Maintained

RTSP Timelapse Control (N.I.N.A. Plugin)

A N.I.N.A. plugin that runs an all-sky or scenery timelapse for exactly the length of your imaging session, captions it with what happened, and renders the video when the sequence ends.

View on GitHub

RTSP Timelapse Control connects N.I.N.A. to my RTSP Timelapse Capture app. Sequencer instructions start and stop the capture and render the video, so an all-sky or scenery timelapse covers exactly your imaging session. A single Scheduled Timelapse block can instead capture until a chosen time, such as nautical dawn.

The Report Timelapse Events trigger sends autofocus runs, filter changes, meridian flips, target changes and guiding losses to the app, which can show them as captions on the finished video. A dock panel on the Imaging tab shows the live capture status, with manual Start, Stop and Create Video buttons.

Install it from N.I.N.A.’s Plugins tab by searching for “RTSP Timelapse Control”. It needs N.I.N.A. 3.2 or newer and the RTSP Timelapse Capture app on the same Windows PC, with Integrations → Enable remote control API turned on.

README View on GitHub

RTSP Timelapse Control — a N.I.N.A. plugin

Control the RTSP Timelapse Capture app from a N.I.N.A. (Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy) sequence. Adds sequencer instructions to start/stop timelapse capture and render videos, a trigger that reports session events (autofocus, filter changes, meridian flip, target, guiding) so the app can burn them onto the timelapse as captions, plus an imaging-tab dock panel with live status — so NINA can run an all-sky / scenery timelapse for exactly the duration of your imaging session, annotate it with what happened, and auto-render it afterwards.

This plugin is a thin client over the RTSP Timelapse app's local HTTP control API.

Requirements

  • N.I.N.A. 3.2 or newer (built against the NINA.Plugin 3.2 SDK).
  • The RTSP Timelapse Capture app running on the same Windows PC as NINA, with the remote control API enabled: Integrations tab → Enable remote control API. Event reporting needs app 3.6.0 or newer (against an older app the plugin notes it once in the log and everything else works as before).
  • The API is loopback-only (127.0.0.1) with no auth token — by design it only works same-machine. Cross-machine use is not supported.

What it adds

Sequencer instructions (category RTSP Timelapse):

Instruction API call Notes
Start Timelapse Capture POST /capture/start Starts capture (no-op if already capturing). Wait for capture to start (default on) waits for the first frame; Stop capturing if the sequence is stopped (default off) — tick to stop capture if you abort before a Stop block (off keeps capture running through a stop/resume).
Stop Timelapse Capture POST /capture/stop (+ /video/create) Stops capture, then — if Create video when finished is ticked (default on) — renders this session's video (only its frames; delivered per the app's delivery settings).
Scheduled Timelapse POST /capture/schedule One block: starts capture and tells the app to auto-stop at a chosen time (Source like Nautical Dawn + offset, reusing NINA's Wait-for-Time picker) and optionally render. No Stop block needed; the app owns the timer, so it stops at the time even if the sequence is stopped. Non-blocking — the sequence continues immediately.

Sequencer trigger (category RTSP Timelapse):

Trigger API call Notes
Report Timelapse Events POST /events Reports what happens during the session so the app can caption the timelapse (app 3.6.0+). It can report sequence instructions as they finish (autofocus, plate solves, dome, park/unpark, camera cool/warm), filter changes by name ("Filter: Ha", repeats skipped), the meridian flip start and finish (it watches the flip trigger, so built-in and DIY flips both work), target changes ("Target: M31", once per change) and guiding lost/resumed with the current RMS. Adding the trigger to a sequence is the opt-in; which event types are sent is chosen on the plugin's options page — one toggle per type, saved per profile, applied immediately (even mid-sequence). Target, meridian flip and centering are on by default. Event sending can never fail a sequence: with the app stopped or unreachable, sends are skipped silently.

Dock panel (RTSP Timelapse, on the Imaging tab): live connection/version, capturing state, frame counts, uptime and errors, with manual Start/Stop/Create-Video buttons.

Options (Plugins tab → RTSP Timelapse Control): the API Port (default 8787, must match the app), a Test connection button, and the Session events selection — one checkbox per event type the Report Timelapse Events trigger may send.

Build

You need Visual Studio 2022 (or the .NET 8 SDK). The NINA SDK packages restore from nuget.org — no VSIX template required.

dotnet restore
dotnet build -c Release

The output is bin/Release/net8.0-windows7.0/NINA.RtspTimelapse.Plugin.dll.

A Debug build also copies the DLL into %LOCALAPPDATA%NINAPlugins3.0.0NINA.RtspTimelapse.Plugin automatically (see the CopyToNinaPlugins target in the csproj) for quick iteration.

Install (manual)

  1. Copy NINA.RtspTimelapse.Plugin.dll into %LOCALAPPDATA%NINAPlugins3.0.0NINA.RtspTimelapse.Plugin. (N.I.N.A. 3.x loads plugins from the version-bracketed 3.0.0 subfolder, not from Plugins directly.)
  2. Restart N.I.N.A. It should appear under the Plugins tab.

Use

  1. In the RTSP Timelapse app, enable the remote API (Integrations tab). Note the port.

  2. In NINA, set the same port in the plugin's options and click Test connection.

  3. In an Advanced Sequence, add two blocks:

    • Start Timelapse Capture at the start (waits for the first frame by default).
    • Stop Timelapse Capture at the end — leave Create video when finished ticked to render this session's video (only its frames, so an earlier same-evening test capture sharing the date folder isn't pulled in; delivered per the app's delivery settings).

    Or use one block: add Scheduled Timelapse — it starts capture and the app auto-stops + renders at a chosen time (no Stop block). It's non-blocking (the sequence continues), and the scheduled stop fires even if you stop the sequence. The app's Stop button — or a Stop block — cancels it.

  4. Optional — captions on the video: add the Report Timelapse Events trigger to the sequence root, pick the event types on the plugin's options page, and tick Overlay session events on the app's Video Export tab. Autofocus runs, filter changes, meridian flips, target changes and guiding loss then appear on the finished timelapse at the moment they happened (app 3.6.0+).

    Notes:

    • By default, stopping the NINA sequence does not stop capture, so a stop and resume keeps the timelapse running (the Stop block ends it). Tick Stop capturing if the sequence is stopped on the Start block if you'd rather capture always stop when the sequence stops.
    • A restart from the beginning begins a fresh session.

Publish to NINA's in-app Plugins tab

  1. Tag a release; build the Release DLL.
  2. Generate manifest.json from the DLL with CreateManifest.ps1 from the nina.plugin.manifests repo (or copy its GitHub Actions workflow from ./tools). Do not recompile after generating — the checksum would change.
  3. Fork that repo, place the file at manifests/<first-letter>/<plugin name>/<nina version>/<plugin version>/manifest.json, validate with node gather.js, and open a PR.

Project layout

NINA.RtspTimelapse.Plugin.csproj   .NET 8 class library, NINA 3.2 package refs
Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs         plugin metadata + GUID (do not change the GUID)
PluginConstants.cs                 shared GUID + option keys
Models.cs                          /health + /status DTOs
RtspApiClient.cs                   HttpClient wrapper + error mapping
RtspTimelapsePlugin.cs             plugin entry point + options VM
Options.xaml(.cs)                  options page DataTemplate
SessionEvents.cs                   event-type catalog + options-page toggle view models
Instructions/                      StartCapture, StopCapture, CreateVideo + templates
Triggers/                          ReportTimelapseEvents trigger + templates
Dockable/                          status panel VM + template

Compatibility note

Built against NINA.Plugin 3.2.0.9001. If you target a different NINA version and the build complains, the few version-sensitive spots are: the AsyncCommand<bool> namespace (NINA.Core.Utility), the SequenceBlockView XAML namespace (clr-namespace:NINA.View.Sequencer;assembly=NINA.Sequencer), and the DockableVM / PluginOptionsAccessor namespaces. Visual Studio IntelliSense will point to the right using-statements for your installed package version.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.