NINA Offline Framing is Here! [New Video Link in Description]

[@PatriotAstro]

IMPORTANT! This feature was SO popular that Stephan decided to move the capability into the core functionality and make the FramingCache available as a single 2GB download from the NINA Downloads webpage (Permission was granted by the managing body of the Hips2Fits service). Scroll to the bottom of that page and download the file, then simply extract the folder into %localappdata%/NINA over the top of the previous folder. If or when prompted to overwrite any files, select YES to overwrite. If you have multiple systems running NINA (even a test install to experiment with), you can reuse the same files there as well. 1 download is all you need.

[@suwandicahyadi9213]

This is exactly what I need, I don't have internet connection from where I usually do imaging. Thanks for the video!

[@cgddgc36]

That is exactly what I needed. I always goto dark site where has no in internet. Now I can see the image for framing. Huge thanks! Keep going!!! Thank you.

[@PatriotAstro]

Yeah, the more and more I think about that, the more I realize how big of a feature of this is… Yet it just sort of snuck up on us. The Nina developers are absolutely amazing!

[@donmcgovern8039]

Thank you! This is much easier to scroll around the heavens and choose your night!

[@PatriotAstro]

I agree~!

[@jfalcon1977]

Amazing video as always! And yet another incredibly useful new feature from NINA!

[@richardhendrick5835]

Richard -Belgium - This is exactly what I need since at home I'm using a private wifi network not connected to the Net. Thank's for this video Chad...and all the others which helped me dig in NINA...:-)...

[@PatriotAstro]

Great! I’m glad it will help you.

[@maxtrixbass]

These videos are top notch. String them together and they make an excellent "online course" for NINA. Thanks much.

[@loganskiesdownunder5669]

Thanks mate for the info and Stefan for putting this in. This is better than Stellarium, no need to load a planetarium any more, less resources. All we need now is for NINA to do the dishes and make coffee. :)

[@PatriotAstro]

Totally agree!

[@uschi414]

Thanks for another great video on another great NINA feature. I just kicked off the download of the cache and look forward to using it tomorrow when I plan tomorrow night’s session. Clear skies.

[@PatriotAstro]

The downloads are slowing down as more and more people jump on board! Hopefully you got to it first. :-)

[@davecurtis8833]

Great vid Chad. I didn't know about this new plug in. The biggest benefit for me would be the increase in speed while at home. Nice new tool as we are moving towards winter down under.

[@PatriotAstro]

100% yes. I don't go remote that often at all, but this is still a big win for me at home too.

[@LogansAstro]

This is a fantastic feature. Even at home, loading up the individual target images can be painfully slow. Thanks for the heads up with another great video.

[@PatriotAstro]

Yes! It is great! Glad you are going to load it up.

[@studywithme8055]

@@PatriotAstro Woah awesome video's man, they are really helpful. So if I were to go to a darksy wihout internet this would be useful. Does it platesolve like the normal one, is there any reduction in accuracy? When use this can I also use phd2 without internet? Thanks for your answer.

[@jimwaters304]

"...loading up the individual target images can be painfully slow." Yep - My download has been running for 13 hours and I am at ~50% now.

[@mpk2707]

@@jimwaters304 Same here. SOOOOOO slow to download. I have just restarted and I´m supposed to finish in 4 hours now. I have my doubts though. When I started it took 1 hour to go from 1 to 4. A simple zip download would be nice.

[@flyingdockp]

A must download plug-in!!! Thanks for sharing

[@PatriotAstro]

Yep, for sure!

[@terrymartin1243]

This is awesome! I'll be using this new plug-in a lot. Thanks Chad.

[@PatriotAstro]

Great!

[@steevebody]

I was looking at the plug in list just a couple days ago to see if there was anything new and exciting and then today I saw your video pop up! Your are on the Pulse Chad :) This feature is a game changer for off the grid dark site (which is 90% of Australia where I am). Also looking forward to using this for speedy framing especially when loading wide field of views. Downloading now but it is taking forever for just 2gig... their servers must be overwhelmed now haha!

[@PatriotAstro]

I think so. LOL They are likely not to happy with the burst of download traffic. :)

[@davecurtis8833]

@@PatriotAstro I think the server has ground to a halt

[@steevebody]

@@davecurtis8833 Yes it is chocking pretty hard right now... It will time out on you without any particular notification from the Frame Caching Generator plug in window but you can stop and resume the download and it seems to pick it up again.... I've been downloading for 10h now... and had to resume a few times... almost there

[@ariebakx]

‘ve been suckling close to 48 hrs to get 1529 files downloaded. Now I have them all, I confirm it works! Allmost as if you are scrolling through Stellarium.

[@PatriotAstro]

Make sure you look at the pinned comment below the video. The procedure has changed a bit since the feature has become so popular. We were really taxing the Hips2Fits service! :)

[@stephanw196]

Thanks for a great video once again! Great times for astrophotographers. Your videos are my number one goto guides to learn NINA.

[@PatriotAstro]

Glad to help, let me know if you have any questions or requests.

[@TheMje1963]

WOW, now that's a game changer :) Oh and the bloopers should be entertaining and interesting :)

[@PatriotAstro]

Less for me and more for you. :)

[@hael8680]

Great tool!! Just disappointed there are still no "center point" or 1/3 - 1/3 alignment grid inside the framing rectangle. Hopefully that will come but since they are implementing those advanced plugins now, I don't hold my breath. Thanks for the video!!

[@PatriotAstro]

I'll have to look into it. Some of that is easy to add. I often dont worry too much about a perfect center since i may need to crop some amount anyway later on. But i certainly understand the request.

[@terohiekkalinna]

Great video! Thanks for the tips! 😃

[@PatriotAstro]

Make sure you look at the pinned comment below the video. The procedure has changed a bit since the feature has become so popular.

[@christopheguigot841]

Merci encore pour tes vidéos top sur Nina .

[@PatriotAstro]

I’m glad to help!

[@PaoloStivanin]

Thanks Chad! Very interesting and useful video, as always :)

[@PatriotAstro]

Thanks for watching!

[@SIGP229TPOC]

Another video to go along with another great plugin. 👍

[@PatriotAstro]

Thanks!

[@JonnyBravo0311]

Another great video, Chad! I've got the files downloading now :)

[@PatriotAstro]

Great!!

[@alanrockowitz379]

Great video. I especially appreciate the before and after, because I think that really helps. I downloaded this yesterday, and my only comment is that the "estimated time to download" is just as useless as all the other dialog boxes I have seen over the years. Mine said it would take 12 hours and 40 minutes. Or 12 minutes and 40 seconds. Needless to say it was neither of those; it took a few hours as you said.

[@stefanb9593]

It's the time when it finishes, not the duration

[@alanrockowitz379]

@@stefanb9593 Oh, that makes sense. I must've misunderstood it.

[@PatriotAstro]

Hey there!!!

[@michaelrushton2014]

Love your videos very helpful and methodical. Keep up the great work Chad!!!

[@PatriotAstro]

Thanks! Will do!

[@andreya108]

Useful feature. Thanks!

[@PatriotAstro]

Any time!

[@billblanshan3021]

Very nice!! Thanks buddy!

[@PatriotAstro]

Thanks !

[@StevenSSmith]

Here is the full download to put in the appdata / local / N.I.N.A. folder. The built in service took me over a day to download the whole sky, and I figured I save the next guy some time. The folder where to put it is time stamped here 6:03 drive.google.com/drive/folders/13h2vEKhFoE0Wj4C-GXWh_9wAEPWbn1YK?usp=sharing

[@PatriotAstro]

Thanks for offering up this option. Looks like NINA followed suite and published a version on their own downloads page once they got permission to redistribute.

[@robvandenwijngaart1970]

Hi Chad, thanks for the tip. My wifi connection is not so good outside, so I'll install this one.

[@PatriotAstro]

100% yes!

[@nickambrose8606]

This is amazing!!! Thank you.

[@PatriotAstro]

Make sure you look at the pinned comment below the video. The procedure has changed a bit since the feature has become so popular.

[@nickambrose8606]

@@PatriotAstro Thanks!

[@nickambrose8606]

@@PatriotAstro Hmmm, I already used the plugin - I assume there is no benefit to going back and doing the below procedure ?

[@PatriotAstro]

@@nickambrose8606 if I had to guess, just that it is the entire night sky and not limited by the previous plugin horizon filter.

[@chrishanson3497]

This is an awesome feature, great for outreach events

[@PatriotAstro]

It’s super helpful and such a nice add. The Nina devs care so unbelievably much about this product.

[@gomanastro]

echo, echo....i too think this is fantastic. so easy to scroll around with the whole universe pictured now! faster than downloading.

[@PatriotAstro]

yes, yes, yes!

[@ClearAmbientSkies]

What does NINA not do? 🤣 Thanks Chad! This is a great feature for all of us. Clear Skies 🔭

[@PatriotAstro]

Make sure you look at the pinned comment below the video. The procedure has changed a bit since the feature has become so popular.

[@flyingdockp]

I think Nina has now chosen another path on this one… direct download link to the files on their download page

[@NeilW210]

Yes, full instructions are now on the Announcements page in Discord.

[@perrywarburton9046]

Great video. No need for a planetarium anymore. I have a question, when downloading the images, does it download all the images through the seasons or will I need to download more next winter?

[@PatriotAstro]

I think it pulls everything to the extremes, but I'm not 100% certain. However, you could turn off limiting it by your horizon in the plugin before you start the download and you'll just get it all.

[@perrywarburton9046]

Thanks. I’ll give it a go. Keep up the great work with the videos. Very very helpful.

[@jster91]

I noticed a framing assistant cache as part of the new version of NINA. Is this essentially the same thing? I've pointed the program to the download directory of the cache and it seems to do the same as this plug-in. Thoughts?

[@PatriotAstro]

Exactly, it was so popular that Stephan pushed it into the base code as the cache (offline framing) option.

[@garybarr7116]

Great video. I have three NINA computers. I don’t want to have to download the images for all 3 computers. If I download the file folder on one computer and then install the plug in on the other computers, and then copy the FramingAssist file folder to the other computers, may work? Doing it now to try.

[@PatriotAstro]

Make sure you look at the pinned comment below the video. The procedure has changed a bit since the feature has become so popular. 1 download now, and move it anywhere it is needed.

[@christopheguigot841]

Pratique et rapide,plus besoin d'internet pour mon abri astro....top

[@PatriotAstro]

Exactly! Thanks for watching!

[@christopheguigot841]

Bonjour,il faut recharger le catalogue à chaque fois..? Pas moyen de sauvegarder le catalogue pour Nina…?..merci

[@VittorioSergi]

To the developer: great, oustanding contribution, the need to download through the plugin is a bit of a con though, isn't there a way to get a link to a torrent for all the images and then we could simply paste them into the appropriate folder?

[@PatriotAstro]

It initially started as a way for him (Stephan) to see if he could just display the already cached images. From there, he quickly realized that he could fill out the entire sky if he had more of the catalog downloaded. Hence the plug-in. It wouldn’t surprise me, if the hips2fits team was OK with it, that this didn’t become a single download (or share) much like our sky atlas download is today within Nina. I think we’ll just have to give it some time before we get there though.

[@Brazerker]

I have the build058 but don't see any of the additional observation search params (from, through, altitude, duration).. is there another setting somewhere to enable this?

[@PatriotAstro]

I noticed that last night as well. A couple things have changed. I’m guessing there was a slight issue. I’m going to look into it and I’ll try to remember to come back here and give you the update.

[@stefanb9593]

Just need to select a minimum altitude (instead of "any"), then you will see additional filters for it.

[@Brazerker]

@@stefanb9593 Thanks Stefan!

[@StevenSSmith]

Does the plate size change the quality at all?

[@PatriotAstro]

I'm honestly not certain how the Hips2Fits service outputs that but I would suggest the recommended settings since Stephan experimented and found this best as it results to combined quality and speed of render.

[@jplorge]

@V2 beta59 plugin is not there ?

[@PatriotAstro]

I’m going to have to put another update video together :-) the plug-in was so popular that we were killing the hips2fits service with all of the NINA user downloads. Stephan got permission to distribute the entire Hips2fits catalog from his website. There will be a download option on the NINA website download section soon if it’s not there already. No more need for the plug-in, we can just pull it from the NINA site.

[@stephanw196]

Is there a way in NINA to load an image from a previous night, have it platesolved and then start framing? So far I have just stopped a sequence and continued the next night. But that may prove difficult if a project only continues say a year later.

[@ChrisTurchin]

Nina does have that feature in the framing wizard already. Just select file as source then open an existing file and Nina plate solves it taking the existing meta data in the fits file into account as well.

[@stephanw196]

@@ChrisTurchin thanks Chris! I have overlooked that feature

[@ChrisTurchin]

There are many features, easy to miss one. Or more 😂 glad @patriotastro does these videos to present them as they drop.

[@PatriotAstro]

Thanks to Chris for replying. I also have a video on this , search my videos for framing. The interface has changed a tiny bit since then, but it’s the basic procedure that still works.

[@ninjageezer6802]

Downloaded direct from NINA downloads page put them in the %localappdata%/NINA folder and nothing showing in plugins ??

[@PatriotAstro]

There is an updated version of this video that was published. The link to that should be at the top of this video description. Basically, it was so popular that they moved it from a plug-in to native functionality. The updated video explains how it works now.

[@ninjageezer6802]

@@PatriotAstro brilliant thank you its all sorted now.

[@Chris_NGC6188Ara]

Awesome vid Chad thanks a million, damn I wish you my my neighbour lol........My Mini PC is very slow on internet. Could I download the large file on my desktop pc (faster) to a usb and transfer it to my scope mini pc?

[@PatriotAstro]

Make sure you look at the pinned comment below the video. The procedure has changed a bit since the feature has become so popular.

[@jeff5163]

When I try to extract to %localappdata%/NINA it says destination path invalid. Can you dumb it down for me?

[@PatriotAstro]

Try to open %localappdata%/NINA in the file manager. Then, open the ZIP file and drag the folder in the ZIP folder into the NINA folder. That should work.

[@jeff5163]

@@PatriotAstro I'm an idiot. Thanks. That worked.

[@N4GW]

Nice feature, but that plugin is not on my list to install I am on the latest version of NINA

[@PatriotAstro]

I had to pin this comment under the video after they made the change - here is the info you need: IMPORTANT! This feature was SO popular that Stephan decided to move the capability into the core functionality and make the entire FramingCache available as a single 2GB download from the NINA Downloads webpage (Permission was granted by the managing body of the Hips2Fits service). Scroll to the bottom of that NINA downloads webpage and download the file, then extract the folder into %localappdata%\NINA over the top of the previous folder. When prompted to overwrite any files, select YES to overwrite. If you have multiple systems running NINA (even a test install to experiment with), you can reuse the same files there as well. 1 download is all you need.

[@N4GW]

Never mind, I see your comment above

[@johnjames378]

bloopers please

[@PatriotAstro]

LOL. I'll see what I can do... there are enough of them.

[@Makrem]

Greatttt

[@PatriotAstro]

It really is.

[@sniuk]

Great video, as always...but can't make it work :( Gpt the download, extracted it, then pointed the location inside NiNa as Sky Survey cache folder, and nothing.. when select Offline sky map and search for an object, is as before, no image. What am I doing wrong?

[@PatriotAstro]

Make sure you are putting it in the FramingCache folder (use file manager to navigate to %localappdata% then you find the right location inside the NINA subfolder. )

[@sniuk]

@@PatriotAstro thank you for your answer. Yes I have copied the folder inside /appData/Local/NINA/. then in general tab, set the sky survey cache folder to that . And still not showing images..

[@djphild]

April 1st. This is suspect. Lol.

[@PatriotAstro]

Ya, LOL! My timing might not have been so great on this video release... :)

[@StevenSSmith]

I'll upload the cache folder to my google drive and post a link here when its done. The download is way slow from the server it is coming from. Would you pin the comment when I post?

[@PatriotAstro]

Sorry this response is late, but Thank You!!!