Magnus,
If I might piggy-back on your post because I have a similar problem.
I do two types of work: spectroscopy and variable stars. I have a control room; however, all the equipment is connected to a Stellar Mate in the dome.
When I do variable stars, I have a SX Xpress Lodestar as my guide camera in a filter wheel. The camera is a ZWO ASI2600. I use the Ekos guider.
For spectroscopy, my guide camera is, again, a Lodestar which is embedded in my spectroscope. Same ZWO camera. In this case I use the PHD2 program in the SM as my guide software.
I noticed that, when I did spectroscopy work, my FITS headers were sparse. So I ran some tests. Now, regardless of whether I'm doing variable stars or spectroscopy, the primary and secondary image profiles are the same except for the filter wheel which I removed for these tests.
The tests were:
1. Control h/w via SM, track with Ekos software.
2. Control h/w via SM, track using PHD2.
3. Control h/w via computer in control room, track with Ekos s/w.
4. Control h/w via computer in control room, track with PHD2.
OK -- so I see we still can't embed even txt files.
Here is the FITS header when using SM-based PHD2 to do the guiding.
SIMPLE = T / file does conform to FITS standard
BITPIX = 16
NAXIS = 2
NAXIS1 = 6248
NAXIS2 = 4176
EXTEND = T / FITS dataset may contain extensions
COMMENT FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) format is defined in 'Astronomy
COMMENT and Astrophysics', volume 376, page 359; bibcode: 2001A&A...376..359H
BZERO = 32768
BSCALE = 1
DATAMIN = 232. / Minimum value
DATAMAX = 23213. / Maximum value
MIN1 = 232. / Min Channel 1
MAX1 = 23213. / Max Channel 1
MEAN1 = 497.989868564916 / Mean Channel 1
MEDIAN1 = 498. / Median Channel 1
STDDEV1 = 11.5523194653755 / Standard Deviation Channel 1
ROWORDER= 'TOP-DOWN' / ROWORDER
INSTRUME= 'ZWO CCD ASI2600MM Pro' / INSTRUME
TELESCOP= 'Celestron CGX' / TELESCOP
OBSERVER= 'Unknown ' / OBSERVER
OBJECT = 'Unknown ' / OBJECT
EXPTIME = 1. / Total Exposure Time (s)
CCD-TEMP= 1.8 / CCD Temperature (Celsius)
PIXSIZE1= 3.76 / Pixel Size 1 (microns)
PIXSIZE2= 3.76 / Pixel Size 2 (microns)
XBINNING= 1 / Binning factor in width
YBINNING= 1 / Binning factor in height
XPIXSZ = 3.76 / X binned pixel size in microns
YPIXSZ = 3.76 / Y binned pixel size in microns
FRAME = 'Light ' / FRAME
IMAGETYP= 'Light Frame' / IMAGETYP
FOCALLEN= 0. / Focal Length (mm)
APTDIA = 0. / Telescope diameter (mm)
FOCUSPOS= 25230 / Focus position in steps
FOCUSTEM= 20.94 / Focuser temperature in degrees C
GAIN = 150. / GAIN
OFFSET = 50. / OFFSET
END
Here is the FITS header representative of the other three tests (they're basically the same):
SIMPLE = T / file does conform to FITS standard
BITPIX = 16
NAXIS = 2
NAXIS1 = 6248
NAXIS2 = 4176
EXTEND = T / FITS dataset may contain extensions
COMMENT FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) format is defined in 'Astronomy
COMMENT and Astrophysics', volume 376, page 359; bibcode: 2001A&A...376..359H
BZERO = 32768
BSCALE = 1
DATAMIN = 160. / Minimum value
DATAMAX = 22080. / Maximum value
MIN1 = 160. / Min Channel 1
MAX1 = 22080. / Max Channel 1
MEAN1 = 498.00079335684 / Mean Channel 1
MEDIAN1 = 498. / Median Channel 1
STDDEV1 = 11.3757469274552 / Standard Deviation Channel 1
ROWORDER= 'TOP-DOWN' / ROWORDER
INSTRUME= 'ZWO CCD ASI2600MM Pro' / INSTRUME
TELESCOP= 'Celestron CGX' / TELESCOP
OBSERVER= 'Unknown ' / OBSERVER
OBJECT = 'Unknown ' / OBJECT
EXPTIME = 1. / Total Exposure Time (s)
CCD-TEMP= 0.9 / CCD Temperature (Celsius)
PIXSIZE1= 3.76 / Pixel Size 1 (microns)
PIXSIZE2= 3.76 / Pixel Size 2 (microns)
XBINNING= 1 / Binning factor in width
YBINNING= 1 / Binning factor in height
XPIXSZ = 3.76 / X binned pixel size in microns
YPIXSZ = 3.76 / Y binned pixel size in microns
FRAME = 'Light ' / FRAME
IMAGETYP= 'Light Frame' / IMAGETYP
FOCALLEN= 1702. / Focal Length (mm)
APTDIA = 304. / Telescope diameter (mm)
FOCUSPOS= 25230 / Focus position in steps
FOCUSTEM= 20.75 / Focuser temperature in degrees C
SCALE = 0.4556438 / arcsecs per pixel
SITELAT = 32.4875 / Latitude of the imaging site in degrees
SITELONG= -107.9844 / Longitude of the imaging site in degrees
AIRMASS = 2.047123 / AIRMASS
OBJCTAZ = 1.068237 / Azimuth of center of image in Degrees
OBJCTALT= 29.1732 / Altitude of center of image in Degrees
OBJCTRA = '17 32 52.37' / Object J2000 RA in Hours
OBJCTDEC= '86 35 10.27' / Object J2000 DEC in Degrees
RA = 263.2182 / Object J2000 RA in Degrees
DEC = 86.58619 / Object J2000 DEC in Degrees
PIERSIDE= 'WEST ' / West, looking East
EQUINOX = 2000 / EQUINOX
DATE-OBS= '2023-04-02T00:59:50.222' / 2023-04-02T00:59:50.222
COMMENT = ' ' / Generated by INDI
GAIN = 150. / GAIN
OFFSET = 50. / OFFSET
END
This second example has 13 more rows than the example where SM PHD2 is doing the guiding. Things like observer Lat/Lon, RA/Dec, the equivalent focal length of my telescope with is computed correctly given my 0.7 focal reducer.
So here's my question: what writes the FITS header? If I doing my usual spec work using the SM PHD2 guider, is the header written on the Stellar Mate, or on the computer in the control room. The FITS header in this instance is not satisfactory. In the case of SM PHD2 guiding, there is NOT the comment "Generated by INDI" near the end of the header while the other three instances do have that notation.