David's Astronomy Pages Notes - Session 1329 (2025-05-25)

Notes (S1329A)

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Notes (S1330)

	Session Aims & Highlights
	- Observing Result  - Night Summary Plot  - Session Event Log
	Operational Issues
	- Critical Issues (0),  Major Issues (1),  Minor Issues (4),  Small Defects (4),  Continuous Improvement (8)
	- Figures (6)
	Images from 2025-05-25  >>
	Geomagnetic Station -  Anomalies (2025-05-23 to 2025-06-20)

Session Aims & Highlights (2025-05-25)

Main aims

1. Targets.  Acquire images of a selection of variable stars, nearby stars, comets & deep sky targets as allowed by sky conditions.

 Equipment & Software

• 12" LX200 and ST-10XME
• 80mm APO and ZWO ASI 178MC
• TheSky6, CCDSoft5, DeviceHub 7.0.3 RC3.4694, MeadeGeneric 1.3.12.522 , UPB 1.5,  Pulsar Dome Firmware 1.51 & Driver 6.3.10
• Pegasus UPB & Motor Focus, TCF-S 6.0.6
• SharpCap 3.2, PHD2  2.6.13, Siril 1.0.6, deCONZ 1.18.2, ASCOM 7.0.3 RC3
• [ DomeLink 1.0 / 1.1 - not used ]
   
• AstroMain 3.74.19,  AstroPlan 1.43.9,  AstroShCap 1.3.15, AstroGuard 1.10.6   (any new items or versions in bold)
  AstroMag 1.4.14, AstroVOE 1.15.1,  AstroSN 1.14,  AstroProtect 1.10.6,  AstroMove 1.16
  AstroWeather 1.27.9, AstroAllSky 3.23.6,  AstroObsCam 1.11.4 (not 1.11.5), AstroNorthCam 1.4, AstroLaunch 1.13.1

Highlights

• Targets.  No observing plan was created for the session due to Autostart Termination. Despite this user used the remaining usable observing time to acquire images for 3 targets (M12,NGC 5957 w/ SN2025fvw & T CrB)
• Autostart. Due to late start, the autostart settings and the short summer night , the end of the Autostart Window (01.08) was reached before Autostart procedures had finishing starting Night Services leaving the Telescope powered up but not connected.
• CCD Camera. There was an initial issues with the CCDSoft / SBIG Driver error, but imaging operated ok after resolving issue via a manually initiated RestartCCDSoft operation.
•   Dome. There was no issues opening/closing the shutter during the session. Dome closed and parked at end of session ok.

Notes

• Session was began late in the night after spotting that the Sky was clear.
• Autostart operations terminated early whilst starting Night Services and before an Observing Plan was created for the session. Automated procedures then attempted and seemingly succeeded in parking the Telescope before its power was turned off.  After turning the scope back on and checking and confirming telescope pointing, 3 targets were acquired using Ad-Hoc Observing Facility, before the twilight sky brighten too far.
  

Summary Plots & Logs

Observing Plan Observing Plan not created for this session

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)

Actual Weather vs Pre-Session Weather Forecast

Session Event Log

Time     Event Detail 01:06:41   CCDSoft Restarting CCDSoft being restarted (to set AutoSave No.) 01:07:08   Camera1 Connected SBIG Camera connected (Set point -5°C) 01:07:11 Session Created Session Created (Live, 2025-05-25 S01329, ImageSaveNum: 1329001) 01:07:16   Scope Switched On Telescope Power has been switched on via UPB Powerbox. 01:08:19   AutoStart Cancelled AutoStart cancelled (end of Time Window has been reached) 01:08:21 Session Closing Session closing 01:08:24   Dome Closed Dome already closed 01:08:26   Dome Parked Dome already parked 01:08:34   Telescope Parked Telescope may have failed To park correctly (attempt 7s) 01:08:58   Telescope State Handbox reads 'Scope parked Turn scope off.' 01:09:11   Services Started Observatory Services started 01:09:17 Observatory (Manual) Observatory placed in Manual Mode 01:09:37   Telescope Switched Off Telescope Power has been switched off via UPB Switch. 01:27:49   CCDSoft Restarting CCDSoft being restarted (user action) 01:27:56   SBIG Camera Reset SBIG Camera being power-cycled 01:28:48   Camera1 Connected SBIG Camera connected (Set point -10°C) 01:29:26   Scope Switched On Telescope Power has been switched on via UPB Powerbox. 01:32:14   Dome Opened Dome opened (Opening time 47s, Zigbee 41s) 01:32:34       Dome Unparked Dome unparked 01:32:56   Telescope Connected Telescope connected (TheSky6) 01:44:09     Target Started (1/1) Target started (1/1, M12) 01:47:17     Target Completed Target completed (1/1, M12) 01:48:00     Target Started (1/1) Target started (1/1, NGC 5957 w/SN2025fvw) 01:52:40       Focusing Started-Foc1 Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S) 01:55:35       Focusing Completed Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 1) 02:12:16     Target Completed Target completed (1/1, NGC 5957 w/SN2025fvw) 02:14:09     Target Started (1/1) Target started (1/1, T CrB) 02:22:15     Target Completed Target completed (1/1, T CrB) 02:26:49 User Intervention User request to close and finish session 02:26:51 Session Closing Session closing 02:27:39   Dome Closed Dome closed (Closing time 49s, Zigbee 43s) 02:28:44   Dome Parked Dome parked (parking time 58s), Az: 90.0 deg 02:29:29   Telescope Parked Telescope parked (parking time 38s total) 02:29:53   Telescope State Handbox reads 'Scope parked Turn scope off.' 02:30:56   Telescope Switched Off Telescope Power has been switched off via UPB Switch. 02:32:21   Services Stopped Night Services stopped 02:32:24 Session Finishing Session Finishing started (Create Fits Summary, Transfer Files) 02:32:31     Dome (Find Park) Find Park started (Search Az 88.0 to 92.0°, Step 0.2°, Narrow) 02:33:16     Dome Find Park found (Best Park Az 90.0°) 02:33:29   Dome Charging Dome is parked and re-charging Ok (20mA) 02:33:31 Session Finished Session Finished

Session Alerts & Alarms

Time     Type       Name Detail 01:07:21 Red Alert Telescope Power Telescope Power appears to have been unintentionally left on without AstroMain protection 01:07:23 Red Alarm Telescope Power Telescope Power appears to have been unintentionally left on without AstroMain protection 01:07:25 Red Alert Telescope Power Telescope Power appears to have been unintentionally left on without AstroMain protection for > 3 hours 01:07:27 Red Alarm Telescope Power Telescope Power appears to have been unintentionally left on without AstroMain protection for > 3 hours 01:08:24 Yellow Alert Observatory Mode Obs.Manager has moved Observatory to the Closing State (end of AutoStart time window 01:08:34 Red Alert Telescope Parking Telescope may have failed To park correctly 01:08:58 Green Clear Telescope Power Telescope is connected and under AstroMain Protection. 01:09:17 Red Alarm Telescope Alert ASCOM Telescope not connnected 01:09:20 Red Alert Observatory Mode Obs.Manager has put Observatory back to manual mode (problem connecting telescope 02:33:29 Green Clear Dome Charging Dome is parked and re-charging Ok (20mA)

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Operational Issues (2025-05-25, S1329)

• Critical Issues (0)
• Major Issues (1)
• Minor Issues (4)
• Small Defects (4)
• Continuous Improvement (8)
  

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Critical Issues

• None

Major Issues

• After Telescope was powered up under Autostart, but due to Autostart Window ended it seemed that the telescope wasn't connected and was powered off during automated Closing Stage without re-parking the telescope (01:08) . Session was started at around 01:05 under Autostart Control after it was spotted that the sky had cleared from earlier cloud. As 'Night Services' were being started, the telescope was powered-up as normal, but whilst waiting for 60s for telescope to initialise the RunAutostart process decided that the end of Autostart Window (01:08) had been reached and moved the Observatory Mode to Manual with out allowing the Telescope Connection to be made, leaving the scope in limbo. The continuing process then attempted to Park the telescope which failed as the telescope connection hadn't yet been made, and then proceeded to turn off the Telescope Power.  This would normally be a serious situation as it would normally mean that the scope had been turned off without the Telescope being parked which would cause an issue when the telescope was next started as it would have lost knowledge on its position.  Given that Sky was clear it was felt best to turn on the telescope and resolve it position before parkinhg the scope correctly. Fortunately the telescope still had knowledge on its position and it positioning error was only around 9 arc min  which was acceptable and the expected need to perform a telescope Sync & short mapping job was urgently required or necessary.  The situation leading to the end the Autostart operation at the point it did needs to be reviewed, and likely modified.  A detailed review (see Telescope Query/Answer below) showed that despite some missing message log/report lines the Telescope was actually connected, and allowed the Telescope to be correctly parked before Telescope was powered off.  Modifications added to AstroMain 3.74.23. Main change is a design change such that once AutoStart has begun running, it can no longer be cancelled due to the curent time being passed the AutoStartCancellationTime.  This is achieved by the addition of a new SessionState (SessionState.AutoStarting = 15) has which allows 'AutoWaiting and 'AutoStarting' conditions to be distinguished. Code modified so that AutoStart process can only be cancelled when observatory state is 'AutoWaiting' it can't be cancelled once state has entered the 'AutoStarting' state, and begun connecting the telescope and other night services.
   Fixed  2025-05-29 (AstroMain 3.74.23)

Minor Issues

• CCDSoft encountered a 'SBIG Driver - Operating System Error' (01:25). Shortly after starting the S1329 session CCDSoft put up error dialog with message "SBIG Driver - Operating System Error" (see Fig 1) . Resolved by manually activated the 'Restart CCDSoft' button (including SBIG Camera restart). Camera operating fine for the remainder of the session.
   Resolved by user in-session 2025-05-26 (CCDSoft, SBIG Camera, User)
   
• SAM III readings (Y Axis) showed anomalous gradual increase followed by a spike and a shift to just below original values (2025-05-26 07:30 UT) . From around 05:00 UT the Y axis reading began to increase and diverge from expected values based on 4 comparison stations (bfe, kar, sol and crk2). The anomaly accelerated from 06:45 to 07:30 UT where a spike occurred and the readings then rapidly dropped back to a new (lower) baselevel (See Fig 2)..  The anomaly showed an overall +/- 300 nT change in readings through the anomaly (Fig 3).  The anomaly is definately not temperature related. There are signs of a possible interaction between Y and Z readings earlier in the night at around 01:00 - 01:15 UT. There was a further gradual increase plus spike in Y data at around 2025-05-26 11:30 UT.  Given the number of anomalies issues seen over last 3 days it is proposed to reset the SAM III system to see if that allow the system to stablise itself.  System was reset at  2025-05-26 14:00 UT (Fig 3).  Associated with the system reset duirng which 5v power to the 3 magnotometer was turned off / turned on, there was a small / but noticeable fluctuation in the temperature measured by the co-located Temperature Sensor Probe (Fig 4).  It is unclear if this was a real temperature fluctuation or an apparent fluctuation related to changes in cross-talk interference.
   Closed, but continue to monitor 2025-05-26 (SAM III)
   
• Brorfelde,  one of the Comparsion Magnetometer Stations used for verifying Clair Observatory Geomagnetic Station, has gone offline (2025-05-26 12:22 UT). The Brorfelde station (bfe), one the three scandinavian stations used for verifying the Clair Observayory's Geomagnetic Station readings & responses has gone offline at 12:22 UT (13:22 LT).  The station (bfe) operated by the DTU is located in Denmark at a latitude around 2° south of the Clair Station and is a key comparison station. The station is still offline 24 hours later (2025-06-27). A separate Continuous Improvement ticket has been raised to allow AstroMag to use data from Rømø Station (Latitude 55.17°) when data from Brorfelde (Latitude 55.63°) is missing. Brorfelde Station came back online a week or so later.  Archive data is noew available for the entire period suggesting the station was collecting data ok, but wasn't uploading the data for a period of time.
   Closed  2025-05-07 (SAM III / DTU data)
   
• Small leak in Observatory Roof still dribbles water on occasions and needs sealing. A small leak in the roof on the line of a panel join has been noted before and occasionally allows water to drip down on to the observatory floor mats at position between the Telescope and the Observatory Computer Bay.  Although it causes no damage, it is an outstanding ticket/repair and need to be attended to.  Despite rain over the last couple of days (2025-05-30 / 31)  the roof hasn't leaked any further.  Join between two-quadrants concerned as nevertheless examined today (2025-06-01) and the possible minor defect in the existing seal was sealed over with a thin skin of transparent sealant. Hoping that this resolves this occasional occuring issue.  
   Fix attempted 2025-06-01 (Observatory)

Small Defects

• Teething issue with recent extra protection to AstroMain for monitoring and responding to situation where LX200 Telescope is unknowing operating and in danger of critical damage.  Following a critical situation on 2025-05-24 when the Observatory Telescope was unintentionally and unknowing turned on  (via a VNC Window which was active at the time)  and then left running without any AstroMain monitoring in place, extra protection was added in AstroMain 3.74.20. One element of that extra protection was the raising of a red alert if the Telescope Power was on and more than 1 hour had passed without AstroMain being connected to the Telescope.  At the start of S1329 session, red alerts were raised at 01:07:21 and 01:07:25 directly after turning on the Telescope (and prior to the Telescope being connected to) as the reference point for measuring a 1 hour period was taken when the Observatory Mode was first opened (which was at 17:26 in this case) rather than when the telescope was noted to be powered up. The red alerts appear twice in the Session Alerts table (once as an alert and once as an alarm). This should be rationalized down to using just one for a given alerting situation.  Fixed in AstroMain 3.74.21 (a) which was then  tested in the Observatory using a daytime/evening test where the Telescope Power was turned on via the Pegasus UPB Software, and the Telescope connected to from DeviceHub and then allowed to run for several hours to check AstroMain monitoring before the Telescope was parked and powered-off.  Some tweaks made to messages / alerts as a result of test included in a follow-up build of AstroMain 3.74.21 (b).  Additional improvement made in AstroMain 3.74.21 so that AstroMain records a session event when the Telescope Power is noted to have turned on or off from an external source.  Daytime testing on 2025-05-27 indicates further tweaks and improvements to messages and alert descriptions are still needed. ('turned on'  instead of 'switched on',  'turned off' instead of 'switched off', 'without safeguards' 'instead of without AstroMain protection'). These were completed 2025-05-28
   Fixed 2025-05-28 (AstroMain 3.74.22, LX200)
   
• AstroNorthCam's 'find objects/birds' routine sometimes detects a single bird as more than one object, and the identifying rectangles overlap and even cover the bird itself.  In the example below (Fig 6) there is an obvious bird that is auto-detect as 3 objects (shown by 3 boxes) rather than 1 object.  Algorithm needs to looks at detected boxes and where they ovelrap to treat them as a single encompassing box that contains the smaller individual boxes. Solution implemented 2025-05-28 in AstroNorthCam 1.4.3.  Successfully works with the image in Fig 6, but needs to be checked on a wider numbers of similar cases.   NorthCam.20250528.163411.11505873.jpg needs to be looked at as new grouping algorithm didn't group boxes as expected.
   Fixed 2025-05-28 (AstroNorthCam 1.4.3)
   
• For each of the 3 manual initiated (Ad-Hoc) targets the observation was recored twice in the Session Results table.    Results are stored in the 'observation'  database table by the command ' ObservingDB.InsertObservation(T, Session.ID, QsoSequenceID)' which is called from RunTakeObjectOB_New().  This routine also stores session event by a command 'StoreSessionEvent("Target Completed", 3, FlagState.Green, "Target completed (" + GetEventTargetName(T) + ")").  Since two completed target events weren't recorded for each adhoc target we can tell that this routine wasn't executed twice. The only other feasible place for InsertObservation to have been made is from OB.ExecuteTarget() routine,  but the RunTakeObjectOB_New() doesn't call this routine but calls OB.ExecuteTarget_Ob(T) instead.  This does however call OB.ExecuteTarget(), which explains how the observation result is recorded twice in the database.  Fixed in AstroMain 3.74.23, by removing the InsertObservations calls that are present in RunTakeObjectOB_New() which cause the duplicated database insertion.
    Fixed 2025-05-29 (AstroMain 3.74.23 )
   
• AstroNorthCam's 'find objects/birds' routine sometimes fails to detect obvious birds.  In example below (Fig 5), there is an obvious bird that the auto-detect object routine has failed to pickup.  Issue fixed or at least improved in AstroNorthCam 1.4.5 by relaxing the Difference threshold from 300 to 280.  This might have a negative impact of increasing the number of false postive associated with Jpg cloud edges.
   Fixed 2025-05-31 (AstroNorthCam 1.4.3)

Continuous Improvement

• Add 24h average temperature and range to the AstroMag's Downhole Temperature chart. The typical range in downhole/subsurface temperature range for the temperature sensor is around 0.2°C.  It would be nice to verfiy this on a rolling or daily basis.  It is proposed that the downhole temperature chart routine is modified to calculate the average temperature and temperature range across the 24 hour period of the chart and post values (to 2 d.p.) at the top of the chart. Implemented in AstroMag 1.4.15.
   Done  2025-05-26 (AstroMag 1.4.15)
   
• Add fields to AstroMag settings tab to show the average latest difference from quiet values across the comparison stations.  When the stackplot charts are created it is proposed that for each axis the average latest difference from quiet value is calculated from data from the 3 comparison stations and posted on settings tab for subsequent use.  Implemented in AstroMag 1.4.15.
   Done 2025-05-26 (AstroMag 1.4.15)
   
• Alter Difference fields on AstroMag's settings to include average difference from quiet value in the calculation of Difference Value.  Rename Difference fields to Suggested Offset. and use a revised calculation that includes the average latest difference from quiet value (from the 3 comparison stations).  Add a button to allow the easy transfer of the Suggested Offset values for each axis into the respective Offset field.  Implemented in AstroMag 1.4.15.
   Done  2025-05-26 (AstroMag 1.4.15)
   
• Modify AstroMag to access and use data from the Rømø station when data from Brorfelde station is missing.   The Brorfelde station (bfe), one the three scandinavian stations used for verifying the Clair Observayory's Geomagnetic Station readings & responses has gone offline at 2025-05-26 12:22 UT (13:22 LT).  The station operated by the DTU is located in Denmark at a latitude around 2° south of the Clair Station and is a key comparison station. The station was still offline 24 hours later (2025-06-27). It is proposed to modify AstroMag to use data from the Rømø station (roe) (Latitude 55.17°) when data from Brorfelde (Latitude 55.63°) is missing.  Added RoeData global variable, extended ImportStationData() to include import of Roe data.
   Done  2025-05-27 (AstroMag 1.4.16)
   
• Add feature to enable AstroMag to import program settings from Observatory Computer for use on Development Computer.  Add 'Import Settings from Observatory')button (btnImportSettingsFromObservatory) to the AstroMag program which is only visible on Development Computer,  that enables the AstroMag program setting used in Observatory ('More Programs/AstroMag/AstroMag_settings.dat' ) to be conveniently copied into the respective areas on the Development Computer areas ('Visual Studio 2022\Projects\AstroMag\bin\Debug' and  '/More Programs/AstroMag/), and then applied to the current program instance
   Done  2025-05-27 (AstroMag 1.4.16)
   
• Enter better values to define AutoStart Window. Autostart Window settings were sufficiently relaxed to enable S1329 session to be conducted using AutoStart. By time the Autostart session was started the window closed before the Connect Night Services tasks were completed.  Autostart Window settings were updated to time window more suited for Summer observing.
   Resolved 2025-05-27 (Session, AstroMain)
   
• Query.  Review log data from S1329 session to understand when/how telescope was connected, allowing Park operation to be successful when it initially appeared to have failed.  AstroMain log shows shows Scope being turned on at 01:07:16 , and entering a 60s wait for scope at 01:07:16,  but the normal message line ".. DeviceHub.Scope Ok | Service started " is not present. After this the Session Closing state was entered at 01:08:19 with a request to park being given at 01:08:27,  with the confirmation of parked state at 01:08:58 with Handbox message "Scope parked Turn scope off".   The Meade Generic log show telescope connected on COM6 at 01:08:18, and parking scope at 01:08:33, and parked at 01:08:34. Conclusion is that despite some missing log & reports lines the connection to Telescope was made during Start Night Service operation.  Query closed after review 2025-05-28.
   Closed/Answered. 2025-05-28 (Session, AstroMain, DeviceHub, Meade Generic)
   
• Introduce monitoring code in AstroMain to read/extract current telescope status from DeviceHub and/or MeadeGeneric log files.  Understand how to extract telescope Az/Alt, Tracking etc without Telescope being connected in AstroMain.   This is too support monitoring when Telescope is Powered up by a program/process that is external to AstroMain.
   To review and create/test prototype code 2025-05-27 (AstroMain, DeviceHub, MeadeGeneric)

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Geomagnetic Station -  Anomalies (2025-05-23 to 2025-06-20)

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