Hi!

I successfully use the Ekos PA routine in order to get a good polar alignment but then things go, well, not according to plan. Some background information:

OTA: TS Optics CF-APO 90mm F6 with 0.8 reducer
DSLR: EOS 600D
Guider: QHY5LII-M-6027e
GPS: Hat GPS card
Mount: Avalon Zero Obs WiFi, FW 6.5.6
Control stack: Raspberry Pi 4B, 64GB ssd, Astroberry 2.0.3 and using the Avalon StarGo IndiLib Driver

The GPS receives lat/long/time every 10s and updates Kstars/Ekos accordingly.

Ok, so I managed to get a good polar alignment using the alignment module now it's time to slew to, say, Vega in order to sync the alignment. I click Vega in Kstars and selects Avalon StarGo -> GoTo resulting in the mount slewing but definitely not to Vega. In fact it is waaay off! I get the feeling that the mount stops too early. I have the control box connected and uses it in order to finalize the slew and then select Avalon StarGo -> Sync. Hmmm, "Ok - this is odd" I think. Well now I hope the mount "knows" where it is so I try Altair and slews to Altair... NOT! The mount is (of course) confused leaving me, well, a little disappointed to say the least.

One more thing. I've also tried to get the mount and guider to "talk" to each other although the alignment is way off. When trying to calibrate I get a message something like "Not able to ... ... after 21 iterations" after trying to sort out the RA backlash. It doesn't get to the DEC part. Do I need to tweak the control parameters somehow? I've set the Guiding rate to 0.3 which renders P: 222.22

Now, let me start by telling you I'm definitely not a Kstars/Ekos/IndiLib wizard by any means but I thought I had understood at least some of the core concepts well enough. And, also, I have a deep respect and admiration for the IndiLib driver developers who create these drivers for us. I just hope somebody out there can point me in the right direction and telling me what I'm doing wrong.

Many thanks in advance!
 

Read More...