Plate solving inconsistency - STILL

[Christian Hennes]

Hi again.

Thanks a lot for your efforts: screenshots and all!

The problem is that I don't have the same windows than those that you're showing in FM.
As I mentioned before I don't seem to be able to select the filter to be used for pointing / plate solving (see attached screenshots).
Why FM is selecting the blue filter remains a mystery to me. But what is even stranger is why it has become suddenly impossible to plate solve when no settings had been changed.
This scope is located in Chile under pristine skies wtih basically 360 degrees clear horizon. I checked the images: they are fine (no cloud or anything).

Thanks a gain: really appreciated!

Chrsitian

[William Bristow]

Hi Christian.

Ok, you’re running an older version of FocusMax than me, v4, while I’m running v5.

Unfortunately I don’t have any copies of v4 still installed on any of the PC’s or VM’s that I have access to and I can’t remember how v4 is configured for AcquireStar.

If you can supply a download link to a few of the images that won’t plate-solve so that Bob can test them against a working copy of PinPoint and hopefully he will also know why the wrong filter (blue) is being selected for pointing and focusing while FocusMax is running an AcquireStar autofocus, even though ACP is configured to use filter 0 (luminance) for FocusMax v4 AcquireStar autofocus.

00:57:36 Selecting Luminance filter (0) for imaging
00:57:36 Do requested auto-focus...
00:57:38 [flip check: Tn=300s HAc=-10887s GW=F HAz=-10587s DWz=F WF=no]
00:57:40 Switching from Red to Blue filter for auto-focus
00:57:40 Focus change of -26 steps required
00:57:47 (AF will use 16 bit readout mode)
00:57:47 Starting FocusMax AcquireStar autofocus...

William.

[Bob Denny]

Hi all --

William thank you for helping. Christian I moved this to the FocusMax section on the Comm Center here. PinPoint is not involved in selecting the filter. FocusMax 4 (the older version you're using) does not appear to be able to set the filter used for AcquireStar (I just looked at the manual).

Here is a link to our FITS Image drop https://www.dropbox.com/request/zgQBoSgqH84WNNO6BSuN Use this to upload a few images and I'll look to see why they don't solve. Let me know what catalogs were in use when they failed to solve. I have your Field of View info from the logs you posted at the beginning of this thread (that shows you using A2.0 which I recommended against). You did say you're using GSC. If that's what was used for your uploads, that that's fine for your nearly half degree FOV.

[William Bristow]

Hi all --

William thank you for helping. Christian I moved this to the FocusMax section on the Comm Center here. PinPoint is not involved in selecting the filter. FocusMax 4 (the older version you're using) does not appear to be able to set the filter used for AcquireStar (I just looked at the manual).

Here is a link to our FITS Image drop https://www.dropbox.com/request/zgQBoSgqH84WNNO6BSuN Use this to upload a few images and I'll look to see why they don't solve. Let me know what catalogs were in use when they failed to solve. I have your Field of View info from the logs you posted at the beginning of this thread (that shows you using A2.0 which I recommended against). You did say you're using GSC. If that's what was used for your uploads, that that's fine for your nearly half degree FOV.

Hi Bob, Christian....

I dug out an old Windows laptop and installed FocusMax v4 together with my ACP config files.

Bob, Did you notice these lines in Christian's ACP log:

00:57:36 === Starting filter group 1 of 4 ===00:57:36 Selecting Luminance filter (0) for imaging
00:57:36 Do requested auto-focus...
00:57:38 [flip check: Tn=300s HAc=-10887s GW=F HAz=-10587s DWz=F WF=no]
00:57:40 Switching from Red to Blue filter for auto-focus
00:57:40 Focus change of -26 steps required
00:57:47 (AF will use 16 bit readout mode)
00:57:47 Starting FocusMax AcquireStar autofocus...
00:57:47 21:57:47
00:57:47 21:57:47 ** Beginning AcquireStar Sequence **
00:57:48 21:57:47 Running under automation: True
00:57:48 21:57:48 FocusMax Version: 4.1.0.102
00:57:48 21:57:48 Date: 02/03/2025 21:57:48
00:57:48 21:57:48 System: RC360_Moravian
00:57:49 21:57:49 Telescope RA: 09:59:55.6 Dec: -29:35:59.9
00:57:49 21:57:49 Camera: ASCOM
00:57:49 21:57:49 Focuser: ASCOM Focuser Driver for Astrosib_Focuser.
00:57:49 21:57:49 Filter: Blue (slot 4)
00:57:49 21:57:49 ...Plate solve method: PinPoint
00:57:49 21:57:49 ...Catalog: USNO-A2.0

When FocusMax AcquireStar began the autofocus run the Blue filter was selected despite that Christian's ACP configuration called for filter 0 (Luminance) to be the autofocus filter:



Chris_ACP_MaxIm_Filter.jpg



Christian...

I don't have access to a Moravian camera and there's only so much I can look at here but can you confirm that the filter settings in the Moravian Camera Filter Wheel ASCOM configuration are the same as you have populated in MaxIm's FilterWheel configuration, I believe that the Moravian Filter Wheel ASCOM driver setup takes precedence over whatever you enter in the MaxIm config:

I can't show a screen shot of the Moravian Filter Wheel because I don't have one to connect to but this screen shot shows where you should be checking if you have a Moravian camera and wheel to verify that the Moravian filter configuration is the same as you have configured in MaxIm:


Chris_Moravian_Setup_Filters.jpg


If you make any changes to the FilterWheel configuration in the Moravian ASCOM driver and/or MaxIm setup then after connecting to the Camera and FilterWheel in FocusMax press the "Reset filter info" button in FocusMax setup tab to reload the updated filter sequence configuration into FocusMax:


Chris_Reset_FM_FW.jpg


The plate-solving catalogue that is used by FocusMax v4/v5 during a FocusMax AcquireStar autofocus routine is not the same one that is used by ACP for pointing and plate-solving, you can configure separate catalogues to use with ACP and with FocusMax.

For FocusMax plate solving during an AcquireStar autofocus run select the GSC catalogue, not USNO-A2:


Chris_FMv4_Pinpoint_Catalogue.jpg


I can't think of much else that might be useful here, you could look at the FocusMax v4 .ini file in Notepad when FocusMax is closed, there is an entry for Autofocus filter but I don't know if this is telling you which filter will be used for focusing during a FocusMax autofocus run or if this was the last filter used during an autofocus run, a question for Steve Brady I think...


Chris_FMv4_Ini.jpg


William.

[Bob Denny]

Wow that's quite an analysis William. And yes I saw that ACP was selecting Blue, and that's what is being used by FocusMax.

Christian, please attach your FilterInfo.txt file. Is it possible that you have Blue as the "reference" filter? That's the filter used when focusing, with the offsets applied to that focus position.

[Christian Hennes]

Hi
The FilterInfo file is attached.
Thanks!

[Bob Denny]

I'm sorry I have very limited time today so I'll make this brief. When you ran the FocusOffsets.vbs script back in 2019 you told it to use filter 3 (0-based, which is filter 4 in MaxIm 1-based) for the reference filter. I'm sorry it's not clear that, once you set up focus offsets, that filter number in ACP Preferences is overridden.

Snap1.png

Per your image from this post, blue is #4 and your FilterInfo.txt file lists that filter (#3 0-based) as reference. This is why ACP is focusing using blue.

; FilterInfo created by FocusOffsets.vbs
; 10-Aug-19
; offset,ref-filt,ptg-filt,af-minmag,af-maxmag
137,3,3,7,9
26,3,3,7,9
-67,3,3,7,9
0,3,3,7,9
-36,3,3,2,4
145,3,3,2,4
-24,3,3,2,4

Your best course of action is to re-do your FilterInfo using the Focusffsets.vbs script. When you run it, it will ask you "Reference filter number (0-based, see list below):" and give you a list of filters by number 0-based. Choose 0 for Luminance or 1 for Red. Then let it go.

Here's a map to the details.

Snap2.png

Once you have FocusMax focusing through Luminance or Red, you should get better plate solving reliability.

[Christian Hennes]

Hi!

I re-did the filter offsets as advised, as shown on the filterinfo file attached. However, the issues are not resolved.
Please review the attached files:
Log of the last imaging session illustrating the inconsistencies with plate solving:
At 00:59:32 the image ...@004835 was plate solved.
At 01:11:29 the image ...@005936 was not plate solved.
Both images were done under the exact same conditions. Screenshots of the images are attached for reference (I could upload the raw files onto a platform as needed).
They were done consecutively under the same clear sky.
The image that ACP could not plate solved was plate solved by Maxim.

Any idea / advice highly appreciated!
Thanks

Charistian

[William Bristow]

Hi Christian.

The log shows that FocusMax was unable to complete an autofocus run successfully during the entire session and the only difference I can see in the posted images is a softening of focus between the solved image and the unsolved image.

In the absence of anything else obvious, or that Bob can spot, try making a couple of small changes to FocusMax Preferences to try and get it to plate solve successfully and complete an autofocus run when AcquireStar is being used.

FocusMax Preferences > AcquireStar > Plate Solve tab:

You are currently using Bin 1x1 when FocusMax plate solves after selecting a focus star and that is when FocusMax is failing as it can't plate solve after slewing to find the focus star.
Change the binning for plate solving in FocusMax Plate Solve tab to Bin 4x4 and check that the X/Y pixel scale is set to the un-binned image scale of your system (0.28 arc/sec-pixel I think?).

I assume from the pixel count that this Moravian is a CMOS camera in which case binning won't improve sensitivity but it will reduce the number of warm pixel clusters detected as false stars and reduce the time taken to plate solve.

The log shows that AcquireStar plate solving is using the central 90% region of the sensor, in FocusMax V5 that is configurable on the Plate Solve Tab but I can't find a copy anywhere of the FocusMax V4 guide that shows the PlateSolve tab and I don't know if that option is configurable or not in V4.

Check the AcquireStar Plate Solve tab in FocusMax V4 and if the option is there to configure the size of the CCD central region then change it from 90% to 75% to reduce the plate solve field size slightly and reduce the number of stars detected to give PinPoint less work to do and get a better star match away from any field distortion at the edges of the sensor.

Once you have FocusMax AcquireStar successfully plate solving and completing an autofocus run every time it is called, and the images are sharply focused, then you can turn to look at any Plate Solve errors under ACP. Right now I suspect the two failures are somehow linked with the FocusMax AcquireStar autofocus failure leading on sometime later to ACP Plate Solve issues as the focus softens later into the session.

Hopefully Bob will be along soon with something better than I can find....

William.

[Bob Denny]

The FilterInfo looks OK now. It is using the correct (luminance) filter for pointing and focusing. Also I note the large pointing error that ACP corrected after the startup autocus:

00:25:18 Doing auto-center...
...
00:25:33 Plate-solve pointing image.

...
00:25:36 Pointing error is 18.238 arcmin @ angle 104.98
00:25:36 True focal length is 2799.3 mm.

The image that ACP could not plate solved was plate solved by Maxim.

Since MaxIm uses PinPoint for solving, this means that your PinPoint settings in MaxIm and ACP are different. The plate scale could be different. The pointing update and first successful final image solve show a real focal length (-> plate scale) of 2799 mm.


Check the focal length you have set in ACP:

Snap3.png