ASTAP Integration, no mount center?

[NightBikes]

Everything seems to work as it should, but the mount doesn't move after plate solving with ASTAP in BYN.  Log below.  Nikon D7200 connected. ASCOM Device Hub connected.  Stellarium connected to device hub too and things slew (just not always in my FOV).  Device hub is connected serial to Exos-2GT PMC-Eight.

If I try to slew the mount in BYN under the telescope control, it'll start slewing and get locked up (continuing to slew) forcing me to unplug the mount to get it to stop.  So I know it can receive commands, but there seems to be an issue there.

19:32:00  Licensed to NightBikes
19:32:00  BackyardNIKON 2.1.2 Trial Edition
19:32:16  Attempting to connect camera...
19:32:16  Nikon/D7200 drivers initialized.
19:32:19  D7200 CONNECTED!
19:35:30  Imaging session started.
19:35:41  Imaging session completed successfully
19:35:42  LIGHT_7s_1600iso_ra(0.73339)_dec(41.39436)_20220130-19h35m31s698ms.NEF
19:36:50  PlateSolve (attempt #1)
19:37:04  Syncing Telescope completed.
19:37:04  Telescope properties after sync.
19:37:04  PlateSolve result after 1 attempt:
19:37:04  +-- RA    diff: 148729.946 arcsec.
19:37:04  +-- DEC   diff: 1221.386 arcsec.
19:37:04  +-- ANGLE diff: 110198.750 arcsec = 28328.7 pixels.
19:37:16  PlateSolve (attempt #2)
19:37:30  Syncing Telescope completed.
19:37:30  Telescope properties after sync.
19:37:30  PlateSolve completed after 2 attempts:
19:37:30  *-- RA    diff: 0.646 arcsec.
19:37:30  *-- DEC   diff: 4.337 arcsec.
19:37:30  *-- ANGLE diff: 4.364 arcsec = 1.1 pixels.
19:37:30  Center complete.
19:37:37  Imaging session started.
19:37:49  Imaging session completed successfully
19:37:49  M31_LIGHT_7s_1600iso_ra(3.48767)_dec(41.73481)_20220130-19h37m38s706ms.NEF

 

[astroman133]

I am a bit confused about what you are trying to do. Why would you plate solve to center on a target and then move the scope with BYN's telescope chevron buttons?

Releasing the Chevron button should stop movement and return the scope to tracking, but there is also a Halt button. Did you try halting the movement with the Halt button?

As a test, you can eliminate Device Hub as a contributing factor by connecting BYE directly to the PMC8 telescope.

[admin]

Your post title is misleading, according to your log the mount did centre, it's 1.1 pixels from the centre, I would say this is bang on.

Given that the mount did centre, what is your real question? 

Is the mount still tracking after a platesolve/centre routine?

[NightBikes]

1 hour ago, admin said:

Your post title is misleading, according to your log the mount did centre, it's 1.1 pixels from the centre, I would say this is bang on.

Given that the mount did centre, what is your real question? 

Is the mount still tracking after a platesolve/centre routine?

Sorry for the confusion!  When I run plate solve, it appears that everything worked great. However, the mount didn't actually move from the position (prior to the plate solve).  The FOV/picture are still the same as before the plate solve and the target is not centered.

>>I think BYN plate solve actually shifted my mount position in Stellarium, but not the actual mount. So I think I need to use Stellarium to correct the mount location to the target. I just thought this program would do that instead since they are both connected to the ASCOM Device Hub Telescope.

Regarding my comment about manually slewing in BYN-  Separate from the plate solving, I wanted to see if it would move the mount to confirm the connection.  It does move the mount, but I couldn't get it to stop moving.  I hitting the halt button and also the chevron that I had pressed, neither would stop the mount from slewing. BYN appeared to lock up because nothing worked including trying to disconnect from the mount, the camera, or close out the software.    

Thanks for your help!

[astroman133]

BYN does not talk to Stellarium so what you suggest is impossible. Each app gets the telescope's pointing position from the driver that they are connected to.

When ASTAP solves the image it syncs the scope's pointing position to the solved location, without actually moving the scope. This could cause Stellarium's position to appear to shift without any movement. However the next step would be to move the scope from the sync'ed location to the target location and then take and solve another image.

[admin]

 

Send me the full log file.

 

 

 

[NightBikes]

1 hour ago, admin said:

 

Send me the full log file.

 

 

 

Hi- log file sent.  I also just noticed I don't have any pictures after 21h04mo4s916ms. There should have been several hundred more pictures. Thanks again for the help!

[admin]

Thanks for the log file, but there is no evidence of any plate solve in them.  Please send a log file where you actually observed the behaviour above so I can see exactly what happens with the mount. 

[admin]

I see from the new log file that your mount is set to JNOW epoch. 

Does it have a setting to set it to J2000? If it does can you set it to J2000 and try again.

It looks like perhaps there may be a bug in either the conversion between JNOW to J2000, or that perhaps the RA 42.7311111111111 angle is actually represented degrees and not hours.

 

2022-01-30 19:36:39,430 [6] DEBUG - Telescope current coordinates: (JNOW):
2022-01-30 19:36:39,430 [6] DEBUG - +-- RA : 00h 44m 00s  :::  0.733387252559
2022-01-30 19:36:39,430 [6] DEBUG - +-- DEC: +41° 23' 40" :::  41.394357638889
2022-01-30 19:36:39,430 [6] DEBUG - Slewing to coordinates: (JNOW):
2022-01-30 19:36:39,430 [6] DEBUG - +-- RA : 18h 43m 52s  :::  42.731111111111
2022-01-30 19:36:39,430 [6] DEBUG - +-- DEC: +41° 16' 15" :::  41.270833311000
2022-01-30 19:36:39,479 [6] ERROR - Set TargetRightAscension: set - '42.7311111111111' is an invalid value. The valid range is: 0 to 24.
2022-01-30 19:36:39,479 [6] ERROR -    at ASCOM.DriverAccess.MemberFactory.CallMember(Int32 memberCode, String memberName, Type[] parameterTypes, Object[] parms) in C:\ASCOM Build\Export\ASCOM.DriverAccess\MemberFactory.cs:line 368
   at ASCOM.DriverAccess.Telescope.set_TargetRightAscension(Double value) in C:\ASCOM Build\Export\ASCOM.DriverAccess\Telescope.cs:line 1171
   at BinaryRivers.ASCOM.Platform60.TelescopeASCOM.SlewToTarget(Coordinate coordinate, Boolean setTracking)
 

[NightBikes]

20 hours ago, admin said:

I see from the new log file that your mount is set to JNOW epoch. 

Does it have a setting to set it to J2000? If it does can you set it to J2000 and try again.

It looks like perhaps there may be a bug in either the conversion between JNOW to J2000, or that perhaps the RA 42.7311111111111 angle is actually represented degrees and not hours.

 

2022-01-30 19:36:39,430 [6] DEBUG - Telescope current coordinates: (JNOW):
2022-01-30 19:36:39,430 [6] DEBUG - +-- RA : 00h 44m 00s  :::  0.733387252559
2022-01-30 19:36:39,430 [6] DEBUG - +-- DEC: +41° 23' 40" :::  41.394357638889
2022-01-30 19:36:39,430 [6] DEBUG - Slewing to coordinates: (JNOW):
2022-01-30 19:36:39,430 [6] DEBUG - +-- RA : 18h 43m 52s  :::  42.731111111111
2022-01-30 19:36:39,430 [6] DEBUG - +-- DEC: +41° 16' 15" :::  41.270833311000
2022-01-30 19:36:39,479 [6] ERROR - Set TargetRightAscension: set - '42.7311111111111' is an invalid value. The valid range is: 0 to 24.
2022-01-30 19:36:39,479 [6] ERROR -    at ASCOM.DriverAccess.MemberFactory.CallMember(Int32 memberCode, String memberName, Type[] parameterTypes, Object[] parms) in C:\ASCOM Build\Export\ASCOM.DriverAccess\MemberFactory.cs:line 368
   at ASCOM.DriverAccess.Telescope.set_TargetRightAscension(Double value) in C:\ASCOM Build\Export\ASCOM.DriverAccess\Telescope.cs:line 1171
   at BinaryRivers.ASCOM.Platform60.TelescopeASCOM.SlewToTarget(Coordinate coordinate, Boolean setTracking)
 

Hi, I'll have to dig more to find where JNow is saved in the mount setup. I couldn't find it anywhere last night when I was looking through the mount properties.  

Success with ASTAP though. After running ASTAP through BYN, it would adjust my location in Stellarium. At that point I just had to reselect my target in Stellarium and the target would be centered by slewing through Stellarium.  BYN ASTAP did not move my actual mount.

I'll hopefully have time tonight to mess around more to find the mount JNow setting and also to test if BYN locks up the mount slewing. 

Thank you,  

[admin]

6 minutes ago, NightBikes said:

Success with ASTAP though. After running ASTAP through BYN, it would adjust my location in Stellarium. At that point I just had to reselect my target in Stellarium and the target would be centered by slewing through Stellarium.  BYN ASTAP did not move my actual mount.

This is not the expected behavior, BYN should do it all. We need to get to the bottom of this 42.7311111111111  RA value.

This said, if this workaround does work, then at least you are back in the saddle.

[astroman133]

Amateur equipment typically uses JNOW so I doubt that is your issue.

[NightBikes]

On 2/1/2022 at 10:35 AM, admin said:

This is not the expected behavior, BYN should do it all. We need to get to the bottom of this 42.7311111111111  RA value.

This said, if this workaround does work, then at least you are back in the saddle.

Hi, any idea why the program got stuck taking pictures? Log attached [6620].  I finally had to force close the program because it was just stuck and not taking pictures. This happened once before when I first started using the program and don't have the log file anymore. 

I also attached a log [9484] of where the mount starts slewing and continues until I unplug the mount.  This is less of an issue because I can use ASCOM device hub for minor adjustments and stellarium for slewing.  The ASTAP works great in correcting my position in stellarium then allowing me to slew back to my target and it's right in the center.  

I love how easy it is to get around in BYN. The layout and menus make a lot of sense.  

logfile-[20220204-21h03m28s553]-[6620]-2022-02-04.txt logfile-[20220201-17h48m23s852]-[9484]-2022-02-01.txt

[admin]

Please start a new thread with your new issue, it makes it easier to troubleshoot and for others as well when the see this thread in 6+ months time.

[astroman133]

I see 3 issues and there should be a separate thread for each issue:

1) Plate solving with ASTAP

2) BYE Hangs during imaging

3) Nudging the scope with the chevron buttons does not stop.

[astroman133]

I have never used ASTAP, but it appears that it only provides coordinates of solved images in the J2000 epoch. AstroTortilla has a setting for the coordinate system and so can provide the plate solved coordinates as JNOW

Since most amateur equipment uses JNOW (local topocentric) coordinates, BYE/BYN can determine if the transformation is necessary by interrogating the Telescope.EquatorialSystem property. This provides the equatorial coordinate system that the telescope is expecting.

I would expect that BYE/BYN would need to transform the coordinates received from ASTAP as J2000 to JNOW before synching the telescope. This is relatively simple by means of the ASCOM.Astrometry.Transform.Transform class.

[admin]

Yes, BYE/BYN does convert JNOW to J2000 for platesolving when the mount coordinates are JNOW.

[NightBikes]

Thank you for the replies! I started new threads for the other issues as linked below.  I still have the issue that BYN via ASTAP does not physically move the mount. However, it does recenter my mount position in Stellarium so that I can then reselect/slew to my target and the target is centered.  A few comments above mentioned JNow vs J2000. I cannot find anywhere that isn't set correctly (everything is set to J2000). If you are seeing it in the debug code somewhere, please help direct me to the location. I originally started with AstroTortilla not realizing it wasn't supported any longer and it did not work at all, which is why I am using ASTAP. 

For locking up with nudge/slew commands in BYN:

For locking up while taking photos:

 

[NightBikes]

Interesting note- tonight it autocentered/slewed with BYN/ASTAP. Later in the evening I tried it again. It didn't autocenter/slew (but did adjust scope position in Stellarium so that I could then use Stellarium to move the scope and center correctly). The only difference between the two times was that PHD2 was running the second time. So I wonder if PHD2 is preventing the mount to center via BYN/ASTAP.  I did "stop" guiding prior to moving the scope and trying to center.  Just wanted to pass along.  I'm happy enough with the workaround in recentering on target in Stellarium, but I got excited when it worked all through BYN. 🙂