Antimeridian flip failed at lower culmination

Sequence Generator
1

Last night I quickly searched an object to image using Telescopius.com. Without further consideration I chose IC342 as target, on hindsight maybe not the best candidate for this time of year as it went towards its lower culmination during the night (still at a decent 27 degrees altitude), but that is how it goes sometimes…

Going towards its lower culmination (see the time-lapse video) one would expect that the mount would do an antimeridian flip, just like the normal meridian flips at the south-side of the observatory. However, the logfiles show no signs that a meridian flip was required, and at around 01:45 UTC the mount stops to avoid a pier-collision, resulting in a nice set of star-trails.

As my south-side meridian flips always are successful, I wonder whether I have to use a different setting or that this is a bug in SGP? I have checked the ASCOM SideOfPier indication, but these are ASCOM 6 conform.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,
thanks in advance,
Nicolàs

SGP settings:

  • Use Auto Meridian Flip: checked

Auto Meridian Flip Options:

  • Minutes Past Meridian to Flip: 5
  • Wait for Meridian: n.a.
  • Pause Before Meridian Flip: n.a.
  • Auto Center After Meridian Flip: checked
    – Pause Before Auto Center: n.a.
    – Pause After Auto Center: n.a.
  • Auto meridian flip auto-close delay: 10 [seconds]

Mount settings (10Micron GM3000HPS):

  • ASCOM driver:
    – Unassisted flip: checked
  • Handset:
    – Flip slew tolerance: 1°
    – Flip guide tolerance: 8°
2

bump, surely someone must have an answer to this, I hope? :thinking:

3

I’ve just pushed something for EKOS that should help with this. Not sure if SGP can handle it at al.

4

I am not sure either, was hoping to find out here from Jared or others. At the same time I have noticed that at least two of my Dutch friends would appreciate if it could, so I think that it would be nice to have it implemented if it isn’t already.

Nicolàs

5

bump one more time in the hope to find an answer…

6

Perhaps the silence tells you what you need to know.

7

Hi Chris,

yes, I guess it is impossible at the moment. Meanwhile I have found a solution:
I can image some 25 minutes past the meridian, so I found a work-around using two events:

  • Event 1: should finish shortly before the time of antimeridian passage (some 5 minutes). Of course SGP only gives an estimate of the event length, but I have op to 25 minutes past the meridian to finish. So with those 5 additional minutes, the first event can run out by 30 minutes, allowing time for the focus-runs.
  • Event 2: is not allowed to start before 3 minutes after the antimeridian passage and starts with a slew to the target (the first event starts with a slew as well, but that is not of importance here).

In case Event 1 stops in the expected time-frame (which is unlikely), the sequence is halted by 10 minutes. Any run out of Event 1 will shorten this gap. If the run out exceeds the 8 minutes gap, Event 2 will fire immediately and no time is lost, while the mount flips as a result of the slew-command.

I tested this and works quite well, provided the times are entered correctly… :wink:

Nicolàs

8

For those interested I have uploaded a video of a successful anti-meridian flip at InFINNity Deck while imaging IC342.

Nicolàs