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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Ekos Polar Alignment with Kstars

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I have been using Kstars build 2018-08-18 with the latest nightly indilib release. I am using an Odroid ux4 as the remote server and a Linux Desktop. Prior to upgrading to the newer version of Kstars, the polar alignment in Ekos would allow you to press for each capture and worked as expected. When going to the newer Kstars version, the rotate and capture is now automated. This is causing my astrometric images to have star trails. I have increased the Settle time to up to 10000ms, but this has no effect regardless of the value. It's like the time between the mount rotation and capture the settle time is not being honored. This doe not happen on every image, but usually one or two of the three images and it does not seem to matter the order. Mount is an iOptron eq45-pro, guide scope is a QHY5Lii-M, guide scope is a 50mm William Optics. The attached files show the issue.

Has anyone else seen this behavior? Is this a bug?

Cheers,

Chris
5 years 4 months ago #32029
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I have seen this too - my mount is an iOptron CEM60 and it seems the capture immediately starts after the slew starts. The workaround is simply to stop the capture, wait until the mount is tracking, and then restart.

I appreciate the automation, but I would also like to have the option to do things manually step by step, and perhaps allow a FOV of less than 60 minutes. (I understand the reasoning behind the size (difficult the astrometry.net to solve, and the alignment may be larger than the field of view, so it would take multiple attempts to align. A focal length of 10 with a couple of my cameras - I do understand the likelyhood of failure, but perhaps the platesolving might be solved using the new 5000 series of files.).

Anyway, it work extremely well, even with the workaround.

Thanks,

jmh
The following user(s) said Thank You: Christopher Kovacs
5 years 4 months ago #32031

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Thanks for the report. The "settling" time will now be honored. Should be in tonight PPA. The FOV is limited to 30 arcmins, not 60. This issue was reported before with iOptron.
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5 years 4 months ago #32036

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I DO have this problem with trails sometimes when using platesolving. No matter how long my settling-time is, i sometimes have trails, short, but trails. In my case it´s happening because of starting the exposure too early after slewing.

But why i am answering to this thread is, that i wanted to polar align with ekos too.
The problem i have now (i had this NOT earlier) is that depending on the solution, the line i have to follow, or the northern celestil pole is WAY outsinde my camera fov.
And i think this can NOT be true...

I am using my guidescope and my ASI120 for that, maybe this is the fault, but i do not know. WHAT i know is that the system shows me the purple line that i have to follow is OUTSIDE of the fov...

ideas?
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 3 months ago #32065

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I have used both the main imaging telescope+cam and the guide telescope+cam for polar alignment and in both cases Ekos was spot on. The difficulty is to make sure that the guide telescope+cam are properly aligned with the imaging telescope+cam. This is not needed for guiding (though they shouldn't be too far off to make sure that the guide corrections are good) but it does help with polar alignment to make sure that the celestial pole is inside the FOV. Are you sure your telescopes are aligned properly?


Wouter
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5 years 3 months ago #32067

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Hi!

Thought so, but will check that back. Thanks.

I would like to polar align via imaging telescope, but the moravian ccd takes about 10 secs for the readout of the pictures, so iis a pain to make the alignment with it. Maybe the better way would be to use the asi on the main scope for that purpose...
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 3 months ago #32068

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You could try binning the Moravian so the images download faster.
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5 years 3 months ago #32070

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Yes I am facing the same issue with my QHY9S camera. On top of that, the long focal length of the imaging telescope (1624 mm) makes the FOV very small and the guide telescope+cam have a larger FOV plus much shorter download time so that's why I use that for this imaging telescope. Alignment of the telescopes is essential here.


Good luck, Wouter
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5 years 3 months ago #32071

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Hi All,

I am trying to test the settling time with Polar Alignment. I am testing using the Guide Simulator and my iOptron mount inside (since clouds are spoiling my fun).
I think the settling time is not in the correct order of the alignment routine. What I am see is that the after the image is captured and solved, settle time, mount rotates, and then image is captured. I think the correct order would be to mount move first, then settling time, and finally the image capture and solve?

I can only do limited testing, but with the order of mount movement, settle time, and capture, appears to be incorrect.

Jasem, can you check?


Thanks in advance,

Chris

Here is the log (settle time was set to 5000):
2018-12-03T20:45:26 Capturing image...
2018-12-03T20:45:37 Image received.
2018-12-03T20:45:37 Starting solver...
2018-12-03T20:45:39 Solver completed in 2 seconds.
2018-12-03T20:45:39 Solution coordinates: RA (14h 35m 11s) DEC ( 89° 58' 15") Telescope Coordinates: RA (14h 32m 43s) DEC ( 89° 58' 21")
2018-12-03T20:45:39 Please wait while WCS data is processed...
2018-12-03T20:45:40 WCS data processing is complete.
2018-12-03T20:45:40 Settling...
2018-12-03T20:45:44 Please wait until mount completes rotating to RA (16h 32m 42s) DE ( 89° 58' 21")
2018-12-03T20:45:45 Mount first rotation is complete.
2018-12-03T20:45:45 Capturing image...
2018-12-03T20:45:55 Image received.

2018-12-03T20:45:55 Starting solver...
2018-12-03T20:45:58 Solver completed in 2 seconds.
2018-12-03T20:45:58 Solution coordinates: RA (14h 34m 28s) DEC ( 89° 58' 15") Telescope Coordinates: RA (16h 32m 43s) DEC ( 89° 58' 21")
2018-12-03T20:45:58 Settling...
2018-12-03T20:45:58 Mount second rotation is complete.
2018-12-03T20:45:58 Capturing image...
2018-12-03T20:46:03 Please wait until mount completes rotating to RA (18h 32m 42s) DE ( 89° 58' 21")
2018-12-03T20:46:09 Image received.
2018-12-03T20:46:09 Starting solver...
2018-12-03T20:46:11 Solver completed in 2 seconds.
2018-12-03T20:46:11 Solution coordinates: RA (16h 43m 35s) DEC ( 89° 58' 21") Telescope Coordinates: RA (18h 32m 43s) DEC ( 89° 58' 21")
2018-12-03T20:46:11 Please wait while WCS data is processed...
2018-12-03T20:46:12 WCS data processing is complete.
2018-12-03T20:46:12 Mount axis is to the Top Left of the celestial pole
2018-12-03T20:52:41 Solver aborted after 393 seconds
5 years 3 months ago #32302

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Thanks for the report, it's fixed in GIT now. Please retest.
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5 years 3 months ago #32306

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Thanks Jasem! I pulled the kstar GIT source, compiled and tested using my mount and guide simulator.

Looks Good!
2018-12-04T20:48:25 Please wait until mount completes rotating to RA (22h 35m 28s) DE ( 89° 57' 15")
2018-12-04T20:48:30 Mount first rotation is complete.
2018-12-04T20:48:30 Settling...
2018-12-04T20:48:40 Capturing image...
2018-12-04T20:48:51 Image received.
2018-12-04T20:48:51 Starting solver...
2018-12-04T20:48:54 Solver completed in 3 seconds.
.
.

I'll give it a full test in the field when the clouds part. Being in the US Midwest it may be a while as Nov/Dec are the cloudiest months here.


Again, thanks and best regards,

Chris
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5 years 3 months ago #32330

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