Back to forums

NEW Plugin for NINA - SMART FILTERS

Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA) Sequencing Acquisition
18 replies•1.2k views
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
Hello everyone.

I'm pleased to announce that I just released a new plugin for NINA:

SMART FILTERS

What does it do?
  • Smart Filters helps you define your exposure time distribution across filters (L, R, G, B, Ha, SII, OIII) based on your session goals.
  • It automatically calculates the optimal number of frames for each filter, taking into account session overheads like autofocus, meridian flip, dithering, and already acquired frames from previous nights.
  • You can also save and load custom profiles to easily plan future sessions, and presets are already available.


To help figure it out, you can magine this scenario:
  • You've already captured 3h12 of L, 2h28 of R, nothing yet for G and B, and 39 minutes of Ha on previous nights.
  • Tonight, you want to end up with 40% L and 15% Ha in your final dataset.
  • You also decided to change your sub exposure times, and you know you'll have a meridian flip, autofocus routines, and dithering during the night...


Smart Filters takes all of this into account and computes the optimal plan for you automatically.

So, don't hesitate to give it a try and leave me a comment!

Further improvements are in development:
– Automatically export the results to the Advanced Sequencer
– Scan NINA's logs to automatically extract the duration of dithers, flips, autofocuses, etc., from previous sessions to provide even more accurate estimations.
Well Written Helpful Engaging Supportive
Christian Bennich avatar
Christian Bennich avatar
Nice, that looks great. I will give it a try
AstroCapture325 avatar
AstroCapture325 avatar
This looks very interesting. Do you have a link for documentation?
Well Written Respectful
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
Yes !

Here is the User Guide  in 3 versions : English, French, and Spanish

SMART FILTERS USER GUIDE EN.pdf
SMART FILTERS USER GUIDE ES.pdf
SMARTS FILTERS USER GUIDE FR.pdf
Concise
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
You might find also some more informations on my repository, the code is of course open source :

https://github.com/latelierastro/Smart-Filters

Philippe Lemaitre avatar
Philippe Lemaitre avatar
Thank you, I could use this.
Christian Sartini avatar
Christian Sartini avatar
Thank you very much for this plugin that I will try as soon as the sky gives me the opportunity.
On the other hand, I'm not sure it will meet my needs because my filters are L-PRO; UV_IRCUT, triband, HaOIII, SII-OIII.
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
You can of course consider that the L is your L-pro, DualBand, OIII, or whatsoever 

I can also think about a version where you might give a specific name to the filters
AstroCapture325 avatar
AstroCapture325 avatar
Quickly read the user guide. I use the target scheduler plugin, but this seems like an attractive alternative when you want to collect a couple of nights of data for a specific target. I'm going to give it a try. Thanks for developing. 

Jim
Respectful
Christian Sartini avatar
Christian Sartini avatar
[pre]An evolution that could also help would be to automatically propose exposure times in % by filters depending on the type of nebula. For example, for a dark nebula, the plugin would propose 20% HII, 40% OIII, etc.[/pre]
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
Yes, for sure .
For the time, you already have presets available .

These presets are explained in the user guide .
There are :
- a standard LRGB
- a LRGB "sharp", to prioritize L
-a LRGB "POP", to emphasise colors 
- a standard L RGB Ha 
- a couple more …

You can also make your own presets, name it and save it . Doing this, the advantage is that they will recall you sub exposure time, whereas for the factory presets, I can't guess what they will be .
If you have distributions to suggest, of course I can include them in the factory presets .

Benoit
Helpful
Frank Alvaro avatar
Frank Alvaro avatar
Sounds like a very useful tool. However, I'm not seeing it in the NINA plugins repository…should it be there?
Well Written
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
Frank Alvaro:
Sounds like a very useful tool. However, I'm not seeing it in the NINA plugins repository...should it be there?

It should be available to install in the plugin page in NINA 
Can't you find it there ?
Frank Alvaro avatar
Frank Alvaro avatar
Benoit SAINTOT (AstroBen60)
Frank Alvaro:
Sounds like a very useful tool. However, I'm not seeing it in the NINA plugins repository...should it be there?

It should be available to install in the plugin page in NINA 
Can't you find it there ?

No, it's not showing, even after I click "check for updates". I'm running NINA version 3.1 HF1
NicoAstro83 avatar
NicoAstro83 avatar
Ça va beaucoup m'aider, merci Benoit!!
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
Frank Alvaro:
Benoit SAINTOT (AstroBen60)
Frank Alvaro:
Sounds like a very useful tool. However, I'm not seeing it in the NINA plugins repository...should it be there?

It should be available to install in the plugin page in NINA 
Can't you find it there ?

No, it's not showing, even after I click "check for updates". I'm running NINA version 3.1 HF1

Have you tried with HF2 ?
Frank Alvaro avatar
Frank Alvaro avatar
Benoit SAINTOT:
Have you tried with HF2 ?


Not yet; I'll try that in a day or two.
Frank Alvaro avatar
Frank Alvaro avatar
Frank Alvaro:
Benoit SAINTOT:
Have you tried with HF2 ?


Not yet; I'll try that in a day or two.

OK, latest version of NINA is installed and now the Smart Filters plugin is available and has been successfully downloaded. Now I just need to play with it...
Well Written
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
Benoit SAINTOT avatar
A new version is available, just a fix of minor bugs ( keywords were added inadvertently, due tu base plugin template inherited code )