Sorry about the missing signature. It's there now

My mount is connected directly to my mac using a EQDIR cable (Lynx 5m from FLO). It's listed under USB devices as a FT232R device, so that's fine. There haven't been any issues, except with guiding.

I just tried connecting just my mount and my QHY5L-II-C camera to my computer. Under the "mount" tab in Ekos I was able to manually slew in all directions without problems. The only place I'm experiencing issues is with the guide calibration in RA reverse. That one time it did work, it was pretty quick at calibrating in both RA and DEC forward and reverse. Now it's not the fastest with the RA forward and then it just keeps on for 21 iterations in RA reverse and fails.

Is there a way to check possible backlash during the day? I've read a few places of some people having some backlash with their belt mod due to the belt not being tight enough (which could be fixed). But how do you check this?

The QHY5L-II-C produces 8bit FITS, but that should be fine according to the INDI control panel. The gain is just constantly set to 1, so I have a suspicion that this could have an effect - or maybe that's just me?

Anders

Ok, I just tried the simulator again. This time (without Darks) it failed to calibrate in RA reverse due to mount problems or backlash! Log from simulator attached.



I tried again right after and then it worked without issues. Both times I used auto-selection of star. When it failed it kinda looked like it tried guiding on nothing!? Just a dark area of the image.

Anybody with suggestions?

I think, I found a possible cause for my problems! I just tried again with a 5 second exposure on my QHY5L-II-C guide camera. That failed at RA reverse again. I’ve tried setting the gain in the Indi Control Panel to 90% (value of 20 in Indi), but the log just keeps writing “Gain updated to 1”. I therefore tried a 10 second exposure instead and then guiding worked! So it seems like it’s a bug concerning the gain settings for the QHY5L-II-C camera. Can anybody confirm this gain setting issue with this camera?

The driver is working fine (on Linux) when I checked the gain settings. So perhaps it is some issue on the MacOS version?

That could very well be the case then - hopefully it’s not my camera that’s broken...

Guiding worked fine last night - I tried a 5 min sub of M51 that went without any issues. I had one time where guide star was lost and RMS threshold value was exceeded, but it find it right away again and guided on. So that was very positive.

In the polar alignment module I noticed a couple of small bugs:

1)
When rotating west or east the slew rate was extremely low, eventhough I updated the rate (before the alignment) to 128x (the log confirms slew rate of 128). It takes roughly 1,5 minute to complete a 30 degree slew. Is this a normal speed?

2)
During the polar alignment the "Polar Alignment" part of the GUI kinda collapsed. It's done that everytime I've tried the polar alignment routine. There are no problems in running and completing the routing, but the error infos etc. can't be read. I've tried enlarging the area, but nothing can be done. I've taken a screenshot of the area. Another Mac issue?


Anders

Ok, there's something not quite right regarding the polar alignment.

Last week I wasn't able to do a polar alignment in Ekos (I had already done a rough PA using the polar scope in my mount). I quickly gave up and just shot some short subs of Andromeda. Tonight I tried again, first a rough PA using the polar scope and then the Ekos PA routine. Now Ekos told me that the Northern Celestial Pole wasn't even in my FOV. I tried correcting my mount (completely ignoring my original rough PA) in both Alt and Az. I managed to get the celestial pole well within my FOV, but after the 3 rotations I needed an extremely large correction in both Alt and Az. I then tried following the pink line as far as I could, pressed done and then started a new PA routine. This time I got the message from Ekos that the NCP was out of my FOV!
I tried multiple adjustments on my mount, but everytime the result was the same as above. One time I managed to get my mount setup with so that the NCP was very close to the center of my FOV in the first image, but after the third image was taken I (again) needed an adjustment across the entire image. I don't get it! Quiting the PA routine and parking the scope again placed me correctly back at the beginning very close to the NCP in the FOV - however, checking my mounts polar scope showed NO polaris what so ever. Checking using a laser pointer through my polar scope confirmed that the mount wasn't pointed anywhere near the NCP.

I then did a new PA with my polar scope with more time adjusting - result: Ekos tells me that the NCP is outside my FOV. My mount was in its home position etc. Nothing off there.

Finally, I gave up on the Ekos PA routine and relied on the PA from my polar scope (checked with a laser pointer and things looked good) I tried slewing to M31 - almost dead centered (2 small adjustments needed). Then a star in Cassiopeia - dead centered after 1 small adjustment. Back to M31 - dead center right away. Guide calibration went fine so now the ZWO camera is taking multiple 120s subs of M31. Hopefully it'll work out fine.

What's going on?

When Ekos tells you that the NCP is not in the FOV then you should move the telescope by loosening the RA and DEC clutches and pointing the telescope. Rough polar alignment should be good enough to start the alignment procedure in Ekos and you should only move the mount as soon as you have the pink line.

Another option is to NOT move the telescope and simply click No when Ekos asks you if it should move the telescope to Polaris for you. The alignment procedure will continue normally and the pink line should be short in the end.


HTH, Wouter

I've tried pretty much everything. If saying "No" to finding Polaris I'm left with a pink line all across the alignment image after the 3 rotations. If I say "Yes", I'm left with a pink line all across the alignment image after the 3 rotations. And I can see very clearly that my scope isn't pointing near the NCP.

If using the Polar Scope (and checking with a laser pointer) I can see that my scope is pointing in the right direction of the NCP - however, Ekos tells me that I'm not. By trying a mount adjustment beforehand I can get close to the NCP in the FOV, but that still leaves me with a pink line all across the alignment image after the 3 rotations.

I really don't get it. A month ago I did the exact same things - a rough (more roughly than last night) PA with the polar scope and then 3 rotations in Ekos which showed me, that I was very close to the NCP. This has, however, been a one-time-success. I really don't get it!

My guiding failed last night after about 1h and 20min. I haven't checked my pictures yet from before the guide fail, hopefully they're good...

Anders

Perhaps you could check the alignment of the polar scope. Perhaps for some reason it got off and that’s why the polar alignment procedure in Ekos shows such a large pink line?


Wouter

With an ED80 and the ASI294MC the FOV should be large enough to have both Polaris and the NCP in the FOV. Can you see it (Polaris) in the images? Or are you trying to PA with the guide scope?
In doubt try to solve the FOV separately and check in the sky chart whether the solution is reasonable.
Oh, and: Your polar scope is calibrated, yes?

I've calibrated the polar scope once, but I'll have to check if the alignment has been knocked out somehow. I hope that's the root of the problem.

In some of the images I can see Polaris. In others I can't.

I tried both my ED80 (which I normally use for PA) with the ZWO294 and my Guide scope with the QHY5L-II-C. Both with the same results.

I also tried going West instead of East and tried changing the angle from 30 til 15. Always same result.

But I'll look into the Polar Scope alignment again - hopefully this week.

Anders