I am having issues with imaging near the meridian. I use ASCOM drivers (EQASCOM with my EQ6R, iHubo with my RC-135E) and am experiencing the same issue with both. Almost exactly 15 minutes before transition across the meridian, the autoguider losses its guide star and aborts the sequence. If I attempt to restart the sequence sooner than 15 minutes past the meridian, it will never successfully plate solve. So, I am losing at a minimum 30 minutes of imaging.
I had originally turned off the auto-flip function in SGP because (although it would continue to image (with EQASCOM and my EQ6R) through the meridian (have the flip timing set for +20 minutes) it would NEVER successfully execute an automatic flip - usually because the autoguider would lose its way in recalibrating after the flip (i.e., continue to march north and never come back).
About a month ago, I turned the auto-flip function in SGP back on (because at least I could do the flip manually after the mount passed the meridian - now I have this 30 minute gap) and it has done nothing to change the pre-meridian sequence failure or post-meridian sequence restart delay.
Are there other settings I need to change (e.g., ASCOM control panel) in addition to reactivating the auto-flip in the SGP equipment profile manager and setting it for +20minutes past the meridian to avoid this gap in imaging?
Last night’s experience (PHD2 log included at this Google Drive location: PHD2 log - 7Oct2023 - Google Drive)
The meridian was scheduled at 0249MDT. Somewhere during the (5minute) image that began 0230MDT, the autoguider lost its guide star (i.e., approximately 15 minutes before the transition across the meridian). I woke at 0250 to attend to the meridian flip. The mount’s first attempt moved the telescope (on the correct side of the meridian) to a point approximately 20K pixels from the target location. Subsequent plate solving attempts did not move the telescope at all. In between subsequent (multiple) attempts I cycled the power on all the equipment, rebooted the laptop – all with the same effect. I was finally successful at approximately 0320MDT – over 30 minutes past the meridian. Usually the lost time between lost star on the east side of the meridian to my ability to successfully acquire the image on the west side of the meridian is approximately 15 minutes on either side of the meridian, for a total lost imaging time of 30 minutes. I don’t know if this was longer because I was crossing the northern meridian (0°) when I’m usually crossing the southern meridian (180°)?