David's Astronomy Pages Notes - Session 914 Attempt (2021-09-16)

Notes (S913)

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Notes (S914)

	Session Aims & Highlights
	- Observing Result  - Night Summary Plot  - Session Event Log
	Operational Issues
	- Critical Issues (0),  Major Issues (2),  Minor Issues (1),  Small Defects (0),  Continuous Improvement (7)
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Session Aims & Highlights (2021-09-16)

Main aims

1. Targets. Acquire images of a selection of variable stars, nearby stars, comets & deep sky targets as allowed by time & conditions.
2. AstroMain. Test fixes, improvements and new features in AstroMain 3.42. Check for stability.

Equipment & Software

• 12" LX200 and ST-10XME
• 80mm APO and ZWO ASI 178MC
• CCDApp2, TheSky6, CCDSoft5, PHD2 2.6.10,  DeviceHub 6.5.1.4,  MeadeGeneric 1.3.1.361, UPB 1.5, ASCOM 6.5 SP1
• Pegasus UPB & Motor Focus, TCF-S
• SharpCap 3.2, PHD2  2.6.10
   
• AstroMain 3.42 / 3.42.1 ,  AstroPlan 1.23,  AstroShCap 1.3.11, AstroGuard 1.6.2,  AstroVOE 1.8,  AstroSN 1.6,  AstroProtect 1.6
  (AstroWeather 1.12.4, AstroAllSky 3.10.4, AstroObsCam 1.5.7)

Highlights

• AstroMain. First test of new 3.42 version of AstroMain with multiple changes since 3.41.8. No problem with new code though a bug was uncovered in older code.
•  Cloud.  No Images acquired due to initial problem importing plan and later cloud

Notes:

Summary Plots & Logs

Observing Plan

Observing Result

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

Actual Weather vs Pre-Session Weather Forecast

Session Event Log

Time     Event Detail 19:13:40 Session Monitoring AutoStart monitoring for Live Session opportunity between 20:19 & 04:37 19:13:40   AutoStart Waiting AutoStart waiting till earliest start time at 20:19 20:19:31   AutoStart Delayed Session delayed due to too few stars 20:41:03 Session AutoStarting Session autostarting (20:41) 20:41:46   Camera1 Connected SBIG Camera Connected (set point -5°C) 20:41:48 Session Created Live Session Created (2021-09-16 S00914, ImageSaveNum: 914001) 20:41:50   Scope Switched On Telescope Power has been switched on via UPB Powerbox. 20:43:33   Services Started Observatory Services started 20:43:40 Observatory (Auto) Observatory placed in Fully-Automated Mode 20:43:43 Session Pending Session pending (2021-09-16) 20:43:45 Session Initiating Session initiating (2021-09-16) 20:43:57   Camera1 Connected SBIG Camera Connected (set point -10°C) 20:44:03   Telescope Connected Telescope Connected (TheSky6) 20:44:27 Session Equilibration Session ready for dome & camera equilibration 21:10:45 Observatory (Manual) Observatory placed in Manual Mode 21:51:50   Services Stopped Observatory Services stopped 21:52:00 Program Closed Program closed by User 21:54:05 Session Resumed Live Session Resumed (2021-09-16 S00914, ImageSaveNum: 914001) 21:54:23   Obs.Manager Started Obs.Manager started 21:54:25   Obs.Overseer Started Obs.Overseer started 21:54:29   Services Started Observatory Services started 21:56:31   Services Started Observatory Services started 21:56:47   Telescope Connected Telescope Connected (TheSky6) 21:57:20   Camera1 Connected SBIG Camera Connected (set point -10°C) 21:57:52 Observatory (Auto) Observatory placed in Fully-Automated Mode 21:57:54 Session Pending Session pending (2021-09-16) 21:57:56 Session Initiating Session initiating (2021-09-16) 21:58:08   Camera1 Connected SBIG Camera Connected (set point -10°C) 21:58:14   Telescope Connected Telescope Connected (TheSky6) 21:58:38 Session Equilibration Session ready for dome & camera equilibration 21:59:00 Observatory (Manual) Observatory placed in Manual Mode 22:00:13 Observatory (Auto) Observatory placed in Fully-Automated Mode 22:00:18 Session Pending Session pending (2021-09-16) 22:00:20 Session Initiating Session initiating (2021-09-16) 22:00:22   Plan Requested Observing Plan requested from AstroPlan (1.23) 22:02:44   Plan Loaded Observing Plan loaded to queue (, Plan ID: 659) 22:02:57   Camera1 Connected SBIG Camera Connected (set point -10°C) 22:03:03   Telescope Connected Telescope Connected (TheSky6) 22:03:27 Session Equilibration Session ready for dome & camera equilibration 22:03:29 Wait On Weather Waiting For acceptable conditions 22:03:31 Session Suspended Session suspended 22:03:33   Dome Closed Dome already closed (closure time is unknown) 22:03:35   Queue Started Observing Queue started (24 targets selected) 22:34:14     Target Cancelled Target cancelled (1/24, NGC 6184 w/SN2021wkv) due to cloud 22:56:06     Target Cancelled Target cancelled (2/24, NGC 6500 w/SN2021wuf) due to cloud 23:12:36     Target Cancelled Target cancelled (3/24, C/2019 L3 (ATLAS)) due to cloud 23:14:38 User Intervention User request to close and finish session 23:14:40   Queue Aborted Job Queue aborted 23:14:43 Session Closing Session closing 23:14:48   Dome Closed Dome already closed (closure time is unknown) 23:14:49   Dome Parked Dome already parked (parking time is unknown) 23:15:49   Telescope Parked Telescope parked (parking time 57s) 23:16:03   Telescope State Scope parked Turn scope off. (Handbox) 23:16:24   Telescope Switched Off Telescope Power has been switched off via UPB Switch. 23:17:15   Services Stopped Night Services stopped 23:17:17 Session Housekeeping Housekeeping Started (Cleanup FITS, Create Fits Summary, Transfer Files) 23:17:18 Session Finished Session Finished

Session Alerts

Time     Alert Detail -- No Alerts                --

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Operational Issues (2021-09-16, S914 Attempt)

• Critical Issues (0)
• Major Issues (2)
• Minor Issues (1)
• Small Defects (0)
• Continuous Improvement (7)

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Critical Issues

• None

Major Issues

• Automated mode stuck within Session Equilibration without the normal tabulation of expected start times (20:44). After entering Session Equilibrating progress appeared to have stalled as the tabulation of expected start times wasn't reported.   Log file showed that Obs.Manager loop running on 5s cycle time was encountering an exception "The added or subtracted value results in an un-representable DateTime" for each cycle attempt. Automated mode was cancelled and the Observatory was moved back to Manual mode pending a quick review of Equillibration/Timings code, which had been recently modified. Review was quickly made and unable to see an immediate cause to the problem a version (3.42.1) was qucikly built with extra tracing and additional try.. catch.. end try blocks included in order to try to isolate the issue. After installing the new version and restarting observatory services at 21:54 (inc. dome and telescope) the session was resumed.  The observatory was placed back into Automated mode to run but again problems were encountered during session equilibration (21:58)   This time the same exception was caught in both SetState_Equilibrating() routine and in the SessionState = State.Equilbrating section of the main loop. Trace messages indicate that PlanStartTime had the value "0001-01-01 00:00:00" which was associated with a proceeding plan loading failure "Retrieving Start Time   Fail   Plan is empty (nItems=0)" .   There was no evidence that the excepttions were due to recent code modifications.   Whilst Exception handling in Equilibration itself failed to recognise the potential for PlanStartTime having a 'zero/null' value and didn't abort gracefully and automatically return to manual mode, the problem should have been detected during the Session Initiating phase and the session not allowed to moved from the 'Initiating' to the 'Starting'.
  Fixed  2021-09-17 (AstroMain 3.42.2)
   
• Session Initiation failed to recognise the need for a new Observing plan and attempted to retrieve & use a supposedly empty plan (20:43, 21:57).
  Retrieving Targets ... Fail   No rows found
Reading Start Time...  Fail   Plan is empty (nItems=0)
Problem occurred twice, so it was clearly repeatable. Reading the Plan Start Time failed on both occasions and 'PlanStartTime' was left with a zero/null value of "0001-01-01 00:00:00  which caused exceptions to be produced in the later Session Equilibrating phase (see the proceeding isssue above).   At the time the Plan table had two existing test plans for the 2021-09-16 Night Date (V1 Quick Plan & V2 Quick Plan) which were generated during code development and testing a little earlier in the day.  Normally there aren't any existing test plans having the same date as the session which means this bug has been seen before. As an attempt at getting a new Observing Plan to be built & loaded, the two existing V1 and V2 plans were deleted in AstroPlan and the session returned to Automated mode in AstroMain.  This time the SetState_Initiating operations worked correctly and oversaw the creation of a new 'V1 BEST PLAN' plan.  Review of the code shows that QsoPlanID is taking the value 0,  by the code only checks that QSOPlanID <> vcNull.   Fixed by ensuring the QSOPlanID takes the value vcNull if there is no existing plan. Also modified code that  PlanStartTime takes the value vcNullDate if there is no existing plan or a failure to load plan.  PlanStartTime is tested to ensure that it it is not vcNullDate, before moving to Session.Starting, otherwise the observatory is returned to manual.
  Fixed  2021-09-17  (AstroMain 3.42.2

Minor Issues

Post-Session

• Position of Target Names on Plan & Session Result Chart aren't being adjusted to prevent them extending into the colourfilled Observation Rectangle (which includes ElementType). Using Text Length to adjust position. Bug found in DrawChart routine and fixed.
   Fixed 2021-09-19 (AstroMain 3.42.2)

Small Defects

• None

Continuous Improvement

• After being stuck in Equilibration and then going back to Manual Mode it was 'unexpectedly' noticed that the TCF-S focuser moves position (21:10).  Focuser reported as moving to 2688 (C T 14.6 degC) and logs record 'DrawFocusChange'.  Reporting was unexpected.  Reviewing code shows that this is done as part of the SetMode_Manual() routine.  (The inclusion of this step is relatively recent having only been added to the routine on 2021-06-04). Item is closed.
  Query answered  2021-09-17 (AstroMain)
   
• Add extra Try..Catch..End Blocks around the individual parts of Obs.Manager's Main Loop.   Whilst this could still leave Obs.Manager in a semi-stalled state, where it can't progress beyond where the point that exception occurs, it will still allow after safety critical parts of the Main Loop to execute and should also help to delineate which section the exception is occuring if not already evident from the position where there is an apparent stall.
  Done 2021-09-17 (AstroMain 3.42.2)
   
• When Observatory session is selected (Live, General or Test) can ObsConsole be kept on screen whilst tabs are loaded etc. At present the ObsConsole becomes hidden whilst tabs are loaded, but this creates the illusion that something is wrong for the few seconds it takes to load.  Try  SuspendLayout() and ResumeLayout().
  Done 2021-09-18 (AstroMain 3.42.2)
   
• Colour-fill Observation Rectangle on Session Plan & Result Charts by ElementType. Rectangles have previously alternated between  Lawn Green (ObjJ 1) and Aquamarine colour (ObjJ 2) . Following introduction of new Element Types field in plan_observation and observation tables the observation rectangles should be coloured filled based on the value of Element Type (MI (must-include), CalB/CalA (calibration before/calibration after), ToO (Target of Opportunity), RToO (Rapid React ToO).
  Done 2021-09-19 (AstroPlan 1.23.1)
   
• Overhaul and test the Brightest Star Locate Method. Rectangles have previously alternated between  Lawn Green (ObjJ 1) and Aquamarine colour (ObjJ 2) . Following introduction of new Element Types field in plan_observation and observation tables the observation rectangles should be coloured filled based on the value of Element Type (MI (must-include), CalB/CalA (calibration before/calibration after), ToO (Target of Opportunity), RToO (Rapid React ToO).
  Done 2021-09-19 (AstroPlan 1.23.1)
   
• When Analysing Reduced Images,  Sky Luminosity should only be reported for images taken with C Filter. For images taken with filters other than C filter the lumonisity value isn't comparable or isn't calibrated with values taken with C Filter, and is therefore misleading.   Actually this is wrong, Sky Luminosity is a calculated sky brightness values considering just the Sun Altitude & Azimuth and the Telescope(Image) Altitude & Azimuth.  Therefore proposal is not accepted and is closed
   Closed after review (AstroMain)
   
• Why is GetInventoryDetails() routine seemingly rerun at the end of analysing and image in ReduceFolder(). GetFWHM (including GetInventortyDetails() ) is already run.  Is this is pick up post-locate plate scale, if it is the new fwhm values are too late to be written to the (summ).dat file. .
  To investigate and answer  2021-09-18 (AstroMain 3.42.2)
   
• Add ability to auto-select best exposure time for spectra images.  Focus Box image to be taken prior to main set of images with 50% exposure time. Then use Max ADU/s to select the most optimal exposure time, but not exceeding the planned exposure time.
   To do (AstroMain 3.42.3)

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