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Post by Astronomy Live on Oct 31, 2018 21:41:01 GMT
Please use this forum to discuss issues or share images and observing reports regarding SatTraker, my open source software for automatic satellite tracking with computerized telescopes.
Forum rules:
No doxing
Keep it PG
Keep it related to satellite tracking
Use common sense
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Post by Astronomy Live on Oct 31, 2018 21:48:39 GMT
Example of tracking the Hubble Space Telescope at f/20 with an 8" Meade LX200 classic:
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Post by Astronomy Live on Nov 9, 2018 22:27:07 GMT
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sleat
New Member
Posts: 12
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Post by sleat on Nov 15, 2018 14:21:14 GMT
Hey, AL
So, what Python IDE is that that I see in your 11 Nov video? I don't recognize it. Geany maybe?
Cheers,
sleat
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Post by Astronomy Live on Nov 16, 2018 15:54:58 GMT
It's Geany. It was recommended in a "Python Crash Course" book I read when starting out, and I've just stuck with it ever since.
Here's this morning's results with the LX200 in Alt/Az:
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sleat
New Member
Posts: 12
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Post by sleat on Nov 17, 2018 13:18:36 GMT
That's way-cool! I can't wait to test the new EQ code.
Some questions, observations, and ideas;
The glitching and fading in-out of focus, is that due to manual re-focusing, or what?
I've always found that pre-focusing the rig on a planet or star, or using a focus-mask works very well.
I wonder if it'd be possible to incorporate some sort of image-based auto-focus into the tracking loop, too, assuming focusing is a problem. It isn't for me, but it might happen that viewing through a significantly different bit of atmosphere could affect the focus slightly.
In the planetary imaging case, you're basically shooting video through a single "column" of atmosphere, but with an orbiting object, you're viewing through vastly differing layer-thicknesses, and directions through the atmosphere, during the pass.
Regarding the rolling average/stacking, I'm led to wonder, if the image-tracking functionality (in image vs point tracking mode) can detect significant atmospheric divergence from the desired image, (i.e. this is no longer the image I started on) perhaps it could automatically drop (or at least set aside for review in a separate movie stream) "bad" frames from the rolling average? Other planetary stackers basically do this semi-manually, but they are improving all the time.
With orbital objects, of course they change aspect drastically, so some sort of re-initialization (this is now my "good" image reference) would also want to occur.
Perhaps I'm mis-understanding how the image tracking and rolling average actually work.
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Post by Astronomy Live on Nov 20, 2018 16:41:03 GMT
That's way-cool! I can't wait to test the new EQ code. Some questions, observations, and ideas; The glitching and fading in-out of focus, is that due to manual re-focusing, or what? I've always found that pre-focusing the rig on a planet or star, or using a focus-mask works very well. The scope was pre-focused but mirror flop was a factor. I refocused the scope manually during tracking. I wonder if it'd be possible to incorporate some sort of image-based auto-focus into the tracking loop, too, assuming focusing is a problem. It isn't for me, but it might happen that viewing through a significantly different bit of atmosphere could affect the focus slightly. In the planetary imaging case, you're basically shooting video through a single "column" of atmosphere, but with an orbiting object, you're viewing through vastly differing layer-thicknesses, and directions through the atmosphere, during the pass. It might be possible to add autofocus as a feature through ASCOM compatible focusers, but those routines are usually pretty slow and you're dealing here with a very transient event. Maybe it would be faster if I wrote it myself with speed in mind, but really there are lots of other creature comforts that should probably take priority over that. With the software handling all aspects of tracking automatically the observer is freed up to manually focus the telescope themselves, and they can generally do it faster than software could. That's what I did myself for that video. I didn't even need to look at what the program was doing, I was entirely freed up to focus the telescope as it tracked. Regarding the rolling average/stacking, I'm led to wonder, if the image-tracking functionality (in image vs point tracking mode) can detect significant atmospheric divergence from the desired image, (i.e. this is no longer the image I started on) perhaps it could automatically drop (or at least set aside for review in a separate movie stream) "bad" frames from the rolling average? Other planetary stackers basically do this semi-manually, but they are improving all the time. With orbital objects, of course they change aspect drastically, so some sort of re-initialization (this is now my "good" image reference) would also want to occur. It would need to assess quality in some manner other than a reference frame, which changes very rapidly for most orbital passes of ISS. Maybe some sort of sharpness quotient based on edges in any object detected above the threshold. It could work but would take significant time for me to code. I'll keep it in mind though. |
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Post by REDSHIFT on Aug 23, 2019 4:29:01 GMT
nice effort, but the software link is not working.
thanks and good luck
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