Updated Workflow
Back at the end of July I wrote an update here that described my astro workflow, from setup to finish. Since then, I have been refining the procedure and can now get everything up and running a bit more efficiently.
I’ve made a few purchases and changes since then. The most critical being the purchase of an EQMOD cable, so now the mount is connected directly to my imaging laptop - completely bypassing the hand controller. In Ekos I have created a device profile that only contains the HEQ5 mount. This allows me to drive the mount during Polar Alignment without having to have all my imaging gear connected.
I have also just added a dedicated astro camera and an electronic focuser (EAF) to the mix. This will give me better quality images because the focus routines in Ekos will do a much better job of focusing than I can, and the increased sensitivity of the astro-cam (compared to the DSLR) means better data to work with.
So my workflow now looks like this:
- Decide on the target to be captured using Stellarium, Telescopius.com and looking at what other people are capturing (subject the limitations of my location).
- Set up all the gear and have it ready to go - mount, camera, dew heater, guide scope + camera, laptop, mains power supply. Check and tidy the cables as required, and ensure there are no snagging cables.
- Fire up the laptop, start KStars and use Ekos to connect to the mount using the HEQ5 device profile (as we need the slew it manually during the polar alignment operation).
- Start the PoleMaster software, connect to the camera and configure it (Southern Hemisphere, and camera settings so I can see the stars clearly)
- Polar align, using KStar’s mount control window to rotate the mount as required.
- Exit the PoleMaster software.
- Switch back to KStars/Ekos.
- Disconnect from the mount profile, and then connect to the profile containing all the devices that I’ll be using (mount, camera, guide camera, etc).
- Go to KStars planetarium screen and tell the mount to move to my chosen target.
- Switch to Ekos and focus the telescope properly.
- Now perform an alignment sequence to fine-tune the pointing of the telescope.
- Begin guiding, via Ekos’ ‘Guiding’ tab.
- Once guiding is working, move over to the camera tab, set up the number of images I want, with the correct camera settings and hit the ‘GO’ button. Not forgetting to add a suitable number of ‘Dark’ calibration frames at the end as a separate sequence.
- Copy the captured images from the laptop to the image processing machine.
Where to from here?
Well, I haven’t yet had a chance to take the new astro cam out and collect photos with it, nor have I actually used the EAF to focus the telescope. Hopefully that will happen tonight or tomorrow night, as the cloud forecast is looking very promising.
Then I get to learn all about ‘gain’, ‘offset’, and the joy of dealing with FITS files, rather than the usual Nikon NEF files I’ve been using for so many years.