Delay between Images - will not change

[Trev-NI]

I reduced the daytime delay between images to help set better lens focus.
All went fine.
Now no matter what value I put back in the Delay dialogue box and save in the daytime setting, on the live view it shows 79 seconds.
Nighttime is as I set it showing 20 seconds.
I have the same value in night and day 19048 which I arrived at by trial and error.
Why such a complicated setting - would it not be much easier to be able to insert seconds?
Both night and day are currently set in Auto.
Please help.

[EricClaeys]

Did you refresh the Live View window? It only reads the delay values when it starts.

Why such a complicated setting

Other than not entering the time in seconds, is anything else making the settings complicated?
I have been thinking of allowing people to enter values in different units like us, ms, and seconds, but haven't gotten around to it.

[Trev-NI]

I am attempting to enter a delay of 20 seconds for day and night
This make no sense - I enter 20000 - save and preview and get 80 seconds showing in the grey bar.
I enter 5000 and get 65 seconds.
Same problem with Nighttime settings too
I have spent so long getting to this stage
I have not made any other changes - just trying to adjust the delay between images
I am becoming so frustrated I think I will soon have to call it time on this project.
I have got the camera working and overlay looking good but now this problem and setting up the website has me deflated

[EricClaeys]

If you want exactly 20 second delay between images, regardless of how long the exposure was, then disable the "Consistent Delays" setting.

If you are running v2024.12.06 then look at the Settings -> Allsky Documentation page for a description of Consistent Delays and how it interacts with Max Auto Exposure, which looks like you have set to 60.

[Trev-NI]

Thanks Eric. This worked. Can't quite get my head round the values but both are now at 20 sec. Next challenge is the website - local to start. OR should I wait for the release on 1 Feb.as you mentioned some changes in that area.

[EricClaeys]

It took me a while to get my head around it as well. I updated the documentation in the February 1st release to (hopefully) better explain it. I think the confusing part is that Consistent Delays determines the time between the start of one image and the start of the next, whereas the Delay is the time between the end of one image and the start of the next.

I think your 2 choices are wait a few days, or go ahead and upgrade now and upgrade again in a few days. The upgrades are pretty reliable and fairly quick now. While testing I upgrade a lot; I have probably upgraded my remote Website 20 times - it's just one command now.

[Trev-NI]

Thanks Eric - I will wait!

[stevedee]

Can I comment on this Trev-NI, as you may need to consider what you wish to achieve with Allsky.

If you hope to get nice night time StarTrails images, remember that exposure is the amount of time that the camera shutter is open gathering light (& recording the image), and that during the delay period the camera is not gathering light.

So if an aircraft or maybe a fast satellite (like ISS) crosses the sky, your StarTrails image may show a broken line which is 'drawn' during the exposure time and is blank during the delay. If the delay is too long, the camera may completely miss the event.
And if the Exposure is set to Auto, the broken sections of any lines may be irregular lengths.

Personally I've manually fixed nightime exposure to 30 seconds and kept the delay as short as possible (which in my case is a 'safe' value of 1 second).

I hope this helps.

[Trev-NI]

Thanks so much - very helpful and answers another question! Hadn't crossed my mind that 30sec was doable!

As a matter of interest - regarding nighttime images - what in your estimation are any other recommended settings. I am using a Pi HQ Camera with 2.8mm f1.2 lens. Understand all locations/setups are different.

Sorry for going off topic!
Regards.

[stevedee]

I'm still experimenting with settings, but either the weather has been unsuitable or the moon has been in the wrong phase during the last few weeks. My system is portable, so not only do I need a clear sky, but also no rain forecast, and wind speed less than 20mph (my camera sits on a tripod on those nights when its put outside). I don't use it during the day.

I came to the conclusion early on, that it would be better to keep settings consistent throughout the night, so I don't use auto gain, auto exposure , auto white balance & so on.

I've locked focus to infinity (I'm using a Pi module 3 camera) using an "Extra Argument". Also using Dark Frames because there is some camera noise.
I'm still using the earlier release and have enabled "Auto_Stretch" with default values of 10 (amount) & 10% (mid_point).

But really, you need to grab lots of images and then start experimenting.

[Trev-NI]

Thanks - any info or tips always appreciated!
Yes weather just not playing Ball - we have just passed through a Red Warning Storm here in Northern Ireland.
All the Best

[EricClaeys]

Stevedee and I use Allsky for different purposes.  I want to know what the sky looks like at my remote observatory so I know if I should plan to image.  I don't care about missing meteorites, so use a max exposure of 60 seconds with a 30 second delay.  I could probably use a longer delay but occasionally look at the timelapse, so 30 seconds gives a smoother video.The nice thing about Allsky is it accommodates both of our needs.EricFrom: stevedee ***@***.***>Sent: Monday, January 27, 2025 10:35:09 AMTo: AllskyTeam/allsky ***@***.***>Cc: Eric Claeys ***@***.***>; Comment ***@***.***>Subject: Re: [AllskyTeam/allsky] Delay between Images - will not change (Discussion #4241) I'm still experimenting with settings, but either the weather has been unsuitable or the moon has been in the wrong phase during the last few weeks. My system is portable, so not only do I need a clear sky, but also no rain forecast, and wind speed less than 20mph (my camera sits on a tripod on those nights when its put outside). I don't use it during the day. I came to the conclusion early on, that it would be better to keep settings consistent, so I don't use auto gain, auto exposure , auto white balance & so on. I've locked focus to infinity (I' musing a Pi module 3 camera) using an "Extra Argument". Also using Dark Frames because there is some camera noise. I'm still using the earlier release and have enabled "Auto_Stretch" with default values of 10 (amount) & 10% (mid_point). But really, you need to grab lots of images and then start experimenting. —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Trev-NI]

Thanks Eric - I plan to experiment nights with exposure - when it becomes clear - terrible here - very hard to get a couple of nights a month here recently!
Looking fwd to the new update/release.
Regards T.