Setting up a PC from scratch for astrophotography can be quite difficult when you're not used to it. Here, I try to show you the steps to accomplish this, and to end up with a PC with the proper software installed. #astrophotography
Cuiv I have to say that these recent run of videos you have made are EXTREMELY useful for beginners. My PC is already set up and but I would gladly recommend this to anyone looking to start out. Any chance I get I try to get people to use N.I.N.A and now I can use your videos to refer them to
Thank you! I make those videos hoping they'll be useful, so I really hope it can help beginners in the hobby. I want to make a series that will be a "lazy person's guide to starting astrophotography", focusing on being lazy, not losing sleep, and thus automation.
Hi Cuiv, I just found your videos on NINA. I also find the other videos very interesting and I like your way of presentation! You are obviously very productive ;-) and have exciting material. I wish you many new subscribers. It went very well until now :-) Thanks and CS to Japan. P. S. I was surprised to see that in Tokyo you can live in a house with two floors ;-)
Thank you very much Mathias! It's feedback like yours that makes me go on - so much fun :) My house here actually has 4 floors, if I include the roof balcony :) Maximum efficiency!
Hi Cuiv, Another great video. I hope you dont mind a little bit of constructive criticism (not negative). There will no doubt be quite a few people watching this who are new to AP & maybe even not that experienced using a PC, with that in mind it may be helpful to maybe slow down a little & explain not just what your doing but why & what does it do. A good example would be when it comes to prioritising com ports. Theres no explanation as to why com ports need to be accessed/ prioritised, also theres no mention of hardware priority, such as the mount is more important than the camera & therefore needs a higher com port (say 4 rather than 6) plus which com ports to use, as starting from 1 to 2 to 3 & so on wont usually work & you need to start from higher port (say Mount- com 5) Hope you dont mind me asking this as your videos are very informative. Clear Skies Steve
Very informative Cuiv! Thanks! Could you perhaps some day explain a typical night out shooting with NINA. What do you start in what order, basic configuration, perhaps a brief overview of the classic workflow? This is all great info, thanks for sharing.
Merci pour la bonne vidéo. Quel logiciel préfères-tu pour contrôler le mini ordi à partir du laptop? Je vois que tu as mentionné chrome quelque chose...?
I think it's only sold in Japan: www.amazon.co.jp/gp/aw/d/B07GVJDK7F?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title&th=1 . I think Intel NUC work well as well. You just want to make sure to have enough USB ports (I want 3 ports at least, four if possible, and one of them at least should be USB 3.0)
Salut Cuiv' , je voudrais me prendre un mini PC pour gérer mon setup en réseau à la place d'un Asiair, quelle configuration minimale me recommandes-tu stp pour win 10, NINA, PHD, stellarium et Ascom bien sûr. merci! bonjour du Pays ;-) Will.
Hey Cuiv, Do we need to download the star chart (1gb) from the NINA website. I will be imaging in remote areas with no internet, so wondering if this is needed to for NINA to work correctly. Cheers for the vids mate.
You need it if you want the preview pictures in the NINA catalog, but it's not mandatory. Also, the framing wizard has an offline mode as well, that is quite usable. I think the biggest part is plate-solving, but if you have ASTAP, which can be used as a blind solver as well, you should be fine! Clear skies and good luck with your imaging!
Hi Yannick, I bought a Beelink GK mini PC, it's the size of a NUC, and it runs off 12V instead of 19V, 18W max draw. Notebookcheck.net has a review of it (Celeron J4125, 8GB RAM / 128GB SSD / supplied with Win 10 Pro (so I can remote desktop into it, you can't do that on Win 10 Home), 4xUSB 3, AC Wifi), and I found that by using a Kuma brand "car adapter" model SPS1, 10-28VDC in, 12V out, voltage stabiliser, I was able to run this mini PC from my 20m long "Cigar Plug Socket Extension Lead 12V" (Ebay UK) cable that I have running from inside the house (12V DC from a mains AC adapter), through a 12mm hole in the wall, outside to my mount, the voltage on the end of that long cable drops under load due to the resistance of the cable, but the voltage stabiliser solves that issue (also works off 12V battery of course as well, and as battery voltage varies, PC only sees 12V). I ran Prime95 on it for over an hour and all seems well. Then I set it up like you told us how to do. Many Thanks for the tutorial help, it's very useful. Thought this might help anyone who is wanting a 12V mini PC.
I haven't tested this lens in the wild yet (waiting for nebula season), but you can check my other pictures (many of them with the camera in this video) at yannickd9.wixsite.com/astrophoto
I've now watched 5/7 of your videos. I live in a big city, like you. A beginning and I'm willing to spend some money for equipment. I want a refractor and a ZWO camera, including a 120 mini camera for guiding. What do you recommend? Color or monochrome for city?
I'm glad you persevered - sorry the first video you watched was so full of jargon! OK so if you have the budget, despite the additional complexity, I would recommend going for a monochrome camera with LRGB and Narrowband filters. Make sure in that case you get an electric filter wheel (like the ZWO EAF) and focuser for your telescope too so you can autofocus between filters (and set filter offsets). If going the ZWO route, the smaller sensor / affordable / easy to deal with cameras are the 1600MM Pro and the 183MM Pro (which you choose depends on what you wish your resolution to be - I've used both, they're both quite good). If you are in the city, narrowband filters will help you vanquish light pollution (I have a video on that too here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gLrtznawfyk.html ). As for the filters, for narrowband I would recommend going the Baader Ultra-Narrowband way for a good price/performance ratio that doesn't leave you wanting in the long term. Or if you are a perfectionist, the far more expensive Astrodon or Chroma 3nm narrowband filters. There is a buy once, cry once saying in astrophotography that tends to be very true. Monochrome will mean more equipment to buy, more work to get your setup ready for first light, and a steeper capture and post-processing learning curve. But it is worth it, from the city. I hope this helps!
Cuiv, The Lazy Geek Thanks! This can be an expensive hobby to start, so I'm gonna continue with my visual astronomy through the summer and see where it goes. But I'm realizing the limits of being in the city for visual. And I'm intrigued with astrophotography, but need to get a refractor (I have a Celestron 8" SCT and advanced VX Mount, which I will use for astrophography with an auto guide camera as you suggest). I know the monochrome is more work, and someone else recommended the 183 (in color, for ease) but I'm so worried about city light pollution that I'm afraid mono is a necessity. I need to figure out what software I need to start too to run everything, scan the sky and stack/process the pix.
@@jamespavlock9615 I see you're on the right track already! I actually got great results from Tokyo on galaxies with a color camera (the excellent ASI533MC Pro - which I would recommend over the 183MC Pro due to bigger pixels and lack of amp glow) during the galaxy season ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lammovx8eI8.html ) including winning a ZWO ASIWEEK for one of the images. You'll want to make sure the AVX can track and guide well... There are people who love the AVX, others who have a lot of trouble to use it for AP. The AVX I owned was a complete lemon, barely good enough even for visual - so there is variability! For the software, there are many solutions available - for capture, I use (and am a contributor to) N.I.N.A., which is free and open-source. For processing, I use PixInsight, although many recommend APP (or Startools) as well. Lots of things to learn indeed! But I can tell you're on the right track - good luck!
Very useful for those of us getting into this along with your NINA series. I have learned a lot! Where did you get the bracket to old the ZWO camera and the lens? I have wanted to do something similar using a Ziess 135mm f/2 and this looks like what Ive hunted for. Great work--very clear distributions.
Thank you! These brackets come from a Japanese seller, here: www.electricsheep.co.jp/astroshop/?itemcode=esrngs01 . They're not perfect for the lens, but just barely fit.
Great video! :) Couple of questions.. What is the adapter that connects the cooled camera to the dslr lens called?, which QHY mini polar scope is it that your using?, also your Intel NUC mini pc, which model do you have? I know for just image acquisition you don’t need a real high a spec pc and the NUC looks great for this...are you running it of 12v dc power from the power bank? If so how long does it last for with everything connected? Sorry for all the questions!ha! Thanks again for a really great video. Ant
Thank you! The adapter from the Camera to the DSLR lens is this one: astromechanics.org/ . The QHY mini guide scope (not polar scope - I haven't used polar scopes since Sharpcap implemented the Polar Align feature) is called the QHY miniGuideScope :) www.modernastronomy.com/shop/accessories/qhy-accessories/qhy-miniguidescope-kit/ The PC is actually a Japanese PC I bought on Amazon, not a NUC. It runs on 19V, so not really good for astro on the go (for that, I use my laptop). Getting a true mobile PC for astro whose battery lasts forever is on my list though!
Cuiv, Lazy Geek in Japan Thanks for that :) I actually meant guide scope not camera, my mistake!ha...I was looking into either the iOptron ipolar or qhy polemaster but since watching vids of sharpcap and the polar align feature I’m definitely going to try that first. PC/laptop wise I actually just bought a Chuwi herobook pro. It’s a 14 inch 8gb ram 256gb ssd (upgradable) and lasts for around 7hrs off a full charge, the charger is 12v 2A not 19v which was a decider for me incase I want to use it out in the field or charge in the car. It’s only got a Celeron n4000 cpu but it pretty quick and for just acquisition it seems great :)
@@ant_hart That sounds like a very neat PC!! I'm looking into the latest mini laptops from GPD, as they can be charged from USB-C as well... So much money can fly away with this hobby!
Cuiv, Lazy Geek in Japan There is a mini pc made by Pepper Jobs that can run off USB-C power, it’s on Amazon ...I’ve read some pretty good reviews ... PEPPER JOBS GLK-UC2X, TurboBoost 2.4GHz, 4 Cores Unlocked Intel N4100 Mini PC with Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) [Upgradeable/4GB/64GB/Dual-Band Wi-Fi/Gigabit Ethernet/Triple 4K 60Hz outputs/Dual USB-C] www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07P1TCB55/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_yFlUEb86TGZSM
Thanks a lot I believe this will help me a lot. I'm not Windows savvy, I'm a mac man so I haven't used windows in 15 years. I'm going to try to connect to everything and I'll let you know. Quick question if I'm using a dslr do I have to use backyard eos or can i just use nina? Again Thanks!
Good to hear this can be useful! Windows is very good, but it's forced updates can get very annoying. If you have a DSLR, BYEOS works well, but if you have a GoTo mount, I would recommend NINA or SGP as you can do slewing and automated centering of your targets. It makes things much, much easier! However NINA can have some issues with some DSLRs.
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Thanks again, for some reason I don't have my mount in the list of mounts when I try to connect it, I'm trying to use a guide scope without using the s4 cable and I have the cgx mount.
@@spacedogsbackyardastronomy8274 I'm not familiar with Celestron mounts - I assume you installed the CGX specific ASCOM driver? Can you see the mount in PHD2?
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I don't know how to look for it in PHD2. I tried reinstalling the drivers but now they want down load and the trouble shooting said that if it was doing that that I needed to updated Java so I tried to update it and it still does it. So I'm lose.
Just bought a new laptop, now this pops up. wtf. Awesome With the conflict of a asi 294 mc pro changing the pixel size of the asi 120 mm mini. Is there a fix for that problem. I’m using 3.0 ports and 3.0 hub
Haha great timing! I'm unfortunately unfamiliar with that issues, but I believe there is a firmware update available for the 120MM, so maybe that could help!
Knowing this video is 2 years old, and that your hugely popular, you may not respond. I didn't see a link to the hardware used. If possible, can you provide one. Much Thanks, and happy holidays.
"From scratch" would imply that this video is for someone that doesn't know what they are doing. With no explanations as to "Why" on anything I am NOW one of those people that hasn't a clue as to what I am doing!
Hi James - sorry this was so complex from the start, it was indeed for people that have a good understanding of the equipment that needs to be setup. However, I have a series about starting astrophotography in general, which tries to explain everything step by step, and plan on revisiting the computer setup part as part of that series: ru-vid.com/group/PLDesYsLqfxSEjJlo0v94vj2JOABYOswoX . Feedback from people like you would be most useful for me to adapt my video contents! Thank you so much for this feedback, this is extremely useful.
That's great. I just watched your first "intro" video and see you have a few more. This is what i need as a beginner. How to choose equipment (a big investment), how to choose accessories, a computer and software, and how to get started! Thanks.
