Yanhze,

> Where is ASCOM driver log? I dont use APCC, I use SGPro.

The AP V2 ASCOM driver, which you must use with SGPro, comes with a log zipper utility called "AP Log Zipper". You should be able to find it from the Windows start menu by typing that name. The utility will grab the log files for X number of days in the past. If you can't find it, you probably didn't install it when you installed the AP V2 driver. In that case, just reinstall the AP V2 driver and select the option to install it.

BTW, you can use APCC with SGPro. In fact, it is recommended. An APCC Pro license comes with your Mach2 mount, but you must contact A-P to get it.

-Ray


> -----Original Message-----
> From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of yanzhe liu
> Sent: Sunday, March 7, 2021 4:19 PM
> To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
> Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Mach2 - Elongated stars
>
> Ray,
>
> Where is ASCOM driver log? I dont use APCC, I use SGPro.
>
> Yanzhe
>
> On Sun, Mar 7, 2021 at 10:45 AM Ray Gralak <iogroups@...> wrote:
>
>
>       Hi Yanzhe,
>
>       Can you zip and post your PHD2 logs, as well as APCC/AP V2 ASCOM driver logs?
>
>       There might be something useful there.
>
>       -Ray
>
>       > -----Original Message-----
>       > From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of yanzhe liu
>       > Sent: Sunday, March 7, 2021 10:12 AM
>       > To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
>       > Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Mach2 - Elongated stars
>       >
>       > Roland,
>       >
>       > I will check my mount serial number later as I just packed everything due to rain forecast.
>       >
>       > My camera's orientation was 0/180 degree, so I assume top to bottom elongation would be DEC.
>       >
>       > I dont have any picture of my setup, I just tore it down since it will be rainy this week. My setup is
>       > FSQ106+OAG+16803, image scale is 3.5".
>       > I was imaging Rosetta Nebula, after it was just past meridian for 2-3 hours.
>       >
>       > I used PHD2 drift for PA, it reported <5' PA error, I am waiting for polemaster adapter so I can confirm I get
> good PA
>       > next time.
>       >
>       > DEC was out of balance because my setup was rear end heavy, if it was in balance position then I could
> not rotate
>       > my CCD in all directions. My guess is that the DEC balance was off by less than 1lb. In the next test, I can
> balance
>       > DEC to see if the issue still exists.
>       >
>       > My suspicion is that if DEC balance is off, then DEC might creep under gravity, even PA is perfect. So you
> might
>       > see DEC continually drift  then gets corrected by PHD2 periodically.
>       >
>       > Yanzhe
>       >
>       > On Sun, Mar 7, 2021 at 9:35 AM Roland Christen via groups.io <chris1011=aol.com@groups.io> wrote:
>       >
>       >
>       >       Couple of questions:
>       >
>       >
>       >       1 - what's the mount's serial number
>       >       2 - which axis is the elongation
>       >       3 - which direction was the scope pointing (RA-Dec)
>       >       4 - what scope and focal length or what is the arc sec per pixel.
>       >       5 - do you have a picture of your setup?
>       >
>       >
>       >
>       >       One comment about balance - it should be easy for you to completely balance the scope with the
> clutches
>       > loose. Can you estimate how many lb out of balance your scope is in Dec? Normally i would not think this
> would
>       > have any effect, but doesn't hurt to check this.
>       >
>       >
>       >
>       >       Roland Christen
>       >       Astro-Physics Inc.
>       >
>       >
>       >
>       >
>       >       -----Original Message-----
>       >       From: yanzhe liu <liuyanzhe@...>
>       >       To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
>       >       Sent: Sun, Mar 7, 2021 12:44 am
>       >       Subject: [ap-gto] Mach2 - Elongated stars
>       >
>       >
>       >       Testing new mach2 for a couple of nights. It works great out of the box and I am very pleased.
>       >
>       >       One issue bothering me is that I got slightly elongated stars across the entire image (15min Ha sub).
>       >       The exact same telescope/CCD were used with another mount and stars were round, I am wondering
> what I
>       > should check (I think there was due to some setup issue, but I could not figure it out).
>       >       - Used OAG for guiding, so there should not be any flexure.
>       >       - CCD orientation was 0/180 degree. The stars were elongated top to bottom.
>       >       -  I did polar alignment with PHD2 drift align. PA error should be < 5'. The field rotation of each sub is
> ~0.01
>       > degree, much larger than the other system (but elongated stars do not look like field rotation, they were
> same
>       > across the image)
>       >       - Both RA and DEC guiding curves looked smooth, had similar RMS. DEC correction was mainly to
> one
>       > direction.
>       >       - DEC balance was slightly off, camera heavy. Is Mach2 DEC sensitive to this? Will the guiding/image
> be
>       > affected?
>       >
>       >       I dont think any of the above is of particular concern, except DEC balance. Any comment/help is
> appreciated.
>       >
>       >       --
>       >       Roland Christen
>       >       Astro-Physics
>       >
>       >
>       >
>       >
>       >
>       >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

I have found that CW up slews within the East limits are slow due to all the safety slews. So for example, if plate solving takes three tries, the mount will go back and forth in and out of East limits three times to move a handful of pixels.

That is because SGP sends a new co-ordinate, a co-ordinate slew, to the mount. It is basically sending the mount to a new position each time, so that always triggers a safety slew when the scope is under the mount. They have not figured out yet that sending the mount via a relative time move, such as is used in every autoguiding program, will move the mount a few pixels without encountering this safety slew issue. A relative move is a timed move at sidereal rate. So moving 15 arc seconds simply sends the mount at 1x sidereal for 1 second.

Rolando

-----Original Message-----
From: Luca Marinelli <photo@...>
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Sent: Wed, Mar 10, 2021 8:31 pm
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] counterweight up slews in APPC Pro with Sequence Generator Pro

Duncan,

I have used it and you don't have to do anything special in SGP. APCC has to be setup with East and West meridian limits and the checkbox to allow CW up slews within East limits needs to be checked. Ray can correct me if I am wrong. SGP will just issue a slew command to specific coordinates. APCC realizes that it can access those coordinate in a CW up position within the East limits and it goes there.

Ultimately, I stopped using this feature. While it is appealing in principle, I have found that CW up slews within the East limits are slow due to all the safety slews. So for example, if plate solving takes three tries, the mount will go back and forth in and out of East limits three times to move a handful of pixels. In the end, meridian flips are easy and work well so I find that I waste less imaging time with an automated meridian flip than the overhead of all the CW up safety slews.

Have you set up automated meridian flips in SGP? SGP is able to take full advantage of the declination-dependent meridian limits in APCC.

Luca

--
Roland Christen
Astro-Physics