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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

focus and Polar align "issues"

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Adding to what Chris wrote re manual mode: make sure that the slew speed is set correctly for your mount if you want to use the automatic mode. I have a SkyWatcher HEQ5-Pro and need to set it to 800x for it to work properly. The default is 64x which works but it takes forever (or so it seems) to rotate 30 degrees.

As for having KStars and Ekos in different desktops: did you do that yourself? I have never tried that but I did try to use Ekos "in a separate window" mode and also noticed that all modal popups showed up in the KStars window. That's when I stopped using Ekos in a separate window and simply got used to opening and closing it when I need it. Perhaps opening a new topic for this if you want this fixed would be a good idea.

As for the big ERR numbers: Chris already addressed this. Ekos expects the mount to be pointed at the north pole with the RA equal to the current sidereal time (i.e. the RA culminating) and close to the pole RA is a very poor measure (to quote Chris because it is too early for me to think of another way to phrase this). The ERR boxes display the differences in RA and DEC expressed in arc seconds which very quickly become very large, especially if plate solving shows that the mount is pointed to a too low altitude (essentially giving an RA +/- 12h wrt the current sidereal time).

When using Ekos in slew mode, swithc from the Polar Alignment tab to the Solutions Result tab (to see the alignment process working) and make sure to tick the "Slew to Target" checkbox. That way, Ekos will send a correction to the mount which then should slew to the target. It will then perform another plate solve to measure the new alignment error and will send corrections again. In general it should take a few iterations to reach the target, depending on the "Accuracy" (expressed in arc sec) among other things. Be patient with this the first time you try in a night and consecutive slews should go increasingly quicker.


Clear skies, Wouter
4 years 2 months ago #48219

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Great Responses, thank you that explains a lot. I will go with the Manual approach. Can I use the celestron CGEM hand controller to move the mount or do I NEED to use the mount motion buttons in the INDI Manager? It seems if I use the CGEM hand controller that upsets the coordination between the program and the mount. For example, if I set the "HOME" postion on the hand controller it is not in the same position once I run EKOS (whether I set the park function or not). So just asking if in the polar alignment routine when you do Manual motion does the program check the new position of the scope before it does the capture and solve or does it assume the motion was done thru the program?

Yes, I checked, in Kstars Config, to have EKOS start in a separate window and moved Kstars to a different desktop. That is when the pop up windows come up always in the Kstars desktop. I will start a separate thread on this topic under "wish list". If you don't have them in separate windows then EKOS is always on top of Kstars and you have to move it to see the planetarium view (if you are using that to slew the scope). So it is more convenient to have them in different windows and just open one or the other. But I think the pop up windows should come up with EKOS.

thanks.
Ron
4 years 2 months ago #48226

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AFAIK using the hand controller to move the mount should work. Park/Home position is a different thing. However, I do not own a Celestron mount so please simply try it out and see for yourself.
4 years 2 months ago #48228

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Yes, you can use the hand control buttons. On the Celestron if you press one button, then press the opposite one as well you get a full speed slew.

As for the Celestron Home and INDI Park I would like to make them the same. The control for this exists in the protocol for the current HCs. One snag is that the INDI park handling is embedded into the base part of the driver and it may be difficult to extract it without upsetting everyone else.
4 years 2 months ago #48234

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I agree that it would be nice to synchronize the home/park setting and another complication may be that not all mounts support this. I, for instance, use my SW HEQ5 without HC and I am not sure if the home position is stored on the mount or the HC. I am not saying that this therefore should not be implemented but rather that this needs to be done with care so not to break the current implementation in other telescope drivers.
4 years 2 months ago #48237

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Err, that's what I just said.
4 years 2 months ago #48238

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Yes you did indeed. Sorry, apparently it was too cryptic for me.
4 years 2 months ago #48240

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Just having gone through this thread, I wanted to comment on a couple of things, perhaps redundantly.

1- When I set up Ekos for the first time (e.g. I've helped a few friends locally) I always check "independent window" in the FITS, INDI, and EKOS sections of the Options window (which e.g. you can get to in the bottom right corner of the catpure tab and in many other places). IMHO this should be the default configuration.

2- Re stretching in the focus tab. Yes, you can (a) click the "auto stretch" button in FITS settings. Should be the default, if it isn't, but it can be turned off. Also, though, (b) whenever you mouse over that image window in the focus tab, (or the other embedded image display windows like in the align & guide tabs) there is a floating icon menu that appears near the top of the image, which allows you to (from left to right icons) to zoom in, zoom out, default zoom, zoom-to-fit, TOGGLE STRETCH, ... So, you can click the toggle stretch button when the image isn't stretched, and a stretched version of the image should appear. There is no way, though, to adjust the stretch in that tab with sliders like you can with the fitsviewer.
4 years 2 months ago #48255

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HY
Interesting because I thought I tried all those floating buttons over the images and none of them provided stretch, but at the time I had "auto-stretch" turned off (the default) in the Kstars config -fits. I will try it again, now that I have it turned on. The zoom-in and Zoom-out always worked.

thanks on the info for using the CGEM keypad. I don't home the scope very often, so it is just as easy to 'Park' it from EKOS ; in fact maybe easier as I don't have to scroll thru all the menu options on the keypad.

Ron
4 years 2 months ago #48264

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Ron,

The stretch button (fifth from the left, "Toggle Stretch") should work whether or not the auto-stretch is turned on/off by default. The latter just decides the initial state. The toggle shouldn't care whether the initial state is on or off, just toggle whatever it is.
If you ever confirm that the buttons don't work depending on that auto-stretch config parameter, let me know.

Hy
4 years 2 months ago #48265

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I am running KSTARS 3.3.8 with a download ( a few weeks ago) of Astroberry 2.0.0. When I scroll over the image window in the alignment module the only options I have (from left to right) are:
zoom in, zoom out, default zoom, zoom to Fit | show cross hairs, show pixel gridlines, detect stars, view star profile | show equitorial grid, show objects in image, center telescope

in the focus and guide modules they are:
zoom in , zoom out, default zoom, zoom to fit | show cross hairs, show pixel grid, detect stars, view star profile

So the only place I can see to auto stretch is in the Kstars configurations settings for Fits viewer.

Perhaps there is an upgrade I don't have. I am trying to find my way around the program before I start changing things.

thanks,
Ron
4 years 2 months ago #48285

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You are right. That got released after 3.3.8.
Hy
4 years 2 months ago #48287

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