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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Problem with polar alignment in southern hemisphere?

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Hello Wouter

I wrote a comment to your cloudy nights issue in thread:

ccd_simulator with transformation to telescope's HA system (Polar Alignment)

Kind regards, wildi
4 years 2 weeks ago #50603

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Hi Wildi,

Yes I just saw it. Great stuff! I hope it will help to pin down the source of this issue.

FYI I have cloned the KStars. libgphoto2, indi and indi-3rd party repos and compiled everything. I also modified the align.cpp code in KStars and reverted the fix that Jasem introduced for flipping the pink arrow when in the southern hemisphere. Hopefully I will be able to test it soon.


Wouter
4 years 2 weeks ago #50606

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Jasem,

Tonight finally I was able to test reverting those lines and polar alignment for me went back to normal again. Perhaps a checkbox can be introduced to flip the pink arrow for those having issues until this has been sorted out?


Wouter
The following user(s) said Thank You: Craig
4 years 2 weeks ago #50709

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Hello Wouter and Jasem

Wouter, in the mean time the ccd simulator where you can set the position of the HA axis is available (see ccd_simulator with transformation to telescope's HA system (Polar Alignment) ).

Jasem, I guess I have no commit access any more :-)) How should I proceed? I described everything necessary in the mentioned thread.

Kind regards, wildi
The following user(s) said Thank You: Craig
4 years 1 week ago #50718

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Markus, commit access to INDI you mean? You can submit a PR on Github. For KStars, it's via KDE's Phabricator system.

Wouter, I suppose a checkbox can be introduced, but why does this happen? and how can we identify it? If we simply add a checkbox then the user would have to learn first hand the proposed direction is wrong and then flips it. Is there a way to know that ourselves?
The following user(s) said Thank You: Craig
4 years 1 week ago #50739

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So I ended up adding that checkbox after all. It's only a temporary measure though until the root issue is idenfitied.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Wouter van Reeven
4 years 1 week ago #50747

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You ask very valid questions Jasem which unfortunately I cannot answer. I didn't check the code for a potential bug. I merely reverted those two lines to what they were before by looking at the git commit of August 18 2019 IIRC, recompiled and showed that it works for me like that. In any case, thanks for adding the checkbox. I will switch to INDI nightly and test when the weather permits to see if it works for me and stops working as soon as I check that check box.


Wouter
4 years 1 week ago #50757

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Over the past nights I have used KStars nightly and I'd like to report that for me the behavior of the polar alignment has been restored. I noticed the checkbox but I haven't tried it. Thanks a lot for the quick action Jasem!
3 years 11 months ago #51339

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Hi - I had the opportunity tonight to capture a log from my rig while performing a polar alignment. Hopefully it has enough details to be useful to someone.
I'm in the southern hemisphere and currently using a canon 650D DSLR on an 8" newtonian with a Skywatcher EQ6-R via EQMOD.

I experience the same issue mentioned in this topic.

I was able to polar align my mount by placing the vector in reverse. IE - not clicking on a bright reference star to place the crosshair over in, but instead clicking in empty space so as to place the end of the vector over the reference star refer to screenshot the subsequent screenshot shows a new iteration of the routine showing an improved alignment from the previous iteration

Log file

File Attachment:

File Name: log_20-12-53.txt
File Size:4,702 KB


Cheers.
3 years 11 months ago #51434
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Thanks for the report. The issue has been fixed and the fix will be available in the next release of KStars. If you are adventurous you might consider switching to the nightly builds and give the fix a try. Do note, however, that the nightly builds are not meant to used for real imaging but only for testing.


Wouter
The following user(s) said Thank You: Craig
3 years 11 months ago #51435

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I wouldn't say the problem is fixed, I just added a toggle to reverse the vector. Still, I do not know why it is reversed for some people. It is not just North vs South hemisphere.. even folks in north hemisphere reported the same problem.

So what would be a reason for it to be reversed?

1. Optical system?
2. Mount rotation direction? east vs. west?
3. Location of pole relative to center of mount rotation? some some positions need a reversed vector?
4. Combination of multiple factors?
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3 years 11 months ago #51467

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Hello Jasem

as soon as I'm through with the AP experimental driver, may be next week, I'll try to use ccd_simulator to get more insight.

Kind regards, wildi
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq
3 years 11 months ago #51469

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