David's Astronomy Pages Notes - Session 622  (2018-08-30)

Notes (S622A)

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Notes (S623)

	Session Aims & Highlights
	- Observing Result  - Night Summary Plot
	Operational Issues
	- Critical Issues (0),  Major Issues (1),  Minor Issues (3),  Small Defects (0),  Continuous Improvement (0)
	Images from 2018-08-30  >>

2018-08-30 (Automated Operation Testing)

Session Aims & Highlights (2018-08-30)

Main aims

1. Targets. Acquire images for a selection of variable stars, nearby stars, star clusters
   (imaging of deep sky targets was not anticipated since  sky constraints associated with most galaxy and nebulae targets with have precluded them being selected by the Schedule Builder since the Moon was at 81% illumination during the session) .
2. Autoguiding. Test automated autoguiding using PHD2 and 80mm APO Guidescope with specific attention to selection of a fresh guide star when starting a new target .  
   (Correct selection and lock on to fresh guide star for each new target is critical for Automated Observatory operation. Cloud conditions had prevented these tests during an attempted session on the previous night, 2018-08-29)
3. System Stability.  Continue checking stability of the Observatory system components (POTH.Hub (Telescope + Dome), Observatory Control Software, Computers), noting in particular any further re-occurrences of the '203 error', and any cases of lock-up/hanging of the observatory control program (CCDApp2).

Equipment & Software

•  12" LX200 and ST-10XME
•  80mm APO and ZWO ASI 178MC
•  CCDApp2, TheSky6, CCDSoft5, PHD2,  POTH Hub

Highlights

• Targets. Images were successfully acquired from 26 individual targets (several targets acquired twice)
  (these were mainly variable star and nearby star targets, as the automated Schedule builder had generally chosen deepsky targets (galaxies etc. ) on this night with near full Moon (phase 81%). This was because the builder had excluded those targets with Tight C1 constraint (maximum Moon Illumination (FLI) of 0.40) and Medium C2 constraint (maximum FLI of 0.70), and only allowed targets with Loose C3 constraint (maximum FLI of 1.00. During to limited number of available targets with C3 Constraint separate Plans had to be run for the first and second halves of the night. Many of the target staken in the first half of the night were taken again in the second half)
• Target Centering. Target Centering worked exceedingly well. Image linking was much faster than it was 3 or so sessions ago.
• Automated Operation.  Automated Observatory Operations worked as expected, apart from a few small issues that require fixing
• Autoguiding. Autoguiding initiated automatically for just those targets with longer exposures (> 20s), as expected.    Autoguiding worked well for each target with PHD2 generally auto-selecting a suitable star but manual intervention was needed on a few occasions in order to pick a brighter, more reliable guide star than the one chosen by PHD2.
  (can PHD2 settings be used to influence the nature of the guide stars being selected ?)
• System Stability.  Observatory operations were reasonably stable and there were no instances of the TheSky6 "Error code=213(0xd5)">
   (there was however one instance where the Observatory Control Program CCDApp2 completely locked-up /hung and one instance when the job queue froze "'after Checking Coordinates/before Checking Airmass" whilst executing a particular target (GCVS CI Cyg))

Summary Plots & Logs

Observing Result (2018-08-30, S622) Observatory Operations started at 21:47, Fully-Automated Mode from 23:43 1st Job Queue started at 21:57,  Shutter closed at 00:22 due to Cloud 2nd Job Queue started at 01:07. Software interruptions/restarts at 01:45 (10 mins), 02:06 (4 mins), 02:47 (5 mins) Job Queue ended 03:58. Session finished 04:01

(Observation Status :  Green=Completed, Yellow= Partially Completed, Red= Failed)

Night Sky Summary Plot - 2018-08-30 Top axis: Sky Brightness at Zenith (in ADU/s) Lefthand axis: Local Time (hh LT). Righthand axis: Sun Altitude (degs)

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Operational Issues (2018-08-30, S622)

• Critical Issues (0)
• Major Issues (1)
• Minor Issues (3)
• Small Defects (0)
• Continuous Improvement (0)
  

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Critical Issues

• None

Major Issues

• CCDApp2 completely locked-up/hung.  Observatory Control Program completely locked-up/hung at one point during the session. Program was restarted and continued to operate ok for remainder of session.  Event occurred whilst in process of manipulating (moving) the CCDApp2 window. Reason is unknown but is assumed to be related to thread operations trying to manipulate components on the CCD2App2 window whilst it was busy. Issue largely fixed (at least it is much less frequent):  Later resolved in 2020-2021
  Resolved (AstroMain)

Minor Issues

• PHD2 not selecting a fresh guide star for each new target.  Whilst PHD2 would begin looping when requested and attempt to begin to guiding when subsequently requested by the Job Queue executor, it was found that PHD2 wasn't generally able to find a suitable guide star to guide on. To obtain the expected quality of images I was forced to intervene and manually select star from the Full Frame image in PHD2 and manually click on Guide button to start guiding.    Since this is a showstopper to unattended / automated operation of the observatory, the problem was investigated in detail (see Problem Diagnosis & Fix).  Problem was resolved by requesting PHD2 to commence Guiding without first requesting it to start Looping.
    Resolved (AstroMain)
   
• Indoors Desktop Computer Freezing. After reinstalling Windows 10 and upgrading GeForce GT 730 screen adapter drivers to latest available drivers off the GeForce website, it was initially thought that the desktop computer was performing much better and without momentarily 1-2 screen freezes, 5s black screen freeze and refreshs, random computer restarts or the computer hanging requiring a manual boot.  However these problems have returned again. A short Furmark Stress Test of the graphics card didn't show a problem when taking the GPU up to 65 degC (normal operating temperature is ~ 35deg C).  The problem mainly occurs when using UltraVNC to use the observatory computer remotely. This may or may not be relevant however as this is what the computer is mainly being used for.  Not sure where the problem lies.   (is it with Windows 10,  the Graphics Card, the motherboard ? ). Later resolved or no longer occurring with later Replacement Computer.
  Resolved (Development Computer)
   
• Monitor Data not getting written to '(monitor).dat' file or otherwise getting lost (ongoing problem). Monitor Data not getting written to '2018-08-30 S00622 (monitor).dat' for bulk of session. Last data value from 21:59:33 Issue still occasionally occurs despite several chnages to how the file is opened, written to, and closed. Issue later resolved in full.
    Resolved later (AstroMain)

Small Defects

• None

Continuous Improvement

• None

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