Hi at All,
this: indilib.org/forum/ekos/1687-tip-for-ekos...d-devices.html#12499 improved downloading the fits. It's only a quarter (estimate) of the time needed.

Andreas

Alignment Module question for the group.

Are you guys using your Canon 6D to do alignments in the alignment module? If so, do you have a recommendation for good settings to use? I'm mostly concerned about the script commands that appear in the tool and if those are working OK for the 6D or if I should change/add/delete anything. I'm still waiting for a chance to get this rig out and test it but when I do, I would like to be close to the right settings when I start out.

I finally got outside with this thing and gave it a try tonight. Everything worked fine except the alignment module failed to solve any images with my 6D. I made sure the scope details were correct and saved so the field of view in the alignment module looked good. I was offline and I have all of the index files downloaded in the astrometry folder that I need (more than I need, actually, just to be sure). It captured, attempted to solve for maybe 30 seconds and then reported that it failed.

I haven't touched any of the setup items; left them at default. Any trouble-shooting suggestions? I had tried to solve some images indoors previously by loading them to solve with the same results. My All Sky Plate Solver solves them fine, so they're solvable.

Logs? Did you turn Alignment logs on? Did you turn astrometry.net verbose on?

Unfortunately I did not. And now, after I brought everything inside, my mounts motor controller board has gone on the blink.

It was taking and displaying images. Can I use the telescope simulator to get the alignment module up and try solving the images that I took with logs tuned on? Will that give you what you need?

Are the images taken by the alignment module stored in a different pace than the regular images from the camera module or are they deleted afterwards?

The alignment images are not stored. Next time you try it out, make sure to enable the logs (INDI and Alignment) and also to enable Verbose astrometry.net under Ekos options.

Thanks. I will do that once I'm up and running again, which will take a couple weeks. The motor controller circuit board on my mount went bad. Orion is having me mail it to them to look at and replace, if needed. So I'm stuck for a while.

Can someone tell me what the numbers at the end of this string from the alignment module options field mean?

--no-verify --no-plots --no-fits2fits --resort --downsample 2 -O -3 79.4875 -4 46.0122 -5 30

The numbers aren't in the options field of the astrometry tab for the CCD in the INDI control panel. I'm just wondering how they got there and what they mean.

You're using remote astrometry or offline?!!

Remote.

When I ran the simulator last night, it looked like those numbers were tied to the RA and DEC of the mount. But I was looking at those numbers when I was trying to do alignment for real the other night (when it was failing) and no matter where I pointed the mount it looked like those numbers never changed. So I'm asking the question to make sure I have the right idea.
I'm anticipating that I've made another mistake with my setup since that's usually the case, but I intentionally didn't touch anything this time and left it at default. I don't have logs yet, so other than asking some basic questions I'll have to wait for my mount to get fixed before I can really figure out what was happening. I did have the scope information correct and updated, etc. I'll try to do the test solve on the sample image when I get home tonight and make sure the solver is actually working - I just saw that in the FAQs.
And sorry, Jasem, for the questions. I know I'm being a pain. But despite my efforts to just leave things at the default, keep it as simple as possible, etc. I just can't seem to get things to work right the first time out without a bunch of questions and research; which I know is not how you have made this thing to work. So I'm frustrated as to why I'm having problems with pieces.
On the good side, aside from the plate solving, everything appeared to be working just fine after doing my Pi3 setup instructions. Once I resolve the astrometry issue in my own head, I'll update my guide to cover whatever basic mistake I'm making along with some of the other, scattered, info I'm finding into one location.

Now another dumb question.... In the FAQs it says to run this command $ solve-field --scale-low 1 /usr/examples/apod2.jpg to test the solver. I looked in the usr folder and there's no example folder or apod2.jpg file anywhere. What download/install did I miss that should have contained that? I'm pretty sure I installed the astrometry stuff according to the instructions on the alignment module page.

However, I did go to the astrometry web side and their github page and find the demo files and download a couple. They DO solve. So the solver works.

So just to be clear, you have astrometry.net along with all the necessary index files installed on your RPI3? Can't say much without logs. Turn your logs on in INDI (GPhoto driver) & KStars (INDI & Alignment) and submit them along with the image you captured that failed to solve. Only then I can diagnose the issue.