AstroArt 5 Demo and QHY9 question

[NeilW]

Hi,

I've just aquired a QHY9 and I thought I'd give AstroArt a try. As per what minimal instructions I can find on the relevant websites, I have installed all the relevant ASCOM drivers for the camera, and yet AstroArt won't see it. The only cam it displays is the simulator.

By way of contrast I also downloaded a demo of Nebulosity, and that connected with the QHY9 straight away, which makes me think that I'll go down that path when it comes to actual purchase, but the AstroArt thing is just frustrating. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

[Merlin66]

Neil,
Because AA5 is so versatile you need to use the CCD plug-in drivers as well as the "base" camera driver.
I don't have a QHY9 , but when I load the AA5 CCD Plugin and click on ASCOM it picks up on my QHY5....
I can only assume that it's not seeing the ASCOM driver??
The AstroArt Guide/manual for AA5 is very comprehensive (149 pages) and contains many tutorials...

[NeilW]

Thanks Ken. I forgot to mention that I'm running Windows 7. I loaded the AA5 CCD plugin but ASCOM still does not appear on the camera drop down. All I get is "simulator". I'll have another go tonight.

[Merlin66]

I'm using it on XP and Win7 machines - no problems.
Did you download the AA5 Ascom drivers? (Bottom of the CCD plug-in page) - Generic ASCOM V1.4 (The download file is dascom.zip)

[NeilW]

Ah...might have missed that. I'll give it a try. Other than that, I've noticed from some of your other posts that you're happy with AA5 and would recommend it?

[Merlin66]

Neil,
I've been using AstroArt since V3 - when I first bought a CCD camera (Starlight MX7c)
It's now an ol' friend - I use it for all my cameras: Modded Canon 1000D/QHY5/ATiK16ic/ATiK16icS/ATik314L+ and the Lodestar guider. It also controls the EFW filter wheel.
Bang per buck it is certainly a capable image aquisition and processing package.
Works 100% for me in spectroscopy......what more can I say.

[MrB]

Hi Neil,
I also purchased AAv5 based on Ken's posts, also on images on IIS by Mike Sidonio (Strongmanmike) and my own experience with the trial version.

I am an absolute newbie when it comes to image processing(still in the dark!) and have only scratched the surface of AA's capabilities as far as that is concerned, but when it comes to aligning and stacking frames, AAv5 wins hands down and is worth the purchase price for that alone.

I have tried the most well known software out there for stacking and AA is an absolute bullet!
I recently aligned and stacked 36x 18megapixel RAW subs (Canon 60Da) and it was all done in 5 mins on an old, and I mean old(2007), Core2Duo laptop.
By contrast, PixInsight and DSS(Deep Sky Stacker) would not let me stack any more than 3 subs before going into meltdown with 'Out of Memory' errors.
On my work laptop (16GB memory, SSD and i7-3610QM) PixInsight was able to stack all 36 but was very slow.

Out of interest, AAv5 was even able to stack all 36 subs on my little 11" netbook (similar to an Eeepc) that I use in the field for scope control, with no drama's at all! Due to the teeny-weeny CPU (AMD E450 APU actually) it took about 30mins, but I suspect any other software would have flat-out refused to do it.

I have also used the manual align feature while stacking ~30 subs of Comet Lemmon, and it was a pleasure rather than a chore.
Drop luminance right down to make the comets coma as faint as possible and bring out the nucleus, use the arrow keys to move the centroid, hit enter and the next sub loads, move the centroid with arrow keys again, hit enter, next sub loads.... done in no time at all.

Don't get me wrong, the other software is obviously capable, but from my experience of aligning and stacking alone, AA is a clear winner.
As I get more experience under the belt, I will more than likely also purchase PixInsight for it's processing power, but suspect I will continue to use AA for stacking.

[NeilW]

Hi Simon,

That's really good to know, thanks. I'll persist with the demo and explore the program some more, but I'm sure it'll cover my needs. I have heard it said that PixInsight really needs a quad core processor with 16Gig of RAM to run sweetly :confused2:. MaximDL seems to be the software of choice for many, but it's a little on the pricey side for a beginner.

Thanks again for your comments.

[Merlin66]

Yeah,
I have the same problem justifying the $$$$ for PhotoShop....
AA5 does most things I need to do, but when I want to play with photo images etc I ended up with a cheap (20gbp!) copy of PaintShopProX4
For the past four years or so it's done everything I needed - so why even consider buying PS??????

[alistairsam]

Hi
Although I did not try stacking in AA5, My experience is slightly different.
I have evaluated PI, DSS, maxim, ccdstack, AA5, and found maxim and ccdstack to be very quick, and in terms of ease of use, ccdstack is my preference by far. I hate Maxim's stretching, but in terms of image capture, plate solving, auto centering, tracking, scripting etc, I find it very capable and very easy.
I have tried AA5 twice mainly because of reviews here, but just couldn't get used to the approach and found it clunky.
I don't mean to offend any fans of AA5, just wanted to share my experience with it. Personal preference and taste plays a big part in perception and this is just my personal preference and experience.
Cheers

[LightningNZ]

Does Astro Art 5 have any forms of deconvolution built in? If not, which alternate software that similar in capability, but does have decon, would people recommend?

Cheers,
Cam

[Merlin66]

Cam,
The series of convolution filters available is discussed on p112 onwards in the AA5 guide.
You can use any of the "built-in" filters: Hi-pass, Lo-pass, Median, Laplacian, Gradient, Guassian, Contour detection, Unsharp mask, Larson-Sekanina, or even design your own!