David's Astronomy Pages Notes - Session 926 Attempt 2 (2021-10-18)

Notes (S926A)

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Notes (S926C)

	Session Aims & Highlights
	- Observing Result  - Night Summary Plot  - Session Event Log
	Operational Issues
	- Critical Issues (0),  Major Issues (1),  Minor Issues (2),  Small Defects (0),  Continuous Improvement (8)
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Session Aims & Highlights (2021-10-18)

Main aims

1. Resync Scope. Resynce scope position and perform short mapping running to update TPoint Model, following daytime maintaince work on 2021-10-15 which necessiated loosing the Telescope's Dec Clutch and failed attempt to get a satisfactory resync & short mapping run in attempted session S926A (2021-10-15)
2. Dec Motor. Make guiding runs to examine the performance of a new Dec Motor Unit that had been installed ahead of the previous session (2021-10-15). 
3. Targets.  Acquire images of a selection of variable stars, nearby stars, comets & deep sky targets as allowed by time & conditions.
4. SkyQuality Chart.  Continue assessment of changes/tweaks to the appearance of the new SkyQuality chart.
5. AstroMain. Check on fixes and new features added to AstroMain 3.44.3

Equipment & Software

• 12" LX200 and ST-10XME
• 80mm APO and ZWO ASI 178MC
• CCDApp2, TheSky6, CCDSoft5, PHD2 2.6.10,  DeviceHub 6.5.1.4,  MeadeGeneric 1.3.1.361, UPB 1.5, ASCOM 6.5 SP1
• Pegasus UPB & Motor Focus, TCF-S
• SharpCap 3.2, PHD2  2.6.10
   
• AstroMain 3.44.3  AstroPlan 1.26  AstroShCap 1.3.2, AstroGuard 1.6.2,  AstroVOE 1.8,  AstroSN 1.6,  AstroProtect 1.6
  (AstroWeather 1.13, AstroAllSky 3.12.1, AstroObsCam 1.6.3, AstroLaunch 1.7)

Highlights

•  AstroMain.  AstroMain 3.44.3 confirmed to have fixed a number of issues.
•  SkyQuality Chart.  Data plotting and data legend, and upload to website all worked ok. Appearence was ok.
•  Focusing.  Telescope focusing was found to be consistent with the previous session attempt (S926A, 2021-10-15) 
   
•  Dec Motor.  New Dec Motor Unit worked ok through the session but again there was no opportunity to examine/test its guiding performance.
   
•  Cloud.  Cloud unfortunately developed quickly and again interferred with the night's planned operation to resync the telescope,
        perform a short mapping run, and examine the performance of the  newly installed new Dec Motor.
•  Resync Scope.  Operation to resync scope and perform short mapping job was achieved but after mapping 8-10 points the pointing errors didn't come down from a rather too high level of around 16-19 arc minutes., rather than expected 3-6 arc mins
•  Targets.   Cloud prevented the acquisition of any targets

Notes:

  Summary Plots & Logs

Sky Conditions (Locate Frames)

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

Actual Weather vs Pre-Session Weather Forecast

Session Event Log

Session Alerts

Time     Alert Detail -- No Alerts                --

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Operational Issues (2021-10-18, S926 Attempt 2)

• Critical Issues (0)
• Major Issues (1)
• Minor Issues (2)
• Small Defects (0)
• Continuous Improvement (8)

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Critical Issues

• None

Major Issues

• Unable to get Pointing Errors to come down below 15-19 arc minutes after completing a new Telescope Sync and performing a short mapping run on 8 starfields.  The sync and short mapping run was repeated again but with same issue.  Normally the the Sync/Short Mapping run is performed at a position close to intersection between Meridian and Dec 0, but this wasn't convenient due to sparse starfield (due few stars for ASTAP solution) and then later on due to developing cloud. It's unclear why the short mapping job isn't bringing the pointing error down. Is this a TPoint Issue ?. Prehaps a new Full TPoint run is required to resolve this one ?.  Resolved eventually by moving to a new TPoint Model that was created after a new full-sky mapping run on 2021-10-19.
  Resolved 2021-10-19 (TPoint)   

Minor Issues

• 'Deactivate Last Session' button facility in AstroMain/Observatory didn't lead to the latest session changing to show finished on the Latest Session webpage.   This is almost certainly due to the routine only operating on the 'Session.Header.js' file and not on the new 'Session.Header.dat' file. In shortterm the routine needs to act on the 'Session.Header.dat'.  Need to check whether it handles the extended format of these files.  In the longer term the .js method of getting semi-realtime session status information to the website needs to be completely dropped in favour of using the .dat method alone.  The deactive routine needs to reset 'AutoStart1' and 'AutoStart2' messages to "". Implemented using new bDeactivateLiveHeader flag which gets used by WriteLiveHeaderJs() and WriteLiveHeadeDat() routines. Flag is raised by button routine and lowered in WriteLiveHeaderJs()  when deactivation has finished.
  Fixed 2021-10-19 (AstroMain 3.44.4) 
   
• Unable to make a VNC connection between IPad and AllSky/Weather Computer. VNC on IPad giving the error "Either VNC Server is not running or it is using an incompatible protocol version" This is a known occassional problem.  At the same time a VNC connection to the Observatory Computer from IPad was ok,  and a VNC connection between Development Computer (Windows10) and AllSky/Weather Computer was also ok. 'Go figure ..'  Issue resolved itself after AllSky/Weather Computer was rebooted following a Windows Update.
  Resolved 2021-10-20  (AllSky/Weather Computer) 

Small Defects

• None

Continuous Improvement

• After mapping a point (either successfully or unsucessfully) 'Show Inventory' should be toggled off. After image linking during mapping as part of either a Full or Short Mapping Run 'Show Inventory' should be toggled off to show a clear picture of stars in the image shown in CCDSoft. This is part of a more general issue that since Image.ShowInventory command is a toggle, (there are no separate commands for ShowInventory() or HideInventory()  ) it is difficult to explicitly perform a  'Hide Inventory' operation without tracking the number of toggles made since the image was acquired/opened or add an extra 'Show Inventory' at the end of operations which are identified to leave the Inventory Showing.  Shortterm fix added to AstroMain 3.44.4 to add a mitigating 'Image.ShowInventory()'  at end of locate & map point.  Separate ticket created to see if there is a way of creating a definitive HideInventory routine.
  Done 2021-10-19 (AstroMain 3.44.4)   
   
• The 'Link Check' report line should show the image's Pointing Error at end of the bracketted notes. Pointing Error can't be readily be seen when monitoring AstroMain's Console/Report Output because it is quickly hidden by further report lines and scrolling back to see it is difficult because the program is issuing further report lines which rescrolls the report box to the bottom. Adding pointing error into the later Link Check line makes sense.  Also created a new function GetCatalogName (catalog as integer) to reduce the number of code lines used for reporting the name of gUsedCatalog
  Done 2021-10-19 (AstroMain 3.44.4)   
   
• When mapping the Pointing Error of the latest map point should be shown in result field.  Adding pointing error to 'Link Check' report line will help monitoring of a short mapping run, but if it wasn't seen and the run is already slewing to the next point it is again difficult to quickly appraise the status of the mapping run. Adding the pointing error at end of results field makes sense.   'Mapping Success 4/7 (57.1%),  last pointing error 17.3".
  Done 2021-10-19 (AstroMain 3.44.4)   
   
• Table of mapping results show display vcNull values -99.0 or 99,000 as '--' instead of there raw number.   Note that the default values or aImRotation(iImPts)  was vcLargeNumber (99999) but has been changed to vcNull . May need to monitor for any unwanted sideeffects of this change.
  Done 2021-10-19 (AstroMain 3.44.4)   
   
• The 'Park & Shutdown' button facility doesn't yet show the revised 'Handbox      Shows        "Scope Parked... "  and 'Confirm Parking ' report lines.  These report lines were recently improved in 'Park Scope' button routine but this improvement needs to be extended to this other routine.  'Park Scope' uses Scope.ParkScope() routine to park the scope, whilst 'Park & Shutdown' uses the subtly different routine called Scope.ParkScope2(). A note in the code says   ' ParkScope() **** deprecated'. Separate ticket is raised to look at 'Scope.ParkScope() routine and whether the 'Park Scope' button routine can be safely changed to using Scope.ParkScope2().   Meanwhile the ParkScope2() is updated to use the revised 'Handbox Shows' and 'Confirm Parking' reporting lines.
  Done 2021-10-19 (AstroMain 3.44.4)   
   
• Query: Target name on ObsCam picture was showing "Scope()" in one particular picture from 21:32:55.  Could add special handling in ObsCam to remove the unwanted "()" brackets, but what is producing the brackets back in AstroMain ? . Code added to ObsCam but underlying issue tracked back to 'FocusScopeNearZenith() routine where there is a TP.ShowScope("Scope()") code line which had brackets included to try to trace an issue whereby  Report Sky Meas / using GetCloudInformation("Focus Field 22") is timing out after 30s.
  Done 2021-10-19 (AstroMain 3.44.4, AstroObsCam 1.6.4)   
   
• 'Mapping' to be shown as active telescope time on the Night Summary Plot.   Telescope line on the NightSummaryPlot6.jpg doesn't show an active telescope.  In ObsCam pictures the Scope Activity is shown as 'Undefined'. There should be a  new 'Mapping' category and it to be shown on the Night Summary Plot and ObsCam pictures created on the AllSKy/Weather computer. A related ticket from S926A refers to similar improvement for Near Zenith Focusing conducted at start of session.  Two new scope modes added to  'Enum ScopeMode' :
  Mapping = 13, Aligning = 14.   SetScopeMode(ScopeMode.Mapping) calls added to AstroMain's mapping routines.  AstroAllSky's DrawNightSummaryPlotLineInfo() routine modified to plot ScopeMode.Mapping as active time (tw=7).
  Done 2021-10-19 (AstroMain 3.44.4,  AstroObsCam 1.6.4, AstroAllSky 3.12.3) 
   
• 'Mapping' time to be tabulated in 'Scope Use' section of Session Housekeeping which is reported at end of session :
  Done 2021-10-19 (AstroMain 3.44.4 
   
• Develop a means to definitively hide the Inventory on the image displayed in CCDSoft. After image linking and processing/analysing an image the Inventory can be left on when it woul dbe preferrable if the Inventory was hidden.   Experiments trying to test whether there is an exception when Image.InventoryArray(0) is called or not (or whether inventory count is >1 or not) dependant on whether Inventory was showing failed to produce the required result. It would seem the only way of being definitive is to create a ShowImage() routine that calls Image.ShowInventory and then sets a program flag bInventoryIsDisplayed (true/false) to keep track of whether the Inventory is showing or not and a HideInventory() routine that interrogates the  flag and calls ShowInventory() if the Inventory is currently displayed in order to toggle it off.    The flag needs to be reset to false ) bInventoryIsDisplayed = false) whenever a new image is taken or a exitsing mage is attached. The HideInventory routine will be unable to take account of any Show Inventory calls that are made manually via the CCDSoft interface (Research/Show Inventory).  the new HideInventory() routine is explicit, whilst the new ShowInventory() continues to act as toggle like Image.ShowInventory().   AstroMain 3.44.4 has be updated to use bInventoryIsDisplayed, ShowInventory() & HideInventory(). A future option will be to make ShowInventory() an explicit call to display Inventory on the Image.
  Done 2021-10-19 (AstroMain 3.44.4)   
   
• Examine whether the  'Park Scope' button facility can be safely changed to use the Scope.ParkScope2() routine.   The Scope.ParkScope() routine is deprecated and most operations have moved to using Scope.ParkScope2() . Only the 'Park Scope' button routine (btnParkAscomScope_click) calls the Scope.ParkScope().  Investigate whether it can safely move to using ParkScope2() routine.   ParkScope2()  uses ReportComment("") / ReportSubTitle () and sets bParkScopeDone = True when finished . ParkScope() is very similar but uses ReportLine / ReportSubTitle and sets Parked = True when finished.    ParkScope2() modified to accept CallMode that dictates the reporting style (ReportTitle or ReportSubTitle) .  ParkScope button routine modified to call ParkScope2(Manual).
  Done 2021-10-19 (AstroMain 3.44.4) 
   
• Note Cntl-R can be used to bring up CCDSoft's 'Image Reduction' dialog but it only works if CCDSoft main window or an image has focus (ie. Cntrl-R has no effect if Camera Control has the focus)

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