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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Ekos - Plate Solving and Polar Alignment

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I've got astrometry hooked up for the plate solving and I can get it to work, but I have some problems:

* My options to the solver are lost if I switch tab, restart, etc. Of course, they're lost too if I hit the button to put in the mount coordinates, etc.

* I can't see the captured image that's passed to the solver - could there be an option to open in the viewer like the CCD capture panel? This could save some time for me when I get a bad pic or do something dumb. :)

* This isn't ekos specific, but any hints would be appreciated: My CCD does not have antiblooming protection, so bright stars make bloom spikes. This seemed to cause grief with the solver and I couldn't find or work out how to get around that problem. Changing the exposure time didn't help.

* I tried the polar alignment option (didn't keep the log output unfortunately). I tried to measure the Az error, but it didn't successfully complete to display a value. After solving the first image, it slewed the mount. After this, I'm not exactly sure what happened - I think it might have tried to get another image and failed OR got the image and then had another problem. I do remember it said that the solver took 1 second and had none of the usual verbose output. I could see no errors on the terminal. The same issue happened for trying the Alt error.
9 years 8 months ago #1481

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1. The options are now retained. It was a bit complex since the parameters are regenerated, but I kept any changes made by the user now.

2. There is a "Preview" button now to enable this.

3. Not really sure, I was going to say reduce exposure but you already tried that.

4. Ekos calculates the alignment error by plate solving two images about 30 arcminutes apart. Please try to reuse the polar alignment tool again and let me know where it fails exactly, I've used it several times on my mount & CCD.
9 years 8 months ago #1492

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1. This works for the current session but isn't persisted.
2. Yay, thank you. :)
3. I tried the images with the online solver too and they failed. I'll have to think about this more to work out a solution.
4. Ok, I got this to sort of work, but it required some weird behaviour to achieve. So far I've only got Az error testing done (clouds have come over so I'm writing this up)

* I first use kstars to go to an appropriate position (mount menu option to track an object).
* Plate solve, with GOTO set to slew to target.
* Switch GOTO back to sync option
* Switch to Polar Alignment Option
* Ensure the coordinates are updated (this doesn't always happen even though the option is selected)
* Hit the Measure Az Error button - this does the first capture, solves it, then moves the mount 30 arcminutes. At this point nothing else happens - I've left everything alone for up to 5 min and nothing more happens... until I intervene as follows...

* Update the coordinates again - at this point they are never updated so manual intervention is required.
* Switch from Polar Alignment to GOTO mode (sync option selected)
* And this is where the magic happens - hit capture and solve, which it does, but then it immediately switches itself back to Polar Alignment mode, captures another image, solves and then prints the error - or at least what seems to be a reasonable value for an error. :)

This felt completely bizarre to me and I hope not expected behaviour. :)

A couple more related requests:
* When using the preview option, could we get the auto-stretch option turned on in the viewer?
* When reporting the error, it gives numbers like 0.0xxx degrees. Is it possible to have it display deg, arcmin, arcsec, instead?
9 years 8 months ago #1499

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This is not the expected behaviour, I'll look into it.
9 years 8 months ago #1500

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I have some more information after playing around for a couple of hours.

On very rare occasions, it started the 2nd image itself, but as it hadn't updated the coords for plate solving, I think it gave the wrong result, if in fact it even succeeded.
Once I noticed that the second image had a streaked star - I think it might not have been waiting for the mount to finish slewing before going again. If I had to guess, I think there's some problem with coordinating with the mount's state and the start of the 2nd image.
9 years 8 months ago #1501

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When using the preview option, could we get the auto-stretch option turned on in the viewer?
* When reporting the error, it gives numbers like 0.0xxx degrees. Is it possible to have it display deg, arcmin, arcsec, instead? 

Both of these requests are complete and now in GIT. Furthermore, solver options now persist after you restart KStars. I still have to investigate the polar process itself.
9 years 8 months ago #1504

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Great, I'll check them out as soon as I can. Usual cloud problems at the moment...
9 years 8 months ago #1507

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I can confirm the 2 changes work well, thanks.

Can the same auto-stretch be done for the guide calibration phase please?
9 years 8 months ago #1511

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You can already select a filter in the guide module.
9 years 8 months ago #1519

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Well, d'oh. :) I did wonder why that was there, but didn't tweak on to it. Thanks for letting me know! :)
9 years 8 months ago #1521

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