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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Plate solving issue in EKOS

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Hi Jasem!

No sorry, i did not make logs because i believe that its not a software issue...
I think i make a fault here. But i do not know where.
I have the thesis, that it has got to do with the fact, that the EQ hit the tripod, and so the mechanics believe in another position, than the software. And so, solving is getting hard because it differs to much...
thats why i explained it so accurate

cheers, niki
Skywatcher EQ6-R | Lacerta 10" Carbon-Newton | Lacerta MFoc Motorfocus | Moravian G2 8300 Color | Canon EOS 5DMarkIIIa | Lodestar X2 guiding cam | KSTARS 3.4.3. on my outdoor-Laptop with KDE-Neon/Plasma | KSTARS 3.4.3. on Remote-IMac with Catalina | KSTARS 3.4.3 on Remote-Macbook Air with Catalina
5 years 11 months ago #25257

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Hi!

Very interresting aspcets Eric.

So how do i clean up my whole setup? I was to angry yesterday and had to stop and go to bed... No rational decisions able anymore...

I tryed to set new parking position too in the night, so this will not be good anymore too.

So how to start today?

As usual? Weights down, Telescope straight to polaris? And then?

Start indi. But how to "clear or clean" the system to start from scratch?

@ Jasem. What do you mean "thats not possible with most mounts" What is not possible? Build a mount model? Because until yesterday, i never made a mount model at all. Should i?

The precise question for today is: How do i clean everything up to start from scratch?

cheers
Niki
Skywatcher EQ6-R | Lacerta 10" Carbon-Newton | Lacerta MFoc Motorfocus | Moravian G2 8300 Color | Canon EOS 5DMarkIIIa | Lodestar X2 guiding cam | KSTARS 3.4.3. on my outdoor-Laptop with KDE-Neon/Plasma | KSTARS 3.4.3. on Remote-IMac with Catalina | KSTARS 3.4.3 on Remote-Macbook Air with Catalina
5 years 11 months ago #25258

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Replied by Eric on topic Re:Plate solving issue in EKOS

Welcome to the club of automated scope owners whom still go to sleep at 1am because there remains that oh so small issue that gets in the way of automation after ten minutes of processing :) :)

Start your session as usual. Make sure your scope is parked, pointing the pole. Connect Ekos to indi, go to the eqmod mount panel, locate the relevant button and clear the sync points written in the mount, that's one first location for these settings. Then go to the Ekos mount panel, and clear the alignment model, that's the second location for the same effect (or so I believe). Then go to the Ekos alignment panel, and clear any locations solved already. Then you're good to go.

As an validation test from there (usable tonight, April 19 22pm Europe local time in the northern hemisphere:
- Slew to Kochab (UMi). Check the location of the eqmod cursor on the sky map. Sync-solve (don't slew to target), and check where the eqmod cursor moves.
- Slew to Dubhe (UMa). Same process, sync-solve and observe.
- Iterate to Denebola, Regulus, Procyon to make sure everything is OK.

As a test, you can reset everything, and try to slew to Procyon directly, and sync-solve. This will be a more difficult operation for your setup.

-Eric
5 years 11 months ago #25259

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Great Eric. I will try that today.
For my understanding:1. The solving-time depends on where my telescope points to? It is NOT always the same, or should be?
2. The "List" of solved (or even NOT solved) locations AFFECTS the mount model? So it is a good choice to clear it when there is a problem?
Because i never did so...
3. There is NOT a "mechanical zero position" inside a mount like the EQ6-r?
4. I downloaded ALL Astrometry.net Data files. The thought was for the future, and different Telescopes (or Camera Lenses), and naturally, that
i don´t come into the situation that i have to download it in the session-night.

Thanks so far.

EDIT: Oh, i forgot. How do i set my weights-down/Polaris position as my Park position? I have to admit that i bought a whole ne Laptop, and lot´s of things that were set, are naturally gone now...

Cheers
Niki
Skywatcher EQ6-R | Lacerta 10" Carbon-Newton | Lacerta MFoc Motorfocus | Moravian G2 8300 Color | Canon EOS 5DMarkIIIa | Lodestar X2 guiding cam | KSTARS 3.4.3. on my outdoor-Laptop with KDE-Neon/Plasma | KSTARS 3.4.3. on Remote-IMac with Catalina | KSTARS 3.4.3 on Remote-Macbook Air with Catalina
Last edit: 5 years 11 months ago by the.cakemaker.
5 years 11 months ago #25261

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Click Clear Alignment Model

More importantly, make sure TIME and LOCATION info are correct in the EQMod driver.



One more tip. Immediately after you connect, unpark, then try to park again, does it stay in the same place or does it start moving else where? If it starts going another place, then something is wrong. You need to abort motion, then move it back to original position (by Ekos or mechanically) then select Default then Write Data under Site Management. The mount must park at the correct place. Don't proceed to do anything else unless this is first resolved.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Eric, Greg, Tom, the.cakemaker
5 years 11 months ago #25262
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Oh this is great! Thanks Jasem!

And yes, that is EXACTLY what happened yesterday. I klicked on Park and though it allready was in park-position, it started to slew fast in a total strange position...
that´s where i stopped then and went to bed.
Skywatcher EQ6-R | Lacerta 10" Carbon-Newton | Lacerta MFoc Motorfocus | Moravian G2 8300 Color | Canon EOS 5DMarkIIIa | Lodestar X2 guiding cam | KSTARS 3.4.3. on my outdoor-Laptop with KDE-Neon/Plasma | KSTARS 3.4.3. on Remote-IMac with Catalina | KSTARS 3.4.3 on Remote-Macbook Air with Catalina
5 years 11 months ago #25263

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Replied by Eric on topic Re:Plate solving issue in EKOS

About 1, the duration depends on the implementation of the solver. Intuitively, it is driven by the number of testable triangle combinations in the solved area. Thus solving near the Milky Way might be longer than far from that belt, roughly speaking. The adequation between your optical path characteristics and your reported resolution, in arcsec/pixel, and field of view, in arcsec, have a great impact. The radius is only a search boundary, but if that value is too narrow, the solver will timeout, so it has some sort of impact indeed. Also, one big improvement was brought in with the support of persistent parity, which avoids half the combinations once the first solve is successful (which means that perhaps the first solve will be longer that the subsequent ones).

About 3, I think EQ6-R doesn't have gear encoders. From the manual, there is a detector on the RA axis but it is used for PE correction. So when you unlock an axis, the relation between coordinate and gear becomes invalid.

Also, just because it was discussed before, the old atom 1.6GHz minipc mounted on my telescope usually solves in less than 15 seconds with its local astrometry engine, most of that duration being used to load catalogs in memory.

-Eric
The following user(s) said Thank You: Tom, Jose Corazon
5 years 11 months ago #25267

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Sorry to disappoint you, Eric! You and Jasem have done such a great job with the scheduler, it now works flawlessly, at least for me. I literally now just start it, make sure it starts imaging and correctly saves my first target with all the settings I intended and then I go to sleep, not 1 am, but 10 pm!!

Seriously, for the last few nights since you put in your last tweaks (build from 4-11-2018) it has been running through its sequence, no more early aborts, focusing, aligning, guiding, all totally flawless.
If I find any residual snags (with the exception of the minor issue related to the in sequence focus evaluations in the capture module), I'll let you know, but so far it looks great!

Thanks again!
5 years 11 months ago #25268

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One question i have. When i have to set UTC offset, what is right?
I mean when i google for UTC offset austria, it tels me CET or UTC +2
the offset in EKOS is 3
Is it right? or do i have to change? And if so, how?

cheers
Niki
Skywatcher EQ6-R | Lacerta 10" Carbon-Newton | Lacerta MFoc Motorfocus | Moravian G2 8300 Color | Canon EOS 5DMarkIIIa | Lodestar X2 guiding cam | KSTARS 3.4.3. on my outdoor-Laptop with KDE-Neon/Plasma | KSTARS 3.4.3. on Remote-IMac with Catalina | KSTARS 3.4.3 on Remote-Macbook Air with Catalina
5 years 11 months ago #25279

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I can't check this right now, but as I recall, when you press the button with the globe on it a menu will come up where you enter your city (if you live in a major city) or your coordinates. That will then place you in the correct time zone.
For instance, for me the time zone is currently GMT-5, since daylight saving time is active, so for you that should be 7 hours later, i.e. GMT+2. Anyway, just enter your coordinates, set time via UTC>Now and make sure that the time shown in Kstars at the upper left side of the window is correct, otherwise set the time in the Menu to Now (provided your system time, i.e. the time your computer shows, is correct) and all should be fine.
5 years 11 months ago #25281

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Along the same lines, an embarrassing question to Jasem, hope you are reading this:
I have an issue with one installation of a Pi3 where the time in Kstars never updates to the current time when I start it. System time is correct and current, but Kstars always shows the time and date when Kstars was shut down previously. That had made for some very interesting slewing in the past before I noticed this when my telescope was attempting to image its target at a 30 degree angle pointing into the ground.
This only affects one installation on one Pi3, I have another installation on another Pi3 and one on a mini-PC and the other two are always updating the time when Kstars is starting up on those machines.
There's got to be a checkbox somewhere that allows me to tell Kstars to interrogate the system time when it starts up, but for the life of me, I can't find it.

Anyone reading this who can help with that?

Jo
5 years 11 months ago #25282

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Yes, you have the "I paused KStars and forgot to unpause it" syndrome :D I've seen it happening a lot of times that Ekos actually forcibly unpauses the clock when it starts.

EDIT: I think I'll try to figure a way to make this stand out.. paused state should be RED or something scary.
Last edit: 5 years 11 months ago by Jasem Mutlaq.
5 years 11 months ago #25283

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