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

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Incorrect coordinates in FITS header

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Most, but not all, of the FITS files of various objects I have been imaging over the last few months have incorrect coordinates in their FITS headers. Usually Polaris, but sometimes the coordinates of other objects I have been imaging that night.

Has anyone else had that experience?

Here a link to an image of NGC1499 aka California Nebula with the coordinates in the header pointing to Polaris:

www.dropbox.com/s/bvon7s4r67dgpwe/Califo...-08-09_014.fits?dl=0

It would be great to solve that issue. I have been trying to use these FITS files on subsequent nights to take more images of the exact same frame, but was stymied by the fact that the solver could never come to a solution until I saw that the coordinates in the FITS header are blatantly wrong.

Thanks

Jo
Last edit: 4 years 2 months ago by Jose Corazon.
4 years 2 months ago #47750

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In your CCD driver, check that the "mount" in options is set to your mount driver name.
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4 years 2 months ago #47753

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Thanks, Jasem. So should I enter there 'iEQ' or 'indi_ieq_telescope'? I presume that's under Snoop Devices where it currently shows the Simulator?



I am not certain that that is the root of the problem, however, since I also imaged M42 during the same evening session and there the coordinates are stated correctly:

www.dropbox.com/s/1e2dwbi80rdxzq7/M42_Li...-28-23_183.fits?dl=0

Please note in the FITS header that it also lists the 'Telescope Simulator' there.

There must be something else that has happened between imaging the California Nebula (link to FITS file in my first post) and M42 (next target of the evening) that affects how the coordinates are written to the FITS file.

I wonder whether the coordinates of Polaris have carried over somehow from polar alignment which was done just prior to imaging the California Nebula. What I also noticed was that when I was trying to fine adjust the position of the image frame in the dashboard window using the crosshairs to move the center of the image by a few arc minutes to center the nebula that the mount took off and went pointing to Polaris. In both cases the solver had run successfully and positioned the telescope to point towards the California Nebula and M42, respectively, and the correct coordinates were shown in the solver module in both cases. Yet, the coordinates of Polaris where retained in memory when imaging the first target, but no longer when I imaged the second target.

I hope this description helps reproducing the problem. The wrong coordinates are not a problem when stacking and processing the images, but they make it impossible to use a FITS image to precisely center the frame when imaging the same target over multiple nights, which is how I noticed it. The solver invariably fails then for obvious reasons.

Jo
4 years 2 months ago #47764
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If the header reports the telescope as the simulator then the simplest explanation is that all the telescope information is comig from the simulator. Perhaps something is updating the simulator position.

I found I had to go through everything in indi and ekos to ensure that the correct devices were specified and saved everywhere.
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4 years 2 months ago #47766

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Thanks, Chris!

Weird, though, as the simulator is not even loaded.

So would I have to enter iEQ or indi_ieq_telescope then in the options tab of the camera?
4 years 2 months ago #47769

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I have the same issue for providing device names in the snoop fields etc. Would it be possible for someone replace the text field with a selection list of possible drivers so that we don't have the naming uncertainty?

Thanks
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4 years 2 months ago #47774

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I use KStars/Ekos for years now but never got my head around what snoop devices are. There is no tooltip and no explanation AFAICS. Just recently starting indiserver gave me error messages like "Driver indi_asi_ccd: No IText 'SNOOP_MOUNT' in ZWO CCD ASI294MC Pro.ACTIVE_DEVICES" so I did have a closer look. I've got two ASI cams with one listing "Telescope Simulator" and the other one "Losmandy Gemini" in the snoop device Telescope configuration field. I tried setting both to "Losmandy Gemini" (since this is my Gemini + ASI profile), clicked at "save configuration" (INDI control panel/ZWO-CCDx/options). At least the error messages are gone now but after re-start both configurations are set to "Telescope Simulator" again. Anyone care to explain what this is all about and what the correct settings are?
Last edit: 4 years 2 months ago by Alfred.
4 years 2 months ago #47775

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I tried again and found both ASI cams now show "Losmandy Gemini" as Telescope Snoop Device. I assume this is what is intended. Do these settings have to be edited at all (my guess is no since I never changed a thing and everything did work (more or less) nicely over the years)?

4 years 2 months ago #47795
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Ekos actually automatically update these fields upon connection. However, these are also stored in the driver configuration file, so once the configuration is loaded, they overwrite any Ekos work. Maybe I can add a watch for the snoop properties and make sure they match whatever specified in the profile.
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4 years 2 months ago #47803

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ok I pushed a change that should make this more reliable since now it can detect changes and force the profile devices and then save configuration automatically as well.
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4 years 2 months ago #47806

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