Hi!
I am trying to setup my Mesu Mount 200 with SiTech II controller to operate under SGP. It will connect via POTH or directly via SiTech II telescope chooser. However, it will not operate the scope. No nudging, slews or plate solves. I think SGP is not talking to the ASCOM driver. Tried various combinations without success.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Ian
I can’t help Ian, other than to say that SGP controls my Sitech Mesu flawlessly. This includes plate solves, meridian flips and everything else. The chaps here will no doubt ask for your logs, so it might be an idea to post these.
When you connect to all your equipment does the Mount button in SGP turn green?
It does, turns green, connects fine, shows status - coordinates, etc. It would even Park-Unpark (albeit with a considerable pause and not every time). When I try nudging, Coarse/Fine step drops to ZERO and no action takes place. I did not test any other things, will do next time I’m at the telescope.
Thanks!
Ah - yes … my Park is intermittent too. And I must say I have never tried nudging within SGP - I just bring up the Sitech controller window - much simpler. Best bet would be to plate solve an image - use the solve as a target and then try slewing and centering on the target within SGP.
I will certainly give a try. Keep you posted.
Ian
I like gnomus use sgp with sitech and the mesu 200 - I have no issues but like gnomus I slew using sitech, I also have a model in place and that allows me to park (but again I park manually in sitech)
This is probably not much help to you but hopefully you have managed to slew to target and centre after gnomus’s advice.
Not all mounts support Nudge. It should be in the log if it does or not. If the mount says it doesn’t support it the nudge buttons should be disabled though.
Slew is generally your best bet. With Auto Center and Center Here, nudge isn’t all that useful 
Thanks,
Jared
The Sitech driver does not give SGP the information needed to use the nudge buttons. But works fine with the Sitech control panel.
Nigel,
You put my mind at ease.
Thank you.
Ian
I was trying to run SGP couple of nights ago. It seems to respond well in all parts, except Plate Solving. Gets stuck on step 2. Gives me a failure notice. Now, I don’t have the Internet connection at the observatory site and have to rely solely on PlateSolve2 without any second option like Astrometry.net. I would like someone to look at my log (the relevant quote is below), see if I miss anything obvious.
Thank you,
Ian
[8/26/2016 9:35:43 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSove2 Param: RA (HRS) - 23.6261168084206
[8/26/2016 9:35:43 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSove2 Param: RA (RAD) - 6.1853029165157
[8/26/2016 9:35:43 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSove2 Param: DEC (DEG) - 46.4563731815841
[8/26/2016 9:35:43 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSove2 Param: DEC (RAD) - 0.810816670553836
[8/26/2016 9:35:43 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSove2 Param: SCALE - 0
[8/26/2016 9:35:43 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSove2 Param: Width - 687
[8/26/2016 9:35:43 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSove2 Param: Height - 549
[8/26/2016 9:35:43 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSove2 Param: Regions - 999
[8/26/2016 9:35:43 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSolve2 Command Line:
[8/26/2016 9:35:43 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] C:\Users\Ian\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\PlateSolve2.exe 6.18530291651570,0.81081667055384,0.00000000000000,0.00000000000000,999,C:\Users\Ian\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\Temp\psXSolve_0.fit
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Auto center scope frame failed to solve.Invalid solve!
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Center Here validation frame solve failed, invoking blind failover…
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET: Sequence endpoint data: Astrometry.NET (Remote)
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET: Sequence endpoint data: Astrometry.NET (Remote)
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET: Sequence endpoint data: Astrometry.NET (Remote)
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET convertedAstrometry.fits path: C:\Users\Ian\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\Temp\convertedAstometry.fits
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET - Saving file
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Locking bitmap for disk write…
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Opening file stream…
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Writing FITS headers…
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Traversing and persisting bitmap data…
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: FITS block fill…
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Unlocking bitmap…
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Closing file stream
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET using endpoint: Astrometry.net
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET - Calling Async Solve
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Unknown] Exception in Astrometry.NET Solver: The remote name could not be resolved: ‘nova.astrometry.net’
[8/26/2016 9:35:49 PM] [DEBUG] [Unknown] Astrometry.NET solve done in 0 seconds.
[8/26/2016 9:35:50 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET - Solve Completed
[8/26/2016 9:35:50 PM] [DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET - Failed to solve image.
[8/26/2016 9:35:55 PM] [DEBUG] [Main Thread] Centering: User abort…
Look here ansvr - Astrometry.net Local Plate solver for Windows for the locally installed version of Astrometry.NET - work out your FOV and get download the right set of index files. Can install all but will slow down solves.
As Trevor says you need a blind solver when the mount does not know where it is, a local version of astrometry.net will do this for you without going to the internet, you will have to download the various bits onto a drive and load them into the observatory computer at some time. Then when platesolve2 fails it should use the local version of astrometry.net.
Most of the time when I start up the scope still knows pretty much where it is but if I do something wrong then I will first do a blind solve then after that platesolve2 always seems to work.
You may have to set your encoders up to ignore if you want to centre accurately, with it on ignore I normally centre to within 3 pixels in one or 2 attempts. With the Lucas suggested settings you will need this at 100 pixels or more.
Julian,
I was able to get local ANSVR blind solver to work (at least on my old image files, will do real test this weekend). I have had problems with slews lately, especially with the initial one. Will try to change encoders settings from Polite to Ignore, see what happens.
Thank you for all the suggestions,
Ian
This is because Mesu 200 has axis encoders with accuracy 2.16 arc minutes.
If you are using encoder settings other than ignore mode, you should set ‘until error is less than’ on the plate solve tab of SGPro to a value around 2.16’.
If you set the encoder setting to ignore, Sitech uses motor encoders on Mesu 200.
Motor encoders are much more accurate than axis encoders.
SGPro centering routine can get to 2 arc sec accuracy within 2 tries with ignore mode for me.
The accuracy is 1 ~ 2 pixels with 1120mm fl and 4.88 micron pixel camera.
A potential problem of only using motor encoders is pointing inaccuracy if the friction drive slips while slewing.
I’ve never had slipping problem with rough balancing though.
If you don’t need centering accuracy more than 2.16’, polite mode is perfectly fine.
You just need to adjust the SGPro setting that I mentioned.
Donghun
Hi Ian
I am having the problem you had in your first post
I have just got the mesu and are playing , i.e no camera yet etc
How did you resolve your problem please
Harry
Hi Harry
Do you mean that you cannot move the mount using SGP’s mount control button?
I’m not sure if it works.
However you should be able to slew / center the mount using SGP centering / slewing features.
Nudging the mount should be done via Sitech.exe or the hand controller.
Hi
I see that the nudge does not work in sgp ok
But I can not get slew to work or centering etc
Perhaps its because I have not synced the scope
Harry
You need to sync the scope to start the tracking
Hi
Cheers
I will get set up proper and see
Thanks
Harry
Harry,
I was out in the country, no internet access (Imaging LOL). I have it all working just fine. Yes, you need to have a first sync done with the Mount to get it working. No nudges, but all other functions should work fine. BTW, I’m back to “Polite” mode. It does keep me in check in case there’s a slip, compare to “Ignore”. Also gave a try to Plate Solve 3 plugin that now works with SiTech.exe. Very quick and accurate platesolving. I wish it was incorporated into SGP. Now I do a first slew than plate solve within SiTech using PS3, then slew to an object of interest to do final platesolving withing SGP.
Hope this helps.
Ian