I was doing some experiments in daylight and decided to do a sequence without autoguiding, platesolving, auto center or dithering. This is with 2.4.1.5.
I disabled all the features I could find relating to these items but when I ran the sequence it came up with an error box that suggested I had left something enabled in the autoguider department. I carried on regardless and when it came to the meridian flip (auto center had been disabled), after the mount had finished the slew, I got the ‘something awful has happened’ error note. I aborted at this point.
I put the video (no sound), the log files and the SGP sequence file in the following dropbox folder. The video scans through the dialog boxes where you can see the settings.
I’m sure it shouldn’t be doing that. I’m assuming that SGP should be able to do a sequence without guiding and a meridian flip without centering. Any ideas?
(It was repeatable by the way, I don’t normally have the video capture running!)
I’m trying to test a new sync command and the meridian flip failed but from what I can see it failed because there was no guider. Here is the log showing the flip:
[07/05/2015 10:18:08] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] ===== S E Q U E N C E G E N E R A T O R (v2.4.1.3) =====
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Created base name for frame capture: Test1__0003
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Created directory for frame capture: C:\images\2015-05-06
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Sending commands…
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] SetFlatBox: Frame Type is non-flat
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Checking if Meridian Flip is needed
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Telescope is on the West side of the mount
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Meridian Flip needed, Hour Angle >= Degrees Past To Flip: 1.22616432718667 >= 1
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Running blocking meridian flip…
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian Flip: Starting Meridian Flip Procedure
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian Flip: Calling SGM_TELESCOPE_SOLVE
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian flip: Waiting for scope solve to complete…
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SGM_TELESCOPE_SOLVE message received…
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope solve with plate solver Astrometry.NET…
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Plate solving scope frame…
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Created full file name: C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\Temp\plate_solve_image.fit
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SGM_CAMERA_PLATE_SOLVER_CAPTURE message received…
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Collecting FITs headers for plate solve frame…
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Collecting FITs headers for plate solve frame…
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SetAscomNormalSpeed…
[07/05/2015 10:43:48] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Cannot set readout speed, not supported by camera…
[07/05/2015 10:43:53] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Created full file name: C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\Temp\plate_solve_image.fit
[07/05/2015 10:43:54] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] =========== Save file took 679 ms
[07/05/2015 10:43:54] [DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SGM_CAMERA_PLATE_SOLVER_CAPTURE complete…
[07/05/2015 10:43:54] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET convertedAstrometry.fits path: C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\Temp\convertedAstometry.fits
[07/05/2015 10:43:54] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET - File is too large, resizing
[07/05/2015 10:43:54] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET - Saving file
[07/05/2015 10:43:54] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET using endpoint: http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/
[07/05/2015 10:43:54] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET - Calling Async Solve
[07/05/2015 10:43:54] [DEBUG] [Unknown] Astrometry.NET uploading file: C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\Temp\convertedAstometry.fits
[07/05/2015 10:44:00] [DEBUG] [Unknown] Astrometry.NET - Upload complete
[07/05/2015 10:44:00] [DEBUG] [Unknown] Astrometry.NET - Waiting for solve to complete
[07/05/2015 10:44:00] [DEBUG] [Unknown] Astrometry.NET - Job successfully solved
[07/05/2015 10:44:00] [DEBUG] [Unknown] Astrometry.NET solve done in 6 seconds.
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET - Solve Completed
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET - Solve Successful
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Plate solving scope frame successful, scope is synced, writing FITs header info…
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Syncing to J2000 RA: 0.581343055408667 Dec: 13.373916468
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope Sync: Passed in J2000 but mount requires JNOW, converting…
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Syncing to JNOW RA: 0.594433673996433 Dec: 13.4557458074487
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Attempting to write fits header info for
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Scope solve complete…
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SGM_TELESCOPE_SOLVE message complete…
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian flip: Scope solve complete…
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian Flip: Solve and Sync was Successful
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian Flip: Stopping the Auto Guider
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian Flip: Sending Telescope command to execute meridian flip
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Pier side is West
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ASCOM Telescope: attempting pier flip using sideOfPier
[07/05/2015 10:44:01] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Setting Pier East
[07/05/2015 10:44:53] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ASCOM Telescope: Pier side is East
[07/05/2015 10:44:54] [DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian Flip: Telescope command to meridian flip has completed
[07/05/2015 10:44:54] [DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian Flip: Telescope has performed meridian flip
[07/05/2015 10:44:54] [DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian Flip: Flipping Auto Guider calibration data
[07/05/2015 10:44:54] [DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] No auto guider attached, cannot flip calibration data
[07/05/2015 10:45:23] [DEBUG] [Pier Flip Thread] Meridian Flip: Procedure complete
[07/05/2015 10:45:57] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] Blocking Pier Flip: Failed to meridian flip, aborting sequence (True)
[07/05/2015 10:45:57] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] ASCOM Camera: Attempting to abort exposure…
[07/05/2015 10:45:57] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] ASCOM Camera: Exposure aborted…
This is an indoors test using my DSS Image Camera and the mount, nothing else, no guider, no focuser, no filter wheel.
Can I suggest that when things fail the message you post says what SGP thinks has gone wrong. This would help a lot in resolving things.
I tried the new version, 2.4.1.6 and it is fine. Meridian flip completed including solve, sync and centre.
This is with the new ASCOM Celestron driver version 6.0.5604.28494 which I posted to the ASCOM-Talk files area this morning. I’ve changed the way that sync is done with StarSense.