re National Instruments...?

[Scott Kuchma]

Hi Peter ,

Just curious , does CaLIGHTs use National Instruments (NI) Software and drivers ? I've just had some popups telling me that there are Updates available and I don't know what they would be for .

Cheers ,

Scott............

[wols...@gmail.com]

Scott,

Good to hear from you. Have you been able to get out under the stars this summer. I have been out a few times but I can tell it was not as much as 2020.

CaLIGHTs is written using a programming language called LabVIEW. LabVIEW is a product sold by National Instruments. I program exclusively using LabVIEW.  This is the first time that a customer of any of my software has ever had a National Instruments pop-up appear prompting them to download software. You do not need to download any of this software. I need to follow up with National Instruments and find out what I can do to prevent this dialog from appearing on a customer's screen. My guess is that I will be releasing an update for CaLIGHTs that will also include a fix for this pop-up.  In the meantime please ignore it.

Peter

[Scott Kuchma]

Hi Peter ,

Thanks for the Info on the N.I. Software . I did remember the Labview connection to CaLIGHTs so I thought I'd better check . Also since I'm using an old Work Laptop (which I thought I had purged properly) we did use N.I. Hardware and Software to control and Test our Instruments . I had thought this was an old Work Software issue . So , ignoring the Update !

I've only had the Scope out three times since last November . In the early Spring , when it was still quite cold out , I passed on several clear nights thinking I would have a similar year to 2020 and be able to pick and choose my evenings . Wrong ! The first night I only did a few maintenance and Calibration runs and finally got to calibrate and use the Focus Motor . Very nice ! The second night all my stars looked like letters of the alphabet and I put it down to the wind blowing the scope around . Third night was supposed to be clear but clouds rolled in while I waited for it to get dark . I am going out tonight . It's going to be cold (+5C) and since I have to sit and babysit the rig  I'll need to locate all my Winter clothing first . LOL .

I ended up sending my Wedge back to Celestron back in July and they still have it and no replacement Stock so I've asked for a refund and my Dealer is taking care of that now . Oh well , maybe I'll try building my own . There are lots of videos on the topic .

John M. has had more success this year than me as he can control and operate his rig remotely from his Den and isn't bothered by the weather like I am . I need to look into this a bit more . I do check your WebSite now and again but haven't seen and recent photos .

Cheers ,

Scott...........

[wols...@gmail.com]

Scott,

I'm sorry to hear that you have not been able to get outside that often with your scope. I managed to get a few long evenings of imaging this summer. I got a great pic of the Fish Head Nebula with almost 5 hours of photos. I think you could build a quality wedge. You fully understand what Celestron's wedge was suppose to do and how it was mounted etc.

I'm glad to hear that John is having luck with his fantastic camera. I am very jealous. And I am impressed that he has been able to control his set-up from inside his house.

I just have not found the time to work on my website. Lots to do during the daytime and winter is always very long for me. I can't take the cold and I find all of the USB cables get so stiff that I am afraid they are going to break. I expect to be putting my 2021 images up in the next month. I will post here when I have begun updating the website.

I think you have solved your NI Update service mystery. First and foremost...I am ecstatic  that I have found someone else in the world who has experience with Labview. It's been a great experience for me. It's a crazy expensive software package to buy and I pay $800/yr for a service contract. The service contract includes program updates.

I think the NI Update Service is a leftover from the NI software you originally had on your laptop.  I use Labview 2019 and the dialog box you saw wanted to install updates for Labview 2015.  You will need to either tolerate these pop-ups or remove the old labview software.  It should be totally ok for you to completely Uninstall all of the National Instruments Software on your old laptop. You should also uninstall CaLIGHTs. Then you can run the CaLIGHTs installer which will essentially perform a clean install of CaLIGHTs and only the required National Instruments Software. The other solution is to buy a new laptop...Christmas is coming!!!

Please ask John if he has seen the NI Update Service pop-up appear on his computer. If he hasn't then I think we will call this issue closed.  Please say hello to John for me.

Peter

[Scott Kuchma]

Hi Peter ,

And of course I did not get any Imaging done last night...again . Both Astropherics and ClearSky had shown good viewing and then a few hours before Dinner they both changed their forecast and that was that . Maybe tonight ?

Good news is that yesterday the Township folks arrived at the Park , one house over from mine , and cut down two huge dying Maple trees . This has now opened up a huge swath of the North-North-East sky for me over my neighbour's roof as seen from my back patio . I think I can now easily get the Bubble Nebula and Andromeda from there plus I'm only a few feet from my kitchen door and some warmth . LOL . Fingers crossed .

As for remote operation I've been following the ASIAir PLUS (new) but it still doesn't control the Celestron Focus Motor (despite all the Customer requests) . I like the fact that it will Plate Solve after a GoTo . Time will tell .

Scott..........

[wols...@gmail.com]

Scott,

I have also noticed that the weather forecasts seem to dramatically change even on the day.  The weather for me is suppose to be good tonight and tomorrow night. Great news that your view of the sky has increased. Andromeda should be a great target. It's quite bright so you should be able to collect lots of photons.  That's too bad about ASIAir PLUS & Celestron Focus Motor. I know nothing about the ASIAir and you know that I invented my own focuser for my EdgeHD scope which interfaces with my Moonlite focuser controller.

I have incorporated plate solving into my system. I think I will start depending more on it and abandon the Celestron 2+4 calibration. Especially when there are clouds or calibration stars are hiding behind trees. I still have to polar align first.

Clear Skies

Peter

[Scott Kuchma]

Hi Peter ,

I apologise for not asking the obvious...you mentioned you are working on a new release of CaLIGHTs , what have you decided to improve upon or add to an already great Program ?

FYI , I've decided against the ASIAir Plus as ZWO has no intentions of adding support for anything other than their own Products . So I'm back to looking at Stellarmate , which is cheaper , and controls "everything" and does Plate Solving !

Something to research this Winter .

Scott...................

[wols...@gmail.com]

Scott,

I have been working on V3.1.6.00 for a while now. Much of the changes are to cater for dedicated astroCAMs which don't implement the concept of BlackADU. 

-I have refined the Row Noise Filter so that it is better behaved. The high strength settings tended to overcorrect and were too sensitive to COLD pixels.  If Row Noise is present, this filter plays a big role in calibrating images of extremely dim DSOs.

-I have totally revised the Noise Filter. It behaves very well and I now allow it to be iteratively applied up to 6 times[Color Average - Color Average(x6)] . The improvement in SNR is excellent. The Noise Filter is purpose built to minimize the Poisson Noise in the very dim areas of your DSO  images. It's bilinear design is comparable to other Poisson Noise targeted filtering algorithms described in technical papers I have read. I recently narrowband imaged the Elephant Trunk Nebula during a Full Moon. The improved Noise Filter allowed me to tame the very significant Poisson noise which gave me the freedom to pull out lots of faint details that would ordinarily be lost to noise.

-I have also modified the Histogram graph. You may have seen this change in the latest videos I released "All about Master Files". There are now two standard deviation values shown which I describe as being based upon algebraic and graphical methods.

I need to make some final tweeks and I hope to release V3.1.6.00 in the coming month.

Peter

[Scott Kuchma]

Hi Peter ,

These all sound like fantastic improvements . I wish I had some Images to process but maybe by the time this version is released I'll have managed to grab "something" .

Since I've been following the HAAA Newsletter for quite a while now I did see your Elephant's Trunk Image . It looks good but I'd like to see a bigger version later .

I still can't wrap my head around 10min Exposures . Sheesh , must be nice . LOL .

Scott...........