David's Astronomy Pages Notes - Session 856 Attempt (2021-01-30)

Notes (S855)

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Notes (S856)

	Session Aims & Highlights
	- Observing Result  - Night Summary Plot  - Session Event Log
	Operational Issues
	- Critical Issues (0),  Major Issues (2),  Minor Issues (3),  Continuous Improvement (0)
	No images from 2021-01-30 >>     [ Local Files >> ]

Session Aims & Highlights (2021-01-30)

Main aims

1. Software. Test features and fixes added in AstroMain 3.35.5
2. Targets. Acquire images of a selection of variable stars, nearby stars, comets and deep sky targets as allowed by conditions.

Equipment & Software

• 12" LX200 and ST-10XME
• 80mm APO and ZWO ASI 178MC
• CCDApp2, TheSky6, CCDSoft5, PHD2,  DeviceHub 6.5.1.0,  UPB 1.5, ASCOM 6.5 SP1
• Pegasus UPB & Motor Focus, TCF-S
• SharpCap 3.2, PHD2  2.6.9Dev3
   
• AstroMain 3.35.5 & 3.35.6  AstroGuard 1.4.6,   AstroPlan 1.20.2, AstroShCap 1.3.10, AstroVOE 1.5.2, AstroSN 1.4,  AstroProtect 1.4.1
  (AstroWeather 1.10.14, AstroAllSky 3.6.4)

Highlights

• AutoStart.  Autostart worked to 1) kicked off initial session, 2) later to identify an issue with SBIG Camera Not Found and returned to Manual and 3) waited remainder of night for a clear interval, but not finding one before AutoStart end time, returned to Manual at 06:10.
• Foc2 Focusing.  A long standing bug in Foc2 Autofocusing was exposed allowing it to be identified and corrected.

Lowlights

•   Lens Cap.   Lens Cap had been accidently left on the LX200 Main Scope (from previous Dark Frame acquisition), preventing acquisition of light frames on targets at start of session including a transient in M31, when skies were initially clear.
•  SBIG Issue.    Issue occurred with comms with SBIG Camera during Foc1 Autofocusing for Target 3. Caused Job Queue to hang whilst waiting for execution from CCDSoft.Camera.TakeImage(). Requiring AstroMain to be killed and observatory software to be restarted.  Upon restarting session AutoStart was unable to begin because of a Camera Not Found error.  SBIG Camera had to be powered off/powered on in order to resolve issue. By then the skies had become overcast and no more observing was possible.
•  Cloud.    Weather conditions were poorer than expected

Summary Plots & Logs

Observing Plan

Observing Result

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

Pre-Session Weather Forecast (API data from darksky.net) Pre-Session Weather forecast showed semi-clear conditions (cloud cover 28-55%) with very slight possibility of light rain showers at 03:00 to 05:00 Temperatures 2°C falling to 0°C by dawn.. Light Winds (11-14 mph)  In the event skies were initially clear 17:30-19:00 & 19:30-20:00 with passing cloud at 19:00, becoming overcast from around 20:00-20:45 onwards. Dry with light winds. Minimum temperature  -2°C

Session Event Log

Time     Event Detail 17:01:34 Session Monitoring AutoStart monitoring for Live Session opportunity starting between 17:31 & 06:10 17:31:31   AutoStart Waiting AutoStart waiting till earliest start time at 17:31 17:31:32   AutoStart Delayed Session delayed due to cloud 17:46:32 Session AutoStarting Session autostarting (17:46) 17:47:02 Session Created Live Session Created (2021-01-30 S00856, ImageSaveNum: 856001) 17:47:04   Scope Switched On Telescope Power has been switched on via UPB Powerbox. 17:48:59   Services Started Observatory Services started 17:49:08 Observatory (Auto) Observatory placed in Fully-Automated Mode 17:49:12 Session Pending Session pending (2021-01-30) 17:49:14 Session Initiating Session initiating (2021-01-30) 17:49:16   Plan Requested Observing Plan requested from AstroPlan (1.20.2) 17:49:54   Plan Loaded Observing Plan loaded to queue (2021-01-30 V1 BEST PLAN, Plan ID: 591) 17:50:06   Camera1 Connected SBIG Camera Connected (set point -25°C) 17:50:10   Telescope Connected Telescope Connected (TheSky6) 17:50:21 Session Equilibration Session ready for dome & camera equilibration 17:51:57   Dome Opened Dome opened (opening time 45s) 17:52:13   Equilibration Started Dome Equilibration started 17:57:13   Equilibration Ended Dome Equilibration ended (5.0 mins total) 17:57:15 Session Running Session running 17:57:17   Queue Started Observing Queue started (51 targets selected) 17:58:46       Focusing Skipped Foc1 focusing skipped - unable to find a star (TCF-S) 17:58:48       Focusing Started-Foc2 Foc2 Focusing Started (Secondary Scope, using ShCap) 18:00:53       Focusing Completed Foc2 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 1, wide) 18:02:32       Focusing Failed Foc2 focusing failed - failed QC check (Quadratic) 18:09:12     Target Started (1/51) Target started (1/51, M31 w/AT2021bfs) 18:12:53       Focusing Skipped Foc1 focusing skipped - unable to find a star (TCF-S) 18:30:47     Target Completed Target completed (1/51, M31 w/AT2021bfs) 18:31:04     Target Started (2/51) Target started (2/51, GCVS U And) 18:34:00   User Intervention User intervention to remove Lens Cap on LX200 and to fit Dew Shield 18:35:15       Focusing Started-Foc1 Foc1 Focusing Started (TCF-S) 18:38:01       Focusing Completed Foc1 AutoFocus Completed (Profile No 2) 18:39:05   SBIG Issue SBIG Driver: Recieve timeout 18:40:00 Program Hung AstroMain's Job Queue froze whilst waiting for exection to return from Camera.TakeImage 18:41:15 Job Queue Frozen Job Queue appears to have frozen at around 18:40 - 18:41 18:51:30 Session Suspended Session suspended 18:52:16   Dome Closed Dome closed (closing time 46s) 18:53:51   SBIG Issue SBIG Driver: Recieve timeout 18:55:00 User Intervention Use intervention to stop/kill AstroMain program 18:58:27   Services Stopped Observatory Services stopped 18:58:51 Program Closed Program closed by User 18:58:53 Program Closed Program closed by User 19:11:00 Observatory (AutoStart) Observatory placed in Auto-Start Mode 19:11:02   AutoStart Waiting AutoStart waiting till earliest start time at 19:11 19:11:05   AutoStart Delayed Session delayed due to cloud 19:40:00 Session Autostarting Session Autostarting (19:40) 19:40:02   SBIG Issue SBIG driver: Camera not found. 19:40:05 Observatory (Manual) Aborting AutoStart & returning to Manual Mode 20:15:20 Session Monitoring AutoStart monitoring for Live Session opportunity starting between 20:15 & 06:10 20:15:22   AutoStart Delayed Session delayed due to cloud 20:26:33 Session AutoStarting Session autostarting (20:26) 20:27:14   Camera1 Connected SBIG Camera Connected (set point -25°C) 20:27:16 Session Resumed Live Session Resumed (2021-01-30 S00856, ImageSaveNum: 856014) 20:27:18   Scope Switched On Telescope Power has been switched on via UPB Powerbox. 20:28:57   Services Started Observatory Services started 20:29:06 Observatory (Auto) Observatory placed in Fully-Automated Mode 20:29:08 Session Pending Session pending (2021-01-30) 20:29:10 Session Initiating Session initiating (2021-01-30) 00:01:00 Observatory (AutoStart) Observatory placed in Auto-Start Mode 00:01:01 Session Monitoring AutoStart monitoring for Live Session opportunity starting between 00:01 & 06:10 00:01:02   Autostart Waiting AutoStart waiting till earliest start time at 19:11 00:01:05   AutoStart Delayed Session delayed due to cloud 06:10:00   AutoStart Ending End of AutoStart Window reached at 06:10 06:10:02 Observatory (Manual) Cancelling AutoStart & returning to Manual Mode 07:06:00 User Intervention User intervention to close down observatory 07:06:10 Session Closing Session closing (2021-01-30 General) 07:06:15   Dome Closed Dome already closed 07:06:17   Dome Parked Dome already parked 07:06:20   Telescope Parked Telescope (objScope) not found. 07:06:25   Telescope Switched Off Scope is already turned off 07:06:30 Session Finished Session Finished (2021-01-30 General)

Session Alerts

Time     Alert Detail 18:51:17 Job Queue Job Queue appears to be frozen (last IamAlive message at 18:40)

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Operational Issues (2021-01-30,  S856 Attempt)

• Critical Issues (0)
• Major Issues (2)
• Minor Issues (3)
• Continuous Improvement (0

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Critical Issues

• None

Major Issues

• Job Queue froze at around 18:40 was performing Foc1 Autofocusing for Target 2/51 (U And).  After successfully performing a Wide Search AutoFocus, the ObsOverseer reported at 18:51 that the Job Queue had become frozen, with "Last IamAlive message was from AnalyseFocusImage/Start/ at 18:40"  whilst taking Focus Frame 4/14 of Standard Focusing  with later message abfter manually aborted job that  "Take FocusFrame task In RunTakeQuickFocusShot/Start Is taking a Long time? "     A fail outcome to Focus Frame 4/14 seems to have been reported.   Log file suggest that execution didn't return from call to CCDSoft's Camera.TakeImage() at 18:38:31.86, until 18:39:05.34 when there was an exception whilst taking focus image  (SBIG driver: Receive timeout.)    It is unclear if the freeze event happened by itself (and an issue to automated operations) or it happened in response to user action intervening to remove LX200's Lens Cap & check observatory computer.   Session had to be killed, scope parked and the observatory software & session restarted. This was problematic due to inability to resume communications with SBIG Camera.  Eventually resolved by switching off/switching on power to SBIG ST-10 Camera (Note : a means to switch off/switch on SBIG power remotely is still awaited)
  Resolved in-session 2021-01-30 (Session) 
  
  (Note: a following problem starting session with AutoStart at 19:40 due to 'SBIG Driver: Camera not found' exception  is classified as part of the same issue )
   
• Session Initiation froze whilst attempting to import V1 Observing Plan (partially executed).  Issue has been seen before and a planned fix to place Observing Plan loading into a Thread that can be separately monitored by the Obs.Manager has still to be implemented. Unclear if the issue on this occasion was related in anyway to a locked database or some other issue related to the killing AstroMain earlier or a side affect of issue relating to SBIG Camera/Driver.  Resolved at the time by stopping/killing AstroMain and restarting.   Due to failed session initiation and cloud, it was decided to delete the original V1 Plan to allow a totally new plan to be built if the session eventually resumed later in the night.  The same issue occurred in session S689  (2019-09-03) and in session S825 (2020-10-30).  An investigation was carrried out (see Investigation - Obs.Manager hanging whilst loading plan 2020-10-30). A solution to prevent the issue from locking up the program was implemented on 2021-02-10 (AstroMain 3.36).   This mitigates the main problem caused by the issue but does not fix the underlying cause that leads to target retrieval to stall.
  Solution implemented 2021-02-10 (AstroMain 3.36)

Minor Issues

• CCD Images were blank & devoid of stars during first target (Transient in M31).  Spotting this during remote monitoring and seeing that TS80 Guide Images had plenty of stars it was immediately realised that this was due to Lens Cap being left on LX200 telescope from taking Dark Frames the previous day.   Human Error ! Would it have been possible to flag some alert. Resolved by visiting observatory to remove Lens Cap and put on the scope short dew shield.   Foc1 images from Near Zenith Focusing were also devoid of stars and this situation had the silver lining of exposing a long running bug in Focuser2.AnalyseFocusImage (part of Foc2 Autofocusing) where the ImageScale is invalidly used twice in the process of going from RawFWHM in pixels to FWHM in arc sec.
  Resolved in-session 2021-01-30 (Session) 
   
• Foc2 Focusing failed, with FWHM values having unexpectedly values in range  -3146.9 and  -347.2".  Seeing negative FWHM values of these size was totally unexpected and has never been seen before.   It was guessed that they were produced by multiplying RawMag in pixels by a vcNull ImageScale (-99), but an initial look at the code suggested that the RawMag was clearly being multiplied by 1.03 in Focuser2.AnalyseFocusImage() routine.  A deeper review showed for Focus Step 8916, where the RawMag was 25.03 and reported the FWHM value was -2552.3, implied that that an Image Scale of -101.96 "/px had been used. Whilst this wasn't the value of -99 hypothesized ,  it does correspond to  -99 * 1.03,  where -99 is initial value of dImageScale used for multiplying Raw Mag in GetInventoryDetails() routine) and 1.03 is ImageScale for TS80/178MC images assuming a binning of 1x1 and was being applied in Focuser2.AnalyseFocusImage().   The bug fixed, by setting dImageScale to 1.03 via a call SetImageScaleCam2 () routine with a Binning parameter of 1, and by removing the duplicate ImageScale multiplication used in an earlier workaround.
    Resolved in Session 2021-01-30 (Session) 
  
   [ Note: This previously unknown bug was introduced when a workaround was put in place in early 2019 to make up for the fact that FITS files from SharpCap are returned without any Binning information in their headers.    Normally dImageScale will have been set to a value like 0.936 or 1.40 during prior Foc1 focusing, leading to combined Image Scales of 0.96 or 1.442 for Foc2 Autofocusing, hiding the bug.  But on this particular occasion Foc1 focusing hadn't changed dImageScale from default value of -99 (vcNull) and it exposed the bug and resolved the previously unexplained observation that Foc2 FWHM values for TS80 Secondary scope would sometime be much higher that Foc1 FWHM values from the LX200 Main Scope.   So a former Foc2  FHWM value of say 5.07"/px should really have been reported as 3.6"/px in some cases. ]
   
• Guide Star Box in JPG Picture for U And drawn at a position that didn't correspond to a star object. Guide Star Box in 0019.000000.GCVS_U_And.Guide02_Ref.jpg didn't correspond to a star. Although there were stars visible in the 10s image they were two objects visible for each star with a shift of several pixels.  The Guide Star Box corresponded with position reported for PHD'S selected lock position, but checking original image confirmed that there was no star at this position or in later 1.5s frame captured a short interval later.   It was around this time that the Lens Cap was being removed from LX200 Telescope and the dew shield re-added.  It is assumed that the guidescope was nudged at this time and this led to a mismatch between PHDs lock position and the stars in the reference image. 
  Issue explained away as a one-off artefact  2021-01-30 (Session) 

Continuous Improvement

• None

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