SJ Astronomy

How to use NINA to Control Your Equipment
Jared Willson

You've got a telescope, camera, mount and maybe a whole lot more. How can you run all your equipment--likely from different manufacturers--from a single piece of software including scheduling, unparking your mount, slewing, cooling your camera, focusing your telescope, performing plate-solves to confirm pointing accuracy, guiding, dithering, and performing image capture? One answer is NINA--Nightime Imaging 'n' Astronomy software. It's free. It's capable. It's well supported by the development team and user community. And there are dozens of plugins to extend its functionality. In this presentation you'll learn how to get the most out of NINA, from configuring the user interface to setting up advanced imaging sequences that will optimize your data collection.

************************* This is an online event *************************

The Imaging SIG meets roughly every month online to discuss topics about imaging. The SIG is open to people with absolutely no experience but want to learn what it’s all about, but experienced imagers are also more than welcome, indeed, encouraged to participate.

This event is one of several different introductions to astronomy offered by SJAA. This talk provides a comprehensive overview of amateur astronomy, starting simply and working its way up to introduce advanced concepts. You'll hear about star constellations, about types of sky objects and associated observing conditions, and about different observing tools. Through this talk, we hope you'll see astronomy as a scientific as well as a deeply reflective pursuit, full of joy and wonder.

Using the planetarium software Stellarium, we'll take the first 15 minutes to show a preview of the night sky as you'll see it during the subsequent star party. The talk will start at 6:15.

This talk will be presented by Kal Krishnan. Kal is an amateur astronomer whose passion for the cosmos began in the light-polluted skies of Mumbai with a pair of inexpensive binoculars from his father. In the 1990s, Kal rekindled his love for the stars when he acquired a used 8” Meade LX200 telescope, deepening his involvement from a visual observer to a dedicated astrophotographer. His mission now is to share the same sense of awe and excitement that has fueled his own journey and inspire others no matter the tools at their disposal.

This talk is free of charge. Just come and enjoy the show. After the talk, you can check out telescopes that will be set up as part of our In-Town Star Party. (See In Town Star Party event on Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/sj-astronomy/events/310913064/)

Many of SJAA’s events, like this one, are public and free to attend, but if you’re enjoying what SJAA has to offer, consider becoming a paid member for only $20 per year: https://www.sjaa.net/membership/benefits-of-membership-2/

During this event, we will ask all visitors to sign in, so that we can report attendance numbers to the city of San Jose, as San Jose has made Houge Park facilities available to SJAA to serve the public. The sign-in form will not require any detailed personal information.

Event photo: Milky Way photograph by Kal Krishnan

Come join San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA) for an evening of stargazing.

Event details:

• Events are held at the parking lot of our headquarters, Houge Park, San Jose. The event duration is 2 hours. SJAA volunteers will share night sky views from their telescopes.
• Please refrain from bringing your own telescopes (Binoculars are welcome). If you like to be a volunteer with or without a telescope, please email at "itsp@sjaa.net".
• SJAA, as an all-volunteer nonprofit org, depends on the City of San Jose to use facilities at Houge Park. To maintain this relationship, we must provide facility-use data to the city. Therefore, we ask you to sign in (no traceable personal data collected) when you arrive at the event.
• An hour before the star party, we typically offer a separate intro-to-astronomy (Astronomy101) talk. This talk is aimed at an absolute beginner to intermediate Astronomy audience. Age-wise suitable for upper elementary school levels and above. If interested, please search our calendar/meetup and sign up.

Additional Links:
Our Club : https://www.sjaa.net
Event Location : https://www.sjaa.net/learnresources/viewing-locations/#Houge_Park
Etiquette : https://www.sjaa.net/learnresources/etiquette
ITSP album : https://photos.app.goo.gl/FWjbWagFoXkDnLfF8
Hope to see you at the event