NINA Lucky Imaging Plug-in Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA) · Tony Gondola · ... · 20 · 798 · 4

Gondola 8.11
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Does anyone have any experience with the Lucky Imaging plug-in for NINA? I have what I think is a reasonable sequence but would love any additional pointers. Here's the main seq. loop:

lucky loop.jpg

Ignore the wait for time at the bottom. Basically what I think I'm telling the system to do is:

Plate solve to target
Take 60 ser video frames of 2 sec. each
Check trigger conditions
Continue until 3 am

I'm not sure if it will consider each video frame as an exposure or the entire take video command as one exposure.
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ThisIsntRealWakeUp 8.35
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I have not used the plugin but if you have Discord, I've found the people on the Discord to be super helpful. https://discord.gg/rWRbVbw
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TiffsAndAstro 1.81
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Tony Gondola:
Does anyone have any experience with the Lucky Imaging plug-in for NINA? I have what I think is a reasonable sequence but would love any additional pointers. Here's the main seq. loop:

lucky loop.jpg

Ignore the wait for time at the bottom. Basically what I think I'm telling the system to do is:

Plate solve to target
Take 60 ser video frames of 2 sec. each
Check trigger conditions
Continue until 3 am

I'm not sure if it will consider each video frame as an exposure or the entire take video command as one exposure.


Will 2sec swamp your read noise? Maybe if bortle 9?
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Gondola 8.11
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Yes, I am in bortel 8 so shot noise predominates. Anyway, that's not the point of the exercise.
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Gondola 8.11
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Noah Tingey:
I have not used the plugin but if you have Discord, I've found the people on the Discord to be super helpful. https://discord.gg/rWRbVbw

I can't get in, apparently I have an old invitation that's expired.
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ThisIsntRealWakeUp 8.35
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Tony Gondola:
Noah Tingey:
I have not used the plugin but if you have Discord, I've found the people on the Discord to be super helpful. https://discord.gg/rWRbVbw

I can't get in, apparently I have an old invitation that's expired.

Try this: https://discord.gg/nighttime-imaging
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Gondola 8.11
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Noah Tingey:
Tony Gondola:
Noah Tingey:
I have not used the plugin but if you have Discord, I've found the people on the Discord to be super helpful. https://discord.gg/rWRbVbw

I can't get in, apparently I have an old invitation that's expired.

Try this: https://discord.gg/nighttime-imaging

Got it, thank you!
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jsastro 0.00
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Hi Tony,

you have to use the Lucky Container.

good luck
image.png

from the plugin description:
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You will need to add the 'Lucky Target Container' and within that add the 'Take Video Roi Exposures' for taking images.
Please add these imagepath variables to your filename: $$LUCKYRUN$$ $$FRAMENR$$
This way your filenames will be unique.
The LUCKYRUN variable will increase everytime you run the 'Take Video Roi Exposures' instruction and you can view/set it in the container.
Also note that one run of the 'Take Video Roi Exposures' instruction will be seen as taking one image. So if you want 500 images of 1 second, it will be seen as a 500 second image. There will also be some overhead, so it's not completely accurate. But if you want to dither or autofocus or things like that, don't create a very large instruction.
Edited ...
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Gondola 8.11
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I got a chance to talk with Nick Holland, the result of that is a new sequence that I'll experiment with this evening. Here it is if anyone is interested:

luckyimage-2.jpg

This is between the usual beginning and end sequences. In this case the slew and center command is taking the place of the usual center after drift although I suspect that the number of frames captured while taking video should be a lot higher for that approach to be efficient. I'm not using the ROI option yet as I'm just testing for basic functionality and see how more effective it is compared to a standard sequence. If it works well it will allow me to stay within NINA for this kind of work which to me, is a plus.
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sgthebert 2.81
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Good to know that we can automate planetary imaging in Nina with this plugin and Orbitals. Will make it a lot easier once they're back up in the sky
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Gondola 8.11
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Médéric Hébert:
Good to know that we can automate planetary imaging in Nina with this plugin and Orbitals. Will make it a lot easier once they're back up in the sky

For that you would want to use the "calculate roi position" instruction. It should work well. I used it for without roi on M92 last night and it worked as advertised.
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andreatax 9.89
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Médéric Hébert:
Good to know that we can automate planetary imaging in Nina with this plugin and Orbitals. Will make it a lot easier once they're back up in the sky


*Not a chance. Automating I mean. Not that really needs it.
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sgthebert 2.81
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I know, but we can automate slewing and autofocus without having to switch software for capture
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andreatax 9.89
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Autofocus on planets? Good luck with that…
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Gondola 8.11
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Why so negative andrea? I have my own reservations about using the Lucky Imaging plug-in that way but I'm not convinced that it's not possible, at least in a limited way.
Have you tried to do this yourself? If you have then I'm sure you'd have some constructive input on the questions.
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andreatax 9.89
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Are we talking planets or deep sky here?
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Gondola 8.11
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I'm using and exploring the techniques for deep sky, Médéric Hébert was talking about automated planetary imaging which I do think presents more difficulty.
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andreatax 9.89
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The only advantage I can see in using the .ser format is the ability to use ROI function otherwise I see no advantage. You'd need a LOT of aperture to get the trade-off balance positive in fast integrations, in my experience. And even then it happens rarely and not really many targets are suitable. Doubles seem the only exception.
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Gondola 8.11
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Actually, the Lucky container only saves the images as standard fits files. According to Nick, he's planning on adding the ability to save the data as a ser file sometime in the future. The advantage I would see is having one file rather than several thousand making it easier to process in Siril or other programs like Astrosurface. That said, I'm perfectly happy with fits so I'm not sure it would help me at all. The plug-in does have the ability to specify ROI so that's already implemented. The main thing I'm looking for is better efficiency when working in the realm of very short exposures of just a few seconds. I tested it last night with 2 sec subs on M92 and it worked well giving me an efficiency of about 82% as compared to using a standard NINA sequence which gives me closer to 50%. I haven't tried just turning off all of the processing in NINA yet, I might get the same gains as using the plug-in, we'll see.
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sgthebert 2.81
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andrea tasselli:
Autofocus on planets? Good luck with that...

Autofocus on stars, then slew to planets, they're both pretty much at infinity
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andreatax 9.89
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I shan't think it is going to work that way. In fact it ain't going to work. Like at all.
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