Are you using the keypad as well as the PC to control the mount?  If so, please make sure the keypad is set to Auto-connect=EXT.  For truly remote imaging, the keypad shouldn’t even be connected.

 

If the keypad is not involved, call me tomorrow (Tuesday) to discuss.

 

Mag. 7 Skies!

 

Howard Hedlund

Astro-Physics, Inc.

Phone: 815-315-7015

www.astro-physics.com

Please include this e-mail with your response.

 

P Consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

 

From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of Jos? Joaqu?n P?rez Guy
Sent: Monday, July 13, 2020 18:43
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: [ap-gto] Strange behaviour when parking

 

Dear AP, your help needed, please.

I´m running an AP1200/CP4/APCC in an automated mode with CCDAutopilot (controlling through the AP Driver of course).

Everything works perfectly, until the end of the session. The mount will park as supossed, BUT with an offset in RA of 1 hour aprox. So, for the begining of the next session I Park the mount in the park 1 position, correct the offset, unpark from park 1 and everything is ok again (until the next automated parking)

What I´m missing here?

Thanks in advance,

JJP

Is the time correct? I had a similar problem when my BIOS PC battery died and I had to make sure the time was updated before initializing the mount.

Regards,

Eduardo

Virus-free. www.avast.com

On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 8:43 PM Jos� Joaqu�n P�rez Guy <cotejardinero@...> wrote:

Dear AP, your help needed, please.

I´m running an AP1200/CP4/APCC in an automated mode with CCDAutopilot (controlling through the AP Driver of course).

Everything works perfectly, until the end of the session. The mount will park as supossed, BUT with an offset in RA of 1 hour aprox. So, for the begining of the next session I Park the mount in the park 1 position, correct the offset, unpark from park 1 and everything is ok again (until the next automated parking)

What I´m missing here?

Thanks in advance,

JJP

Dear AP, your help needed, please.

I´m running an AP1200/CP4/APCC in an automated mode with CCDAutopilot (controlling through the AP Driver of course).

Everything works perfectly, until the end of the session. The mount will park as supossed, BUT with an offset in RA of 1 hour aprox. So, for the begining of the next session I Park the mount in the park 1 position, correct the offset, unpark from park 1 and everything is ok again (until the next automated parking)

What I´m missing here?

Thanks in advance,

JJP

It can be very practical if you do a reasonable polar alignment. Then use APPM to develop a quick model along the path that the object takes. Would not take long, and can be done during twilight.

We will have a keypad program available soon that doesn't require plate solves and can be done during daylight.

Rolando

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Carlton <pselaphid@...>
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Sent: Mon, Jul 13, 2020 5:22 pm
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Suddenly stars are dashes with good guiding

Others will weigh in, but modeling in APCC as I understand it, and it's on my list of things to implement. My imaging set up moves around a lot though, so I don't know how often it will be practical.

On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 5:19 PM Worsel via groups.io <bryancashion=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

With an 1100AE, what would it take  to achieve unguided imaging?

Bryan

--

Chris Carlton, Ph. D.

Director, Carlton Astronomy Campus

Professor of Entomology, Emeritus

Department of Entomology, Louisiana State University

Baton Rouge, LA USA 70808

<a href=http://www.cleardarksky.com/c/CrAstCmpMSkey.html>

Hi Chris,

   I've seen that before on my setup quite a few times (sad to say). Everything guides great during the night and then suddenly the stars start becoming oval. I have double checked that everything is really tight and cables are not dragging. So I wondered what it could be.

I finally think I've found my culprit: the ground moved. I came to this conclusion because after I saw the oval stars, i double checked my PA and it was way off > 10 arcmin! I redid my PA and everything looked good again for the rest of the session.

  Since you, like me, set up every time, the ground moving cannot be ruled out.

YMMV

cytan

   

On Monday, July 13, 2020, 03:07:35 PM CDT, Chris Carlton <pselaphid@...> wrote:

So, I have experienced an odd problem, to me anyway, the past two nights of imaging. I doubt it is related to the mount, but I won't rule anything out and wanted to run it by the group here before presenting it elsewhere. I have used basically the same setup for a year and a half since I got my 1100AE and before with other mounts. I use PhD2 for guiding through a 400 mm guidescope mounted on the focuser of my TEC 160fl. I guide through the RJ12 guide cable and Starlight xpress camera. PA using Polemaster. Pretty basic set up that has worked well for me with round stars and decent guiding depending on seeing. 

I was completing an otherwise successful image run of planetary NGC 6781 when stars went from round then elongate, then dash shaped and unusable through a series of about three 5 min. exposures. I checked the usual suspects....cable tangle, loose connection, recal PhD2, redo PA, etc. Odd thing was, guiding was very consistent, based on the graph, at 0.27-0.35 rms both before, during, and after the observed problem. The images looked like unguided images with PA drift. I bumped the OTA and watched the guide graph spike and then settle right back to where it was, so it was working and responding to upsets. I've had much worse guiding during bad seeing, up to around 0.80 rms, which is about my limit, and still had round stars....fat, but round. And it happened rather suddenly. It was late, so I quit.

Next night I moved to my dark sky site and set everything up again, this time paying close attention to getting everything set up correctly. I had great guiding and good results for a while, then the same thing happened, just as I was finishing up. Still, quite good apparent guiding at 0.35-0.40 based on the guide graph, but elongated stars. I went ahead and finished the session. I don't know if it's relevant, but both times it happened at around the same elevation, around 50 degrees under warm, muggy conditions thanks to our current heat wave. I had planned to gather a bit more data last night, shut off guiding to check for obvious drift, save some example frames, and a log file. I found another guide cable and had planned to switch them out. But a storm blew through and foiled plans. 

I'll bounce this off the PhD forum and maybe the brain trust on Cloudy Nights if necessary. But I wanted to exclude anything obvious other than guide performance that might cause it. This group is probably just as good with guide problems anyway. Why is guide performance good, apparently, but stars are bad? If something as simple as a bad cable is responsible, why is guiding indicated as good or excellent on screen? I hope to be back up there in a couple nights to troubleshoot and perhaps resolve the issue.

Sorry for the long explanation, but here is a picture to look at while you think about it: https://www.flickr.com/photos/12666884@N00/50109568447/in/dateposted-public/lightbox/

Thanks, 
Chris Carlton

With an 1100AE, what would it take  to achieve unguided imaging?

Bryan