Two issues last session

Hello guys,
last session I had two issues with SGP 2.4.1. I attach the log file.
Around 02:08 PHD started to loose the guide star. Going over PHD log files it were constantly on and off for about 20 minutes. Something had happen during this time (I was sleeping) as my imaging object moved from the center to the far corner. Then the sequence recovery kicked in and eventually was able to recover the guiding and continue with the sequence, only problem that is object is stayed in the corner, so from that moment on, frames are useless.
I don’t know if SGP should have initiated Centering during the sequence recovery and it didn’t, but if it`s not, maybe it’s a good idea to implement the Centering as part of the guiding recovery? That might have saved my night. Just to be on a safe side that nothing wrong happened during lost of a guide star?

The second issue happen in the morning when I woke up and sun was already up. Since PHD are useless now I closed it down and got back to finish the sequence with flats. I set 30 frames for each filter and make it run. It finished all flats for the R filter and moved to the G filter. After about 2 frames, centering window popped up and it began to take exposures for plate solving. That was weird. I manually canceled it and continued with the sequence until it finished with the rest of the flats.

Log file is here:

Sergio

Sergio, do you have auto-centering on? Recovery mode should’ve tried to recenter it for you via plate solving. If it failed at plate solving, it shouldn’t have been able to recover the sequence and it should’ve ran your end of sequence options.

Are you sure recovery mode saved it? or did PHD start guiding again? First thing I would check is whether you have “restart current frame when > …” is set to. Make it small enough that it forces a restart, but not small enough that a momentary glitch kills your frames. I think mine is set to 1500 pixels for a wide field setup (8300/530mm scope).

I’m not quite sure about the flats. Did you use the Flats Wizard to create a new Target? Hopefully Ken/Jared can answer that.

Yes, auto-centering is on.

I can see it in log file:

Auto guider failed to settle in the specified time limit, resuming the auto guider has failed…
Recovering the sequence (while attempting to dither or settle the auto guider)
Something bad has happened… attempting to recover the sequence (attempt 1)…
Recovery method using guider has started…

Then it talks to PHD and then I see:

Auto guider has settled…
Recovery: Settling is successful…
Sequence recovery was successful!
Sequence recovery was successful (CenteringAndGuiding)!

But in never tried to re-center, it just continued guiding and resumed the sequence, while object way off the center.

As for flats I used Flats Calibration Wizard and saved it to current sequence. Didn’t add flats as Target.

Mads, perhaps I’m missing something but this has nothing at all to do with target centering. Even if PHD started guiding again (instead of recovery mode saving it) this would not account for the target being off center. (and an off topic comment, a “restart current frame when” setting of 1500 pixels is huge. This setting only applies to PHD guiding and so an error of a few pixels depending on your equipment would be enough. I don’t have this enabled but in thinking about my system I would want a restart of the frame if the error got above say 3 pixels. Again, maybe I’m missing something here…)

Also, are you sure that auto recovery will try to platesolve/recenter the target when starting again? That would make logical sense but I’ve never observed it happen, and there isn’t anything in the documentation about it.

This is because SGPro will never attempt to auto center without user permission. When this target entered recovery mode, auto center was off (we infer permission from this option) so it just attempted to restart the guider.

[14-Aug-2015 22:00:32] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] -Auto Center: False

This is a bug. You managed to enter recovery mode when light frames were still present, bug just a half second or so before aborting the sequence. Recovery was supposed to abort with the sequence, but it didn’t. You must have turned auto centering on for this target, because during this recovery attempt (that should not be running), auto center does indeed start in order to get you back on track.

[15-Aug-2015 05:48:38] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] -Auto Center: True

I am pretty sure I have prevented this from happening in the future.

Ken, I’m probably missing something, where do I enable auto-center option?
Because in the target list I do have “Center on when target starts” option enabled and never touched this.

Or simply put, what do I need to do to prevent this from happening in the future?

Actually, when the sequence was running you didn’t (at least for the first recovery). Make sure this option is checked if you want to use centering as part of your recovery. From your logs:

[14-Aug-2015 22:00:32] [DEBUG] [Sequence Thread] -Auto Center: False

Thanks Ken, I couldn’t figure out why it worked for me.

Thank you very much, guys!
Ken, if auto-center were turned off, how SGPro managed to perform successful meridian flip with centering?

This is a setting in the meridian flip options.