Hi. I'm trying to run APPM with MaxDome II. The first image attempt at the zenith fails due to the dome being 180 degrees off. The scope is on the west side of the mount / counterweights on the east. The dome shutter azimuth is east, but it really should be west because that's where the scope is. Image attached. Any ideas?

Thanks.
-Alan

Ray,

I ran my first-ever APPM model three nights back, a 95 point model.

Since then, using APPM I’ve run hours of 900 second narrowband imaging unguided and marvel at the small round stars, even in regions of the sky that were not included in the original model (created with a Tak 130, 1100 GTO and QHY 600M).

Is this particular 95-point model only applicable for this equipment, image scale and imaging season?

Thanks for APPM - it’s transformed my astroimaging.

Ted

HI Ron,

Now what does "verify" check box do?

It runs the same steps to collect sky data points but with the active model for the purpose of diagnosing pointing or tracking problems.

and how often should I make a new model?

We might ask you to run this if you have a dramatic pointing or tracking problem with a model, which doesn't appear to be the case. You are better off using this time for imaging!

-Ray

-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of Ron Kramer
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2021 10:38 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] APPM - error

thanks for the assists Ray - and thanks for the nina compatible updates.
Now what does "verify" check box do?
and how often should I make a new model?
I did a 300, 600 and 1000 second exposure after the APPM model was applied and I had round stars with no
guiding even at 1000.
And at a good HFR of 3.48 (average is often higher even when guiding).
My max before the model was about 60-90 seconds and I'd still see eggs.


On Sun, Sep 19, 2021 at 12:24 PM Ray Gralak <iogroups@...> wrote:


Hi Ron,

> Results were well worth it. BEFORE the point model I would get oblong stars if I went over 60-90
second
> exposures. Last night I did 1000 second exposure and had round stars. It blew me away.

That's excellent! I'm glad you got everything working! :-)

Best regards,

-Ray

> -----Original Message-----
> From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of Ron Kramer
> Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2021 6:03 AM
> To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
> Subject: Re: [ap-gto] APPM - error
>
> MAYBE that was the fix. I had great results last night. The pop up error never appeared. And one of
the
> solutions I tried was to update ASTAP. I was using the latest but I went back and noticed there is a
dev
> release that is newer and I had installed that.
>
> I made other changes to settings. I went full frame, and bin2 and I sed a APPM setting from default
to 0.
> Something or everything made it work... but could be it was using the dev release of ASTAP that
fixed it.
>
> Results were well worth it. BEFORE the point model I would get oblong stars if I went over 60-90
second
> exposures. Last night I did 1000 second exposure and had round stars. It blew me away.
>
>
>
>










--

Ron Kramer
https://www.facebook.com/Ron.R.Kramer

--

Hi Jerome,

The first thing to check is that latitude/longitude/time are correct (on APCC's Site tab). If any of those are wrong, you can have proper RA/Dec, but the wrong Altitude/Azimuth.

If you are not running the latest APCC, you should update. Some of the earlier versions would only try to read Lat/Long once, and if the mount was not powered, APCC would use Lat=0. Later versions of APCC will try to read Lat/Long more robustly.

But to answer your question, one way to restore mount position is to:

1) Move the mount to the park 3 position by loosening the clutches and manually moving the scope, or via move buttons if you are remote and have a camera viewing the scope.
2) Tighten the clutches if you had loosened and manually moved the mount in the previous step.
3) Use APCC or the ASCOM driver to park the mount at the current position
4) Use APCC or the ASCOM driver to unpark from the Park 3 position.
5) Slew the scope to someplace away from Park 3.
6) Do a plate solve and recal to regain precise sky position.

Another way to do this is to do an All-Sky plate solve and recal. But you will have to temporarily uncheck "Prevent errant RECALs" in APCC's advanced settings. That is, after successfully recalibrating, go back into APCC's advanced settings and set the checkbox option for "Prevent errant RECALs" .

-Ray

Hi Ron,

Results were well worth it. BEFORE the point model I would get oblong stars if I went over 60-90 second
exposures. Last night I did 1000 second exposure and had round stars. It blew me away.

That's excellent! I'm glad you got everything working! :-)

Best regards,

-Ray

-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of Ron Kramer
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2021 6:03 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] APPM - error

MAYBE that was the fix. I had great results last night. The pop up error never appeared. And one of the
solutions I tried was to update ASTAP. I was using the latest but I went back and noticed there is a dev
release that is newer and I had installed that.

I made other changes to settings. I went full frame, and bin2 and I sed a APPM setting from default to 0.
Something or everything made it work... but could be it was using the dev release of ASTAP that fixed it.

Results were well worth it. BEFORE the point model I would get oblong stars if I went over 60-90 second
exposures. Last night I did 1000 second exposure and had round stars. It blew me away.

Very interesting Elenillor, nice idea.

tony

I will be trying some flexible tool buckets for the 1100GTO. Nominally 12" diameter x 15" high I added a Kydex sleeve and a 1" thick closed foam disk in the bottom to keep the buckets upright and round. The Dec assembly just fits with the DoveDV10 plate attached. Will add a few foam wedges as needed to keep things from flopping around. 

Just for storage in the house, transport to the car and from the car to scope setup. Will have see how the system work in real life.

Thanks Dale.  I made several tweaks including your full-frame, bin2 and its working great.  THANK YOU!

I always had to guide at over 60-90 second exposures.  After APPM last night I did 300 sec, then 500, then 800 then 1000 second exposures and all had excellent stars and low HFR.  I'm amazed. 

only problem was APPM sometimes didn't want for the dome to slew/settle. (about 10% of the time).  But with the scope 1/2 way in the slit it was still able to get enough stars to solve. 

 

MAYBE that was the fix.  I had great results last night. The pop up error never appeared.  And one of the solutions I tried was to update ASTAP. I was using the latest but I went back and noticed there is a dev release that is newer and I had installed that.

I made other changes to settings.  I went full frame, and bin2 and I sed a APPM setting from default to 0.  Something or everything made it work... but could be it was using the dev release of ASTAP that fixed it. 

Results were well worth it.  BEFORE the point model I would get oblong stars if I went over 60-90 second exposures.  Last night I did 1000 second exposure and had round stars.  It blew me away. 

 

Hello,
I have a nice new camera attached to my Mach1 but I failed to check the balance before messing with the camera.  The scope is now way out of synch with what I see in ACP.  I have run the ACP findlostscope script and it says it corrects, but it does not.  The fine team at Astrophysics saved my buns on this one time in the past with another synchronization procedure purely done through APCC... but I cannot remember the procedure nor find my notes.

Can somebody tell me what the procedure is? 

The ALT reading on APCC and APC differs by 40 DEG.

BTW, the new lightweight camera is a ZWO ASI 6200... it does not produce lightweight files.... they are 100MB...

JY

Terroll responded as you requested.  Whether or not it convinces Mr. Wang or solves his 'oscillation' is to be seen.

Bryan

--
Roland Christen
Astro-Physics

I got it working, not SURE what I did - other than I went full frame and Bin2 for ASTAP.  It's about 3/4 through the model as I type this. 

I do have some minor issues with APPM not waiting quite long enough for the dome to slew and settle.  9 out of 10 times it does but sometimes it's hasty and the dome is 1/3 over the scope.  Luckily I picked up enough stars to still solve when this happens.