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Sequence Autopoint PointingError.pox


stephankueppers

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Hi Stephen,

I am not quite sure what you are asking, but if you are trying to make and use a pointing file or get a polar alignment, instructions are in the Autoslew guides which you can download from the ASA drive. Sequence is a convenient way to make and save a PointingError.pox file; then you solve it and save it with Autoslew.

Hope this helps.

Mark

 

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I use a telescope with 2788mm/250mm. My camera is a QHY600PH (pix-size 3,76 x 3,76 Mikrometer² mit 9 576 x 6.388 pixel full-format).

My pointing-pics are made with 5sec with 2xbinning and luminanz-filter. The settings of sequence are Min size 9.00, Min sigma 3.00, FWHM 8.00, Min stars 15, Maxmag  15, Timelimit 120s.

I use the gsc-and the UsnoA2.0-catalog.  Sequence solve 2 two of 18 pictures with this settings. With the standard-settings sequence solved 0 pictures. I tried calibrated and uncalibrated pictures and expose-time 5s, 15s and 30s. Nothing worked.

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Hi Stephan,

when you do the platesolve directly within PinPoint: does PinPoint solve the pictures immediately or does it have to do several iterations using the spiral search?

If the latter is the case, then Sequence probably fails to solve the pointing pics because of the expected position deviates too much from the real position (the expected position is not within the field of view).

There are several options to mitigate that problem:

* Do a small manual pointing file (5 stars or so) across the sky and use that to get a rough model of the sky that will ensure, that the pointing accuracy is good enough to get stars in all parts of the sky within the field of view of your camera.

* Improve your polar alignment (e.g. using the great routine within SharpCap), make sure that the geo-coordinates within autoslew are correct as well as date and time are perfect. Then slew to a reference star, center it and sync autoslew. This should also ensure a sufficiently high pointing accuracy without a pointing model.

* Center a star near the meridian, sync autoslew and start with a pointing file using stars not too far away (e.g. within 30 degrees from the meridian) to get a first pointing model that is good enough to add another one with stars spread all across the sky.

Hope this helps. Btw: where are you located?

Best regards,

Robert

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Hello Robert!

Thanks for your reply!

My location is Juechen,Germany,NRW, a little town near Moenchengladbach/Neuss.

You are right! Visual-Pinpoint use the spiral-search. The average-pointing-error are ca.15 arc-min.

The way, you described, are similar to my actions. First i made a good polar-aligment (ra 0,3',  dec1,0'). Then i determine the ERF (5-stars, 1-2-1-3-1). At last i synch a star near meridian an try a greater autopoint (18 stars, east and west). exactly the solving of this 18 autopoint-pictures are the problem!

If i can solve this pictures first with Pinpoint and then make a PointingError.pox-file with Sequence, it will be a good work around and will not be very time-consuming (10min).

 

Best regards,

Stephan

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Hi Stephan,

reminds me of a problem I once had and that caused me a lot of headaches ...

When you sync on a star e.g. near the meridian and slew to different stars e.g. on the east side: does the pointing error gets bigger the further away you are from the synced star?

I had that behaviour once until I realised, that my autoslew.ini file somehow got corrupted. There's one parameter that determines the ration between the axis and the encoders and somehow that parameter was wrong for one axis (I only realized that when I compared all settings to an older configuration that I had archived). So if you have a backup of a former configuration where everything worked properly, that might be worth a look.

BTW: Which mount do you have? I have a DDM60Pro but with an RC10 (2000mm focal lenght) and a KAF8300 chip, pointing accuracy is good enough to platesolve all pointing files across the sky with Sequence.

Clear skies,

Robert

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Hi Robert!

My Mount is a ddm60 with 

Thank you for your idea, I will try that.

For my new camera with very expansive pictures (120mb/picture) i had to make a new setup with a new windows10-pc. By doing this, i thought to install the newest  Autoslew (5248) and the newest Sequence (0211). That might be the problem?! I will go back to the older Autoslew Version 5111 and the last working configuration, which was stable to my mount, and try it again.

Ich werde auf die ältere Autoslew-Version 5111 und die letzte funktionierende Konfiguration zurückgreifen, die zu meinem Mount stabil war, und es erneut versuchen.

If  i  am sucessful, i will update to Autoslew 5248. 

Hope this works!

Best regards

Stephan

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Hi Stephan,

do you have one of the first DDM60 where the user had to find out the encoder settings or one of the second generation, where ASA provided the correct parameters?

If you still have the *.ini-files from your last working configuration, you should be able to keep your new configuration with the latest versions of autoslew and sequence and just replace the cl-servos.ini with the one from your working configuration. Within the cl-servos.ini, you find the parameter "encoder resolution per revolution (in mm)" for both axis. Please check whether these are identical in the old and new ini-files.

Good luck,

Robert

 

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Hello Robert!

I bought the DDM60 at 20.07.2010. Therefore i think it is one of the first Mounts, where i had to find out the encoders settings. 

Before i made the new setup at the new windows10-pc, i asked the ASA-support what to do and Mr.Promper gave me the advise to copy the autoslew.ini and the cl-servos.ini to the program-folder of autoslew. Therefore the old and new settings of cl-servos.ini are equal.

For the axis 1 the setting are 15244 and for axis 2 the setting are 12566.

I will make a new try, as soon as the weather give me a clear sky.

Best regards

Stephan

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Hello Robert, hello Mark!

I think I found the real problem, i.e. the lack of accuracy of the mount !!!
One should be able to read!
When opening Autoslew, the log file says that Autoslew cannot find the config file.
When I noticed this, I took a closer look at the Autolslew.ini file. The folder for loading the configuration file is specified in this file under [More Parameters]: "Last Pointing-Configuration File = C: \ Documents and Settings \ All Users \ Application Data \ ASA \ Autoslew \ 20120525a.cfg". Since I had a Windows XP system up to now, this was fine too. But my new PC has a Windows 10 system on which this folder does not exist. Windows 10 stores such files under c: \ ProgramData \ ASA \ Autoslew. After creating a new configuration under Windows 10, Autoslew tries to save this configuration file under c: \ Programme \ Autoslew. However, this cannot work because this folder does not exist either. Correct would be under Windows 10 c: \ programme(x86)\ Autoslew. For this reason, no new configuration file is created and Autoslew continues to point to a wrong or a nonexistent folder. Of course, that can't work.
The output error is the wrong - and by the way the only one - folder specification in the Autoslew.ini.

Who pays attention to this!
I will change this folder accordingly and, if Heaven permits, try it out.

Kind regards

Stephan

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Hi Stephan,

strange, usually when you install autoslew from scratch on win10, it creates the correct subdirectories under c:\ProgramData\Asa.

Maybe you have to run it as adminstrator (but then you have to make sure that you run e.g. Sequence as adminstrator as well).

We keep the fingers crossed that this resolves your problems,

clear skies,

Robert

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Not sure if this is relevant in your case, but it is important that the permissions for reading/writing are allowed for Autoslew and Sequence Programs and Program Data. These are found in Windows>Program Files (x86)>Autoslew>Properties>Security; same for Sequence and same for Windows>Program Data>ASA>.....

When I first changed from Windows 7 to 10 I had to set some of these permissions to 'Allow'.

Mark

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Mark, Robert!

We got it!!

The last two nights i could make a good pointingfile (22 of 24 pictures solved) and make my mount working. After that i updated Autoslew-, Sequence- and Pinpoint-software to the latest versions. At least i could make unguided pictures with 10 minutes expose time.

the next thing i have to do, is to make a better polar-aligment.

Thank's for your help and clear skies!

Stephan

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  • 3 weeks later...

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