Until recently I've been quite manual in the way I have been doing my imaging. Using TSX to slew and centre objects, MaximDL for focusing and capture, getting up throughout the night to refocus.
This week I've started trying to get semi-automated imaging up and running. Started with Sequence Generator Pro which I have found hit and miss, sometimes it'll get through most of the night without a hitch and other times it'll make it to the second target before running into a Position error in Autoslew. Thinking that it was maybe SGP having a conflict with Autoslew.
Last night I tried CCDAP which I had controlling the ASCOM driver as opposed to TSX. The first time I started a CCDAP run it ran for 20 minutes (doing a 30 panel mosaic so a lot of short runs) and then hit the third target and had a position error. I just stopped the sequence, turned off the motors and manually Homed the mount. Did this sort of thing a few more times.
Eventually I just turned the Position Error sensitivity from 1 (default) to half way (15) on both DEC and RA, pushed go and went to bed.
Checked it in the morning and it had managed to focus (FocusMax pointed to bright star and back on target) and must have had an error moments later as the first sub was ruined. I'm doing 60s exposures so I was taking about 300 throughout the night.
Having lowered the sensitivity it was actually able to auto correct for the Position Error throughout the imaging session, something it hadn't done previously. So I've got a random spattering of good and bad subs from that imaging run, about a 50% deletion rate with 60s subs.
I'm at a loss as to what's causing the issue. It doesn't seem to do it before I start actual imaging. Being on a mobile setup I've got to do all of my polar alignment stuff, create various pointing models. Even when I was setting up FocusMax (first light) it had no issues. This makes me think it is an issue with SGP or CCDAP controlling the mount via the ASCOM driver.
Spent a couple of hours these last few days trying to find information on what causes or dealing with Position Errors but I'm yet to find any information at all.
Has anyone had to deal with this? Or have any suggestions?
Question
ColinR
Until recently I've been quite manual in the way I have been doing my imaging. Using TSX to slew and centre objects, MaximDL for focusing and capture, getting up throughout the night to refocus.
This week I've started trying to get semi-automated imaging up and running. Started with Sequence Generator Pro which I have found hit and miss, sometimes it'll get through most of the night without a hitch and other times it'll make it to the second target before running into a Position error in Autoslew. Thinking that it was maybe SGP having a conflict with Autoslew.
Last night I tried CCDAP which I had controlling the ASCOM driver as opposed to TSX. The first time I started a CCDAP run it ran for 20 minutes (doing a 30 panel mosaic so a lot of short runs) and then hit the third target and had a position error. I just stopped the sequence, turned off the motors and manually Homed the mount. Did this sort of thing a few more times.
Eventually I just turned the Position Error sensitivity from 1 (default) to half way (15) on both DEC and RA, pushed go and went to bed.
Checked it in the morning and it had managed to focus (FocusMax pointed to bright star and back on target) and must have had an error moments later as the first sub was ruined. I'm doing 60s exposures so I was taking about 300 throughout the night.
Having lowered the sensitivity it was actually able to auto correct for the Position Error throughout the imaging session, something it hadn't done previously. So I've got a random spattering of good and bad subs from that imaging run, about a 50% deletion rate with 60s subs.
I'm at a loss as to what's causing the issue. It doesn't seem to do it before I start actual imaging. Being on a mobile setup I've got to do all of my polar alignment stuff, create various pointing models. Even when I was setting up FocusMax (first light) it had no issues. This makes me think it is an issue with SGP or CCDAP controlling the mount via the ASCOM driver.
Spent a couple of hours these last few days trying to find information on what causes or dealing with Position Errors but I'm yet to find any information at all.
Has anyone had to deal with this? Or have any suggestions?
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