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Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Meridian flip not followed by astrometry and calibration

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Usually I shoot always from east to meridian or from meridian to west.
Yesterday as the weather wasn't really favourable for a good night of astrophotography.
So I decided to check how works the meridian flip.
My setup is compound with a Ioptron CEM60 and a Nikon D5300 as main camera.

I choose an object close to the meridian and start a capture session.
After having passed the meridian, the mount flipped. And ... nothing happened after that no more astrometry or calibration of the mount.
I suspected the camera to be responsible of it ... but the cam still worked fine.
I browse all configs but didn't find any reason to that behaviour.

If there is somebody using a setup close to mine do they notice such problem ?
3 years 1 month ago #67501

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For me, lately, there's another annoyance for a few weeks...
The flip goes well, actually.
It flips. Solves. But the solutions is quite a bit off.
I stop the sequence and solve manually (without changing anything) - then it solves/moves to the right place.
Maybe it's just a bad version I have with all those recent updates...
Polar alignment also acts weirdly. But after fighting with it for some time, it does its job.
-- Max S
ZWO AM5. RST-135. AZ-GTI. HEQ5. iOptron SkyTracker.
TPO RC6. FRA400. Rokinon 135 and other lenses.
ZWO ASI2600MC. D5500 modified with UVIR clip-in filter.
ZWO ASI120MM Mini x 2. ZWO 30F4 guider. Orion 50mm guider.
ZWO EAF x 2.
3 years 1 month ago #67504

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For me the meridian flip works and solves but then the sequence doesn’t continue. I assumed that it was because I am not guiding.
3 years 1 month ago #67510

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I just finished an auto meridian flip where it guided and aligned afterwards without any issues on the same object. What happens is that when you start capture, whatever position the mount reports is recoded. This position is used to for post-flip alignment procedure. If you aborted for whatever reason, then restarted capture, then the target position is updated from the current mount position. I will try to repeat another meridian flip now without guiding to see if there are issues.
3 years 1 month ago #67529

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Thanks Jasem. FWIW this happens for me both in with stable release and the nighlty builds.
3 years 1 month ago #67530

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Thanks, I actually just encountered this issue and now working on a solution.
3 years 1 month ago #67531

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A friend of mine has an EQ8. He controls it with a RPi on which I have installed a Kstars/Ekos/INDI version. This version is late of 2 version numb er I guess.
Last night we tested together the flip. In my case, with the latest version, it failed. In his case all worked fine.
3 years 1 month ago #67536

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I believe this issue is now fixed in nightlines. Please double check. I couldn't continue testing as clouds rolled by. But first test went OK fine.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Wouter van Reeven
3 years 1 month ago #67537

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Hopefully the fix will be in the updates of nightly for tomorrow so then we may be able to test it. In any case, I took apart my HEQ5 and lubricated it anew so maybe guiding will work for me again. In any case, I will test the fix. Thanks very much for the quick action!
3 years 1 month ago #67540

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I was actually using one of the early builds of KS 3.5.2 (Jan 15 2021) on Windows client - maybe that's why...
Installed a more recent build. Will test as soon as the clouds go away.
-- Max S
ZWO AM5. RST-135. AZ-GTI. HEQ5. iOptron SkyTracker.
TPO RC6. FRA400. Rokinon 135 and other lenses.
ZWO ASI2600MC. D5500 modified with UVIR clip-in filter.
ZWO ASI120MM Mini x 2. ZWO 30F4 guider. Orion 50mm guider.
ZWO EAF x 2.
3 years 1 month ago #67549

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I don't know if this has ever been fixed, but if your Alignment module was NOT set to Solve and Slew, then it will not solve and slew after an automated Meridian flip.
I would have thought EKOS would set that function automatically, but I noticed that I had left the Alignment module to just SOLVE earlier in the evening, it wont get reset to solve and SLEW post meridian flip, and thus fail.
Last edit: 3 years 1 month ago by Peter Kennett.
3 years 1 month ago #67699

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Had three more sessions with the same target and same meridian flip (mis) behavior.
This time I used a more recent build of KS 3.5.2 BETA (Feb 18) Windows client and SM 1.5.6 STABLE on RPI4 (same as before).

-- after the flip the Align module captures/solves/slews close to the target but quite a bit off (200-300 arcsec)
-- Guide module struggles to calibrate and fails - RA calibration goes forward in a wrong (opposite) direction, when it switches in reverse it continues going in the same direction
-- I stop the guider (or let it fail), go to Align and click on Capture & Solve - now it solves and slews right to the target.
-- Guider calibrates and starts guiding as it should.

Just reporting.
Thanks!
-- Max S
ZWO AM5. RST-135. AZ-GTI. HEQ5. iOptron SkyTracker.
TPO RC6. FRA400. Rokinon 135 and other lenses.
ZWO ASI2600MC. D5500 modified with UVIR clip-in filter.
ZWO ASI120MM Mini x 2. ZWO 30F4 guider. Orion 50mm guider.
ZWO EAF x 2.
Last edit: 3 years 1 month ago by maxthebuilder.
3 years 1 month ago #67705

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