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  1. #1
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    Jun 2015
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    Default Guided Script and Maxim Multi-Star

    Hello,

    Have had a clot of clouds in California but back to imaging. My mount has been tuned up bu Astrophysics and any mechanical issues are set aside. I have been getting eccentricities of 0.4-0.5 with single star guiding using minimal (0.4-6) aggressivity and 0.03 on the minimal moves.... letting the mount run mostly.

    In the search for guiding nirvana, I tried to use the multi-star guiding but would not run. Lost stars. I recalibrated OK. I forget how I got this to work in the past. I know the key for me was mostly to increase the exposures to 5s and this seemed to get enough stars for it to work right.

    I recalibrated the guider last night using Bob’s script and went back to the old settings and it guided OK. But still looking for better with the multi-star.

    I do not think we have resolved the issue of Bob's script and multi-star, i.e. can you do both. Can you calibrate with single-star and then run multi-star?

    Cheers,

    JY

    PS We are still on .16?
    Last edited by Bob Denny; Mar 6, 2018 at 16:23. Reason: This looked like several repeats of the same message, I cleaned it up -- Bob

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
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    Default

    I do not think we have resolved the issue of Bob's script and multi-star, i.e. can you do both. Can you calibrate with single-star and then run multi-star?
    My script just does the calibration of the guider using MaxIm's button-push routine, then copies the guiding angle to ACP in case you have a rotator. I'm pretty sure you can calibrate in single star then run in multi-star. I don't think there's a magic bullet in here anywhere. You may be up against the coastal marine layer (visible moisture or not). You're right to ask the Diffraction people on this.
    -- Bob

  3. #3
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    Jun 2015
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Denny View Post
    My script just does the calibration of the guider using MaxIm's button-push routine, then copies the guiding angle to ACP in case you have a rotator. I'm pretty sure you can calibrate in single star then run in multi-star. I don't think there's a magic bullet in here anywhere. You may be up against the coastal marine layer (visible moisture or not). You're right to ask the Diffraction people on this.
    Yes, I am sure the moisture does me no good. You can see the scintillations... best not to try to correct too much, but there is a problem with the STT 8300M where the guide chip just goes to salt and pepper every once in a while and that tosses the guiding into a tizzy. Multi-star resists this. I'll see if I can get it to work just changing the Maxim setting for type of guiding.

  4. #4
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    but there is a problem with the STT 8300M where the guide chip just goes to salt and pepper every once in a while
    One single frame of this shouldn't kill guiding. This is outof my control, once I tell MaxIm to start guiding, it's all up to MaxIm to actually do the guiding.
    -- Bob

  5. #5
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Denny View Post
    One single frame of this shouldn't kill guiding. This is outof my control, once I tell MaxIm to start guiding, it's all up to MaxIm to actually do the guiding.
    It worked fine last night. Unfortunately poor seeing. Guess I might be able to use the quality of focusing as an indirect index of how good the seeing is.

  6. #6
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    OK, good (sort of). Maybe you should consider switching to shorter focal length or moving the scope to the Sierra Remote Observatories. We partner with multiple remote observatory farms, but this one is by far the closest to you. It also has excellent seeing much of the time due to the laminar western slope upflow.
    -- Bob

  7. #7
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    Default Maxim Still

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Denny View Post
    OK, good (sort of). Maybe you should consider switching to shorter focal length or moving the scope to the Sierra Remote Observatories. We partner with multiple remote observatory farms, but this one is by far the closest to you. It also has excellent seeing much of the time due to the laminar western slope upflow.
    Hi Bob, was out at SRO with others way back and it is a nice place, but want to get my system running (it really is running with fine tuning). If you look out at Diffraction Unlimited I am still having problems with their software. It is not you, but it is a FYI.

    BTW, I have problem seeing exactly what will show up with the scheduler. I can run the simulation before the night's viewing to confirm what will run, but then you have to reset the time back one day?

  8. #8
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    BTW, I have problem seeing exactly what will show up with the scheduler. I can run the simulation before the night's viewing to confirm what will run, but then you have to reset the time back one day?
    In Simulation mode you can set the scheduler's clock but in Normal mode it is tied to the system clock and cannot be adjusted. If you simulate the upcoming night, you will need to go back and re-submit all of the things that ran under simulation so they become eligible again. What a pain. What are you concerned about that gave rise to the question. If you are hell bent on having something run at a specific time on a specific night then you should not be using the scheduler ha ha. That was sort of a joke, but I am serious about knowing what you are concerned about.
    -- Bob

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Denny View Post
    In Simulation mode you can set the scheduler's clock but in Normal mode it is tied to the system clock and cannot be adjusted. If you simulate the upcoming night, you will need to go back and re-submit all of the things that ran under simulation so they become eligible again. What a pain. What are you concerned about that gave rise to the question. If you are hell bent on having something run at a specific time on a specific night then you should not be using the scheduler ha ha. That was sort of a joke, but I am serious about knowing what you are concerned about.
    I wind up having nothing run sometimes due to the moon or something. I am trying to finish up some projects so load them with higher priorities. If I just have every project run the files are a mess with dribs and drabs being done.

    As long as I get what to do I can resubmit.

  10. #10
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    If I just have every project run the files are a mess with dribs and drabs being done.
    This was discussed back in January, and I was able to get to the "meat" of the issue as described in the thread Any Way to Determine if Tonight's Schedule has Gaps? As you have found, for astro-imaging, it does indeed do "dribs and drabs" because it tries to work in the best conditions (lowest air mass). I added a Plan Completion feature and produced an experimental Scheduler for Rowland Archer and Peter Prendergast and specifically in this post within that thread and the actual drop-in replacement Scheduler.exe with the Project Completion option in this post from that thread (it is an attachment). The idea (short story) is that it will focus on completing Projects at the expense of working farther away from the meridian (and thus through worse air) as a trade off for getting projects done. You might want to try it and they "load the scheduler up" as it was designed. If you do please chime in on that thread so I can keep track of you. We're discussing this now in a MaxIm guiding thread.

    SCHEDULER-1575 - Priority Boost Based on Project Completion
    -- Bob

 

 

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