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ASCOM Camera Control via BackyardEOS?


DSLRfan

Question

I'm interested in buying your program, but can't tell from the discussion groups nor your web site if one can control image capture via ASCOM and Astronomers Control Panel.  Essentially, replace MaxIM DL as the camera control software solely for camera control.  Your ASCOM references are for focusing and filter wheel control. 

 

Thanks for any input.

 

Chuck

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Yes you can use it without any camera connected.  But this feature, for now, is just to nudge the telescope and does not replace your planetarium program.  BYE is a camera acquisition program and the telescope feature is there as a convenience only.

 

Regards,

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I was also dismayed when I figured out that the Celestron NexRemote application does not work with the hand controller, it replaces it!  I was worried that if my PC crashed that I would have to re-align the scope after I got it restarted. I removed NexRemote from my PC and have never looked back!

 

I don't use my CGEM for imaging very often but when I do, I use a planetarium program (Sky Tools 3) for slewing to target and something like BYE's telescope interface to nudge the mount for framing.  The good news here is that the Celestron driver supports multiple simultaneous client connections so that both BYE and Sky Tools can be connected at the same time.

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I'm interested in buying your program, but can't tell from the discussion groups nor your web site if one can control image capture via ASCOM and Astronomers Control Panel.  Essentially, replace MaxIM DL as the camera control software solely for camera control.  Your ASCOM references are for focusing and filter wheel control. 

 

Thanks for any input.

 

Chuck

 

BackyardEOS is -NOT- an ASCOM camera control program.  It is a Canon DSLR camera control program and it uses the Canon SDK/drivers to communicate with the camera directly.

 

The ASCOM component in BackyardEOS is mainly used to controlled motorized ASCOM compliant focusers.  You can also use it to control your ASCOM compliant filter wheel and telescope for nudging your scope during frame & focus.

 

That is the extent of the ASCOM component... to control focusers/filter wheel/telescope... but not the camera.

 

Hopefully this makes sense and helps demystifying the ASCOM component in BYE.

 

Regards,

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Another awesome capability of BYEOS is it's integration with AstroTortilla for plate solving. So, rather than "nudge the scope for framing" you can have AstroTortilla and BYEOS work together to accurately goto a target with 1 arcmin accuracy. This only takes a couple of minutes. Additionally, each time AT & BYEOS take an image, your alignment gets better because AT does an ASCOM sync with each image. 

 

Besides using planetarium software to select your target, and subsequently zero in with AT and BYEOS, you can also give AT an image, and have it goto the location of that image. This can be any astronomical image. a previous sub that you have taken, or someone else's image, NASA, etc.

 

An example I have used is to frame M81 and M82 from someone else's image. I used an image from CCDCalc.  

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Hi,

 

Apologies for not replying sooner. I need to check my notification settings as I did not realise anyone had responded until I looked this morning.

Anyway thanks for the responses. Good to know I have a few options especially good that I can stop using Nex-Remote and use Backyard EOS instead.

 

I have Astro-Tortilla installed and performed a basic install, which in itself it quite complicated.. I do want to go down this route but need to do some reading up first I think!

 

Thanks

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Hi,

This is a great piece of software, and it is helping me be much more productive with my modified Canon 450D + Celestron 'scopes on an Advanced GT mount.

I've just installed Celestron's NexRemote sofware that allows me to control the mount from my PC. It's OK, if a little clunky.

But I'd like to be able to contol the mount from the 'ASCOM Telescope' pane in BackyardEOS. When I click on the settings or 'tick' buttons in this pane I just get the clang noise from my PC's speakers - BackyardEOS doesn't seem to recognise the mount hardware.

How can I get BackyardEOS to recognise and control the mount? (There isn't anything about this in the help files)

Hoping you can point me in the right direction.

Kind regards, Doug

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Hi,

This is a great piece of software, and it is helping me be much more productive with my modified Canon 450D + Celestron 'scopes on an Advanced GT mount.

I've just installed Celestron's NexRemote sofware that allows me to control the mount from my PC. It's OK, if a little clunky.

But I'd like to be able to contol the mount from the 'ASCOM Telescope' pane in BackyardEOS. When I click on the settings or 'tick' buttons in this pane I just get the clang noise from my PC's speakers - BackyardEOS doesn't seem to recognise the mount hardware.

How can I get BackyardEOS to recognise and control the mount? (There isn't anything about this in the help files)

Hoping you can point me in the right direction.

Kind regards, Doug

 

Looks to me like you don;t have ASCOM installed and/or the drivers for your mount.

 

Please keep in mind that ASCOM Telescope in BYE is not meant to replace your planetarium program.... it does not have a go to function.  It is there purely as a convenience to nudge your telescope when centering your object.

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Doug,

 

I agree...NexRemote is clunky.  Also, it doesn't work with your hand controller...It replaces it.  So, even if you have already done a 2+2 alignment with the hand controller, when you switch to NexRemote, you have to do the alignment again.  In addition, if you have to kill NexRemote for some reason (or accidentally shut it down), or you have to reboot the PC, you have to do the 2+2 alignment again after you restart NexRemote.  IMO, a better way to work is to skip NexRemote.  Do all your major initialization, alignment, and slews with the hand controller.  That way you are at the mount when doing a slew and can easily see to abort the slew if a cable snags or you are going to hit something.  Of course, once aligned, you can also do slews with most planetarium programs.  I use Sky Tools.  By not using NexRemote, and doing your alignment with the HC, you can reboot the PC, if necessary, and all you need to do is to re-connect to the telescope.

 

In order to use BYE's Telescope nudge capabilities, you need to install the ASCOM Platform and the Unified Celestron Telescope driver.  Both are available at http://www.ascom-standards.org. You will use the same cable(s) to connect the HC to the PC that you use with NexRemote.

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guyroch and astroman133

Thanks guys for your helpful replies.

 

I've installed the ASCOM paltform and the Celestron drivers and it works fine now.

 

Now the only enhancement still needed to allow me to keep cosy in my observatory's warm room is an auto focuser for my C10-N and C11-SCT. :-)   Any recommendations?

 

Thanks again for the help.

 

Doug

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Remember that while BYE v3.1.2 Premium has ASCOM Focuser Control for Manual Focusing, there is as yet NO Autofocus Functionality.

 

See this Thread:  Autofocus?

 

This is true, but the ASCOM focuser control in BYE/BYN is functional and will control virtually any ASCOM compliant focuser.

 

Regards,

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Slightly off topic but related I think.

I have been using this wonderful piece of software for the last few weeks.

Also just finished watching the excellent You Tube video from late last year.

One feature I am interested in is the Telescope chooser.

 

I think the above post pretty much confirms my question however I just wanted to double check.

 

Basically the control offers the ability to nudge the scope and by doing so this it does not affect the mounts alignment?

 

I too have used Nexremote and have found out to my dismay that if you use this after aligning with the handset then it causes tracking issues with the mount thereafter. When you do connect it via ASCOM (I have this already configured correctly) will it conflict with PHD when guiding? In theory it would mean two applications are talking down the cable, one being PHD and the other Backyard EOS. I guess not..?

 

Also can you use this feature without connecting a DSLR camera with Preview mode?

 

Thanks

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