Thank you so much for the video. It really helps to have this in KStars in my urban environment to know the area of the sky I can see from my telescope pad. You are doing the right level of explanation in your videos!
So that was easy! Someone had a 360 of our astronomy park in Google. Not exactly from the spot I’d choose, but close enough for planning. Your videos are superb and have been extraordinarily helpful. Thank you so much!
Great video. How is the vertical height calibrated such that it masks the correct elevation? Or is that a natural byproduct of the 360 degree rotation?
Hi Ashley, Sorry for the extremely long wait. You probably found your answer by now but for the record. The equirectengular image format dictates that the horizon is in the middle of the image. Therefore, If your camera was roughly at the same height as your telescope normally is, you are set. Also, an option to adjust the altitude in the K-Stars menu was added in version 3.5.5. (after the making of this video)
Hi Remco, very interesting, and I wanted to try it myself, used a png file as input, but I'm stuck with 2 things: - brush: has no effect - colors > curves: has no effect I'm using latest gimp on fedora, I'm sure it's me doing something wrong. Any advice appreciated. g.
Hi Geert currently not behind my computer. The first thing that comes to mind: is the layer you are trying to edit accidentally locked? For me usually when a tool doesn't work the way I expect, I either have the wrong layer (or layer mask) selected or it is accidentally locked. Let me know if the problem remains. I can take a better look when I'm back behind my computer.
All worked fine until I added the png file to KStars terrain. It is stretched vertically to the extreme! It only shows a little patch of starry sky near the center. Not sure how to match the screen to the image. The edited image looks fine in GIMP. I exported it at around 3340 pixels horizontally. What should I look for?
I think I know what the problem is now. The Google street image includes everything well below the horizon. Since my scope is 11-12 feet above the ground, this makes it even worse. I guess I have to find a way to get rid of everything below the horizon...perhaps there is a setting in street image app. ???
I found the problem. For some reason the panoramic photo from photosphere did not have the horizon in the center of the image. I watched someone else do this, and they said " of course the horizon must be in the center of the image". Mine was not. I edited it in Paint, and moved what I estimated to be the horizon to the middle of the entire frame. It is pretty close now...
Hi Fred, K-stars/EKOS runs on Mac, Windows and Linux. However, on windows, you can not connect your equipment to it directly. Most people connect their equipment to a Raspberry Pi(4B) that runs either Astroberry Server (free) or Stellarmate OS (cheap). My setup looks like this: Equipment connects to Pi, Pi connects to Windows Laptop over the home network. Let me know if I was not clear enough.
@@52NightSky Thank you. I stop by my local PC store and they recomended mini PC running Linux Mint. I order one and got it working today without any issues so far. Again, thanks for taking the time to reply! Have a great weekend.
Wow thats a great idea. I have no experience with that but I might look into it when I'm exploreing more powerful alternatives for the raspberry pi. Clear skies
Thank you so much for the video. It really helps to have this in KStars in my urban environment to know the area of the sky I can see from my telescope pad. You are doing the right level of explanation in your videos!
Great video. Thanks very much!
Such a good series of videos, thanks for that! Where are you though? Channel seems to be silent nowadays:(
Cool, now add artificial horizon as well :)
I tried this many times and never got anywhere! Thank you for clear and easy directions. Works like a charm.
Just finished watching all these videos - very helpful! TY!!!
Awesome! I already did my back yard, and plan to do an additional terrain file for our local astronomy park. Super helpful for planning!
So that was easy! Someone had a 360 of our astronomy park in Google. Not exactly from the spot I’d choose, but close enough for planning. Your videos are superb and have been extraordinarily helpful. Thank you so much!
That's so cool, Jacqueline!
Just exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for producing this.
Professionally made. Well done.
Thanks Jean-Claude!
A new "To do". Thanks for sharing this
I know, right 😄. But don't worry, this one is pretty easy and takes less time than you think at first. And the result is really fun.
Outstanding!! Thank you for taking the time to make this VERY helpful video!
Great video. How is the vertical height calibrated such that it masks the correct elevation? Or is that a natural byproduct of the 360 degree rotation?
Was wondering the same thing
Hi Ashley, Sorry for the extremely long wait. You probably found your answer by now but for the record.
The equirectengular image format dictates that the horizon is in the middle of the image. Therefore, If your camera was roughly at the same height as your telescope normally is, you are set.
Also, an option to adjust the altitude in the K-Stars menu was added in version 3.5.5. (after the making of this video)
I just finished, it works amazing well and pretty simple to do too. Thanks again!
Wow Thomas, thank you for the nice comments. How cool that you immediately created a virtual terrain. I thought it was a fun project to do as well.
Great video, I will be working to get my own soon. thank you for the advice!!
That's great, Miguel! Good luck with that.
Amazing video! I will test this procedure asap!!! :D Thanks!!
I hope you'll have as much fun with it as I do, Angelo!
Superb explanations! One question: will this procedure tell KStars about the obstructions so it won't try to aim the scope at places that are blocked?
Thanks Charles. Not in this version. But Jasem has told me that they are working on that feature. Clear Skies!
Hi Remco,
very interesting, and I wanted to try it myself, used a png file as input, but I'm stuck with 2 things:
- brush: has no effect
- colors > curves: has no effect
I'm using latest gimp on fedora, I'm sure it's me doing something wrong.
Any advice appreciated.
g.
Hi Geert currently not behind my computer. The first thing that comes to mind: is the layer you are trying to edit accidentally locked? For me usually when a tool doesn't work the way I expect, I either have the wrong layer (or layer mask) selected or it is accidentally locked. Let me know if the problem remains. I can take a better look when I'm back behind my computer.
All worked fine until I added the png file to KStars terrain. It is stretched vertically to the extreme! It only shows a little patch of starry sky near the center. Not sure how to match the screen to the image. The edited image looks fine in GIMP. I exported it at around 3340 pixels horizontally. What should I look for?
I think I know what the problem is now. The Google street image includes everything well below the horizon. Since my scope is 11-12 feet above the ground, this makes it even worse. I guess I have to find a way to get rid of everything below the horizon...perhaps there is a setting in street image app. ???
I found the problem. For some reason the panoramic photo from photosphere did not have the horizon in the center of the image. I watched someone else do this, and they said " of course the horizon must be in the center of the image". Mine was not. I edited it in Paint, and moved what I estimated to be the horizon to the middle of the entire frame. It is pretty close now...
Toppie 👍
Thanks Jan!
What operating system you need to run Ekos?
Hi Fred, K-stars/EKOS runs on Mac, Windows and Linux.
However, on windows, you can not connect your equipment to it directly. Most people connect their equipment to a Raspberry Pi(4B) that runs either Astroberry Server (free) or Stellarmate OS (cheap). My setup looks like this: Equipment connects to Pi, Pi connects to Windows Laptop over the home network.
Let me know if I was not clear enough.
@@52NightSky Thank you. I stop by my local PC store and they recomended mini PC running Linux Mint. I order one and got it working today without any issues so far. Again, thanks for taking the time to reply! Have a great weekend.
Wow thats a great idea. I have no experience with that but I might look into it when I'm exploreing more powerful alternatives for the raspberry pi. Clear skies