Using NINA and the Orbitals Plugin to Catch a Comet

[@jimwaters304]

A good and timely video. Thanks for taking the time to create it.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi Jim, I used it last night to get Comet c/2022 E3 ZTF. It worked like a champ

[@davidjennings2733]

Very Nice Pat. Thank you for sharing and the tips on capturing and processing.

[@Gillou-qi3dj]

Thank you very much for vette vieo. I have been trying to photograph the planets with NINA for a long time. Thanks again!!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

NINA is great for DSO and for finding planets but extremely difficult to photograph the planets. I prefer to use a software package like Sharpcap for the planets.

[@RigoFromSpain]

Well done Patrick, great tutorial !!!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, Rigobert

[@ronlundgren4391]

Great video and comet image!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, Ron

[@ronlundgren4391]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy Pat I don't see Orbitals in my Plugins list. In fact I only have 7 available. I see you have a bunch available.....any idea why I'm not seeing all of them? I'm running 2.0 BETA011.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

@@ronlundgren4391 ... Check to see if you can see an UPDATE in the upper right corner in the Plugin Available tab. Also, check to see if you see an UPDATE or CHECK for UPDATES in the far bottom left.

[@ronlundgren4391]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy I tried Check for updates at the bottom and it doesn't bring any new plugins to the list. Upper right I do see an update for what looks like a new NINA beta....it says 2.0 HF1 BETA006.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

@@ronlundgren4391 That's the version I am running. Go ahead and update to it.

[@Gillou-qi3dj]

Merci beaucoup pour vette viéo. Cela fait longtemps que je chercher à photographier les planètes avec NINA. Encore merci!!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Vous êtes les bienvenus

[@SimonsAstro]

Excellent tutorial Pat, great image of the comet! It’s hot here too but not quite as hot as you over there! clear skies👍

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thank you, Simon. Stay cool. I see where your government is in somewhat of turmoil with Boris Johnson stepping down. Maybe it's time for him to visit a barbershop.😁

[@SimonsAstro]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy lol, yeah he could go with a trim! Actually I’m thinking of putting my name in the hat to run the country 🤣

[@JoesAstrophoto]

Great tutorial Pat! That's a very cool NINA plugin indeed. Awesome images as always.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Thanks, Joe, That 'Orbital' plugin is extremely beneficial and easy to set up and use. You don't need to use the advance sequence to use it. It works in the simple sequence like a champ. I LOVE it!

[@gregmckay666]

Great video Pat. I'm planning on using these techniques this week to find and image C/2022 E3 ZTF.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi Greg, It works. I just used the 'Orbitals" to plate-solve the comet. Works like a champ.

[@craiglowery4427]

Thank you. This video was very helpful

[@aluginbill6182]

Thanks for info on how to find comets in Nina. You don't by chance happen to have a video on how you created your horizon for Nina? Thanks for all the videos!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi A Luginbill, I don't have that video, but I will make one very soon. BTW, it is quite easy, so it will be a short video ... coming soon to a KZbin channel near you.

[@Aerostar509]

Those were geostationary satellites, you were at about the same elevation as Orion which is always full of them. They are spin stabilized and sometimes you can catch a glint from them and see knots in long exposures. Nice work as usual. Tim

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi Tim, Well, why didn't I think of that? It makes perfect sense to me now that you mentioned it to me. Thanks for the clarification.

[@vk2np]

Any chance you could show the sequence in detail ?, haven't used Nina much Lovely comet images by the way. Going to try tomorrow here in Sydney if the weather co-operates.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi Clifford, The software is quite easy to use. You have the options of using the simple sequence or the advanced. However, the simple sequence does everything I need. Just be sure to have the latest release, which is 2.0. I will be doing a video concerning using NINA soon. Good comet hunting.

[@vk2np]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy Look forward to the NINA video , then you can show the setup for orbitals, I played with the Simulator in NINA and orbitals seemed to work. Trying to work out the exposure sequence now.

[@LogansAstro]

Great video and instructions on comet hunting. So cool seeing the animation with the comet moving through the star field. Sadly we don't get to see it down here. By the way, if you need rain, can you please take some of ours...PLEASE!! :)

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi Logan, Thank you. Well, it certainly is not the brightest comet ever, but at least I did capture it. I LOVE this new plugin in NINA that plate solves for solar system objects, including the JWST, which you should be able to see. It is too low in the sky for me. RAIN ... well, I suppose one needs to be careful what they wish for as I've been getting drenched lately with much more on the way. All scopes are covered

[@galbanese7329]

Another great video/tutorial Pat! Thank you.....How long was your acquisition? and how long were your subs? Going to try and give this a shot soon. Thanks again.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi G Albanese, My subs where 120 seconds and I use 10 of them to stack. For the movie, I had about 110 subs. The camera was the ZWO ASI 1600 with a luminance filter (UV/IR cut). The Orion EON 130mm Triplet sat on the SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro mount and was controlled by NINA using a mini computer attached to the rig and remotely controlled from the air-condition studio in my office.

[@galbanese7329]

Thanks Pat. I am goint to give this a go tonight if the cloud gods will let me...lol. I am going to give it a shot with a William Optics FLT120 on a Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro with an ASI 294MC Pro. I never tried a time lase or tried imaging a comet before so fingers crossed.... Thanks again for all your work and sharing on YT.

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

As we like to say ... go get em cowboy. Happy hunting

[@galbanese7329]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy Thanks again, your channel along with several others have helped me immensely, there is so much to learn in this hobby, not only acquiring the data but also processing it…. Keep up the great work Pat!!

[@2badger2]

I've read about using the comet as the auto-guiding star to track comets. Have you tried that before? I guess you would turn off the multiple star auto-guiding option in PHD2. Thanks

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

You know, that just might work. I will have to give that a try on the next comet that swings around

[@JohnSmith-h2d]

So watching this couple years later. If you want to track the comet, ie keep it center of frame, you have to hit both the set tracking rate button and set guide rate button?

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi John, When I recorded that video, I was having issues with NINA conversing with PHD2 and found it best to leave the rate buttona alone. Hopefully, that has been rectified since then. What I would do is use the ORBITAL function to frame the comet and then have NINA slew to the comet and start recording sub-frames. Stacking programs have functions in them to stack with the comet centered or to have the stars centered. Depending on which option you select, the comet would be in focus while the stars are elongated/streaked, or the stars are sharp and the comet is blurred. However, this second option is good if you desire to make a movie of the comet. In Deep SkyStacker, you can have it save each registered image (and in PixInsight too) and then in your favorite movie editor, import the tiff images and render your movie. - Patarick -

[@njcck]

Great video Pat. I'd like to try for this comet if we ever get a clear night in Savannah. I liked the video, but especially enjoyed the still. Was that pretty much standard processing in Pixinsight?

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

It was a combination of Deep SkyStacker, PixInsight, and Photoshop. All I did in PI was convert the 32bit file format from DSS into a 16 bit image for Ps. I also cleaned the background in PI and did a bit of stretching. The rest of the post processing was done in Ps. ... Clear skies in Savannah in July? Don't hold your breath. I lucked out with this image on July 5.

[@vicamaral]

I miss Pluto it has an atmosphere to, just because it not fully round, anyways love chasing comets

[@tbodrero]

When I load the comet the tracking rate and set guider shift rate is greyed out. Any idea why this would be the case. The other question I have, how did you configure N.I.N.A to know when your trees are in the way?

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

I had that same issue too and I couldn't understand why. Hmmm. NINA has an option on the bottom of the set-up page to add the horizon. It is just a simple text file with your view angle and the elevation. For example, the first column is the angle where 0 is north, 90 is east, and so on. The 2nd column is how many degrees is the horizon view. Here is my text file for the telescope position: 0 30 15 45 30 45 45 45 60 45 75 50 80 30 90 20 105 22 120 31 135 50 140 40 150 28 165 20 180 32 195 40 210 20 235 40 250 18 265 20 280 20 295 20 210 30 325 20 340 25 350 18 To estimate the elevation, just place your arm and fist straight out (from the same height of your telescope). This is zero degrees. Place the other arm/fist out directly over the first fist. This would be about 10 degrees. Keep doing this until you clear the obstruction and that would be your elevation on that compass heading. Keep doing this for as many compass degrees until you end up full circle. (It doesn't have to be every 10 or 15 degrees of the compass ... it's your call) Save this as a text file and just remember where you saved it. I think NINA likes to look for it at @User/documents/NINA/ It doesn't matter, just remember the location so you can direct NINA where to find it. You will see this option on the main set-up page for local horizon. Clear skies.

[@tbodrero]

@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy Great response and explanation. Thank you!

[@jorgelindsay5698]

Were is the masutov newtonian

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi Jorge, It is sitting inside my storage shed. I plane to bring it out later this summer. I want to do some widefield viewing with the ED80T for awhile. When done, the Astrograph will replace the ED80T.

[@astrotherapist]

This is an excellent video and tutorial. However; the equipment you use is way too expensive for my astrophotography budget. I do learn from watching your videos and I like the work you do. Please keep it up!

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

Hi Paulette, Thank you for watching my video. The key here is being able to use NINA with a laptop or mini remote computer along with an equatorial mount. The telescope doesn't need to be too sophisticated. Most of the interaction is between the computer and the mount.