NINA manual object selection and imaging (Astrophotography software)

I saw a beginner asking a question about this so I thought I'd make this video. Let's look at how we can use NINA manual object selection and imaging.
#astrophotography #NINA
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Thanks for watching! Clear skies!

[@landarch283]

I’ve always found your videos clear and .concise. Being new to N.I.N.A. this is exactly what I need.

[@DavidHill-x3u]

Nice tutorials. Straightforward. Concise. Very helpful.

[@barrytrudgian4514]

Thanks Shawn. Have been using N.I.N.A. for a while and recently donated because I like it very much. Thanks for pointing out that Sky Atlas shows targets by constellation. I had missed that.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Glad the video was helpful. And great that you donated to NINA. I have as well.

[@bengterlandsson7921]

Thanks for the tip! Been using SGP. But looking to switch to Nina this season. Keep the tutorials coming.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Give NINA a try. It's very good. Make sure you get the version 1.11 and latest nightly build. Little bit of a learning curve but well worth it. I used SGP as well for a few years before switching to NINA. Been over a year now I've been using.

[@bengterlandsson7921]

@@VisibledarkAstro It’s all set up. Only thing missing is clear skies. Thanks

[@themarksoflife]

This filled in the blanks i had Thanks very much for posting this

[@caracolrpower]

Nice video Shawn keep the good work, clear skies from Portugal

[@francescot3684]

Thanks a lot Shawn for another great video! How did you get customized landscape information in N.I.N.A. about the objects you planning to photograph?

[@VisibledarkAstro]

I'm going to put a short video together. How to do it. Stay tuned!

[@astro7996]

Thanks for this! I literally just moved away from NINA because I couldn't figure out how to use it and got back to APT. I need to try this tonight.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Great! Good luck.

[@CAPAstro]

Hi Shawn another great video! You can actually test slewing during daytime whether in sequence or framing etc. Just delete all camera-related instructions like plate-solve, AF, guiding etc in your sequence and make sure the target is slewable too during the day. I usually do a test run like this during the day before going out to a remote site to check that all is in order.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Thanks for the tips! Ya I knew it could be done but wasn't necessary for the video, example. Good idea to test things before heading out. I don't travel anymore myself. I use to. More of a permanent setup now in the backyard.

[@AlbertAJohnsonJr]

Hello Shawn, just starting out with NINA and haven't used it yet. I have a Takahashi FS102 with an SX814C camera. I like the manual Framing process that you show in this video and I would like to know when I finish with the plate solving and centering, can I manually rotate the camera and take another image to check the position of the object in the frame. My scope has a manual rotator? Thanks for making videos easy to understand for beginners.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Yes you can! Can you contact me through my website visibledark.ca and I can help you better.

[@rtpman1953]

Great video, Shawn. I briefly used NINA and returned to SGP for a while as I was having issues in NINA with a piece of equipment. I've come back to NINA recently. I'd love to see a video of how you set up your imaging screen. When I click on one of my tabs such as plate solve, it apparently opens up behind my image and I have to juggle things around.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Hey Paul - ya the imaging screen can be awkward to try and setup, the various panes, moving them and positioning them is cumbersome for lack of a better word. I think it may be something the devs will look at in the future, to make it better. I'll put this on the list and hopefully have a vid for you soon. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@rtpman1953]

@@VisibledarkAstro Yeah, I gave up and left it at the defaults. I'd get just about how I wanted it and then one of the items would no longer show up and I'd have to go to Options > Imaging and reset layout.

[@billchilds4261]

Great video, there is always something new to learn in NINA!

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Sure is! Thanks for tuning in and commenting.

[@PeterJahans]

Thanks for the video Shawn. I'm still a bit NINA-shy as I've tried a couple of times to use it but can't seem to get comfortable with the UI and multitude of options. I do continue to watch your tutorials, so will probably try again as fall/winter targets return.

[@francoisduguay5195]

Thank you Shawn. Your videos about NINA are very useful and I really enjoy them. What criteria do you use to rate the quality of your frames (HFR, # of stars, other parameters)? Keep up the good work!

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Honestly I inspect each frame manually with "Blink" in PixInsight. Easy to tell good stars from poor ones and overall quality (SNR etc) after this many years of imaging. Some use Subframe Selector in Pix but I found it sometimes can reject otherwise good frames as the criteria narrows. I'm old school in some ways so doing it manually just comes naturally. And is pretty quick overall with Blink.

[@johnbrennen1776]

Very informative, btw what version if NINA are you running? Thanks

[@VisibledarkAstro]

I'm using ver 1.11 nightly build 147 right now. But it keeps getting updates so the nightly build will change as those updates roll out.

[@stevehanson5556]

Great informative presentation Thank you very much.

[@andreya108]

You can also mention importing coordinates from Stellarium. It is very convenient when there is no specific target name. Or if one is too lazy to type it 😉

[@VisibledarkAstro]

yes for sure!

[@henservillela1938]

thanks for the video, exactly what I needed.

[@steveduffy8726]

This was helpful. I tried both of these things without success, but I realized from watching the video that the problem is probably with my star atlas. This technique works at home in my office testing, but not in the field, where the star atlas finds nothing.

[@geirvalsvik1780]

Great video, just what I was wondering about. I'm relative new to NINA, but after some learning curve and getting used to, I'm really starting to like the software, and see its big potensials. One question: when Nina do the plate solving, will it then automatically sync the mount with the result of the plate solve? (assuming ofcourse that the Sync option is not turned off) Clear skies to you!

[@JVRost]

Hi Shawn, question: Is it possible to point the telescope at NINA using the received photo from the last session?

[@njcck]

Hi Shawn. I really enjoyed the video. I'm trying to use a previous night's image as the target for my second night. I know how to input a file into the framing tab, but I can't get the coordinated to transfer into a sequence. Any ideas?

[@jonrobinson1026]

Beginner question... it needs to be super accurately polar aligned first,right? Thanks

[@sarg3146]

Good info, but you skipped the case where the object is not in the catalog. In that case you just enter the RA and Dec manually. I was having trouble with this last night because the "slew and center" button remained grayed out. Perhaps I didn't click "load image"? Could that be the reason? Of course it doesn't have an image to display in that case. I got everything else to work last night, though (first night with NINA): plate solving, polar alignment, Guiding, camera control, etc. So it was a pretty good night. I do need to be able to enter AR and Dec, though.

[@ronlundgren4391]

Well done. Love the channel.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Thanks Ron! Appreciate you taking the time to comment. Cheers.

[@jdpartridge]

Looks awfully cold there. Nina said it was -127 deg C. Thanks for the video. I am learning Nina now too.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Yes very cold! lol. I don't know why NINA reports that. Was actually 16 deg C out at the time. Thanks for watching. Cheers.

[@AndrewBirkett]

My version of 1.10 HF3 doesn't have the 'Slew and Centre' option in the Framing Assistant. I see you are using 1.11 NIGHTLY so I'm assuming this is a new feature that is still in development.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Yes that's right. Most are using 1.11 nightly at this point I think. I've been using it since it was released as a preview nightly build #1 (now at #147). Works great. Have had very little issues. Maybe a couple times something didn't work quite right over the past year. But with the active development and speedy updates to it, fixes are fast.

[@KnyghtErrant]

I can't for the life of me figure out how to load a previous session's image into NINA so I can plate solve it to continue a multi-night session. What am I missing?

[@qx3V45p]

You need to save the sequence as a 'Target Set'. The button, top right, that looks like an old 3.5in. floppy disk. Hover mouse over it and a hint should show up 'save current targets as a set'. Then next time you image hit the button next to it (Button is an image of 'folder n magnifying glass') to load the saved target set. After loading be sure the 'progress' is set to zero. If not hit the refresh icon and resave the sequence so next time you open it's ready to go. Anytime you make tweaks or update the sequence you can save it overwriting the old one or saving under different name.

[@KnyghtErrant]

@@qx3V45p Thank you, I will give this a shot.

[@davidschaeffer5322]

I use both those tools to slew and center on DSO's but I don't see that I can do that with the planets. Am I missing somethin?

[@VisibledarkAstro]

I actually don't know if you can do that with planets in NINA. I've not tried it and don't do much planetary imaging anyhow.

[@paulbarrett423]

loving your channel, I have a problem I would love you to cover. I have two scopes on a pier mount a widefield setup (ed80 asi1600 mono) and also a MAK127 and a 533osc, I can plate solve no problem widefield but not with the MAK, tried everything nina, sharpcap, sgpro just cant do it, (Im using ASTAP ) nearest i get is in sharpcap it says "not enough stars 42" would love to set this up correctly in NINA .

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Off hand Paul I don't know. Have you tried longer platesolve exposures with the MAK? If it isn't seeing enough stars it won't work. Try doubling the exposure time or more and see what happens. You also want to make sure your pixel size of sensor is correct as well focal length and ratio in NINA.

[@paulbarrett423]

@@VisibledarkAstro will do

[@paulbarrett423]

@@VisibledarkAstro im not stupid really just a bit thick at times, I didnt realise my autostretch was on so i can see all these stars when in reality all thats there is a black screen, soon as i turned off the autostretch and exposed properly bingo

[@KJRitch]

You do this without polar align? How do you get a 120sec exposure without star elongation without guiding. Are you assuming the user has done these steps?

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Of course you have to do polar alignment!