Nebulosity now open source and free

[SkyHiker]

Look what I just found when perusing Stark Labs, http://www.stark-labs.com/ , Nebulosity is now open source and free. I have bought a license long ago, primarily because I wanted to donate something in return for the fabulous free PHD program that he created. While I was not impressed with the GUI, it is a capable product. It won't compete with PI but still nice to have another freebie, who knows someone may pick it up and enhance it.

[JayTee]

Wow, that is awfully cool.

Nebulosity used to be the primary "high-end" title for AP image acquisition and initial processing.

[sdbodin]

Heard this was coming. I too have a license, it has been my go-to for a dozen years now, just can't teach old dogs new tricks. Does all that I seem to need.

Clear skies,
Steve

[XCalRocketMan]

Interesting. I used Nebulosity for a long while (have a license) until I finally spent the time to learn PixInsight. Every now and then I go back to it but now I use APP and PI (APP to calibrate and stack; PI to complete the post processing).

[Star Dad]

I use Nebulosity for getting the camera in focus before a session, flats, darks, etc and then for stacking. I've thought about PI but haven't gotten around to getting it. Frankly I think Neb should have been free and PHD payware. I don't know if there is anything better than PHD for guiding.

[SkyHiker]

Frankly I think Neb should have been free and PHD payware.

PHD is definitely the better piece of software. Nebulosity was good for stacking and using CCDs early on but not so much for editing.

I don't know if there is anything better than PHD for guiding.

Ekos is pretty good. I like it better than PHD2.

[Star Dad]

Can I ask why Ekos is better? Reason is - Two sessions ago on my last images I checked on the laptop half way through the session and noticed that the laptop was dead. I was surprised as the screen saver / power down is time is set to infinity. I had to start the laptop from scratch. The last half hour of images were complete trash... guiding was way off - and I concluded that perhaps it was an object to the north that PHD was having trouble tracking. My last session - two night ago was a complete disaster. I saw PHD start, for instance, to correct east/west, but then it kept on correcting in the same direction once it was past the zero mark and never returned. I did all my images that night without tracking. I realized the next morning that the two sessions and the power down of my laptop were probably all related. PHD has obviously lost it's calibration data. So if I am going to have to recalibrate PHD if there is something better/easier this would be a good time to make a shift. So I am anxious to hear what you think of Ekos - as I currently use NINA.

[SkyHiker]

Can I ask why Ekos is better?

I like it better because its GUI is nicer IMHO, and while it does not have all of the nice PHD2 features, it is good enough. There was a time when I switched between them but each time I liked Ekos better. I also like that Ekos is a complete integrated package that runs on low-cost and low-power Raspberry Pis.

Reason is - Two sessions ago on my last images I checked on the laptop half way through the session and noticed that the laptop was dead. I was surprised as the screen saver / power down is time is set to infinity. I had to start the laptop from scratch. The last half hour of images were complete trash... guiding was way off - and I concluded that perhaps it was an object to the north that PHD was having trouble tracking. My last session - two night ago was a complete disaster. I saw PHD start, for instance, to correct east/west, but then it kept on correcting in the same direction once it was past the zero mark and never returned. I did all my images that night without tracking. I realized the next morning that the two sessions and the power down of my laptop were probably all related. PHD has obviously lost it's calibration data. So if I am going to have to recalibrate PHD if there is something better/easier this would be a good time to make a shift. So I am anxious to hear what you think of Ekos - as I currently use NINA.

Do you run off a battery? If yes, make sure you take the laptop battery out or else your battery will be charging the laptop battery and it will run out of juice soon. Nina is a very respectable tool BTW if you like Windows to run on. Others may be able to help out with finding out why your laptop crashed. Ekos is pretty rock solid but it crashes too, sometimes, specifically when I start pulling cables out of the equipment. This may be caused because I run it on a fairly low power configuration because I want to be able to use it off a battery too. If I don't mess with cables it is pretty solid. An advantage of Nina is that it can work with Stelarium, which has a nicer look and feel than KStars - but KStars works fine and Ekos is a nice integrated package. Use it at least with a Pi3, I have a Pi4b with 8 GB of memory. The 2 USB3 ports are needed for image processing (imaging camera, guider), for the rest USB2 will work fine but a Pi2 only has USB2 and that won't work. The Ekos capabilities that I use are the autofocusing, plates solving (for polar alignment and goto), autoguiding, planeterium based operation (KStars), imaging, filter wheel control and scheduling.

[Star Dad]

Can I ask why Ekos is better?

I like it better because its GUI is nicer IMHO, and while it does not have all of the nice PHD2 features, it is good enough. There was a time when I switched between them but each time I liked Ekos better. I also like that Ekos is a complete integrated package that runs on low-cost and low-power Raspberry Pis.

Do you run off a battery? If yes, make sure you take the laptop battery out or else your battery will be charging the laptop battery and it will run out of juice soon. Nina is a very respectable tool BTW if you like Windows to run on. Others may be able to help out with finding out why your laptop crashed. Ekos is pretty rock solid but it crashes too, sometimes, specifically when I start pulling cables out of the equipment. This may be caused because I run it on a fairly low power configuration because I want to be able to use it off a battery too. If I don't mess with cables it is pretty solid. An advantage of Nina is that it can work with Stelarium, which has a nicer look and feel than KStars - but KStars works fine and Ekos is a nice integrated package. Use it at least with a Pi3, I have a Pi4b with 8 GB of memory. The 2 USB3 ports are needed for image processing (imaging camera, guider), for the rest USB2 will work fine but a Pi2 only has USB2 and that won't work. The Ekos capabilities that I use are the autofocusing, plates solving (for polar alignment and goto), autoguiding, planeterium based operation (KStars), imaging, filter wheel control and scheduling.

No, I wasn't on battery power. I dunno - it may have been the cold - it was near 0F that night - or who knows. But it was so bad that windblows itself was corrupted. Nothing like being out in the subfreezing temps trying to type without gloves to get the system restored. It was c c c c c cold!

I think I might get Ekos - I am a huge fan of Linux and use it whenever I can. Windows 7 has been particularly stable though on the laptop (I dual boot it). Not so much so on my main machine. I've thought about a Pi - but until the laptop actually dies I might as well stick with it. Thanks for the insight.

Edit: I looked into Ekos and see it's for windows 10. <sigh> But, I found out I'm using an older version of PHD2 - it's now up to V10.3 - it now has multi-star guiding... so I'm going to go out tonight (provided the sky gods cooperate) and recalibrate PHD2... it's been almost 2 years, so I guess it's time.

[SkyHiker]

I think I might get Ekos - I am a huge fan of Linux and use it whenever I can. Windows 7 has been particularly stable though on the laptop (I dual boot it). Not so much so on my main machine. I've thought about a Pi - but until the laptop actually dies I might as well stick with it. Thanks for the insight.

One major benefit of using a Pi is that it is so small and light weight that you can mount it on your OTA. I have a small wooden rig with the Pi4B and a 12 to 5 V DCDC and a powered USB hub with 7 USB ports that I clamp to the OTA with an old inner tube. It is very useful once you have a lot of electronic gear near the focuser. It reduces cable clutter and makes setting up so much easier. I VNC into the Pi4b from my Windows 10 laptop or my Android Galaxy tab A, via WiFi or an ethernet to USB adapter in the field. Having a laptop near the mount is annoying to me.

[Star Dad]

I think I might get Ekos - I am a huge fan of Linux and use it whenever I can. Windows 7 has been particularly stable though on the laptop (I dual boot it). Not so much so on my main machine. I've thought about a Pi - but until the laptop actually dies I might as well stick with it. Thanks for the insight.

One major benefit of using a Pi is that it is so small and light weight that you can mount it on your OTA. I have a small wooden rig with the Pi4B and a 12 to 5 V DCDC and a powered USB hub with 7 USB ports that I clamp to the OTA with an old inner tube. It is very useful once you have a lot of electronic gear near the focuser. It reduces cable clutter and makes setting up so much easier. I VNC into the Pi4b from my Windows 10 laptop or my Android Galaxy tab A, via WiFi or an ethernet to USB adapter in the field. Having a laptop near the mount is annoying to me.

Oh I hear you. I know you've used Pi for some time and I am jealous... but my day will come. My laptop is going on 15 years old now (I just checked). It's a "gamer's" version - not that I use it for games, but rather I wanted something that would last a long time.

I also just checked Pi's. Based on what you've said would this unit work? Money is not necessarily an issue, so if you think something better I'm happy to hear it.

[SkyHiker]

I usually get the Canakit ones with case and all. The dollar has really tanked hasn't it? I can't believe the prices, the cheapest 8GB Canakit is around $200 now. I haven't tried a 4GB version.

I see a StellarMate product on OPT (https://optcorp.com/products/stellarmat ... controller) for $229 with 2 USB3 ports visible, which is essentially the same as a Pi running Astroberry, I think. That link has some nice screen shots so you can see what you get. Not all reviews are positive, one mentioned the amount of RAM could have been doubled (it doesn't say how much). Anyway let's stop taking this thread off topic, good luck.

[Greenman]

Interesting. I used Nebulosity for a long while (have a license) until I finally spent the time to learn PixInsight. Every now and then I go back to it but now I use APP and PI (APP to calibrate and stack; PI to complete the post processing).

Same for me, not free options but they work nicely in concert, APP & PI will be my go to now. Not tried Nebulousity, but I may now.

[skysnapper]

Star Dad,

EKOS is not just Windows 10 - it's Linux. It's part of Kstars.

Stellarmate is a Pi version or just download it for Ubuntu for x64 format devices. I use it exclusively now under Ubuntu. Solid, as these posters say unless you pull a USB cable (like if I forget to plug in my GPS dongle). Then it's better to restart it but it does stay up.

Just install Kstars and it comes built in.

Or install Ubuntu on a mini-PC and get the package direct from the maintainer (Jasem Mutlaq) here -> https://www.indilib.org/download.html

I had Stellarmate running on a Pi3b and then 4 for a while but needed more "oomph" so switched to a Celeron based mini PC from Beelink, installed Ubuntu, Added Jasem's packages, and started imaging