for sharing all your knowledge with the astro comunity!
I am so glad that you found answers in my videos! Glad to help!
Great video. I would love you to do a video at some stage on the Hocus Focus plugin and comparison to the existing AF method.
I'm letting them fine tune it a bit more. Lots of development in that plugin. Once the dust settles, I'll pick it up and review/cover it for sure!
Hi Chad. I can’t thank you enough for this clear and concise video on correctly configuring the PegasusAF. I have been struggling for ages with trying to get this hardware to work properly and, literally in one evening after watching your video, I got it working faultlessly. HFR of 3.9 on my 9.25” SCT, the lowest it has ever got and all this with really bad seeing conditions! Indeed, I find all your videos extremely slick and professional and, importantly, with minimum use of jargon. You are my go-to man for video assistance now! 👍👍👍
Thanks so much for the kind words. It is great when I get to hear back from people who tell me that the videos have helped them. I cannot count the number of people who helped me out here and there over the years so it just feels good to be one of the helpers on the other side now. :) Clear Skies!
ZWO EAF ordered. Video added to library. Now I only need the postman to do his thing. Thanks Chad!
Autofocus is one of the best things you can do for yourself! :) It's like an astro-manicure. A little self indulgence. LOL :)
Thanks, this really helped explain my step size calculations and backlash compensation I have been struggling with on the new Q focuser. I had been entering backlash on both values and spiralled into an unfriendly cycle of failed auto focus runs and nothing was improving them. Now I understand my error and can start searching my true values.
Great! Glad it helped.
Chad pay no attention to my last question, went out this morning and within 5 mins found out the problem. I had to move to a different port on my power box. Funny out there last night for 2 hours and could not fig it out , today 5 mins done...
Thanks for the videos
Steve
The process you outlined is so repeatable that I setup both of my PegasusAF easily (one on my Vixen R200ss, one on my WO FLT98).
Very glad to help! I do hope to have some new material fairly soon. It’s been a long battle with a number of factors so I’ve been lagging. :-)
Another excellent tutorial Chad. Thanks for adding greater enjoyment to the hobby👍
Hopefully there are many people that could use this as a boost into the advanced sequencer. And maybe learn a thing or 2 along the way.
Hey Chad - your videos are the best. Very informative, very helpful. I installed my Celestron focus motor on my Celestron 8" SCT tonight. I figured tonight would be a wash as I was working out the kinks...nope. I got it installed (with the help of other videos), fired it up and with your help I'm at Hyperbolic R^2 = 0.98, auto focusing as we speak while imaging the East Veil Nebula. Easy Peasy with your help.
Great! It really is far less complicated than most people make it out to be... you just need the 'process'. Glad to hear you didn't lose a night!!!
This is a great video dude. Thank you for taking the time to make it, given me a few ideas.
Glad it was helpful!
Wow! Outstanding video. This is the gold standard for how clear, thorough and concise how to videos should be. Very helpful for me. I just installed a focus cube 2 on my ES ED80 and will be going out soon to finalize setup. Thanks for this video.
I'm glad you like the format and found it helpful. It is definitely more time consuming to make videos this way, but I think it is worth it too! :)
Tip: to determine the step size turn on HFR detection (star icon top right) and annotate image (options), you have a numerical value for the star HFR change so you don’t have to eyeball guess it when you try different step sizes
Yep, absolutely. I only stayed away from that in this video because then I often get a question a couple days later like… Hey how come I have numbers all over my screen, what did I do? :-)
Chad, you're a GigaChad man! What amazing videos! Three of these on autofocusing helped me determine backlash on my system and the optimum step size. I was able to get R Square values of 0.99 to 1, and then optimised my offset steps down to 3. Following the other one, I calculated the filter offsets for the entire LRGBSHO set. Those curves, got beautiful curves! 😅
Mate, you give the best tutorials! Excellent video
Thanks!
Hi dude, It's an old video, I know, but it's still very actual and very useful. I'm trying to learn how to configure my EAF in Nina for my Sky Watcher Esprit 80ED, and I found your priceless video. Many thanks to give us not simply the values you have but the knowledge about how to do and to know which are the best values of the configuration for each of us depending on our equipment.
Great contribution!
Have been using Nina for autofocus. Now I'm eager to follow your suggestions to see if I can improve the process. Thanks for taking time to do this.
Great, hope it helps!
Thanks so much. Using my NEAF I was having trouble getting the initial focus good enough to get a good AF run. Once I was able to do that and do some tweaking I got a beautiful parabolic curve and eliminated the backlash by following your instructions. This can be a frustrating hobby and focus seems like it's such a fundamental. I'm making baby steps but a step forward is a step forward!!
Well that was an adventure. Been struggling with Nina autofocus routine for a couple of weeks. (I am a new Nina user). But this video does an excellent job to getting the settings right. Thank you for posting a clear easy to follow explanation.
Glad I could help. Definitely reach back out if you have any questions.
Great Video very interesting. I learned a lot about that. Thank you Chad.
Thanks! Much better than me trying to figure it out for myself.
Glad to help! And thank you so much for the tip!
This was a great video. I was able to set up auto focus in NINA in no time last night. I ended up with a nice focus curve and it ran all might with no issue. Thanks so much for the clear method on setting up auto focus. It helped a lot.
Glad it was helpful!
I feel like I could teach a college level class on auto-focusing, my qualifications: I've watched this video!
Thanks for going into details about this process! I had a very small step size 50 and it was taking forever and a day for the focuser to do actually anything, since it's connected to the fine focuser I think the backlash was not letting it move what it needed to move. I'll configure it again
Great! Get that low to high HFR to the 3-4x range as suggested and you will be well on the way.
Like many others I had trouble setting up my autofocuser (Lakeside). But after watching your video and making adjustments to the settings you explained the autofocus routine worked a treat. I got that perfect bell curve and eliminated the backlash. Thanks so much for taking the time to make these useful video guides!
I am so glad to help! Thanks for watching! Clear (and un-blurry) Skies!
Excellent explanation. Thank you so much for bringing light in the dark. I was getting quite frustrated with autofocus. Next time it clears up I will try. Keep up the great content.
If you follow along it should work out fine. If you run into any issues feel free to reach out. I’m glad to help.
Thanks for this great video! I’ve been using NINA’s AF on my main scope for a while and it worked pretty much out of the box, so I didn’t really need to fiddle with any settings. But it’s not working on my SCT so this will be super helpful to diagnose the issues. Subscribed!
Let me know if you end up with any questions... and watch me new Hocus Focus video for further tips on AF and a new mechanism.
You nailed it. Ty! Makes life so much easier!
Great! Let me know if you have questions.
This is fantastic! I have an Astromechanics Canon EF Lens ASCOM Fouser also for my main rig. And I often get the 25% error, after watching this I have a much better idea of AF with NINA and how to better calibrate what I'm doing. As you've said in a previous video (I think it was you) this hobby already has such a steep learning curve that I'm certain there are many aspects of what I do daily that are far from correct. Thanks again for this great video! Cant wait to watch more!
Great - I'm sure you will get a tighter AF curve now! Let me know if you end up with questions after you try to fine tune what you already have.
Thanks for this...great video!
Hope it helps! I am pinning a message soon, if you use this plugin in the short term, target something along the meridian or near Polaris and there is no issue. It seems going further East or West initially may cause a problem that they need to correct. Clear Skies!
I learned a lot. - Thank you.
Very welcome!
Great process. I'm using a new electronic focuser, and EAF, on a new telescope and focuser and your process worked great! I have been using Moonlite focusers previously, and never had a issue. Basically I think I was just lucky with the moonlite settings. But changing to a new brand of focuser and electronic focuser I had to develop a better approach.. This is repeatable.
keep up the good work!
Awesome, thank you!
Great VIDEO!!!!!! thank you very much. As soon as the sky will be clear in Turin (Italy), I'll test your suggestion!
Great, glad I could help. Let me know if you have questions. Pre-Covid I travelled globally for work quite a bit and I have to say that one of my favorite places to visit was Italy!
Such a good video
Glad it helped!
Excellent video--as usual. I have what is now a complete setup--for the time-being lol-- (new SharpStar 61, 533MC, Autofocuser, L-Extreme filter, etc, etc) and have had cloudy night after cloudy night so I have not done a full-up test. So, using my time to learn by great videos like yours.
Sounds great! Let me know if you end up with questions. Glad to help when I can!
@@PatriotAstro Lol I tried my auto focuser for the first time last night. Great curve on one side terrible on the other. I was about to fall asleep when it dawned on me I didn't tighten it enough and I went in my garage and sure enough that was the issue. Attempt 2 tonight.
@@MarvelousLXVII if you want to email me an image, get my email off the YT about page from my channel. Could just be backlash or maybe you need a larger step size.
@@PatriotAstro Actually, I re-watched your video and last night I did an auto-focus (with a full moon, L-Extreme filter and moisture-filled southern night that I'm sure you see in your next of the woods) and I got a 1.0 after the initial curve and adding a 50 backlash. It worked perfectly. I imaged the North America and noticed that the guiding didn't seem right. None of the images saved. After going to bed I wondered if PHD2 was using my 533MC as a guide camera and I'm pretty sure that was the issue. I took a single 60 second shot without guiding in all the terrible sky conditions and was absolutely blown-away by the color and detail in the NA and one of the Veil. Your channel has been invaluable to me and I appreciate all you do. Sorry for the long post lol.
@@MarvelousLXVII That's great! I love to hear success stories!!!
You deserve so much more view/subscriptions
It all has to start somewhere - right? LOL. It is fine. I just want to help where I can.
Excellent contents
glad to help!
I have an 8"SCT with a Celestron focuser and when reduced to ~1200mm your video was spot on and helped me to perform autofocus in NINA flawlessly. However, when I remove my reducer and at full focal length, I'm struggling to obtain consistent results. I've started with focusing with a bahtinov mask then starting Autofocus. I've collimated - I've used several combinations of step sizes and initial step sizes of 3-5, but cannot find a repeatable result. This is killing me that I can't figure it out! Thanks for your videos though!
Great Tutorial
Thanks so much! I'm a fan of your work, so it is an honor - truly.
@@PatriotAstro ... I set it up last night per your tutorial and the NINA auto focus now works like a champ on the Celestron EdgeHD 11". Again, thank you.
(Patrick Prokop)
Fantastic! Great to hear.
Excellent!
Let me know if you end up with questions!
Thank You!
You're welcome!
Great video, and very timely, I was using auto focus last night with my celestron focus motor and wondering why I had that weird dog leg on the right side of the graph, now I know it's backlash! Thanks!
Don’t feel like you need to get the backlash number perfect. Even going 50% above is fine. You’re actually better going over, then you won’t have to worry about it at all. Let me know how it works out!
Great video Chad and very good explained, thank you for pointing me to this video !
Question though, is there a reason why to turn of guiding while doing this autofocus routine setup ?
The NINA docs say " For OAG or belt focuser users, it may be better to have this option set to On. Otherwise, it can be set to Off." My understanding of this is that with an OAG , you may go far enough out of focus at the edge of the curve to have PHD2 lose a star and react negatively. Honestly, I'm not sure I know what the issue with Belt focusers is exactly. I assume they are talking more specifically about stepper motors that may be a little rough and cause PHD2 to get a bit jumpy.
Thanks for the good explanation of autofocusing in NINA. I did have a question or maybe it's an observation. I noticed in the Astromechanics segment of your video, you had at (21:06), an HFR of 2.67. You then adjusted the number of steps and step size to give a quicker autofocusing run. When completed at (23:03) your autofocus graph looks nice but you achieved a higher, 3.25 HFR. I may be wrong but my understanding is a lower HFR value is a tighter/well-focused star. Perhaps seeing changed on that run. Regardless I'd be wondering if I got a prettier looking curve and time savings at the expense of sharper focus? I'm pretty OCD on lower HFR value, lol and personally, I'd be tweaking the number of steps or step size to bring the HFR back down. Again, I know this was a tutorial on the process but wanted your thoughts/sanity check.
The HFR will be based on your currents seeing conditions, what stars are in the current image (and their sizes), etc. If you notice, my final calculated positions were 4913 then 4914. And, they were both at the bottom of the curve. HFR is used to find focus, but the number is relative to the current setup/condition. My C8 may give me great focus at an HFR of 4.7 but my 61EDPH II may be at an HFR of 2.3. Adjusting the steps will not help your focus position final HFR, it will only make the edge points HFR higher or lower based on how far from focus they land. Don't go too OCD on this. :) A good curve will get you best focus at the current point in time.
Hi !! First of all great tutorial! Its super clear and the way you explain everything is amazing. Please keep doing videos like this, Like me there is a lot of user who will find this super useful! I have a quick question for you , I have the same focuser as you Focuscube V2 but the max range on mine is 30K instead of the 150K on yours, Do You know the reason why? Thank you in advance and congratulations again !
I'm not sure. I'll try to look at the focuser configuration/driver and let you know if I find something. May be over a week... clouds... :(
SGPro will automatically adjust your range for auto focus in order to get your curve bottom in the center of the graph. NINA should add this feature in order to eliminate all the initial fussing around. And what if different filters have different focus points? Thanks!!
Right. Different filters certainly all likely have different focus points. The process here is to determine the step size and step count to use, then each filter will focus uniquely using that base info. My offset video talks a bit about this as well. Great point.
@@PatriotAstro Thanks for the reply. I am in the process of switching to NINA after using SGPro for over a year. Some getting used to, and NINA is almost there, but not quite...Can't beat the price though!
@@MrStacaz99 You WILL get your money's worth! :)
매우 훌륭한 영상입니다!
매우 감사합니다
You’re the man dude, thank you
:) I take it that it worked.
@@PatriotAstro it worked perfectly, once I got that all set up I was also able to figure out my filter offsets.
@@bryanb4308 LOL - That video is coming tonight or in the AM. :)
@@PatriotAstro sweet! I’m sure you probably already know this but there’s a new script available in the nightly version that calculates the offsets for you. I did it the old fashioned way which isn’t too difficult. Maybe you could show both ways for those that only use the stable releases, but of course it’s up to you 👍🏻
@@bryanb4308 Right. So the new video I published tonight shows you how to calculate it manually, but then I immediately go into NINA and used the plug-in because that’s how I think people should be doing it anyway. :)
If upgrading from 1.10 to 1.11, are the settings from the 1.10 (i.e.focus settings) still saved such that I can continue with the simple sequencer until I am ready to adopt the advanced sequencer? Thanks for the video. Great tutorial and I really appreciate you dropping the harsh music transitions as in the advanced sequencer tutorial....new sub!
Yes, it will all come over into your new profile. No problem!
Just the video I were looking for Chad brilliant video by the way as myself & my other half are looking on how to set up our focus cubes in NINA, I'm guessing as there's no nightly build just Beta versions of NINA that this way of setting the autofocus up is still the same?
Just the Beta now (it is what you want). After Beta becomes the stable version, we will begin to get a new set of nightlies towards the next version.
Great video as always. One thing I noticed is that your step size is almost 10x mine. I use a ZWO EAF and their recommendation is to connect it to the coarse focusser knob as opposed to the fine focus control (presumably so as not to wear out the motor). Is yours connected to the fine focusser by any chance? Even on the coarse connection it is still only a 2 micron focuser step size for the EAF so achieves perfectly good focus.
I’m on the course side. We must just be using different focusers. It is dependent on the Focuser itself, and how much it moves focus based on the knob turn.
Hi Chad. Like all the others you do, this is an excellent video and I'm really impressed with how fast you can get a new system dialled in. I have a question about backlash. You always choose to set the "OUT" backlash. Why not the "IN"? Does it have anything to do with always finishing a focus movement with pushing the SCT main mirror un the up direction to minimize mirror shift?
Yep, so I always use OUT because I have an SCT as one of my systems. Just a habit now. Either would work, just not both. :) It is a bit confusing but by setting OUT, compensation will be applied on every outward movement such that the last movement would be in... :)
@@PatriotAstro Coming from a hobby machinist it definitely confuses me. It seems like NINA is looking for the backlash value in the 'out' direction and the value in the 'in' direction. But it looks like NINA just wants the rough backlash amount (biased larger) in one direction and doesn't care what the actual, precise number is.
@@captianmorgan7627 right, so basically it just enforces that the final movement of the focuser gears will be in a specific direction. The amount needs to be at least as much as the actual backlash but can be a bit more, even up to 50% or a little bit more. The goal is to make sure that we consume all of the backlash and then a little beyond that such that we can guarantee the gears are engaged fully. You can go overboard and put far more than this which would be problematic, but getting it precise is not required.
Awesome video Chad. Just a quick question, do I need to leave the backlash setting to zero in the ZWO focuser settings and only use the backlash settings in the NINA software?
Yes, never set backlash compensation in both places or the system will just end up using both simultaneously causing it to overcorrect in a little bit of confusion. Remove it from the driver and put it in NINA . Now remember if you have other tools you use besides an NINA like sharpcap you’ll also have to address the issue there as well or you will not have backlash compensation available in those other tools.
Backlash - In Out - how do you choose which one (another YTer says do both) so if only one which one... BTW GREAT vid and thank you for showing the ZWO specifically - THANK YOU!!
First, NEVER set both ‘in’ and ‘out’ overshoot values. :) You can technically use either, but I tend to set OUT. (And leave ‘in’ set to zero). If I set OUT, that means if my movement is in the outward direction (bigger focuser numbers), i will overshoot it and reverse back inward as a final movement to the target value. Basically the goal is to make sure the final movement of the Focuser is always in the same direction (which happens to be the opposite direction of the value you set IN/OUT). If this is confusing, don’t worry… Just pick one of the two options, and set it while leaving the other as zero. :)
Excellent video, thank you. This will definitely improve my focusing. Just curious, which focus motor did you have first...Pegasus or ZWO, and why did you buy one of each? I have the Pegasus, and I'd get another one if I was to set up a second scope.
I didn’t watch the video again but I think I did the Pegasus Astro first. That is on my 8” SCT. Then I did my ZWO EAF which is on my second set-up, my 61EDPH2. And then finally I showed autofocusing using a Canon lens on my Astromechanics ASCOM focuser.
@@PatriotAstro No, I meant why did you buy a different brand having bought the first one.🙂
LOL! I must be tired. Just curious I guess. Plus the the color matched. :)
@@PatriotAstro Yeah, I hear ya. Sometimes it's about the aesthetics, even with gear. :-)
GREAT video.... question if I may. I have had issues with slightly elongated stars for the best part of a year and tried everything to fix it, only tonight did I have the monumental breakthrough of actually watching the image shift in the 1to1 view in the image panel during the autofocus routine and found that autofocus although working as described was in fact not focusing perfectly and with minor changes from myself it was actually far better and fixed all my issues. Do you have to have the window set to 1to1 view before commencing an autofocus routine in order for the HFR to be correctly detected? I have always had my image set to fit to screen and wondered if this may be the issue.... thanks!
No, you don’t need the 1to1 view set prior. But this brings up an interesting topic that I am about to dig into as soon as I can get a clear night with my own rig. I’ve noticed since moving to a new camera with a larger sensor, that my focus may not be as good as it was before. I believe that I finally figured out that it has to do with elongated stars at the edge of my FOV. The stars are also part of the calculation of the HFR. Stars this far out at the edge previously were not part of my calculation prior to moving to the new camera because they were beyond my previous sensor’s FOV. I think this actually has to do with my backfocus not being as good as it could be. It likely affected all of my previous images, it just wasn’t as noticeable in the smaller FOV. So, there are two things that I need to look at, 1. Can I use the cropping mechanism within the auto focus routine to ignore the outer edge of the image when calculating HFR there by primarily using the part of the image I care about that would be uncropped in my final image after processing, and 2. Can I fix my backfocus enough for this 8 inch SCT and camera sensor size such that I can get in focus stars from edge to edge. We will see… i’m sure it’ll end up in a video at some point as well. :-)
Hi Chad, very informative video on autofocus, i have a question for you (maybe i don't fully understand) i have a 4Tronix autofocuser which i can set , home position at 10000, if i move the auto focuser out say 10150 to make the star grow, do i need to do this on on future sessions or do i set the home position at the out of focus star position 10150 for proper operation ? or do i leave the home position at 10000 which is near focus, it would be great if you can help a novice, thanks Mick
Keep it near focus as much as possible. The out of focus part in this video is just so you can see how the stars react AND so you can find a good starting step size for your config. Once done, no need to go out of focus on purpose again.
Great tutorial! I’m just starting with NINA so I’ll welcome all about it! I had v1.9 installed as I think I heard 1.10 had some changes on configuration options that could make it more complicated for a beginner, do you recommend I go straight to 1.11? Thanks
Correction, I’ve got 1.10. The v1.11 was the one I heard had changed the sequencing or something..
@@fernandoapausa4931 there is an advanced sequencer in V1.11 but the original 'simpler' sequencer is still in place and active .. which i still use currently whist I experiment with the advanced option, Chad (above) has a great tutorial on the advanced sequencer. th-cam.com/video/VqfAg2AoPYE/w-d-xo.html
Definitely give my advanced sequencer video a look. Without a doubt it can be considered a little bit more complex, but as mentioned below the simple sequencer is still available. The new sequencer gives us an enormous amount of flexibility and some new features which are really helpful. I think I’m going to put a follow up video together where I show a couple of the sequences that I have saved along with links for people to download them and instructions on how to add them. I’m trying to find ways to get people to adopt 1.11 a little more easily.
Hey Chad, curious about the new hocus focus. Is there any real differences or advantages to using it?
We'll see... coming soon! (I think yes though... ::) )
Hi Chad love all your videos.... I'm having trouble with the offset filter function. I have set all my offsets for my filters and they doing a good job but for whatever reason when it does a filter change and the focuser moves to its correct offset filter position it changes the focus for my off axis guider and PHD2 fails to guide. What am I missing here.
I'll assume you are using an SCT? You can try to add a focuser settle time under options > auto focus. Maybe just 1 or 2 seconds. The other thing you may want to try is to put your imaging order in your loop by filter based on the offsets from highest relative number to lowest. If your imaging is not ordered by offset, every time the focuser reverses direction, it needs to apply backlash compensation which may be a bit sort of up and down on focus and disrupt the guide camera. This video here talks about that a little bit. th-cam.com/video/QImduaYb_2c/w-d-xo.html
@@PatriotAstro T
Thank you so much for the quick response and making this frustrating hobby enjoyable!
HI Chad, I noticed you kept the binning to 1 [2:34], if i am using 2x2 on my RC8 for imaging should i set this autofocus option to 2 also. many thx (PS: I have the Pegasus focus cube).
Generally I have found that most people binning their images also bin when focusing. It may also speed up your focus run once you have it configured for a good curve.
Hi there, my name is Jaime, I live in Chile, I would like to know if this AF routine will work with my focuser pro 2 diy Ascom focuser. I can move manually with N.I.N.A. thanks for your very good videos. Greetings from BelloCielo.
It should
At my image scale and seeing conditions, I rarely get HFRs below 4 or 5, especially with longer narrowband focus exposures. Should I still aim for 3x or 4x ratio from top to bottom of curve when focusing? That would mean around 15 to 20 at the top, depending on conditions and filter. Or would it be better to bin in this case?
Same with me based on my seeing and my long 8" SCT focal length. Still target the 3x-4x ratio. 15-20 at the top is fine. Steep sides are great and help you find the best 'bottom' for focus.
Can you do a video on saving basic sequences and sequences templates in 1.10? I am new to nina and find all the saving options a bit confusing. Thank you for the great material you produce!
I may be able to do this at some point but I don't think I have a current 1.10 install right now. All of my mounts are running the 1.11 nightly version because of the great number of advantages to this release.
@@PatriotAstro 1.11 will do. It still has the regular sequencer.
Hey Patriot hope you are well, I did the Dark custom plug in and just recently they updagraded while I was not ready to upgrade the plug in I did upagrded NINA. Suddenly I lost my filter offsets and can't see to find them. Are they store somewhere I can retrieve ? Or did I lost them?
They should still be there. They are profile specific. Is it possible you are using a new/different profile?
Any ideas on what you set your " image sensitivity" and " noise reduction" ?
This is just for on-screen display in the imaging tab. Typically the defaults are fine unless you end up having issues when trying to platesolve in NINA as an example.
Hello, I would like to focus the Canon EF200 L II lens with the astromodified Canon 6D body in NINA. So directly through the camera and not with the Astromechanics adapter. Is this currently possible in NINA?
Chad , have been watching video but I cannot get mine to work. I have to choose device hub and in NINA it says its moving but nothing is happening. I try to choose ZWO focuser 1 and 2 but it cant find it. Been out at the scope for about 2 hours now and it is like 27 degrees and I think I have had it for the night . Any ideas what I am missing . using the eaf..... I ran it from 0 to 50000 nothing but I can move it with the hand controller. So now if I can get my knees working I am going in the house... If you have any ideas please let me know . Love your videos you explain things well ... Thanks again. Steve
Great video my man, one question, how often will we have to do this once we get it set?
For the same equipment, you really shouldn’t have to do it again. If it starts getting a little wonky, you may have to fine-tune it… But for the most part you should be done. Unless you dramatically change your imaging train.
@@PatriotAstro what about between a dslr and a dedicated imaging camera, and do you know if NINA can run a dslr like eos backyard?
@@pristinelawncare6968 you can connect a DSLR to nina, of course with the right drivers. I tested with my T6i and it worked fine. It doesnt control focus though, that was manually done.
@@PatriotAstro Ok I hope this doesn't sound stupid but, can nina control the iso and exposure time etc. and the number of exposures, I understand about the focus I have an autofocuser
@@pristinelawncare6968 Mine could, yes. (I'm trying to recall if I had to set the ISO on the equipment page though... and not in the sequence.)
I'm using an astromechanics with a 400mm f/2.8, I have trouble with a kind of backlash. I end up getting W shaped graphs! When the focus moves changes direction the lens has some slop, or extra movement as the elements are heavy and initially move back more than the stated step size. I'm not sure quite how to go about fixing this. Probably with an overshoot value?
Can you send me a picture of the graph , and maybe your auto focus settings as well? If you go to the about page on my channel you should be able to track down the email address from there. I’d be glad to look at it for you. If you are using 1.11, you can just open the NINA interface and go to the auto focus window. There should be a drop-down there to look at previous Autofocus runs. I’m not sure off the top of my head if that’s available in previous versions of NINA but it may be there as well.
@@PatriotAstro Thanks for the reply! I'm on 1.10HF3, doesn't look to support opening graphs, although I have got logs I can look at, I can try and pull the focus position and the values into a graph. Or I'll just capture the actual nina graph next time I get a clear window! When I have something useful, I'll be in touch. Thanks for the assistance.
@@TomBridle It may be easier just to Grab a picture of the next graph. There’s a drop-down box in the Autofocus screen just above the results. I really don’t know if it’s in 1.10, but I know it’s easy to miss in 1.11 because it’s a full width box and it’s not very obvious. Maybe you have some of the other info though, was your lowest value of HFR compared to your highest value of HFR 3 to 4 times multiple? If not, then I would increase your step size. Usually W-shaped graph is more of a stepsize issue than anything else. And you may need to dramatically increase your stepsize size. Otherwise, see if you have any mechanical slippage. Get really close and watch the focuser as you’re moving at some amount in either direction. Does it slip and stop at any point when do you expect it to be moving? Sometimes the grub screw can come loose and stop turning the shaft until it grabs again.
Do I need to have offsets in for filters if I'm just autofocusing every time? Can you point me to the video that deals with filter offsets?
No. If you are AF on every filter change, you do not need offsets. If you do choose to setup and use offsets though, you remove all of that AF time throughout the night and have a bit more flexibility in your sequences. I'll try to link 2 videos for you in the subsequent comments... YT is funny about including url... so they may vanish from the comments. :(
Offset configuration video (BTW - I have an update video coming on this. Just know the plugin has been updated and runs directly out of the imaging page now!) th-cam.com/video/C2l1q4T8_Ys/w-d-xo.html
Smarter sequences video - includes usage of offsets and smarter dithering to get more imaging time. th-cam.com/video/QImduaYb_2c/w-d-xo.html
Hi Chad. I've followed your steps and tried to configure my autofocus followed by setting my filter offsets (L,S,H,O). Perfect 6/7 points V curves on Luminance and without filter. S,H,O N.I.N.A prompts HFR decrease too low or stars way out of focus. What's special with the narrow band curves is that all points are on the RHS of the turning point of the curve with half of the V shape. However in the far RHS, every additional point is at HFR 0 (with a horizontal line)I stopped the process after three points following the top of the V curve on the RHS. Am i the only one who have been experiencing that?
Thanks in advance
You may just need to go into the per filter settings of AF and increase the exposure time and or gain for the filters. You are likely just not getting enough good stars when the filter is in place to have a good detection result. Try that and let me know. Also, my email is on the about page if needed. Easier to share screenshots, etc.
@@PatriotAstro Thank you. I'll try that and will keep you posted
The autofocus and the insulation in the cameras was created by God in our eyes and we move it with our minds before He created it in the cameras. Glory be to God, the Great Creator.
They are amazing tools, processes, and equipment that certainly let us view the enormity and beauty of the heavens.
Can't you just focus using the manual buttons until you see the lowest HFR, then lock that in?
Absolutely. But autofocus means that my system in the middle of the night while unattended can self determine that a new focus run is needed and refocus the system for me without me having to lift a finger or end up with a bunch of blurry images later on in the morning. Focus changes for a number of reasons throughout the night, whether it’s temperature changes, or filter changes as examples. Automating the need for focus to correct itself automatically when needed without me having to do anything is the key here.
Step of autofocuser could be set in SharpCap. Easier and more precise. SharpCap should introduce autofocuser and meridian flip, and it will be the software for AP.
I like sharpcap for my planetary and solar but NINA definitely has way more control over full sequences as well as options for center after drift, etc, etc. I do love sharpcap though!
@@PatriotAstro I maybe don’t know NINA well, but sequencer in Sharpcap has more options: sequencer with life stacking (without it astrophotography is boring) and control when clouds are drifting through sky. Basically, in Sharpcap, you can automate when take and when not take pictures for variety real situations. Plus, you see clear picture of object due to life stacking.
Rest is the same.
However, NINA is more simple. It just take pictures without any thinking. Whole sky in clouds, it still takes them. Each frame should be > 10 min exposure to see anything but stars.
@@anata5127 I understand. So what you are describing is EAA which is closely related to 'regular' astrophotography (a term I'll use loosely here). I get it though. There are people that love EAA and want to stay up at night and see it now, and others that want to go to bed and process it tomorrow. I'm so happy this hobby has a fit for everyone and that there are software packages that work for everyone. It is a great bobby to be a part of!
@@PatriotAstro If they want to process tomorrow, maybe they should just buy images from some company. Thus, DeepSky organizing group of “astrophotographers”, they selecting targets, DeepSky taking pictures of these objects for them on super equipment under dark sky and sending to these “astrophotographers “ for processing.
Look at benefits: don’t need to buy equipment for 30-50K, sleep whole night, don’t rip hairs that this and that doesn’t work; and don’t need to drive miles away for dark skies.
Super. Right?
@@anata5127 I can't say that I agree. I can collects hours and hours of data on my equipment from home in bortle 7+ skies and after properly processing get images I'm quite happy with. I think some poeple like both aspects of the hobby: Imaging and processing. I see the appeal of EAA, but just like some people don't like processing images, others aren't up for EAA. To each their own. :)
*stupid question alert*
Sorry but I’m new to this. Once set up I take it the auto focuser does just that - keeps the stars in focus automatically by NINA talking to the focuser ….
Mostly, yes. You need to make sure you tell NINA 'when' you want to AF. You can either tell it to AF right now (at a specific point in a sequence), and/or on every filter change, and/after so many images or minutes, and/or based on an HFR change, etc. You can do this either in the Simple Sequencer OR the Advanced Sequencer.
If this works, I am going to send you an online hug or perhaps money?. I have struggled with my Pegasus and my EdgeHD 9.25.
Working, or still issues? I'd love to know how it went.
@@PatriotAstro Thanks for asking. There is a significant improvement overall but my curve is lop sided. I rarely goes above four HFR on the left and often just starts climbing on the right before autofocus ends. The R squared value is more often than not around 0.9 and above. There is not much need for any backlash size increase. All in all, it is dramatically better.
Too fast. I have no idea what you jumped to at 3:16 when you got the star on your screen. You pros need to take into consideration that those of us who have never done an EAF set up do not know what you are doing when you take your rote steps for granted. Please! This only adds to the frustration levels in trying to learn something new. Excellent tutorial otherwise.
Thank you for this video, really helpfull info, im using camera lens currently, my doubt is after a focus run since it ends on the other side of perfect focus, does NINA go back to the focuser position where it had best HFR or the user as to request it or input the focuser position value
It goes back to the calculated focus position and verifies it is accurate with the expected HFR at that point. Then stays at the focus location without intervention.
@@PatriotAstro Thank you for the reply! so if i have backlash and dont compensate, that readjustment wont be correct besides the fact that NINA uses HFR as reference point?
@@joseribeiro9564 Right, pretty much. If the backlash is small, you may not notice too much, but if large, you'll notice for sure. Backlash compensation is correcting for a defect in the focuser hardware.When we say 'go 100 inward' we expect it to move '100 inward', not 72.
@@PatriotAstro thanks you so much for the help, clear nights!!