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Baby user: struggling with polar align assistant

  • Posts: 62
  • Thank you received: 8
Hi there,

This is my first post in this forum since I'm just beginning with this new hobby.

I already spent a couple of weeks setting up my configuration and now it seems I'm more or less prepared to catch my first light.

I have latest and updated stellarmate installed on a RPI 4 with 8gb of RAM. Ultimate goal is to be able to nomad with my setup where the sky is the clearest. But that's not for tomorrow...

So for the time being, I'm learning at home (with domestic power supply, one thing at the time).

These last days, the sky was clear so I decided to give it a try. Installed the gear, did a PA, connected everything and fired up stellarmate. I could connect to it via NoVPN (was cold outside) without problems. First goal was to try the polar align assistant of kstars. So I pointed the scope to Polaris (with mount turned off) and then then hit start in the assistant. It captured an image (I could see it) and started solving. But failed. I tried several time with different settings (for example, increasing capture time to have more stars), but with no luck.

So I came to this forum and tried to find a solution to my problem. Of course I didn't, but I learned to activate logs to get a better understanding. But that didn't really help. So I figured I would post here, hoping that confirmed users might help me. Logs are attached.

A few words on stellarmate. Installation was flawless (I'm 20+ years user on linux and derivatives) and everything works perfectly, except I still haven't find how to configure resolution in NoVNC when using it headless. But that's not a problem for now. I'm learning kstars, it's a great piece of software and certainly needs some time to master it. Not there yet. It has crashed on several occasions (still need to figure out why), but since I was concentrating on trying to use the PA assistant, I left that aside.

Sorry for this first long post, I'll try to be more concise next time :)

Thanks for reading (and sorry for my English, I'm not a native english speaker).

Steve
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq
3 years 2 days ago #69283
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Hello Steve,

Welcome to INDI forums. I checked the logs and found a weird line:
Only searching for solutions within 5.44439e-312 degrees of RA,Dec (1.05193e-178,0.1)

So looks like the search parameters were either completely off, or not logged directly. Got any link to the FITS image you were trying to solve? Do you mind adding your great to your signature? Also, what's the FOV of your camera+telescope combination?
The following user(s) said Thank You: Steve
3 years 2 days ago #69289

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Hi, thanks for the quick answer.
Yes, I also saw that, that's a super hyper tiny range...
Which means?
No. I was just trying to polar align, so pointing to Polaris.
Done.
From www.skyatnightmagazine.com/astronomy-field-view-calculator/, I get:

FOV: 4.24° x 2.49°
Resolution: 2.00"/pixel
Area: 10.56 sq°
 
3 years 2 days ago #69293

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is this the same FOV you get in Align tab? Try to align at any location and share a link to the FITS image if it fails.
3 years 2 days ago #69301

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When doing polar align, have you tried using your main image system or your guiding system?
As the polar align uses the solver, the first thing to do is to solve the polar region, to be sure that all the configuration files are downloaded. This is one of the first thing to do in relation to you telescope and camera (do both prime telescope and guider). The best way is to declare you telescope and guider focal length in the mount page (you can save several configurations).

In the align window you have a configuration button witch brings you on the specific page to download configuration files. As the FOV is know, the good files to download are easy to identify (green signal toward each file).

An other ting : when doing polar align, the mount should be on and unparked, since the procedure will move the mount and take 3 images at different places.

Joe
Last edit: 3 years 2 days ago by Ferraro.
3 years 2 days ago #69319

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Yes. I have done once more the fov calculation and what I wrote here is wrong. Correct is 1.17°x0.87°. I didn't have the right index files so I downloaded them.

In Kstars, I read 74.0'x55.4' which is more or less the same those minutes in degrees.

I've done some tests this afternoon by loading some fits files found on astrometry.net and lauching the solve and it worked.


Tonight is going to be clear sky so I'll give it a test, cannot wait.

Will post the result here.
3 years 1 day ago #69355

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The guiding system.

I think it's alright now, thanks.


Yes I was missing some....

That I knew :-)


Thanks Joe for the help, very appreciated!

Sunset is 2 hours.... tic tac tic tac ....



Joe[/quote]
3 years 1 day ago #69356

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Ok, so the solving worked and thus the polar align assistant also. Still have to figure out how to use it exactly.

I tried to capture M43 with the help of the scheduler but for one reason or another, the capture didn't start. It stayed in a idle state even though the capture time was passed. Don't understand why. Any ideas?

Kstars crashed twice while slewing, had to start the whole procedure from the beginning. But that's acquiring experience isn't :-)

So things are improving and can't wait for the next clear sky (even with a almost full moon like yesterday...).

Thanks for your help.
 
3 years 10 hours ago #69381

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