Problem with Dome Sync

Sequence Generator
1

I am having issues with the sync of my Pulsar Dome when trying to start a sequence with a target that is approaching the meridian. I am currently gathering data on M27, which is a few degrees east of the meridian at the time that I can start imaging. When I start the sequence, it slews to the target, the dome slaves and is aligned with no problem. It then starts a centre on target routine and first of all slews to the target. The dome then flips round to the other side - the plate solve frame is started, but it just takes a picture of the inside of the dome and the solve fails. Meanwhile, the dome has decided to come back to the correct position. If i don’t abort, unslave the dome with it in the right position and restart the sequence, it can just keep flipping back and forth and failing to solve because it’s taking pics of the inside of the dome for ages… or at least until the target is far enough away from the meridian. I can see in the log that PierSide is flipping from East to West, but the mount is not moving back and forth… Help please!

Here’s the log from last night: Dropbox - File Deleted

Thanks,
Gav.

2

@PhotoGav

Issues like this take a little bit of time to dissect, but usually in cases like this, it is caused by the slew sending the wrong side of the pier. We can take a look this evening.

3

Thank you Ken. I await to hear what you reckon. I found what I hope is the mount’s log file, which might help?

4

One thing I notice is the SGP operates with J2000 coordinates, which are converted to JNow for the mount. Could the difference between the two be anything to do with it?? Just brainstorming…!

5

@PhotoGav

Anything is possible, but it’s doubtful. For a very long time SGPro has always talked about locations in terms J2000 and, at its edges, checks with the gear it is talking to and conditionally converts JNOW to J2000 or vice-e-versa.

6

OK, I await to hear what you come up with, good luck! The kit is waiting for darkness to fall and it’ll be back on M27, so I expect some more data for this problem to be forthcoming…!

7

I have confirmed that the dome slew errors are connected to both ‘slew now’ and ‘center now’ commands.

I am in the dome now. All equipment connected and dome slaved. I command a slew to a target, the scope slews properly, the dome slews approximately 25 degrees off of that point initially. Then re-slews around 30 seconds later to the correct position and tracks normally.

When I command the ‘center now’ command the same behavior occurs. Target azimuth at 335, dome slews to 311, then 30 seconds later corrects to the right AZ. But by this time the plate solve image has been taken and it of course fails because it’s looking at the inside of the dome.

I have attached the logs of that series of events. There are lines in there that show the initial slew command to the correct location, but then a command from the Observatory function to adjust to the wrong location.

[10/23/19 11:23:45.061][DEBUG] [PHD2 Listener Thread] PHD2 GetPhdStatus - Post-Wait: Stopped
[10/23/19 11:23:46.772][DEBUG] [Main Thread] Slewing to target…
[10/23/19 11:23:46.778][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Slew telescope message received…
[10/23/19 11:23:46.778][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Slewing to J2000 RA: 2.4482 (02h26m53.52s) Dec: 62.035 (62°02’06.00")
[10/23/19 11:23:46.778][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Slew received J2000 coordinates, mount requires JNOW, converting…
[10/23/19 11:23:46.779][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Slewing to JNOW RA: 2.47380325982841 Dec: 62.1219692379047
[10/23/19 11:23:46.779][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Calling Observatory Slave Slew
[10/23/19 11:23:46.784][DEBUG] [Slew Monitor] Waiting for slew to complete…
[10/23/19 11:23:46.798][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Observatory: Calculating new position using:
[10/23/19 11:23:46.798][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Azimuth: 323.730438634818
[10/23/19 11:23:46.798][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Altitude: 43.8983399166111
[10/23/19 11:23:46.798][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Hour Angle: 146.957599942115
[10/23/19 11:23:46.798][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Pier Side: East
[10/23/19 11:23:46.798][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Observatory: Adjustment needed, slewing to Azimuth: 311.531636095379
[10/23/19 11:23:46.855][DEBUG] [CP Update Thread] Error in control panel UI updater: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
[10/23/19 11:23:56.898][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Scope reports it is done with synchronous slew, verifying…
[10/23/19 11:23:56.898][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Observatory is reporting slewing
[10/23/19 11:23:57.900][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Slewing has completed
[10/23/19 11:23:57.900][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Settling for 5 seconds
[10/23/19 11:24:02.900][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Settling has completed
[10/23/19 11:24:02.900][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Slew complete…
[10/23/19 11:24:31.673][DEBUG] [Main Thread] PopulateDataModel: Transferring view to the data model…
[10/23/19 11:24:31.686][DEBUG] [MF Update Thread] Performing serialize…
[10/23/19 11:24:31.697][DEBUG] [MF Update Thread] Serialization took 11 msec.
[10/23/19 11:24:32.162][DEBUG] [Dome Thread] Observatory: Calculating new position using:
[10/23/19 11:24:32.162][DEBUG] [Dome Thread] Azimuth: 344.878333061788
[10/23/19 11:24:32.162][DEBUG] [Dome Thread] Altitude: 13.5625731048911
[10/23/19 11:24:32.162][DEBUG] [Dome Thread] Hour Angle: 147.155213356018
[10/23/19 11:24:32.162][DEBUG] [Dome Thread] Pier Side: East
[10/23/19 11:24:32.162][DEBUG] [Dome Thread] Observatory: Adjustment needed, slewing to Azimuth: 334.862688356941
[10/23/19 11:24:45.194][DEBUG] [PHD2 Listener Thread] PHD2 - No messages received from PHD2 for 1 minute, checking socket with status…
[10/23/19 11:24:45.194][DEBUG] [PHD2 Listener Thread] Checking PHD2 state…
[10/23/19 11:24:45.194][DEBUG] [PHD2 Listener Thread] PHD2 GetPhdStatus - Pre-Wait : Stopped
[10/23/19 11:24:45.194][DEBUG] [PHD2 Listener Thread] Sending to PHD2:
{“method”: “get_app_state”, “id”: 1001}

[10/23/19 11:24:45.194][DEBUG] [PHD2 Listener Thread] PHD2 GetPhdStatus - Post-Wait: Stopped
[10/23/19 11:24:48.317][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Center telescope message received…
[10/23/19 11:24:48.317][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Solving with Plate Solver PlateSolve2…
[10/23/19 11:24:48.375][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Performing auto center step 1…
[10/23/19 11:24:48.375][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Skipping step 1…
[10/23/19 11:24:48.375][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Auto center reference frame solved successfully…
[10/23/19 11:24:48.375][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Performing auto center step 3 (scope)…
[10/23/19 11:24:48.375][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Auto center slewing scope to match reference…
[10/23/19 11:24:48.375][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Slewing to J2000 RA: 2.4482 (02h26m53.52s) Dec: 62.035 (62°02’06.00")
[10/23/19 11:24:48.375][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Slew received J2000 coordinates, mount requires JNOW, converting…
[10/23/19 11:24:48.376][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Slewing to JNOW RA: 2.47380325982841 Dec: 62.1219692379047
[10/23/19 11:24:48.376][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Calling Observatory Slave Slew
[10/23/19 11:24:48.398][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Observatory: Calculating new position using:
[10/23/19 11:24:48.398][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Azimuth: 323.730438634818
[10/23/19 11:24:48.398][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Altitude: 43.8983399166111
[10/23/19 11:24:48.398][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Hour Angle: 147.215375224899
[10/23/19 11:24:48.398][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Pier Side: East
[10/23/19 11:24:48.398][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Observatory: Adjustment needed, slewing to Azimuth: 311.522290051472
[10/23/19 11:24:58.508][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Scope reports it is done with synchronous slew, verifying…
[10/23/19 11:24:58.508][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Observatory is reporting slewing
[10/23/19 11:24:59.509][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Slewing has completed
[10/23/19 11:24:59.509][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Settling for 5 seconds
[10/23/19 11:25:04.510][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Telescope: Settling has completed
[10/23/19 11:25:04.510][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Auto center slew complete…
[10/23/19 11:25:04.510][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Performing auto center step 4…
[10/23/19 11:25:04.510][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Created full file name: C:\Users\Eric\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\Temp\plate_solve_image-3.fit
[10/23/19 11:25:04.512][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SGM_CAMERA_PLATE_SOLVER_CAPTURE message received…
[10/23/19 11:25:04.512][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Alnitak Flat Box - Getting shutter status
[10/23/19 11:25:04.563][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Alnitak Flat Box - Updating Device Variables - Model: 99 Motor Status: 0 Light Status: 0
[10/23/19 11:25:04.563][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Collecting FITs headers for plate solve frame…
[10/23/19 11:25:04.563][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Collecting FITs headers for plate solve frame…
[10/23/19 11:25:04.702][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SetAscomHighSpeed…
[10/23/19 11:25:04.702][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Cannot set readout speed, not supported by camera…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.394][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Created full file name: C:\Users\Eric\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\Temp\plate_solve_image-3.fit
[10/23/19 11:25:11.394][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileAscom: Start…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.394][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileAscom: Checking image data…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.394][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileAscom: Create normal preview bitmap…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.395][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileAscom: Locking preview bits…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.396][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileAscom: Validating file name…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.396][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileAscom: Starting byte traversal…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.421][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileAscom: Unlocking preview bits…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.421][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileAscom: Saving preview bitmap to disk…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.421][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Locking bitmap for disk write…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.421][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Opening file stream…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.421][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Writing FITS headers…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.421][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Traversing and persisting bitmap data…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.468][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileBmp16: FITS block fill…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.468][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Unlocking bitmap…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.468][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Closing file stream
[10/23/19 11:25:11.473][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Internal Interface: Set Preview…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.473][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] Display image preview using asynch task…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.668][DEBUG] [Unknown] Image analysis (async) START
[10/23/19 11:25:11.866][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SaveFileAscom: Done
[10/23/19 11:25:11.866][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] =========== Save file took 473 ms
[10/23/19 11:25:11.866][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] SGM_CAMERA_PLATE_SOLVER_CAPTURE complete…
[10/23/19 11:25:11.924][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Auto center verification frame complete. Plate solving image C:\Users\Eric\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\Temp\plate_solve_image-3.fit
[10/23/19 11:25:11.925][DEBUG] [Unknown] Image analysis (async) END
[10/23/19 11:25:12.096][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ************* SOLVE HINTS ****************
[10/23/19 11:25:12.096][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SOLVER: PlateSolve2
[10/23/19 11:25:12.096][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] BLIND: False
[10/23/19 11:25:12.096][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] METHOD: Max Regions
[10/23/19 11:25:12.096][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] RA: 2.44768159077164
[10/23/19 11:25:12.096][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] DEC: 62.0373165506095
[10/23/19 11:25:12.096][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SCALE: 1.46226
[10/23/19 11:25:12.096][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ******************************************
[10/23/19 11:25:12.319][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] FitsFileHeaderData: Angle - 0
[10/23/19 11:25:12.319][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] FitsFileHeaderData: Scale - 0
[10/23/19 11:25:12.319][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] FitsFileHeaderData: RA - 2.44769157599553
[10/23/19 11:25:12.319][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] FitsFileHeaderData: DEC - 62.037316734145
[10/23/19 11:25:12.324][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSolve2 Param: RA (RAD) - 0.640801541991263
[10/23/19 11:25:12.324][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSolve2 Param: DEC (RAD) - 1.08275543291011
[10/23/19 11:25:12.324][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSolve2 Param: Width - 2328
[10/23/19 11:25:12.324][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSolve2 Param: Height - 1761
[10/23/19 11:25:12.324][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSolve2 Command Line:
[10/23/19 11:25:12.324][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] C:\Users\Eric\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\PlateSolve2.exe 0.64080154199126,1.08275543291011,0.01650374264974,0.01248414553530,3000,C:\Users\Eric\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\Temp\psXSolve_2.fit
[10/23/19 11:25:19.750][DEBUG] [Unknown] PlateSolve2: INI file was modified! Changed
[10/23/19 11:25:19.793][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSolve2: read APM file…
[10/23/19 11:25:20.294][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] PlateSolve2: Exit state → ValidNoSolve
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] *********** SUCCESSFUL SOLVE *************
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SOLVER: False
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SUCCESS: False
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] CONF: 0
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] BLIND: False
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] RA: 0
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] DEC: 0
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SCALE: 0
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] FLIPPED: False
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ANGLE (EON): -500
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] MSG: Solve failed! Unanticipated problem during plate matching.
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ******************************************
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Auto center validation frame failed to solve. Solve failed! Unanticipated problem during plate matching.
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Auto center validation frame solve failed, invoking blind failover…
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET: Sequence endpoint data: Astrometry.NET (Remote)
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET: Sequence endpoint data: Astrometry.NET (Remote)
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ************* SOLVE HINTS ****************
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SOLVER: Astrometry.NET
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] BLIND: True
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] METHOD: Max Regions
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] RA: 2.44768159077164
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] DEC: 62.0373165506095
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SCALE: 1.46226
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ******************************************
[10/23/19 11:25:20.368][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET: Sequence endpoint data: Astrometry.NET (Remote)
[10/23/19 11:25:20.481][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET convertedAstrometry.fits path: C:\Users\Eric\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\Temp\convertedAstometry.fits
[10/23/19 11:25:20.481][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET - File is too large, resizing
[10/23/19 11:25:20.501][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET - Saving file
[10/23/19 11:25:20.501][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Locking bitmap for disk write…
[10/23/19 11:25:20.501][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Opening file stream…
[10/23/19 11:25:20.502][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Writing FITS headers…
[10/23/19 11:25:20.502][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Traversing and persisting bitmap data…
[10/23/19 11:25:20.513][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: FITS block fill…
[10/23/19 11:25:20.513][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Unlocking bitmap…
[10/23/19 11:25:20.513][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SaveFileBmp16: Closing file stream
[10/23/19 11:25:20.518][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET using endpoint: http://nova.astrometry.net/api/
[10/23/19 11:25:20.518][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Astrometry.NET - Calling Async Solve
[10/23/19 11:25:20.638][DEBUG] [Unknown] Astrometry.NET uploading file: C:\Users\Eric\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\Temp\convertedAstometry.fits
[10/23/19 11:25:21.539][DEBUG] [Main Thread] Centering: User abort…
[10/23/19 11:25:23.803][DEBUG] [Auto Center Closing Thread] Aborting auto center, waiting for centering routine to terminate…
[10/23/19 11:25:23.804][DEBUG] [Unknown] Astrometry.NET request: /api/submissions/3002977
[10/23/19 11:25:23.804][DEBUG] [Unknown] Astrometry.NET returned: {“processing_started”: “None”, “job_calibrations”: , “jobs”: , “processing_finished”: “None”, “user”: 794, “user_images”: }
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] *********** SUCCESSFUL SOLVE *************
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SOLVER: True
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SUCCESS: False
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] CONF: 0
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] BLIND: True
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] RA: 0
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] DEC: 0
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] SCALE: 0
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] FLIPPED: False
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ANGLE (EON): -500
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] MSG: User Aborted
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] ******************************************
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Auto center validation frame solve failed. User Aborted
[10/23/19 11:25:24.521][DEBUG] [Telescope Thread] Auto center aborted, closing centering dialog…
[10/23/19 11:25:24.847][DEBUG] [Unknown] Astrometry.NET request: /api/submissions/3002977
[10/23/19 11:25:24.847][DEBUG] [Unknown] Astrometry.NET returned: {“processing_started”: “None”, “job_calibrations”: , “jobs”: , “processing_finished”: “None”, “user”: 794, “user_images”: }
[10/23/19 11:25:24.886][DEBUG] [Unknown] Astrometry.NET solve done in 2 seconds.
[10/23/19 11:25:32.201][DEBUG] [Dome Thread] Observatory: Calculating new position using:
[10/23/19 11:25:32.201][DEBUG] [Dome Thread] Azimuth: 344.986889988268
[10/23/19 11:25:32.201][DEBUG] [Dome Thread] Altitude: 13.511004519788
[10/23/19 11:25:32.201][DEBUG] [Dome Thread] Hour Angle: 147.405652366903
[10/23/19 11:25:32.201][DEBUG] [Dome Thread] Pier Side: East
[10/23/19 11:25:32.201][DEBUG] [Dome Thread] Observatory: Adjustment needed, slewing to Azimuth: 334.949688801006