Problems of a new beginner

Sequence Generator
1

I am a new beginner with SGP, last night being the first time to try this software. I had some basic problems and was not able to find the answers in the manual, so I put my questions here. Please have patience.

I focused my refractor using my motor focus and a Bahtinov mask with Frame and Focus (Take One), checked “Save to disk” in Frame and Focus and checked “Enable image history” in Image history.

  1. What can I do with the arrows <- and -> on the left side of the bar just above the image? These arrows were grey and not usable.
  2. The saved images initially have the file date (the date which is shown in the Windows Explorer) of the actual time when they were saved. On opening such an image, SGP changes the file date. Why does this happen?
  3. In the saved images the FITS keywords "DATE-OBS and “DATE-LOC” were set to 0001-01-01T00:00:00. Why?

Because of 2) and 3) I lost the information at which time these images were taken when I re-opened the images.

Bernd

2

I would appreciate to get an answer to my questions.

To my opinion, the items 2) and 3) of my post are bugs in SGP (v.2.6.0.23). The false data in the FITS keywords “DATE-OBS” and “DATE-LOC” are in the focus images that were saved under C:\FrameAndFocus.

Bernd

3

Not sure about 2 but as you say the modified date is changed. The file creation date isn’t. SGP seems to modify the file but with no changes to the data, except the order of some things in the header.
For (3) this data is read from the camera and SGP doesn’t modify it.

4

It sounds like you’re using the frame and focus module to take images and save them for processing? I would not recommend doing that. Instead use the sequencer to setup a sequence of images which will also complete all of the FITS headers. The frame and focus module is made primarily to identify the object or to manually focus. Not to capture images which you plan to process later.

Thanks,
Jared

5

Hi Chris and Jared,

thank you both for your kind replies.

@Chris:

Not sure about 2 but as you say the modified date is changed. The file creation date isn’t.

Oh - yes, you are right. That’s my fault, I`m sorry that I didn’t realize that.

SGP seems to modify the file but with no changes to the data, except the order of some things in the header.

OK, but I cannot imagine for what reason SGP sorts the sequence of the FITS keywords in a file that was created by SGP itself.

For (3) this data is read from the camera and SGP doesn’t modify it.

Sorry that I did not tell before, which equipment I used. It is as follows:
Mount: Tak EM-400, telescope: FSQ 106N with Robofocus motor and Seletek Armadillo2 controller, imaging camera: Canon EOS 600D, guiding scope: FS 60C, guiding camera: Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2.

So my camera is a Canon EOS 600D, and the date is definitely set correctly in my camera. The date is also correct for the images that I took (in a sequence) from M45 (in raw format, CR2), immediately after focussing. So something obviously goes wrong with the dates that are saved in the focus images (in FITS format).

@Jared:

It sounds like you’re using the frame and focus module to take images and save them for processing? I would not recommend doing that. Instead use the sequencer to setup a sequence of images which will also complete all of the FITS headers. The frame and focus module is made primarily to identify the object or to manually focus. Not to capture images which you plan to process later.

No, I used the Frame And Focus module only for manual focussing with the aid of a Bahtinov mask. However, I did not use Live focus because that would heat up the camera electronics considerably. So I took several single focus images by ‘Take One’. Later I inspected the images, checked up the focus position, focus temperature etc. in the FITS header. Thereby I noticed that the dates “DATE-OBS” and “DATE-LOC” are not set right in the focus images (FITS format).

And for 1), the two arrows ← and ->?

By the way: I was successful in setting up Auto focus correctly and received a nice V-curve and proper focus. That was easy and reproducible - very impressive. Indeed for me the Auto focus feature is the main reason for a possible change to SGP.

Bernd

6

If I’m understanding the question correctly, the two arrows allow you to scroll through images captured in a sequence. They will not, however, allow you to scroll through images saved from Frame and Focus.

7

Hi Tim,

If I’m understanding the question correctly, the two arrows allow you to scroll through images captured in a sequence. They will not, however, allow you to scroll through images saved from Frame and Focus.

thank you for your response, that clears it up. I do not remember whether I observed the arrows while the sequence was active - will have to try and observe it next time.

Bernd

8

Problem 3) remains for me when using the Frame And Focus module although the time is set in the camera:

  1. In the saved images the FITS keywords "DATE-OBS and “DATE-LOC” were set to 0001-01-01T00:00:00.

I had a look at the logfile and found entries like the following:

[10.20.17 22:55:22.818][DEBUG] [Camera Thread] DATE-LOC time provided by SGPro (failed to retrieve valid entry from camera)…

… and in the FITS header of one of the Focus images (frame_and_focus_1.fit):

DATE-OBS= ‘0001-01-01T00:00:00’ / UTC observation date
DATE-LOC= ‘0001-01-01T00:00:00’ / Local observation date

As an experiment I modified the date format (from dd/mm/yy [german] to mm/dd/yy [american]) in the camera and in Windows 7, but that didn’t change anything.

The camera is a Canon EOS 600D. Have I to install any Canon Software on the notebook that runs SGP?

Bernd

9

FWIWI use this method (of using f&f) regularly while the plate solve facility continues to fail (see my posts…) because it means that at least I get images instead of the failure reports.

Lawrence Harris