First Light for AstroDMx Capture with INDIGO mount control and PHD2 autoguiding via INDIGO
Nicola has spent some time refactoring the code of AstroDMx Capture to facilitate the implementation of an INDIGO client so that everything that can currently be controlled via an INDI server will also be controlled via an INDIGO server.
At the moment, mount control has been implemented and the current imaging session was to test that function.
Exposures were captured with AstroDMx Capture through an Altair Starwave 60 ED refractor with an 0.8 reducer/flattener, an Altair Quadband filter and an SV605CC 14 bit OSC CMOS camera. The scope was mounted on a Celestron AVX mount.
The mount was placed on marks on the ground which quickly gives quite a good polar alignment if care is taken with the placement of the tripod feet.
The weather was poor and image capture was limited to a short period of time.
AstroDMx Capture running on the imaging computer indoors sent the scope/mount, via an INDIGO server running on the same computer, to the star Deneb and the scope was focused on the star using a Bahtinov mask.
An SVBONY SV165 guide scope with a QHY-5II-M guide camera was used for PHD2 multistar pulse auto-guiding. The auto-guiding was controlled by a separate Linux laptop indoors via the INDIGO server
AstroDMx Capture sent the scope/mount to the galaxy M33, with plate solving and was used to capture 30 minute’s worth of 5-minute exposures before clouds brought an end to the imaging session.
AstroDMx Capture capturing 5-minute exposures of M33
The Imaging computer indoors capturing data on M33
Dark frames, Flat fields, Dark Flats and Bias calibration frame were used in the stacking of the data in Deep Sky Stacker.
The stacked image was processed in Siril, Gimp 2.10, the Gimp Starnet++ Version 2 plugin, Photoshop CS2 and Neat Image.
M33 the Triangulum galaxy
This first light for the AstroDMx Capture INDIGO client mount control was successful.
Nicola is continuing to implement the INDIGO framework in AstroDMx Capture. This will eventually be released as Version 3.
