First Time Trying N.I.N.A.

[Juno16]

Trying out N.I.N.A. tonight for the first time and I am blown away at the performance and depth of this image acquisition package!

I set up in a spare room and connected my equipment last weekend. I visited the rig many times this week to try to familiarize myself with the software and settings.

Tonight I finally got a chance to get outside to fight my way through it. Well, there really has not been much of a fight. Things are working out quite well!

I started out with a manual focus using looping images and the Batinov Analyzer. It worked okay. I have used better, but it works.

Plate solving was terrific. I set up Cartes du Ceil and it integrated perfectly with N.I.N.A. Slewing to targets without any issue and plate solving and centering.

The big test was autofocus. My main reason for trying out N.I.N.A. With default settings except for choosing "normal" noise reduction, af is working out amazingly well. Great repeatability and when reviewing the stars, focus looks good. Better than that, the average star HFD before and after focus is impressive.

The sequencer works perfectly. Pick a target, set up the imaging parameters, start the sequence. The scope slews to the target, plate solves, centers, autofocus, then starts collecting images while talking with PHD guiding and dithering. Tonight, I set Autofocus is set to run every 30 minutes.

Even though the moon is at >70% tonight, I am going to give this package a workout collecting images of M106.

I know that lots of folks here are using N.I.N.A. and very pleased with it, but in case some of you are on the fence or want to get more out of their acquisition software, N.I.N.A. has really impressed my tonight. Amazing package!

[bladekeeper]

Very nice Jim!

I really liked using NINA. Always worked very well for me. Looks complicated and busy at first, but once you get used to what's going on, I found it to be intuitive and a pleasure to use. And you can't beat the price.

[Juno16]

Very nice Jim!

I really liked using NINA. Always worked very well for me. Looks complicated and busy at first, but once you get used to what's going on, I found it to be intuitive and a pleasure to use. And you can't beat the price.

Thanks Bryan! Really good to see you on the forum!

[starfield]

Hey Jim, keep us posted on how this goes. I'm thinking of giving NINA a try. Keep running into various gremlins with SGP and if NINA is more stable I may make the jump.

[Juno16]

Hey Jim, keep us posted on how this goes. I'm thinking of giving NINA a try. Keep running into various gremlins with SGP and if NINA is more stable I may make the jump.

I will for sure. All has gone very well so far except that there is considerable shift in the target (not centered) before the meridian flip. The only thing that I can think of might be my dither settings (dithering myself out of the frame!). In APT, I slewed to a bright star every hour or so to focus and then plate solved back on the target. In NINA, I imaged for 4.5 hours in between solves with the result being the target shifting to the left.

My dither scale is about 1:5 between my main scope and guide scope. I changed dither settings in NINA from Dither Pixels of 2 to a setting of 1. In PHD, I changed the Dither Settings Mode from Random to Spiral.

Hopefully this helps. Please let me know if you have any ideas or if my thinking is reasonable.

Thanks!

[Juno16]

I got on Discord. Actually chatted with darkarchon (EZ Processing Suite for Pixinsight). He agreed that the dithering was too aggressive. He also let me know that the newest nightly build had an advanced Sequencer that will allow periodic plate solving (which will re-center the target).

I am not ready for that yet! Taking it slow right now with the stable build. The last several hours of imaging with the new dither settings seemed to help quite a bit.

[Kerry C.]

Interested...I will follow this thread.
Kerry

[bobharmony]

I am glad to see that N.I.N.A is working well for you at first blush, Jim. I had a run with it last year but couldn't get it to record Canon temperature readings, so moved on for now. I think I need to investigate if it will read the TemperHum sensor you sent. It'd be nice to get in in the mix for my "someday" cooled astrocam. It worked really well for platesolving and auto-flips.

I am looking forward to reading more of your experience with it.

Bob

[Gordon]

I've been using N.I.N.A for quite some time. As mentioned earlier, it does take a bit of learning. But the tools offered cover most anything you would want to do for telescope control.

Plus you can't beat the price!!!

[Juno16]

I am glad to see that N.I.N.A is working well for you at first blush, Jim. I had a run with it last year but couldn't get it to record Canon temperature readings, so moved on for now. I think I need to investigate if it will read the TemperHum sensor you sent. It'd be nice to get in in the mix for my "someday" cooled astrocam. It worked really well for platesolving and auto-flips.

I am looking forward to reading more of your experience with it.

Bob

Yeah Bob, me too!!!

I looked at N.I.N.A. when I had the Nikon and I really didn't care for the way that things worked. APT worked very well for me and I decided to stick with it.

After I got the focus motor (ASI EAF) it really made things easier for focusing. No more contorting around the scope in the dark trying not to bump anything. I have been waiting for APT's autofocus. There are recent beta versions with AF now, and I tried, but I really didn't get repeatable results (results that I could trust). I am sure that being more familiar with the settings would help, but I was too far off to know what to try.

I played with N.I.N.A for quite a while (weather was bad) for several days before trying it out last night. I really was surprised how well it all went. The biggest test was autofocus and it pretty much nailed it with the defaults. Very repeatable and very predictable (with temperature drop).

The Sequencer is really nice. One click and its off and running. Goto, plate solve, sync, start guiding, autofocus, imaging and dithering. It parks the scope and warms the camera when the sequence ends.
The window layout can be set up to see everything in pretty much one view including guiding.

As for the target moving off center last night, I imaged for another 3 hours after the flip and with the less aggressive dithering settings, the galaxy (M106) stayed centered (except for a few pixels).

I wasn't crazy about Discord the first time that I tried out N.I.N.A., but I popped on at 2 a.m. and got immediate assistance. That was nice.

Tonight was supposed to cloud up, but now it looks like it will be clear until midnight or slightly after so I plan to collect more data. I will check the PA with Sharpcap (I left everything set up, so it should be good). When M106 rises high enough (>40 degrees over the city light dome), I will click the saved M106 sequence button and off I go. At least that is the plan!

[Graeme1858]

I looked at N.I.N.A. when I had the Nikon and I really didn't care for the way that things worked. APT worked very well for me and I decided to stick with it.

Similar story Jim. APT did a great job with my DSLR but didn't communicate so well with my ASI294. NINA does a great job. One other thing I like about it is the ability to totally customise the imaging screen to put all the tools exactly where you want them.

I didn't get on with the Discord so well but now I have an account I am talking to my son a lot more when he's locked away in his bedroom!

Regards

Graeme

[AstroBee]

I've been a happy NINA user for about 3 months now and I'm very happy with it. The advanced sequencer in the daily build is the only thing I'm having issues with at the moment. I'm hoping to play around with it some more tonight.

[Juno16]

Update on NINA night two.

Well, things didn’t go as fabulous as night one. More so as expected though, trying to feel things out with a new software package that controls so much of the imaging session.

Night two started out with communications issues. Possibly because I tested out everything several hours earlier and put the pc to sleep.
I had issues with camera cooling and with the focuser. I restarted everything and communication issues did not occur any more.

Again I started a sequence on M 106. Set up autofocus every 30 minutes.
After launching the sequence, all went well. AF routines every 30 minutes worked well with a predictable drop in the EAF stepper counts.
Autofocus is really awesome. Considering that autofocus was the reason that I tried NINA, I am extremely impressed in its repeatability.

About four hours into the sequence (session) I noticed that some frames had higher than normal HFD values. When looking at the frames, I saw star dragging (double stars). Investigating the scope cabling, I found that the cables were snagging. Freed them up and all was well.

I also noticed that the target in the frames had shifted significantly as they did the night before. Aw, bummer! I stopped the sequence and restarted it. The scope re-centered and focused. Imaging continued.

All went well for the next few hours until the clouds moved in.

After chatting with Discord today, it was suggested that I try to create a new profile in PHD2 and recalibrate. No problem! It has been awhile since I calibrated PHD2. I have updated the software several times without recalibration.

Also, I downloaded the latest NINA nightly which has an advanced sequencer where I can set up a slew to target and sync periodically in the meantime until I can find the cause of the image shifts.

Even with the image shifting issue, i really am impressed with NINA and plan to stick with it and get the issues resolved.

[Juno16]

N.I.N.A. Night Three.

I am hoping that sharing my first experiences might help someone who is on the fence or looking for something different or better from what they are currently using for image acquisition.

I had three weeks of poor weather and got lucky the night before last even though the sky prediction apps that I use all said that I only had until about 12-1 a.m. before clouds move in.

So, besides the two consecutive nights that I first used N.I.N.A. at the beginning of the month, I was jumping at the chance to get another opportunity to try things out, even though it might be short lived.

I installed the nightly build ver 1.11 #053 mainly for the advanced sequencer. My first two outings earlier in the month I had an issue where after about 1-1 ½ hours, my target started moving away from center. This occurred both nights and the movement was in the same direction.

The Advanced Sequencer is really a powerful tool. I set up a sequence where I can start by slewing to target, centering, autofocus, and start guiding. Then shoot 30 exposures for 120 seconds while dithering every 3 frames and auto-focusing every 30 minutes. Then the sequence restarts beginning again with slewing to target and centering. I set this to loop for five iterations to capture a total of 150 images. Really powerful stuff! Learned a lot watching Cuiv The Lazy Geek on Youtube.

I had hoped that this would be a good workaround for my issue with the image center shifting over time.

But wait a minute! I posted the issue to Discord (N.I.N.A.’s open Help Chat) and was told by “supernovae” to try creating a new profile in PHD2 and re-calibrating.
I did create a new profile in PHD2 and re calibrated.

So, instead of using the advance sequencer that was a lot of fun learning and creating, I just used a simple sequence (like I used the first two nights) just to test to see if the new profile in PHD2 would eliminate my issue.

Well, I guided for 4+ hours before flipping (manual) and the image stayed perfectly centered (besides the effect from dithering). Thanks “supernovae” and Discord!

The main reason that I switched to N.I.N.A. was auto-focus and again it functioned flawlessly. Even running an autofocus right off the start knowing that I was way off from ideal focus, the routine ran well.

The only issue that I had was self-imposed. I set the sequence to shoot 150 images (120 seconds) thinking that I would be shut down because of clouds any time. I also assumed that when I stopped the sequence to manually flip after four hours, that the sequence would reset the image count. Nope, it does not reset, just keeps going. The sequence only resets when you tell it to!
The result was that I dozed off on the couch thinking that I was still imaging and woke an hour and a half later to find that the scope was parked and the camera warmed. 1 ½ hours imaging lost! Live and learn!

N.I.N.A. is a very well designed and thought out application and I am solidly on board.

I am sure that I still have a lot to learn, but I did find one nice button on the lower left that will Connect all devices. In one click, the camera, focuser, telescope will connect. Also, it starts PHD and connect the guide camera and scope. Super nice feature!

Thanks for reading and I hope that some of this information and experience is helpful to someone thinking about trying N.I.N.A.

[Gordon]

I've been using NINA for almost 2 years now, and I keep finding things to use. I 'pre-plan' my night using the framing tool to locate and verify sizing for my camera and scope. It sure makes things easy!!!

[Juno16]

I've been using NINA for almost 2 years now, and I keep finding things to use. I 'pre-plan' my night using the framing tool to locate and verify sizing for my camera and scope. It sure makes things easy!!!

It sure does!

A bit awkward coming from APT, but feels comfortable now.

I moved to NINA for autofocus and it has worked like a charm.
Actually, everything has worked very well.

I haven’t imaged a target that needed framing (like centering M81/M82), but I have played with it and it looks to be very intuitive.

Just need some better weather! Bad storms the next few days in the deep South. In fact, the power just went out!

[STEVE333]

Hi Jim - Sounds like NINA is working well for you including the autofocus. Great news! It is such a comforting feeling when you know the control program is taking care of everything. Always a little scary when you make a change, but, sounds like this change has been beneficial for you. Have fun!!!

Cheers,

Steve

[Juno16]

Hi Jim - Sounds like NINA is working well for you including the autofocus. Great news! It is such a comforting feeling when you know the control program is taking care of everything. Always a little scary when you make a change, but, sounds like this change has been beneficial for you. Have fun!!!

Cheers,

Steve

Thanks Steve!

Yes, the interface is quite different from APT, but after several days playing around with N.I.N.A off-line, I had no issues the first night out. Plate solving (ASTAP) worked flawlessly, as did manual focusing (although I liked the APT Batinov Tool better). AF was the kicker. Worked great right out of the box. I don't plan to use manual focusing at all. I just set the sequence to AF every 30 minutes whether it needs it or not.
A nice thing (one of the nice things) is that the image history window shows thumbnails of each image shot displaying the average star HFD and median ADU for each image.

Sorry! I didn't mean to ramble! I am having fun. Just need some clear weather!