David's Astronomy Pages Notes - Session 798 (2020-08-21)

Notes (S797)

Notes Main

Home Page

Notes (S799)

	2020-08-21 (Session 798)
	Session Aims & Highlights
	- Observing Result  - Night Summary Plot  - Session Event Log
	Operational Issues
	- Critical Issues (0),  Major Issues (1),  Minor Issues (3),  Continuous Improvement (0)
	AutoStart Results (2020-08-21)
	Images from 2020-08-21 >>
	2020-08-23
	Replacement AllSky Computer

Session Aims & Highlights (2020-08-21)

Main aims

1. AutoStart. Conduct second live test of AutoStart (new observatory mode)
2. Focusing with Wide Search. Conduct live test of autofocusing of Foc2 (Secondary Scope) systems using a precursive widened search range (test failed in previous session)
3. Targets. Acquire images of a number of targets if conditions allow.

Equipment & Software

• 12" LX200 and ST-10XME
• 80mm APO and ZWO ASI 178MC
• CCDApp2, TheSky6, CCDSoft5, PHD2,  DeviceHub 4.6.1.10, UPB 1.5 
• Pegasus UPB & Motor Focus, TCF-S
• SharpCap 3.2, PHD2  2.6.9
   
• AstroMain 3.27.3,  AstroGuard 1.4.2,   AstroPlan 1.15.4,  AstroShCap 1.2.23, AstroVOE 1.3.6
  (AstroWeather 1.10.9, AstroAllSky 3.6)
  

Highlights

• AutoStart. Fifth live test of AutoStart was successfully conducted,

Lowlights

Summary Plots & Logs

Observing Plan

Observing Result

Dome & Scope Slewing Performance

Slew/Centering Performance

Guiding Performance

Sky Conditions (Locate Frames)

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

Pre-Session Weather Forecast (API data from darksky.net) Pre-Session Weather forecast showed semi-clear conditions (24-33% cloud cover) before midnight but becoming increasingly cloudy later on (48-98% cloud cover), with moderate-light wind (14-11 mph), no rain and a minimum temperature of 14°C. In the event conditions were clear or partly cloudy until 02:15  before becoming totally clouded thereafter. Clearest interval was 00:05 to 01:15 (up to 38 AllSky Stars). Entire night was dry. Minimum outside temperature 12°C rising to 13.5°C by dawn.

Session Event Log

Session Alerts

Back to Top

Operational Issues (2020-08-21, S798)

• Critical Issues (0)
• Major Issues (1)
• Minor Issues (3)
• Continuous Improvement (0)

[ Prev | Next ]

Critical Issues

• None

Major Issues

• Foc1 Autofocusing Attempts unexpectedly failed with the message failed QC checks.  Each attempt at autofocusing the Foc1 System (LX200 Main + TCF-S Focuser) during the session, failed with message "Failed QC checks (Quadratic values indicates an issue with profile form) ". This included both Near-Zenith Focus Fields and the Star Fields associated with each attempted target.  All the Focus Profiles (except one, that is 10 out of 11 profiles,  looked completely valid and there was no reasonable reason for rejecting the Best Focus positions determined by the Quadratic Fit. Examining the session's log file showed the quadratic fits had 'c' term values of  19.57, 19.91, 16.39 , 13.20, 20.70, 18.11,  16.31, 15.15, 16.92 & 16.77 (the one bad profile had 'c' term of 6.998 & a negative 'a' term instead of the nornal positive term).    Night time temperatures (13 degC minimum) were warmer than usual and best focus lay at an average position of 915 steps (within a 0 to 7000 focuser range).  Current AstroMain code shows that a focus profile fails its QC check if 'a' < 0 or 'c' < 35.   In this case the profiles from the session having 'c' in the range 13.2 to 20.7 all failed the QC check.   Issue fixed by relaxing the check on 'c' term so that QC check now fails if 'a' < 0 or 'c' < 10.
  Fixed 2020-08-22 (AstroMain 3.28)

Minor Issues

• Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox application not showing in Taskbar, but running in background.   Noticing that the UPB software was missing from the TaskBar before the session, it was relaunched from AstroLaunch, and the session proceeded normally (Powerbox ASCOM switch was used to turn Telescope power on/off, and Env Temp/Humidity readings were accessed through the night ok.   It wasn't noticed until the morning that AstroLaunch had in fact given the message saying 'Pegasus PowerBox is already running'  and the UPB software was still missing from the Taskbar.  However a check of the Windows Task Manager showed the UPB.exe was in fact running in background (with a Memory Usage of  2,309,000 KB - the UPB software was last started 2020-08-08 22:48, some 13 days ago.    Issue was resolved by killing the UPB.exe process and restarting the program via the AstroLaunch menu.  May be worthwhile reporting to Pegasus Astro for their information.
  Resolved 2020-08-22 (Observatory)
   
• Foc2 autofocusing on (TS-80 Scope) using ASI camera not working sufficiently well. This is a continuation of the issue reported in last session (2020-08-08).  Although backlash has now been increased from 2500 steps to a new value of 3500 steps, the Wide Search focusing failed after a star couldn't be detected in the focus box image from each of  the first 6 focus steps (9432 to 9182). Examining the 6 focus box frames images showed the presence of the badly out-of-focus star that was picked from full frame image.   Although it would be a waste of time if the sky was cloudy or the star has 'jumped' out of the field of view, it would probably be best to continue taking a focus frame at all the programmed focus steps associated with the wide search, and assume that the star will eventually 'pop' into view.   Subsequent manual tweaking of the Foc2 system, indicated approximate best focus at around 8917.  This would have been conformatably within the 9432 - 8682  focus step range associated with the wide search.  Code modified so that wide Foc2 focusing isn't aborted by the code that checks the 'number of Consecutive Bad Points'  . A maxAlloweBadPoints variable is added and set to   30 during Wide Search, reverting back to 6 during Normal Search.
  Fix made 2020-08-22 (AstroMain 3.28). Test Foc2 focusing again in next session  (Session)
   
• "Virtual Weather Station (vws.exe) and Cloud Sensor (CloudSensor.exe) data both went offline at 12:30 (2020-08-22).  Having both been started on AllSky/Weather Computer at 2020-08-18 18:51 both applications failed at 2020-08-22 12:30 without any error message or obvious reason. Their .exe executable seemed to simply stop running.  Problem wasn't noticed until 6.1/2 hours later when Current Weather Web Page was checked. Both programs were restarted at 2020-08-22 19:00 via AstroLaunch.
  Resolved by restarting both programs 2020-08-22 (Observatory  / AllSky Computer).

Continuous Improvement

• None

[ Prev | Next ]

Back to Top

AutoStart - Results (2020-08-21)

2020-08-21 was the fifth live test of AutoStart (new observatory mode).  The night had expected to be dry and clear until at least midnight  (though expecting to cloud over later)  and the night was forecast to be dry .  Whilst a LIve Session would have been intitated anyway, AutoStart was used anyway to test its new and evolving routine.

Result: Successful Test of AstroGuard and a Live Session was created and begun under complete automated control.  The session ran successfully though cloud interferred with most of the later targets.  

AutoStart Mode was initiated from AstroMain 3.27.3 program at 21:17. It's operational window was from 21:44 (SunAlt -12 degs {descending} minus 30 mins) until 03:38 (SunAlt -12 degs {ascending} minus 30 mins).
Conditions at 21:44 were unsuitable for observing due to cloud and AutoStart was delayed pedning better conditions. Eventually at 22:06 conditions were ok for observing and AutoStart ran, creating a new live session (S798), and beginning Observatory Night Services including powering up and connecting to the LX200 Telescope. The dome was opened at 22:10 and session began running at 22:13.

Back to Top

2020-08-23

Replacement AllSky Computer

A replacement computer (a Toshiba Dynabook Satellite Pro C50-E-102) has been acquired following a series of problems with the computer used for AllSky/Weather monitoring  (e.g.  AllSky Computer Problems (BSOD & Failed Windows Startup, 2020-08-18).  The new computer will be setup with the necessary programs & settings, before testing and gradually bedding into its role as the Observatory's new AllSky/Weather computer.  This can be taken as a relaxed operation since the current computer has had a new (though most-likely brief) lease of life after installing a 1903 feature update to Windows 10.

The computer will probably be setup in a manner that it could quickly step into the role of Observatory main computer should the need eventually arise.

The new Computer has Windows 10 Home edition  (Windows Pro wasn't offered as an option).  I can't recall if Pro version is critical for anything and I hope that I won't regret my decision to go with a Home edition computer.

Toshiba Dynabook Satellite Pro C50-E-102 
 https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/toshiba-dynabook-satellite-pro-c50-e-102-core-i5-8250u-8gb-512gb-ssd-15.6-i-a1pys20e111d/version.asp
 https://uk.dynabook.com/laptops/satellite-pro/satellite-pro-c50/satellite-pro-c50-e-102/

Computer Setup

Windows
- Admin and User Account
- View
- Desktop Picture, Desktop DPI, Icons Sizes
- Taskbar Toolbars:  Astro, Comp, Apps
- Control Panel
- Device Manager
- Internet Explorer,  Google Search Provider.

Core Software
- Kaspersky Internet Security (Firewall & AntiVirus)
- UltraVNC  (for Remote Control)
- Dimension 4 (for Time Sync)

General Software
- TextPad 4   (for File Editing)
- ACDSee Classic (for Image Viewing)
- 7 Zip (for File/Folder Zips)
- PaintShopPro 5

Observatory Software
- CCDSoft5
- TheSky6

- ASCOM 6.5 (incl POTH.Hub option)
- MeadeLX200GPS(5.0.0) Driver (from ASCOM site)
- Starlight Xpress SXV Plug In.dll  (to CCDSoft Version 5 / Camera Plug-Ins)
- OptecTCF-S Installer (6.0.6), TCF Commander and ASCOM Driver/Local Server

- AstroWeather
- AstroLaunch
- AstroAllSky
- AstroPlan
- AstroMain

- Aurora Cloud Sensor III  (3.2)
- FV (5.3)
- Virtual Weather Station v15
- Pegasus UPB 1.6
- Pegasus UPB Ascom Drivers (Switch, Focuser, Observing Conditions)
- PHD2  (autoguiding)

- SharpCap 3.2

- ffmpeg-win32-static
- ffmpeg-win64-static

Steps towards setting new computer up for AllSky/Weather Role

2020-08-29
- CloudSensor can be connected to from CloudSensor III program, but at present the program needs to be executed  as Adminstrator
- Unable to get CCDSoft to see the Oculus AllSkyCamera, even though
- Unable to get Virtual Weather Station to see readings from the WMR80 Weather Station

2020-08-30
- Checked previous lessons learnt from installaion of an earlier replacement for the AllSky/Weather Computer
-

2020-08-31
- CCDSoft Camera Setup now recognises StarlightXpress Oculus AllSky Camera
- CCDSoft able to take an image using Oculus AllSy Camera
- Virtual Weather Station finally able to get sensor reading from Oregon Scientific WMR80 Weather Station

2020-09-01
- LaunchCloudSensor and LaunchVws tasks exported from old AllSky/Weather computer and loaded on the new computer
- LaunchCloudSensor.bat and LaunchVws.bat files confirmed to be present in the 'More Programs/AstroLaunch' folder
- AstroLaunch updated so that Cloud Sensor & Vws can be started via bat file/scheduled taks on both Laptop7 and Laptop7a (AstroLaunch 1.4.1)

Issues

Oculus Canera Access
Whilst Third Party Camera Plugin "Starlight Xpress SXV Plug In.dll" was copied to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Software Bisque\CCDSoft Version 5\Camera Plug Ins"  the Oculus AllSky Camera couldn't be successfully connected until latest SX Drivers ("Signed drivers for 32 and 64 bit Windows 7, 8 and 10 (version 1.2.2.0)" had been downloaded and installed from the Starlight Xpress website (https://www.sxccd.com/drivers-downloads) 

Back to Top