Thanks for posting the screenshot. Eclipse Orchestrator looks very impressive. Too bad it won’t work with my equipment. I should be able to automate the partial phases with SharpCap and only intervene manually just before and just after totality.
Also, thanks for the meridian flip reminder. I’d forgotten about that. I will be using an equatorial mount so that will be necessary. Looking at the Sun’s transit time for Cumby, Texas, I should be able to do it comfortably during the partial phase before totality.
Dang, now I’m thinking about running a 4k video with one camera, and then doing photos with the other two. That way, I can always pull out a 4k still frame from the video and edit it like a photo.
I’m going to Texas also. I have a rental east of Dallas and a friend’s home in Fredericksburg as an option. Have you see this link? It has a lot of interesting stuff and you can compare locations.
I am planning on using EO. I used it in 2017 and had great results. I’m going to try and have 3 computer/telescopes running. I’m hoping to set up the hardware on 4/6 and 4/7. I’m setting up in my backyard this week and doing a practice with all systems. If you have never gone to an eclipse before, take all you supplies with you. Water, Food, Power, Shade
On the EO script, I’m programing it for 2 second intervals. I think the DSLRs will cycle at that rate. I taking the script printout and trying to plug the settings into NINA sequencer. Should work and with the audible from EO I’ll know when to take the solar filters off and on.
On the 2017 I had enough of a cool down during totality that the focus changed slightly. I got some cheep mylar emergency blankets to put around the telescopes this time. They are light and I’ll secure them so they don’t flap in the wind.
The traffic is going to be very terrible. In 2017 the 300 miles from Casper to Riverton was parking lot on both sides of the highway. So don’t plan on getting on the road home until after supper or maybe midnight. That also applies to the day before and the morning of the eclipse.
I appreciate the information on your success with EO. I have been practicing a lot. Trying many different settings. I have tried different aperture, ISO settings hoping to get the best images possible. Do you have any recommendations on the number of Diamond ring, Baily Beads, Chromosphere, and Prominences to take?
We are going down to Texas about four days early and taking our time in travelling back. Retired no rush either direction.
I replied to an email but I’m not confident it went down the stream where I wanted it to go. So replying again here.
Tom,
Since I have not traveled much in Arkansas, I’m not much help on that. I have been along the road from Magazine Mountain once. Most of those roads go east/west and are pretty good. I would suggest I-40 until you notice an increase in traffic. You might have more traffic on I-40 after the eclipse. If you’re a long distance driver like I used to be, you should be fine. You don’t have a critical time schedule coming back. It is important to bring water, shade, and snacks/food. I’m bringing a bottle of champagne. We had some last time and it was a treat.
I keep having camera recognition issues with Eclipse Orchestrator. I’ve been trying for the past 3 days to get it to recognize my cameras. It recognized my D750 at first, but wouldn’t trigger it, now it won’t recognize any of my cameras. Yes, I have uninstalled and reinstalled it multiple times, etc. Is anyone else having issues with this program?
There is some recent discussion of camera recognition issues on CloudyNights.com. Hopefully there is something there that will help. You might start with this post.
Good news, I finally found another USB cable that is specific for my D750 in a tub of cables, and it’s recognizing it every time now. So, lesson learned again… cables can go bad.
I have only had problems when I don’t have the camera in manual mode. Sometimes I have been using the camera and forget to make sure it is in manual mode. It is unable to connect and you have to close EO. and try again. That doesn’t always work because depending on how hung up EO is, it sometimes is still running and i have to close it with task manager or restart my computer. Another issue I have had is the minimum spacing between exposure setting. I had it set too short and it wouldn’t get all of the exposures. His recommendation of 2-3 work for getting it going. I have shortened it by using the serial cables he recommends.
Yeah, these are all reasons why I’m planning to try and run one camera with EO, and for the other, I will be triggering my Exposure brackets. I can’t trust both main cameras to EO. It seems like such a buggy program. And if the computer times or gps/location info isn’t exact, all the times in the script could be late or early.
I’ll keep playing with it and see if I can get more comfortable with EO. I only have windows laptops, so it’s my only option pretty much.
I think that is a very good idea. I wouldn’t try using it with more than one camera. I think the program is very particular on what it is looking for to work properly. I have my routine pretty well down for the eclipse, my backup is I will just take pictures manually like I did during the annular. I do trust that I have it setup properly and believe it will work for me. I have probably tried over a dozen different options. I am using MLU and a serial cable. Still may purchase a GPS to connect to it, then I don’t have to make manual setting if I have to change locations.
Andy,
When testing, I have found that the Visualizer is a good tool. I also look at the View Log file. It shows you all of the late time of your pictures and this way you can get your setting correct to minimize the late times. I also followed all of his suggestions in the manual.
Here is a link to a you Tube video he did for the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society .
MLU is his abbreviation for Mirror Lockup. I went with Hap Griffin Astro cables. The Shoestring place was the one he recommends but they had too many restrictions on when you could order it. Hap Griffin responded immediately had the cable in a couple days. If your camera is new and pretty fast you may not need one. I did it because my camera isn’t that new and I want to make sure every thing works. Didn’t want to take any chances of something going wrong. I do believe it speeds things up slightly. I am not going as fast as it will do, again to make sure everything works smoothly.
You are correct, didn’t think about you have Nikons. He only makes cables for Canon. I have a Canon 70D. Looks like shoestring is closed till after the eclipse, guess they don’t want any business.
