Sorry - try this image:
 



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I saw this  odd trail on 2 separate nights, near same Deer Lick Galaxy target.   It is not fireworks.   I too at first suspected a mount issue, combined with a probably slow moving satellite, but seems odd that I have never seen this kind of artifact before, if it is due to my mount. The star eccentricity is roughly orthogonal to trail, and by eyeball the magnitude of the eccentricity is 'in the ballpark' of the trail peak to trough amplitude.  So that supports the mount issue explanation. But if it is a mount issue, sort of odd that no one else has ever seen such an artifact (as far as I know), and I have numerous other satellite trails that are all straight (although they may be much faster moving satellites).  If the wiggle was due to mount, that sine wave wiggle would make star image somewhat bimodal; whether my stars show that is not so obvious(most don't seem to, some others are arguable). Also, I don't know the time periodicity of wiggle;I only know that exposure was 5min, that trail extends across the full image, so we only know that ~200 cycles(eyeball) occur in photo, and occur in less than 300sec, so cycle upper limit is ~1.5sec.  (My mount is an Ioptron CEM60.)   Also I just now noticed a fainter trail in the very same image (attached), and it does NOT exhibit the wiggle. (See bottom right corner faint trail.)   So if both satellites traveling at same angular speed, then issue unlikely to be the mount.  But may be the satellites were travelling at different speeds - I have no idea.     

...... and now as I am searching more, I found someone else reported something very similar in Cloudy Nights, on an Ioptron CEM70:   www.cloudynights.com/topic/773952-wobble-in-satellite-trail/
They seem to think it was an Ioptron issue.   I think I will have to do a more quantitative analysis(eg PSF) on my stars and my other images, to see if I agree.   
 

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Who knows, what is this very odd oscillating satellite trail (if that's what it is)?
this was near Deer Lick Galaxy, at date and time shown (zoom up in 5min exposure), shot from Likely, CA:
thx
glen

 



 

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I plan to buy a power controller like Pegasus PPB, and among other things, want to be able to cycle the power to Stellarmate(SM) Rasp pi box.  (My system is a Mac running KStars/Ekos, usually using 'remote' mode [profile settings] for scope, and observatory is on roof of house, and I have ethernet cable connecting observatory to my router).   

Do I understand this correctly, that in order to be able to cycle power to SM, using PPB, I will need to run an Ekos profile in local mode, that links only to the PPB (and maybe a dummy camera), and thru this I can cycle power to SM ?  (where I"m assuming PPB  is wired to router via ethernet (and USB-ethernet adaptor, at PPB.)).  Then, after power turned on to SM, I disconnect that local mode profile, and reconnect with my main telescope profile (which normally will be running in remote mode)?    Is that the way to do this??

Or, alternatively, for PPB power control to SM,  maybe don't need to run Ekos at all, if there is a standalone program that can run on a mac..? ?  
Or yet another option, run 2 sessions of KStars, one that links to PPB using local mode profile, then have the separate session for remote mode (when SM has power.) to control the telescope? 

thanks
Glen


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David, I actually got direct ethernet connection to both stellarmates, running two KStar sessions, and using 'remote' mode in the profiles for each. It was working for one session, but I could not repeat it, unfortunately. But Jasem tells me it is doable. After failing to repeat the direct wired approach for my two scopes, I found I was able to successfully run one telescope with direct ethernet, and the 2nd scope wirelessly, by joining the network to the second SM hotspot.

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I agree, and I had tried it, but didn't work. Specifically, I tried (among other combinations) for mac inputs, these.
IP 192.168.100.20
subnet 255.255.255.0
Gateway(=router on mac) 192.168.100.10
DNS 192.168.100.10
for the 2nd SM ethernet input connection to mac, called 'LAN 2' by the computer.
And in Ekos profile used 192.168.100.20 (and also tried 192.168.100.10)
and it didn't work.

Any suggestion?

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Kevin - are you saying I need to change IP address for the second Stellarmate? Or Gateway/router/DNS address ? (I tried doing that earlier, and putting gateway aor IP addresses in 'host' in Ekos profile, but it didn't work.) Maybe there are constraints on allowed addresses?

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Anyone,
  Trying to run two Stellarmate devices (eg SM1 and SM2) on same Mac laptop (controlling 2 telescopes).  I can do this  at home with a router, and running two separate KStar sessions, but I currently do NOT have router.
Trying to set this up with direct ethernet cables from laptop to each SM device, but I cannot get both running at the same time.   When I establish ethernet connection to one of the devices, then I can no longer reach the other device.   Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 
  I assume I may need to change 192.168.100.1 address for one of the SM boxes, I'm not really sure, and maybe there is a easier way to do it.

thx
Glen

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Glen replied to the topic 'Re:Looping with Mosaics' in the forum. 3 years ago

Eric, thanks.  I have not used the '+' this way before.  So if I want to loop an additional say 5 times, I need to do the '+' operation  5 times (for each panel), and resequence them.   OK - a little cumbersome but that will work.    So apart from this approach,  to your knowledge, there is no way to have it loop automatically, until terminated?  Seems a little odd to me, like I'm missing something, as 'loop until terminated' seems like such a natural thing to want to do (in mosaics)? (And this approach to 'loop until terminated' DOES work in non-mosaics, eg loop thru filter settings (for eg R, then G, them B, for a filterwheel setup).)

Also, I hadn't tracked 'sort jobs by altitude', I think it was unchecked, but I will pay attention next time.  I see how that can mess up the looping.  Good point.

thx
Glen

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Glen replied to the topic 'Looping with Mosaics' in the forum. 3 years ago

Anyone have advice on this?

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Glen created a new topic ' Looping with Mosaics' in the forum. 3 years ago

     Mosaic feature in Ekos is great, but I don't understand how to set up looping, in the Scheduler.  For example, say I have a 2x1 panel mosaic, with each panel set to take 10 subs.   Say I want this to cycle thru say 3 times.  If I set 'Job Completion Condition' to repeat for '3 runs',  it will take 10x3=30 subs of panel#1, then move and dooes panel#2 10x3=30 subs., and ends.  But what I want is [panel#1 10subs, then panel#2 10subs], then repeat [ ] a 2nd time, and repeat [ ] a final third time.     
      How to achieve this?   Or  similarly, how to have it looping forever, until some time.
Without mosaics, I have done looping thru different filter wheel positions, no problem, in the past.  But Mosaic set up perhaps needs to be don't differently.  ?

thx
Glen 

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I think issue was a loose USB connection. I taped offending connector in place, and so far have not had recurrence.
(On my Ioptron mount, there is one USB port that is not 'snug'; any cable in that port is loose. Hardware issue.)

Thanks.

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Been using KStar/Ekos on a Mac for 2yrs.   Never any issue with Celestron Focus Motor(FM), until recently.  Now it occasionally just freezes during normal focusing (not calibration). KStar doesn't crash, just FM is frozen.  I need to reboot Stellarmate to get it back.   And occasionally, after system reboot,  FM is not even recognized by Ekos (ie, INDI Control panel doesn't show attached focuser device).  I may need to rerun Ekos 2 or 3 times, , (or maybe reboot SM, I don't recall exactly) and then it will show.       

I recently installed latest KStar and burned latest SM op system, and this did not solve the issue.   Issue still there.   
Also, in should be noted KStar crashes at least twice a night for me, typically, during other operations too.   So some other issues present too,  but FocusMotor is new unique issue(doesn't cause crash, just freezes).  
I'm desperate to resolve these issues.

Any comments or advice welcome?
(I will turn on verbose logging, and see what I get. )

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Nevermind - resolved - I need to do image capture first and then select a star.

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In focus module, with Subframe selected,  after starting framing, the subframe never appears.  It used to work, I think.  Now no green box appears, no subframe, all captures are full frame.
What happened??
(My camera is ASI071.)

thx

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