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Hi All, I just installed Stellarmate on my RPi4 and have got it ready to be plugged into my setup: Star Adventurer 2 Main Camera: Sony A7III Guiding Camera and Scope : ASI120MM Mini (mono) and ZWO Guide Scope Stellarmate OS on RPi4 I am quite confused on where to start with the initial connection/setup i.e. KStars/EKOS/INDI etc. Are there any good guides/videos which talks specifically about this kind of setup (non-Goto mounts with SLR and Stellarmate)? My Guide scope hasn't arrived yet so was planning on getting myself familiarized with the UI on KStars/EKOS. I would like to get familiar with the process of Framing a target, Plate Solving, PA using EKOS (if possible with SA), Dithering etc so please let me know where I can read/watch more on this relevant to my above setup. I am just not sure where to start with all of these different things so I think someone with good understanding of this, can tell me in a few sentences the whole process (step-by-step) or direct me to a guide/video link that I can go through for setting up Auto-Guiding in this setup. I understand that in my case, the Auto Guiding will only work for the RA and not the DA. I have watched some videos on the Youtube and the ones I came across are mostly talking about the Goto mounts. I understand about the connections between different devices and I am listing them below. Please correct me if wrong: 1. SA to Guide Camera via ST4. 2. Main Camera (Sony A7III) to RPi4 via USB 3. Guide Camera to RPi4 via USB As my SA 2 us not a Wi-Fi model (SA 2i), I would be using the Telescope Simulator/Driver in EKOS? Please help me with this. I would very much appreciate any inputs here. Thank you in advance. Regards, Nick |
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Hi Nick, try these links: The KStars Handbook (sourceforge.net) 52 Night Sky - YouTube Tutorials (indilib.org) The INDI community is usually quite supportive. The main problem is that with a tracker you can't use that many of the functions. First step in my opinion is to try whether you can get one of your cameras connected. If this is the case you can ease your polar alignment. Next step is then to get the guiding to work. In case you manage to get your Sony camera to talk to EKOS you may use the plate solving for checking your centering of the target. You may then trigger your camera by EKOS which will allow you to dither. Good luck and clear skies Wolfgang |
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Hi Nick, Wow! Such a quick response  Got it, I will start with connecting my Sony a7III to RPi4 first and try to make it work. If it works, then I can move on to different things. For PA to work, Guider should be connected too right? I don't have the Guider with me yet so asking if I can do PA without the Guider Scope/Camera or just SA, Camera and RPi4 would be enough to PA via EKOS? Thank you very much Wolfgang for always helping us! |
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Hi Nick, Are there any documents/videos talking about connecting SLRs to RPi4 with EKOS/Stellarmate? I checked the INDILIB forum and could only see these things:Sony A7IIIThe INDI Sony driver is reported to work well with the Sony A7III camera. Just make sure to set the format to RAW. Capture must be set to BULB.Here are some in-camera settings that might be helpful:Camera --> Controls --> M modus --> AF set to AEF Camera --> Settings --> Camera Tab > 4 > ISO set to 100 Camera --> Settings --> Camera Tab > 4 > DRO/Auto HDR set to "Off" Camera --> Settings --> Camera Tab > 5 > Long Exposure Noise Reduction (NR) set to "Off"Check the there are no features in the camera that prevents the camera from going to Bulb mode (e.g. Silent Shutter). I am looking for information with respect to EKOS i.e. what all I need to select for my camera to get detected/connected. Any ideas/information you could share would be really helpful as I might try connecting it tomorrow. TIA! Regards, Nick |
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Since I failed miserably to get my Olympus E-M1 MkII work reliably together with EKOS, I'm unfortunately not the right person to lead you through the process. There is an INDI user group at astrobin which is better suited: INDI Users - AstroBin Good luck and clear skies Wolfgang |
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its fairly intuitive tbh Connect usb make sure your in bulb mode... Connect your camera and have a play with the software |
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Since I failed miserably to get my Olympus E-M1 MkII work reliably together with EKOS, I'm unfortunately not the right person to lead you through the process. There is an INDI user group at astrobin which is better suited: INDI Users - AstroBin @kuechlew : Thank you! I tried connecting my Sony A7III to RPi4 and created a profile in EKOS. I think I was successful in connecting my camera. I was able to capture image sequence with different Exposures (30s, 0.1, 0.2..). I did see some issues when setting a long exposure i.e. 0.02 or 0.05. The sequence would abort. However with Exposure settings in the range of 30s and 0.2s, I was able to get it to capture the FITS file and save it to the local Pictures folder on the Stellarmate OS. I would like to know further if there are any other settings I should be doing in EKOS for my Sony A7III or am I good with the settings shared below (see the screenshots). I hope this will help others too who are trying to connect their Sony A7III with EKOS. I would like some advice on what else should I test on EKOS with my Sony camera while I wait for my Guide Scope & camera so that I feel comfortable in the field if I run into any issues with it. Please share your experiences/advice. They are always helpful and much appreciated! Regards, Nick      |
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Hi there, This is the order you need to test your Indi setup. 1.) Connect power and devices. 2.) Point at a star and get focus. (Try manually focusing through the focus module first, using short 1sec exposures on a cropped star, When you are close, then do an autofocus.) 3.) Make sure mount is level and do a rough polar align by eye, using polaris. Then run the polar align routine. use 15 degrees to start with. 4.) Choose your object in kstars right click goto, then plate solve and center. 5.) Setup your capture routine (90sec should work without guiding) 6. Start the job and off you go. With ekos, it is best to just stick with default settings, unless something does not work. To plate solve you will need to download the files for you FOV of your telescope, these are needed to polar align , and always with main scope and camera for better accuracy. Some extra notes, once you have a guide camera, you can autoguide and use the tempreture sensor on the guide camera to force a autorefocus, due to temp changes. I would suggest you do a thorough practice run at home on a single star, before you go on a trip. Stuck, ask these folks, super helpful community. https://www.indilib.org/forum/ccds-dslrs.html Lets us know how it goes. |
