Basic Introduction on how to setup a N.I.N.A based telescope astrophotography system

[mkatzpdp]

After getting my Celestron CPC-800 back from Celstron for collimation and cleaning I had to remember how to get every thing working again.

My setup is a bit more complicated than some. Here is it:
CPC-800 connected by USB, Serial and/or WiFi.
Nikon D4 mounted to the CPC-800 and connected by USB
Celestron C-90 Mounted on top of the CPC-800 as a guide scope.
ZWO ASI120MC-S mounted to the C-90 as the digitizer for the spotting scope, connected by USB

As most of you know I have to gather software and drivers from multiple sites to accomplish all of this.

This requires the following software and drivers:
ASCOM
ASCOM DSLR Driver
ASCOM ZWO Driver
PHD2
N.I.N.A
Celestron CPWI
Open PHD (PHD2)
Celestron WiFi Password Changer
Celestron WiFi Configurator
Celestron Firmware Updater

I was able to figure out all of this because I am an embedded systems computer engineer. However, it still took me about 8 hours to find every thing, download it, install it and get it all configured. And this was the second time I had done it.

I recommend two things.

1. Write an basic installation manual that includes all of the steps to get N.I.N.A working, in some kind of outline or written form. For example, PHD2 requires Celestron CPWI and not the Celestron ASCOM driver selected. in order for that work CPWI must be started BEFORE N.I.N.A.

Break the manual down into sections:
What to download
Configuring the Mount
Configuring the Camera
Configuring the Guide Scope
eetc.

2. Have links to the most current software and drivers sites. For example the ASCOM site points you to github for some of the drivers Some of the links are dead. Many drivers are on different sites (ZWO, Celestron, Github, etc.) and many are not easy to find or obvious what to download and install.

This should be written from the perspective of someone who has just purchased some telescope equipment and knows nothing at all about astronomy and/or astral photography. Don't assume the reader knows anything except that is the sky and lights up there are stars, planets and galaxies😁

[daleghent]

As one of the regular, long-time contributors to NINA, I can certainly say that it is not in our own personal interest or within the purview of NINA as an application to write, edit, and review, and update the extensive, highly-specific guides you are looking for. There are simply too many combinations of various equipment, configurations, factors, and options to cover it all. Much of the advice that you are looking for can come only from direct experience with the innumerable third party drivers, management apps, and hardware controllers that would be involved. These various 3rd party, external-to-NINA apps and drivers often change in ways that render best practices and advice obsolete or incorrect. The scale of what you're asking for is larger than you imagine and the work involved impractical for us volunteers.

This is where you, the user, must be resourceful and lean on your vendors and community resources to find the advice you are looking for. First, there is the vendor you purchased your hardware from and they should always be the first resource to refer to when encountering questions about their wares. There is NINA's own Quick Start guide the NINA Discord chat where many NINA users hang out who operate highly varied setups. There are forums such as Cloudy Nights that have wide-ranging categories to pose questions in and decades of searchable content to browse. The websites of software such as PHD2 have their own Getting Started and Best Practices guides and pointers to their own mailing lists or forums, which can often be found on Google Groups or Groups.io.