Mastering NINA . . . Keeping safe with the Safety Monitor!

Setting up and configuring the safety monitor has saved me from several headaches, especially when guiding goes wonky with passing clouds. Instead of manually intervening to get things back on track, I use the Safety Monitor's ability to tell NINA if things are safe or unsafe. WIth those flags, I can redirect my advanced sequence to accommodate passing clouds. Your use case may be different, and it is flexible enough to handle different use cases. This video goes over the setup of the Safety Monitor in NINA.
My Astrophotography Gear
Mount: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro and Celestron branded LosmandyG-11 (being rebuilt)
Pier: Homemade pier, yeah!
Telescope (wide angle): Apertura 75Q, F/5.4, 405mm FL
Telescope (long): Third Planet Optics (TPO) 10" Newtonian F/4, 1000mm FL
Telescope (A bit longer): Third Planet Optics 6" RC f/9 1370mm FL
Guide Scope: Skywatcher Evoguide 50mm ED, F/4.8, 242mm FL
Guide Camera: Player One Neptune-M (IMX178 sensor, monochrome)
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 290MM Mini
Astro Camera Monochrome: ZWO ASI 2600MM Pro
Astro Camera Color: OGMA AP26CC
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 2" 7 position and ZWO EFW 2" 5 position
Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon Rotator
Focuser: ZWO EAF (on each scope)
Power: Pegasus Pocket Powerbox Advance Gen 2 and Pegasus Pocket Powerbox Micro
Flat Panels: Deep Sky Dad Motorized Flat Panel, Wanderer 190mm motorized Flat Panel, Pegasus Astro Flatmaster 150, and a homemade one for my 10" Newtonian
Software Control PC: Mele Quieter 3 and Mele 3 Overclock C
My Astrophotography Software
Mount control software: Green Swamp Server (controls EQ6r Pro mount)
Mount control software: Gemini 2 (controls G-11 mount)
Pegasus Astro device management software: Pegasus Astro Utility Platform (controls all of my Pegasus Astro devices)
ASCOM 6.6 Platform
Acquisition software: NINA (lastest version)
Guiding software: Phd2 (latest version)
Planetarium software: Stellarium (latest version)
Plate solving software: ASTAP
Plate solving software: Plate Solve 2 and Plate Solve 3 from Planewave

[@AmatureAstronomer]

Interesting.

[@LogansAstro]

Very useful video. I'm keen to add some sort of safety monitor to my home observatory. Being in Auckland and effectively living on an isthmus, we get 5 seasons in one night - summer, autumn, winter, spring and one that can't be identified😅. Clouds and rain are a constant problem and the online weather apps basically have a 50-50 rate of being correct vs actual conditions so I'm going to need something attached to the obsy to check directly overhead. The Pegasus Uranus looks quite good but unfortunately is missing a rain sensor so I might have to look at the AAG Cloudwatcher Cloud Detector. But your video is very useful for setting up the safety monitor software in NINA. Thanks Dave. Clear skies.

[@DaveUrbanAstro]

Yea, I just use the Pegasus Astro Uranus monitor right now for cloud cover. Once I complete my obsy, then I will need to install an ASCOM compliant weather station, and I have been looking at one from Lunatico Astronomia (shop.lunaticoastro.com/).

[@bobbryant4410]

I live in Scottsdale, AZ and have NINA Weather set to Open Weather Map (OWM). OWM always shows 0.00% cloud cover for Scottsdale. If I set OWM to Phoenix, Tempe, or Cave Creek the cloud cover varies but Scottsdale is always 0.00% clouds or no clouds.

[@flightdeckstudios1668]

Thanks for the great video..I have "Open Weather Map working under the NINA heading", but I have had no luck getting "Open Weather Map Observing Conditions to work under the ASCOM heading". I see you have it working. I have my key but, I think the API URL is my sticking point in the config dialog box. Any help? or maybe an idea for your next video.

[@DaveUrbanAstro]

The API URL that I am using is api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather

[@flightdeckstudios1668]

That worked Thanks

[@flightdeckstudios1668]

Looking forward to the next Video using this in the sequencer. Thanks Again.