David's Astronomy - Notes 2020-10-24 (S0821)

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Notes - Session 821 (2020-10-24)

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Notes
(S822)

	2020-10-25

	Session Aims & Highlights
	- Observing Result - Night Summary Plot - Session Event Log

	Operational Issues
	- Critical Issues (0), Major Issues (0), Minor Issues (8), Continuous Improvement (4)

	Images from 2020-10-24 >>

	TS80/178MC - Improvement Plan
	New Chart - Cam2 Temperature (ZWO ASI 178MC)

Session Aims & Highlights (2020-10-24)

Main aims

Autoguide Monitoring / Charts. Check that autoguide monitoring / charts are now working correctly following revision to PHD2 Messaging Routines made in AstroMain 3.30.3
Targets. Acquire images of a selection of deep sky targets
Bug fixes. Check that bugs discovered in last session in AstroMain 3.31.0 have been fixed.

Equipment & Software

12" LX200 and ST-10XME
80mm APO and ZWO ASI 178MC
CCDApp2, TheSky6, CCDSoft5, PHD2, DeviceHub 4.5.0.1, UPB 1.5
Pegasus UPB & Motor Focus, TCF-S
SharpCap 3.2, PHD2 2.6.9
AstroMain 3.31.1, AstroGuard 1.4.6, AstroPlan 1.16.9 AstroShCap 1.2.28, AstroVOE 1.4.4, AstroProtect 1.4.1
(AstroWeather 1.10.13, AstroAllSky 3.6)

Highlights

Targets. The problem that was caused autoguide monitoring to believe there was some 22 times more guidestep events than there actually were is confirmed to be fixed.
178MC Temperature. New chart (Cam2Temperature chart) had been implemented for showing the trends in the temperature of the non-cooled ZWO ASI178MC camera attached to the secondary scope
End of Daylights Saving. Session operated through change in Clocks / Computer Time associated with 1 hour change from BST to GMT time, problems were minor and largely limited to some data plotting issues on the Night Summary plot.

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 initial clear dry conditions (0-22% cloud cover),
but becoming cloudy and increasingly windy from 01:00 onwards (51-95% loud cover, wind 15-33mph),
with 36% chance of light rain at dawn. Minimum temperature 6°C, rising to 9°C by dawn

In the event conditions were good in the first part of the night with clear skies and light winds.
Cloud rolled in at around 00:40 and ended the observing session. Minimum temperature 3°C rising to 10°C by dawn
Wind gradually increasing in strength after midnight, becoming quite stromg from 04:00 onwards.

Session Event Log

Time	Event	Detail
00:54:05	Session Monitoring	AutoStart monitoring for Live Session opportunity starting between 00:53 & 06:09
00:54:09	AutoStart Delayed	Session delayed due to cloud
00:54:34	Session AutoStarting	Session autostarting (00:54)
00:55:04	Session Created	Live Session Created (2020-10-24 S00821, ImageSaveNum: 821001)
00:55:07	Scope Switched On	Telescope Power has been switched on via UPB Powerbox.
00:56:56	Services Started	Observatory Services started
00:57:05	Observatory (Auto)	Observatory placed in Fully-Automated Mode
00:57:09	Session Pending	Session pending (2020-10-24)
00:57:11	Session Initiating	Session initiating (2020-10-24)
00:57:13	Plan Requested	Observing Plan requested from AstroPlan (1.16.9)
00:59:15	Plan Loaded	Observing Plan loaded to queue (2020-10-24 V1 BEST PLAN, Plan ID: 556)
00:59:27	Camera1 Connected	SBIG Camera Connected (set point -15°C)
00:59:33	Telescope Connected	Telescope Connected (TheSky6)
00:59:43	Session Equilibration	Session ready for dome & camera equilibration
01:00:30	Dome Opened	Dome opened (opening time 47s)
01:00:32	Session Running	Session running
01:00:34	Queue Started	Observing Queue started (16 targets selected)
01:01:36	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
01:05:06	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 1)
01:08:12	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 1)
01:08:35	Focusing Started-Foc2	Foc2 Focusing Started (Secondary Scope, using ShCap)
01:11:09	Focusing Completed	Foc2 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 2, wide)
01:13:10	Focusing Completed	Foc2 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 2)
01:13:30	Focusing Checked	Foc2 Focusing Check Succeeded
01:13:33	Target Started (1/16)	Target started (1/16, M31_AT2020vak)
01:16:22	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
01:19:25	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 3)
01:30:21	Target Completed	Target completed (1/16, M31_AT2020vak)
01:30:24	Target Started (2/16)	Target started (2/16, NGC 514)
01:32:29	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
01:35:26	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 4)
01:46:29	Target Completed	Target completed (2/16, NGC 514)
01:46:54	Target Started (3/16)	Target started (3/16, NGC 772)
01:49:05	Focusing Failed	Foc1 Focusing Failed - star is lost (TCF-S)
01:49:07	Target Completed	Target completed (3/16, NGC 772)
02:00:00	Critical Temperature Alert	Critical Temperature Alert (Obs.Manager will close the Shutter)
02:00:02	HardSuspend Called	Hard Suspend is called due to Critical Conditions (missing sky/weather information)
02:00:04	Queue Paused	Queue pausing for HardSuspend
02:00:07	Session Suspended	Session suspended
02:00:50	Dome Closed	Dome closed (closing time 40s)
02:04:25	Session Resuming	Session resuming
02:05:10	Dome Opened	Dome opened (opening time 45s)
02:05:12	Session Running	Session running
02:05:14	Queue Resumed	Observing Queue resumed
02:09:17	Target Started (4/16)	Target started (4/16, GSC 1224:29)
02:11:33	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
02:14:35	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 5)
02:18:53	Target Completed	Target completed (4/16, GSC 1224:29)
02:19:58	Target Started (5/16)	Target started (5/16, GCVS GK Per)
02:23:05	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
02:25:56	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 6)
02:28:50	Target Completed	Target completed (5/16, GCVS GK Per)
02:28:52	Target Started (6/16)	Target started (6/16, UGC 3789)
02:30:43	SoftSuspend Called	Soft Suspend is called due to Deteriorating Conditions (too few stars)
02:30:48	SoftSuspend Cancelled	Soft Suspend is cancelled due to Improved Conditions
02:32:47	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
02:36:03	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 7)
02:51:47	Target Completed	Target completed (6/16, UGC 3789)
02:51:49	Target Started (7/16)	Target started (7/16, NGC 2782)
02:54:22	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
02:57:22	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 8)
03:13:13	Target Completed	Target completed (7/16, NGC 2782)
03:13:23	Target Started (8/16)	Target started (8/16, GCVS CM Tau)
03:15:19	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
03:18:09	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 9)
03:31:35	Target Completed	Target completed (8/16, GCVS CM Tau)
03:33:23	Target Started (9/16)	Target started (9/16, NGC 2158)
03:35:01	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
03:38:00	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 10)
04:17:43	Target Completed	Target partially completed (9/16, NGC 2158)
04:17:45	Target Started (10/16)	Target started (10/16, UGC 4609)
04:19:56	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
04:22:23	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 11)
04:37:56	Target Completed	Target completed (10/16, UGC 4609)
04:37:59	Target Started (11/16)	Target started (11/16, UGC 6930)
04:40:04	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
04:43:07	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 12)
04:53:47	Target Completed	Target completed (11/16, UGC 6930)
04:53:49	Target Started (12/16)	Target started (12/16, GCVS U Gem)
04:55:49	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
04:59:31	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 13)
05:02:17	Target Completed	Target completed (12/16, GCVS U Gem)
05:02:19	Target Started (13/16)	Target started (13/16, GCVS DX Cnc)
05:04:19	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
05:07:25	Focusing Completed	Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 14)
05:11:51	Target Completed	Target completed (13/16, GCVS DX Cnc)
05:12:48	Target Started (14/16)	Target started (14/16, Nova AT2020bfc)
05:14:51	Focusing Failed	Foc1 Focusing Failed - star is too dim (TCF-S)
05:22:24	Target Completed	Target completed (14/16, Nova AT2020bfc)
05:25:29	Target Started (15/16)	Target started (15/16, NGC 2360)
05:28:18	Focusing Started-Foc1	Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S)
05:31:10	Focusing Failed	Foc1 Focusing Failed - failed QC check (Ambiguous)
05:32:55	SoftSuspend Called	Soft Suspend is called due to Deteriorating Conditions (too few stars)
05:35:22	Target Completed	Target completed (15/16, NGC 2360)
05:35:24	Queue Paused	Queue paused for SoftSuspend
05:35:26	Session Suspended	Session suspended
05:36:11	Dome Closed	Dome closed (closing time 45s)
05:54:07	Session Resuming	Session resuming
05:54:52	Dome Opened	Dome opened (opening time 45s)
05:54:54	Session Running	Session running
05:54:56	Target Started (16/16)	Target started (16/16, Scholz's Star)
05:54:58	Queue Resumed	Observing Queue resumed
06:12:00	Target Completed	Target partially completed (16/16, Scholz's Star)
06:12:01	Queue Completed	Job Queue completed
06:12:04	Session Closing	Session closing
06:12:59	Dome Closed	Dome closed (closing time 50s)
06:13:00	Dome Park Aborted	Dome Park aborted (0s, Az=195.1degs)
06:13:39	Telescope Parked	Telescope parked (parking time 33s)
06:14:09	Telescope Switched Off	Telescope Power has been switched off via UPB Powerbox.
06:15:00	Services Stopped	Night Services stopped
06:15:02	Session Housekeeping	Housekeeping Started (Cleanup FITS, Create Fits Summary, Transfer Files)
06:15:14	Session Finished	Session Finished

Session Alerts

Time	Alert	Detail
02:00:00	Cloud Sensor	Cloud Sensor data has been inactive for more than 5 mins
02:00:30	Cloud Sensor	Cloud Sensor data is active again (outage 60.1 mins)
06:13:00	Dome Failed To Park	Parking aborted after 3 mins, Rotation Drive wheels are likely to be slipping (Dome at Az 195.1 degs)

Operational Issues (2020-10-24 S821)

Critical Issues (0)
Major Issues (0)
Minor Issues (8)
Continuous Improvement (4)

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Critical Issues

None

Major Issues

None

Minor Issues

AstroMain produced a 'Dome Failed to Park Alert' whilst parking dome at end of session. Alert "Parking aborted after 3 mins, Rotation Drive wheels are likely to be slipping (Dome at Az 195.1 degs)" . When dome was checked it was found to be at the correct park position (090 deg). Investigating showed that the Report file contained the same error 'Dome slew failed (Dome at Az 195.1degs)' ) and the slew table showed starting Az of 195.1 (this was the az at end of final target, Schloz's Star) and an ending slew of 195.1, giving a 0 deg azimuthal change for slew. Log file indicates that SlewDomeToAzimuth() was called at 06:12:59.68, but Dome Slew was deemed to be finished at 06:13:00.08 (Dome Slew Time: 0.4s, Az= 195.1). At 06:13:00.59 parking was aborted ('Dome Park aborted (0s, Az=195.1degs) '). It seems that the SlewDomeToAzmiuth ended before it gave chance of seeing that Dome Slew has started. Execution has clearly left the 'wait until dome has finished slewing' loop after the first loop cycle (0.4s) . This could happen a) the required azmuth had been reached within +/- 0.2 (but dome was still 100 deg away), b) Dome Slewing had started, ie Slewing=True but later stoped, ie Slewing=False, c) if jobAbort Or jobAbortTarget was activated (but there is no reason to believe that this had happened), d) if the loop been running for more than 3 minutes (but loop ran for only 0.4s in this case). It is believed that case b) had happened because there had been an exception in reading objDome.Slewing and the Dome.Slewing returned False (its default action in the event of an exception), or alternatively the first Dome.Slewing access was within 0.2s of previous access when the objDome.Slewing was true because shutter was still closing. Extra tracing of dome parking operations was added to AstroMain program and in the next session (S822) in became possible to identifying the exact route taken by program execution and and an investigation was carried out to understand the issue (see Investigation : False 'Failed to Park' Alerts during Dome Parking - a timing gotcha). The underlying problem (essentially a timing issue relating to when the Dome Driver begins to return Slewing=True following a slew request) has been workaround by ensuring that the slew monitoring loop waits at least 8s before concluding that a Dome.Slewing=False value means that slewing has definately finished. It turned out the fix was very similar to one made a few weeks ago for resolving a slew monitoring issue in the Scope.SlewTheSkyScope, where the loop that was monitor the end of both telescope slewing and slaved dome slewing, was occasional reporting that dome slews were being made in impossibly short amounts of time (like a 60 deg slew in just 1 second ).
Fixed 2020-10-28 (AstroMain 3.31.3).
DeviceHub Activity Log copy is failing to capture more than the last 15 mins of DH activity. Activity Log is being used to help diagnose an ocassional 'Stalled Dome' issue and log data needs to capture event which might have happened 1 hour+ ago. Checking with Rick Burke, author of DeviceHub, it was learnt that "the capacity of the Device Hub activity log is 125000 characters of data. Once the log reaches that capacity, the oldest full lines of data are removed and new lines are added to keep the size under 125K characters." To capture a longer time period, the number of activity lines needs to be reduced. As well as reducing the types of data captured, the other way of reducing the number of activity lines is to reduce the frequency of dome slaving calculations from current once every 10s back to the default frequency of once every 30s (this is more than adequate). Slaving frequency on DH on observatory computer has been edited to a new value of 30s. (Activity Log from S822, 2020-10-24 which was collecting Commands only, with slaving checks at 30s frequency, captured 2h 7m of activity data. This is a lot better, but would miss capturing any events that happened earlier in the night)
Resolved to limits possible 2020-10-26 (AstroMain/Session).
Duration of TimeSlots allocated to Mosaic Targets is too short and frequently results in the final 1-3 mosaic points being missed causing incomplete mosaic. 3 attempts to acquire a mosaic of NGC 2158 - M35 area (S814, S821 & S827) resulted in only partially completed mosaics. Extra time should be allocated to Mosaic recognosing the extra time needed to initiate guiding on each mosaic point and the greater importance attached to final frames compared to single point targets where missing of final frames has less consequence. 13 mosaic points (each 2x45s = 96s including downloads) took 38 mins, implying the overhead time for each mosaic point was 79s. Issue fixed by increasing the 'Move To Mosaic Pt' time (on Settings Page) from 25s to 80s.
Fixed (AstroPlan 1.17.3).
After opening an image in FV using '>> Open FV' button the final report line is left unfinished, which causes an cosmetic report issue for the following task. AddComment (Tab2 + "Starting fv (5.3.0.0)" ) is used without a closing ReportComment("Ok").
Fixed (AstroMain 3.32.5).
AllSky NightSummaryPlot show low Stars Count for one hour period after clock went back at 02:00.
Fixed 2022-09-26 (AstroAllSky 3.16.4)
Cloud Sensor Data inactive for one hour period after clock went back at 02:00.
To Investigate & Fix (AstroWeather/AstroMain).
AllSky NightSummaryPlot is missing 02 h mark/label when clock went back at 02:00.
To Investigate & Fix (AstroAllSky).
AllSky NightSummaryPlot show flatlined Clarity value for one hour period after clock went back at 02:00.
To Investigate & Fix (AstroAllSky).

Continuous Improvement

Extend AstroShCap to with new function to set Camera's Subtract Dark property. A new routine (SetCameraSubtractDark_Auto) has been written to automatically find and select best master dark frame for the camera's current properties and sets Camera's Dark Property field. Subtract Dark is set to 'None' if no suitable dark frames can be found. Where there is more than one possible master dark, the one created at a temperature closest to the current camera temperature is chosen. The ShCap routine can also be called via a new button and routine in AstroMain.
Done (AstroShCap 1.3.0 / AstroMain 3.31.2).
Relocate the .dat file results of a Mosaic Analysis to the parent folder of the folder being analysed. Results of analysis of "..\2020-10-24 S00821\NGC_2158 3x3 45s C\reduced" folder, namely "2020-11-09 1340 NGC 2158 (mosaic).dat" is currently placed in the "..\CCD Imaging\Logs" folder but is better placed closer to the mosaic files being analysed .(e.g. "..\2020-10-24 S00821\NGC_2158 3x3 45s C" .
Done (AstroMain 3.32.5).
Mosaic Analysis should clean-up the folder being analysed at the end of job. .SRC files that were created during the analysis should be deleted at end of job instead of being left hanging around.
Done (AstroMain 3.32.5).
Mosaic Analysis should perform a Sky Background Measurement as part of the Analysis. At the moment the analyis of sky background has to be performed as a separate task using AstroImageTool involving extra steps and unneccessary extra manual manipulation of data . This step is now includeed as part of the Analysis. Format of the Excel Mosaic File has been modified to incorporate the loading of new data colu,m This
Done (AstroMain 3.32.5, Mosaics/NGC_2158_S821 New.xls)

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2020-10-25

TS80/178MC Improvement Plan

Improvement Plan for TS80/178MC Imaging (TS 80mm f/6 APO secondary scope + ZWO ASI 178MC camera)

AstroShCap Improvements
Use of Dark Subtraction
Camera Temperature Monitoring - Add 178MC sensor temperature monitoring to understand trends in temperature of the non-cooled camera, to assist with Dark Library usage
Colour Balance. Look at the most appropriate colour balance settings (R and B settings in SharpCap) (Notes)
Offset (Brightness). Use of appropriate offset for different gain values (Notes)
Live Stacking. Getting decent LiveStack images without user intervention.
Guiding - Add facility to guide the mount with LX200/ST10 whilst imaging with
Standardised Camera Settings (Notes)
Dark Library - Creation of Dark Library with stock camera settings (Notes)
Software - Review Software (Notes)

New Chart - Cam2 Temperature (ZWO ASI 178MC)

A new temperature chart (Cam2TemperatureChart ) has been added to Observatory monitoring to allow the values and variation of camera temperatures from the non-cooled ZWO ASI178MC camera to be visualised across the duration of a session. Data is collected via PHD2 server when 178MC camera is connected to PHD2. The gaps in the curve is where the 178MC camera is disconnected from PHD2 and connected to SharpCap instead. (AstroMain 3.31.3 allows 178MC temperature data to be also be collected from SharpCap). The chart is automatically uploaded to the current session web page.

It would seem useful to add UPB Env Temperature as a control curve (2020-10-28)

Cam2 Temperature Charts from Session S820 & S821