David's Astronomy Pages Notes - Session 627 (2018-09-08)

Notes (S626)

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Notes (S628)

	Session Aims & Highlights
	- Observing Result  - Night Summary Plot
	Operational Issues
	- Critical Issues (0),  Major Issues (3),  Minor Issues (5),  Continuous Improvement (0)
	Sky Flats Routine
	Images from 2018-09-08  >>

Session Aims & Highlights (2018-09-08)

Main aims

1. Sky Flats. Test new routine for taking Sky Flats.     (routine was manually initiated.  when sun had reached -2.4deg altitude 
2. Targets. Acquire images for a selection of variable stars, nearby stars and deep sky targets
3. Stability. Continue checking stability of the Observatory System 

Equipment & Software

•  12" LX200 and ST-10XME
•  80mm APO and ZWO ASI 178MC
•  CCDApp2, TheSky6, CCDSoft5, PHD2,  POTH Hub

Highlights

• New routine for taking Sky Flats was successfully initiated and it proceeded to take sky flats in roughly  the manner designed.
  Including slewing to the 'zero gradient' point in the sky, and taking flat sets with the filter / binning in a predefined order.
   (Not surprisingly there were a few issues and discoveries, indicating a number of fixes and improvements are required before the next live test)
  Targets.  Images for x Targets were successfully acquired
     (This was much fewer than there should have been due to several issues with the Observatory operations and system t

Lowlights 

• Software. Observatory Control Program locking up, requiring a program restart each time. Some Images of Hickson 81 obtained but later than the scheduled time, whilst operating in manual mode)

Summary Plots & Logs

Observing Result (2018-09-08, S627) Operations started at 21:02, Sky Flats started at 19:58, Sky Flats ended at 20:50 Automated Mode from 20:53, Job Queue started at 21:13,  Multiple Software & some hardware interruptions through period 22:00 to 01:38  Manual Mode from 02:05, Observatory Closed at 02:06

(Observation Status :  Green=Completed, Yellow= Partially Completed, Red= Failed)

Night Sky Summary Plot - 2018-09-08 Top axis: Sky Brightness at Zenith (in ADU/s) Lefthand axis: Local Time (hh LT). Righthand axis: Sun Altitude (degs)

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Operational Issues (2018-09-08, S627)

• Critical Issues (0)
• Major Issues (3)
• Minor issues (5)
• Continuous Improvement (0)

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Critical Issues

• None

Major Issues

• CCDApp2 locking-up/freezing.  Observatory Control Program completely locked-up/hung on several occasions during the first part of the session.  Again this seemed to occur when other windows passed across it main window and /or its own window was being moved. This problem occurred in several other recent sessions (e.g. 2018-08-30, 2018-09-04), but not all (2018-09-03).  There were no issues with LAN performance at the same time on this occasion. Cause of problem is unknown but is presumed to be related to thread operations trying to manipulate components on the CCD2App2 window whilst it was busy.   Issue Largely Resolved (Program is now run outside of VS Studio/VS debugger which has improved stability).
  Resolved
   
• Loosing connection with TCF-S focuser.  Connection with TCF-S focuser was lost whilst taking a focus profile.
  There were further disconnection issues , but some may be related to CCDApp2 program being killed and restarted, leaving CCDSoft5 objects or processes locked.  Modify Autofocussing code to check that Focus Position hasn't become null or 0. And Abort / Raise Flag.  Issue Resolved (Problem eventually fixed by updating software/drivers and connecting to TCF-S using ASCOM connection rather via CCDSoft5)
  Resolved (Observatory/ TCF-S)
   
•  Ineffective Centering of Targets .  Target Centering was inaccurate during most of the session, with jogs either over-correctling or under-correcting  (for example instead of a 5.1' jog in RA, the scope might do a   9.4' jog (taken the telescope one side of the target to the other).  In some cases Pointing Error would increase following a Jog operation. 1st Locate/Centre attempt would generally reduce the pointing error, but on 2nd to 4th attempts the pointing error would bounce around the 2.5 to 3.5' level but not get any closer.  The problem was seen before in Session 618  (2018-08-14) but resolved itself for the following session. Again a similar pattern was noted on some of the targets in the current session with the 1st centering attempt overcorrects significantly  whilst 2nd & 3rd attempts under-corrects significantly, with 4th and final attempt being under-correcting slightly. Attempts to update the Telescope's time and location via POTH.Hub controls didn't seem to resolve the problem. Slewing accuracy was also poor in the second half of the session, and after Syncing the Telescope's Position using a linked (plate solved) image. This remained an occasional issue. (It appears to occur where POTH.HUb makes a second or further Connection to the scope with a new update of telescope Time or other dynamic setting). Issue now resolved/closed
  Resolved/Closed

Minor issues

• Autosave Number Setting. Upon each restart of the Automated Operations the program would set CCDSoft5's autosave number to 627001. Whilst appropriate for the initial opening of the session, resetting this number for subsequent restarts can lead to multiple images have the same image number (a number intended to be a unique identifier) leading to problems during later processing an use. Where this was spotted the Autosave Number was manually updated to the appropriate number in the sequence,  but initially several images ended up with same FITs number as images taken by the earlier Sky Flats routine
  (The underlying cause on this occasion was probably due to an earlier attempt of a S627 session two days earlier having not being removed from the Database Sessions table. However as a further preventative control the Observatory Control program should be modified so the Autosave Number can't be 'reset' where the number clearly shows that it is likely to be under active use by the session (e.g. if current save number is 627075, then it shouldn't be set to 627001,  but if it was 626310 then it can be set to 627001)
  Issue Resolved
   
• Sky Flats FIT Headers.  The name 'SKY FLAT" is not getting saved in FIT header for Sky Flat frames. even though the routine was modified to do so.  Headers have "FLAT" as the object name.   This is required for later file manipulation and reduction processing. 
  Closed
   
• Incomplete Monitor File. As seen on several previous occasions the (monitor).dat file is incomplete and missing data from large parts of the session. Problem occurs when the Observatory Control program is terminated and restarted. Other files (report), (log), (slew) etc are complete.
  Issue Resolved
   
  
• Uncaught Exception Crashing Observatory Control Program .  Exception in xxx     An incorrect file path  in Save Focus Profile Image to GIF' part of the Autofocusing routine, caused the entire Observatory Control program to crash (routine was modified during the session  itself to fix the bug leading to incorrect file path and include a surrounding Try..Catch Loop to catch any future exception and prevent it from crashing the program. The incident indicates that the program still needs further 'iron cladding' to prevent other simple bugs from bringing down the program)
  Issue Resolved
   
• Observing Plan produced by Schedule Builder had multiple entries. S627 V1 Plan had multiple observations scheduled for  61 Cyg (3 entries) and HH And (2 entries). The program should have scheduled these targets just once. This has been seen on a previous occasion.
  This remains as an occasional issue

 Continuous Improvement

• None

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Sky Flats Routine

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