Hi - just a warning about Skysafari 7 either using the INDI connection or the LX200/Skysafari INDI driver, when Skysafari 7 disconnects from the mount, including when the app goes into the background when you hit the Home button, tracking stops.
I've mentioned this on the Skysafari support forum - Skysafari 5 using the LX200/Skysafari INDI driver does not do this and tracking continues even when the Skysafari app is closed or mount disconnected.
HTH
Paul
Skywatcher AZGTi, RPI, INDI, Skymax 102, F3,3 reducer and Lodestar-C for EEA
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OK - I have EQDirect Cable and the results are the same.
Does anyone know if the Skywatcher Alt/Az driver supports the older, servo-based AZ mounts?
Thanks
Paul
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Hi
I've been using INDI for a few years EQMOD on my HEQ5PRO, however, I've been looking at a travel set up using my AZ Synscan mount and Skymax102 OTA but keeping the flexibility of INDI for remote control from my Camper Van and remote viewing with my Lodestar camera 
I've tried to use the SkyWatcher Alt/Az INDI driver on my RPi using PC Direct mode with the handset (until I get my direct cable for the Synscan AZ) - I can connect to and control the scope but pointing seems way off. From Parked (Alt=0, Az=0 - North) if I GOTO Polaris using KStars/EKOS, the mount points to about Alt=33deg where it should be about 53deg for my location.
Can the Skywatcher Alt/Az be used with the AZ Synscan mounts (as shown in the attached picture) and if so do I need to make any changes to the settings to get the positioning right?
The control seems to be there - movement in all directions is as expected, just not the correct amount!
Thanks
Paul
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Hi
Thanks -removing the no-fits2fits option allows the solver to run, how do I remove this from the options permanently (it reappears each time).
I still cannot use the external solver (I have upgraded to 0.69 which runs OK outside of EKOS/Kstars) - does not appear to find the astrometry.cfg file as specified in the preferences pane.
Cheers
Paul
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Hi
I've just tried this latest DMG on my Macbook Air running Sierra:-
RPi as INDI server with EQMOD, Lodestar CCD and SPC900 - all connect and work fine, although I've not been able to test under the stars as it's cloudy here (again!).
I've still not been able to get Astrometry working - I have both Cloudmakers Astrometry and Astrometry 0.64 installed under Homebrew.
The Homebrew version uses same index file as managed by the Cloudmakers version.
Both versions can solve captured images however if I try to use the internal solver I get the following:
2017-01-20T20:30:04 Solver failed. Try again.
2017-01-20T20:30:04 This program is part of the Astrometry.net suite.
For details, visit astrometry.net.
Git URL github.com/dstndstn/astrometry.net
Revision 0.69, date Thu_Dec_1_21:13:06_2016_-0500.
Usage: /Applications/kstars.app/Contents/MacOS/astrometry/bin/solve-field [options] [<image-file-1> <image-file-2> ...] [<xyls-file-1> <xyls-file-2> ...]
You can specify http:// or ftp:// URLs instead of filenames. The "wget" or "curl" program will be used to retrieve the URL.
Options include:
-h / --help: print this help message
-v / --verbose: be more chatty -- repeat for even more verboseness
-D / --dir <directory>: place all output files in the specified directory
-o / --out <base-filename>: name the output files with this base name
-b / --backend-config <filename>: use this config file for the
"astrometry-engine" program
--config <filename>: use this config file for the "astrometry-engine" program
--batch: run astrometry-engine once, rather than once per input file
-f / --files-on-stdin: read filenames to solve on stdin, one per line
-p / --no-plots: don't create any plots of the results
--plot-scale <scale>: scale the plots by this factor (eg, 0.25)
--plot-bg <filename (JPEG)>: set the background image to use for plots
-G / --use-wget: use wget instead of curl
-O / --overwrite: overwrite output files if they already exist
-K / --continue: don't overwrite output files if they already exist; continue
a previous run
-J / --skip-solved: skip input files for which the 'solved' output file
already exists; NOTE: this assumes single-field input files
--fits-image: assume the input files are FITS images
-N / --new-fits <filename>: output filename of the new FITS file containing
the WCS header; "none" to not create this file
-Z / --kmz <filename>: create KMZ file for Google Sky. (requires wcs2kml)
-i / --scamp <filename>: create image object catalog for SCAMP
-n / --scamp-config <filename>: create SCAMP config file snippet
-U / --index-xyls <filename>: output filename for xylist containing the image
coordinate of stars from the index
--just-augment: just write the augmented xylist files; don't run
astrometry-engine.
--axy <filename>: output filename for augment xy list (axy)
--temp-axy: write 'augmented xy list' (axy) file to a temp file
--timestamp: add timestamps to log messages
-7 / --no-delete-temp: don't delete temp files (for debugging)
-L / --scale-low <scale>: lower bound of image scale estimate
-H / --scale-high <scale>: upper bound of image scale estimate
-u / --scale-units <units>: in what units are the lower and upper bounds?
choices: "degwidth", "degw", "dw" : width of the image, in degrees (default)
"arcminwidth", "amw", "aw" : width of the image, in arcminutes
"arcsecperpix", "app": arcseconds per pixel
"focalmm": 35-mm (width-based) equivalent focal length
-8 / --parity <pos/neg>: only check for matches with positive/negative parity
(default: try both)
-c / --code-tolerance <distance>: matching distance for quads (default: 0.01)
-E / --pixel-error <pixels>: for verification, size of pixel positional error
(default: 1)
-q / --quad-size-min <fraction>: minimum size of quads to try, as a fraction
of the smaller image dimension, default: 0.1
-Q / --quad-size-max <fraction>: maximum size of quads to try, as a fraction
of the image hypotenuse, default 1.0
--odds-to-tune-up <odds>: odds ratio at which to try tuning up a match that
isn't good enough to solve (default: 1e6)
--odds-to-solve <odds>: odds ratio at which to consider a field solved
(default: 1e9)
--odds-to-reject <odds>: odds ratio at which to reject a hypothesis (default:
1e-100)
--odds-to-stop-looking <odds>: odds ratio at which to stop adding stars when
evaluating a hypothesis (default: HUGE_VAL)
--use-sextractor: use SExtractor rather than built-in image2xy to find sources
--sextractor-config <filename>: use the given SExtractor config file. Note
that CATALOG_NAME and CATALOG_TYPE values will be over-ridden by
command-line values. This option implies --use-sextractor.
--sextractor-path <filename>: use the given path to the SExtractor executable.
Default: just 'sex', assumed to be in your PATH. Note that you can
give command-line args here too (but put them in quotes), eg:
--sextractor-path 'sex -DETECT_TYPE CCD'. This option implies
--use-sextractor.
-3 / --ra <degrees or hh:mm:ss>: only search in indexes within 'radius' of the
field center given by 'ra' and 'dec'
-4 / --dec <degrees or [+-]dd:mm:ss>: only search in indexes within 'radius'
of the field center given by 'ra' and 'dec'
-5 / --radius <degrees>: only search in indexes within 'radius' of the field
center given by ('ra', 'dec')
-d / --depth <number or range>: number of field objects to look at, or range
of numbers; 1 is the brightest star, so "-d 10" or "-d 1-10" mean look
at the top ten brightest stars only.
--objs <int>: cut the source list to have this many items (after sorting, if
applicable).
-l / --cpulimit <seconds>: give up solving after the specified number of
seconds of CPU time
-r / --resort: sort the star brightnesses by background-subtracted flux; the
default is to sort using acompromise between background-subtracted and
non-background-subtracted flux
-6 / --extension <int>: FITS extension to read image from.
--invert: invert the image (for black-on-white images)
-z / --downsample <int>: downsample the image by factor <int> before running
source extraction
--no-background-subtraction: don't try to estimate a smoothly-varying sky
background during source extraction.
--sigma <float>: set the noise level in the image
--nsigma <float>: number of sigma for a source detection; default 8
-9 / --no-remove-lines: don't remove horizontal and vertical overdensities of
sources.
--uniformize <int>: select sources uniformly using roughly this many boxes
(0=disable; default 10)
--no-verify-uniformize: don't uniformize the field stars during verification
--no-verify-dedup: don't deduplicate the field stars during verification
-C / --cancel <filename>: filename whose creation signals the process to stop
-S / --solved <filename>: output file to mark that the solver succeeded
-I / --solved-in <filename>: input filename for solved file
-M / --match <filename>: output filename for match file
-R / --rdls <filename>: output filename for RDLS file
--sort-rdls <column>: sort the RDLS file by this column; default is ascending;
use "-column" to sort "column" in descending order instead.
--tag <column>: grab tag-along column from index into RDLS file
--tag-all: grab all tag-along columns from index into RDLS file
-j / --scamp-ref <filename>: output filename for SCAMP reference catalog
-B / --corr <filename>: output filename for correspondences
-W / --wcs <filename>: output filename for WCS file
-P / --pnm <filename>: save the PNM file as <filename>
-k / --keep-xylist <filename>: save the (unaugmented) xylist to <filename>
-A / --dont-augment: quit after writing the unaugmented xylist
-V / --verify <filename>: try to verify an existing WCS file
--verify-ext <extension>: HDU from which to read WCS to verify; set this
BEFORE --verify
-y / --no-verify: ignore existing WCS headers in FITS input images
-g / --guess-scale: try to guess the image scale from the FITS headers
--crpix-center: set the WCS reference point to the image center
--crpix-x <pix>: set the WCS reference point to the given position
--crpix-y <pix>: set the WCS reference point to the given position
-T / --no-tweak: don't fine-tune WCS by computing a SIP polynomial
-t / --tweak-order <int>: polynomial order of SIP WCS corrections
-m / --temp-dir <dir>: where to put temp files, default /tmp
The following options are valid for xylist inputs only:
-F / --fields <number or range>: the FITS extension(s) to solve, inclusive
-w / --width <pixels>: specify the field width
-e / --height <pixels>: specify the field height
-X / --x-column <column-name>: the FITS column containing the X coordinate of
the sources
-Y / --y-column <column-name>: the FITS column containing the Y coordinate of
the sources
-s / --sort-column <column-name>: the FITS column that should be used to sort
the sources
-a / --sort-ascending: sort in ascending order (smallest first); default is
descending order
Note that most output files can be disabled by setting the filename to "none".
(If you have a sick sense of humour and you really want to name your output
file "none", you can use "./none" instead.)
2017-01-20T20:30:04 /Applications/kstars.app/Contents/MacOS/astrometry/bin/solve-field --no-verify --no-plots --resort --no-fits2fits --downsample 2 -O -3 359 -4 180 -5 15 -W /var/folders/rg/hxd7_vhj42s4rq17w8qzqrw80000gn/T/solution.wcs /Users/Paul/Desktop/NGC385.fit
2017-01-20T20:30:04 Starting solver...
2017-01-20T20:30:04 Solver iteration #1
2017-01-20T20:30:04 Using solver options: --no-verify --no-plots --resort --no-fits2fits --downsample 2 -O -3 359 -4 180 -5 15
2017-01-20T20:30:04 FITS header: Cannot find FOCALLEN.
2017-01-20T20:30:04 FITS header: Cannot find OBJCTRA. Using current mount coordinates.
If I try and use the external solver I get the following:
2017-01-20T20:33:08 Solver failed. Try again.
2017-01-20T20:33:08 Warning: failed to open index directory: "'/Users/Paul/Library/Application Support/Astrometry'"
You must list at least one index in the config file (/usr/local/bin/../etc/astrometry.cfg)
See astrometry.net/use.html about how to get some index files.
2017-01-20T20:33:08 Solving...
2017-01-20T20:33:08 Reading sort column "FLUX"
Sorting sort column
mmapping input file
Copying table header.
Writing row 0
Done
2017-01-20T20:33:08 simplexy: found 143 sources.
2017-01-20T20:33:06 This looks like a multi-color image: processing the first image plane only. (NAXIS=3)
Downsampling by 2...
2017-01-20T20:33:06 Extracting sources...
2017-01-20T20:33:06 Reading input file 1 of 1: "/Users/Paul/Desktop/NGC385.fit"...
2017-01-20T20:33:06 /usr/local/bin/solve-field --no-verify --no-plots --resort --no-fits2fits --downsample 2 -O -3 359 -4 180 -5 15 -W /var/folders/rg/hxd7_vhj42s4rq17w8qzqrw80000gn/T/solution.wcs /Users/Paul/Desktop/NGC385.fit
2017-01-20T20:33:06 Starting solver...
2017-01-20T20:33:06 Solver iteration #1
2017-01-20T20:33:06 Using solver options: --no-verify --no-plots --resort --no-fits2fits --downsample 2 -O -3 359 -4 180 -5 15
2017-01-20T20:33:06 FITS header: Cannot find FOCALLEN.
2017-01-20T20:33:06 FITS header: Cannot find OBJCTRA. Using current mount coordinates.
Both these are using the "Load and Slew" option with a FIT file that I know both my external versions can solve.
Also changing the solve options does not seem to have any effect - if I clear them all they still get inserted into the solve-field command.
Otherwise a fantastic port - Thanks!!
Paul
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