David's Astronomy Pages Notes - Session 639 (2018-12-03)

Notes (S638)

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Notes (S640)

	Session Aims & Highlights
	- Observing Result  - Night Summary Plot
	Operational Issues
	- Critical Issues (0),  Major Issues (1),  Minor Issues (8),  Continuous Improvement (1)
	GA Scheduling - Convergence Plots
	Images from 2018-12-03  >>

Session Aims & Highlights (2018-12-03)

Main aims

1. Targets. Acquire images of a range of targets (comets, variable stars, nearby stars and deep sky objects)
2. Software. Test operation of Observatory Control Program (recently renamed as AstroMain)  following several code changes and correction since last session.
3. Focusing.Test corrected routines for autofocusing the TS 80mm secondary scope with Pegasus Universal Stepper Motor/ZWO camera images
4. Stability.  Check overall stability of the Observatory System (hardware & software) 

Equipment & Software

•  12" LX200 and ST-10XME
•  80mm APO and ZWO ASI 178MC
•  CCDApp2, TheSky6, CCDSoft5, PHD2,  POTH Hub
•  Pegasus UPB & Motor Focus, TCF-S

Highlights

•  Images.   Images from a number of targets were successfully acquired (though cloud ended the session earlier than planned)
• ToO . The Targets of Opportunity facility was used to replace part of the planned schedule with specifically chosen targets
   (conditions unfortunately prevented the acquisation of usable images of supernova in M77 but the overall procedure worked)

Summary Plots & Logs

Observing Result (2018-12-03, S639) Observatory opened at 21:47 .  Foc1 Focusing (TCF-S) at 22:04 Foc2 Focusing Attempts (TS80) at 22:08 & 22:16 Observatory Manager set to Auto at 22:49. Job Queue at 22:22 AstroMain crashed at 22:36 (ShowInventory commanded on an unsaved File).  Job Queue restarted at 22:49 Session ended at 01:47 (scope/dome parked by manual command)  .

Night Sky Summary Plot - 2018-12-03 Top axis: Sky Brightness at Zenith (in ADU/s) Lefthand axis: Local Time (hh LT). Righthand axis: Sun Altitude (degs) Shutter/Telescope active from ~ 22:00 to ~ 01:30

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Operational Issues (2018-12-03, S639)

No significant or generic issues arose during the session, but there were some issues either side of the session that are included below.  A number of smaller isssues relating to AstroSuite programs are included under 'Minor Issues'.

• Critical Issues (0)
• Major Issues (1)
• Minor issues (8)
• Continuous Improvement (1)

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Critical Issues

• None

Major Issues

• Computer Crashing  For no obvious reason the Observatory Computer has begun to crash at seemingly random moments
   ( 3 crashes/restarts in a 48 hour period though none occurred during the S639 Session itself)
  Resolved around 2018-12-11 (Update on Computer Crash Issue)
  

Minor issues

• Session not saved to the database Sessions table.  Session observations got written to an older S638 session rather than new one.
  Fixed on 2018-12-17
   
• Unwanted 'Moving Focuser' messages still being written to Console & ReportFile even though fixes were put into code (on 2018-12-01)
  Fixed between 2018-12-05 and 2018-12-16
    
• COM Port Switching.    Although this issue didn't cause a problem during the S639 session the Pulsar Dome has continued to show random switching between COM9 and COM4 in the week leading up to the Session with a frequency of around once every 24-36 hours. 
  ( This issue can lead to 'System.InvalidOperationsException. The port is closed" exception and the failure or at least a delay in the session in situations where POTH.Dome connects to an invalid port or the Dome's COM port switches during the course of a session itself, which can stop a session. New code has been introduced from 2018-11-30/2018-12-01 to get around the Port Switching issue, and prevent future operations from being stopped by this problem ). Issue eventually deemed closed because workarounds mitigate the issue  (2019) or the problem has become much less common (2020).
    Closed 2018-12-16
   
• Session Initiation didn't give the expected Session ID/Name of 2018-12-03 S639, but gave the session the name/id ID of 2018-12-03 S638. This occurred as the database hadn't been probably tied after rolling back a previous attempt at a S639 session. New Code/Procedure needs to be put in place.
  Resolved/Closed 2019
   
• AstroMain program crashed due to untrapped exception ( Image.ShowInventory on unsaved image). Exception occured in 'AnalyseStarsInImage' routine and related to the use of Image.ShowInventory on an image that hadn't been first saved to disk  (Temporary Fix implemented on 2018-12-04  with the placement of Try/Catch code  around the ShowInventory call)
  Issue resolved/closed 2019
    
• AstroMain program froze on two occasions and had to be killed / restarted along with CCDSoft / TheSky6.  This was the first instance of the problem since the earlier practice of running the program within VS2017 Studio with Debugging was stopped. Issue eventually deemd closed in Jan 2021 after a long run of sessions without issue.
    Closed Jan 2021
   
• Restarted Session failed to pickup the existing Observing Plan but requested & built a new (V2) plan instead.  (this was probably because the Plan description was renamed 'Executed Plan S639' and wasn't picked up in search for 'Best Plan'
    Closed 2020

Continuous Improvement

• Unclear how ToO targets are inserted into Job Queue (they appear in queue later than they are recognised by the ToO listener). Issue causing ToO targets to be delayed was eventually resolved (2019/2020).
  Process understood / Closed 2019

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GA Scheduling - Convergence Plots

GA Code is used to perform automated optimisation of the session's observing plan (a feature first added in  2018-06-11)

A new feature has now been added to create a convergence plot that shows the progression of best plan with generation in terms of overall fitness and by individual function.  Some more work is required on Av.Moon Distance parameter (it may need to be inverted ?)

Convergence Plots for 2018-11-03 (S639)

Convergence Plots for 2018-11-04 (S640)

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