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D.A.R.V 'Drift Alignment by Robert Vice method'

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Is it possible to add this method into Kstars? Thanks.
5 years 5 months ago #30865

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Yes this would be cool if it was added to ekos.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Tom
5 years 5 months ago #30866

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The existing polar alignment routine is very good and after reading about D.A.R.V. method, the current routine with guide camera is probably faster and more accurate.
Although I can see that the D.A.R.V. method would work well for setups that do not have a guide camera.
5 years 5 months ago #30892

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I don't have north facing view so cant use the existing method. I usually do the DARV manually followed by legacy polar alignment in ekos.
5 years 5 months ago #30894

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I see. I'll have to keep D.A.R.V. in mind if I'm ever setup without a view to the north.
5 years 5 months ago #30895

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Polaris is almost 3deg in my country. So, DARV is my only method. :)
5 years 5 months ago #30900

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Bump..... Is this method can be accept into Kstars EKOS? Btw, request is made. bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=401689
Last edit: 5 years 3 months ago by Tom.
5 years 3 months ago #32281

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The PHD2 style drift alignment or Astrotortilla style would be faster and more accurate. They operate on the same principle as DARV measuring drift apnea dec 0. But DARV uses visual measurement of drift whereas PHD2 and AT measure the drift automatically. PHD2 measures from a guide star while AT uses plate solving. EKOS uses plate solving so an AT style method may be possible.
5 years 3 months ago #32291

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double message deleted
Last edit: 4 years 8 months ago by Axel . Reason: double message deleted
4 years 10 months ago #38731

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So do I. I have no view to north. D.A.R.V. brings me very near to an acceptable alignment. And PHD2, as EKOS requires at least a good first align and view to the NCP before you can even use it.

D.A.R.V. - in my opinion - is an elementary alignment tool / method. Until I detected D.A.R.V, I never could get my mount aligned correctly on my balcony.
Also a very famous windows competitor application (APT), which I cannot and will not use because I like EKOS on my astroberry (based on Raspberry Pi) implemented this method.

It is so simple and yet practical. Turn tracking on. Take photo and capture / solve, slew to south at declination zero, take a photo with the D.A.R.V method, correct azimuth. Slew to east at declination zero, take a DARV-Photo, correct altitude. Within 20 minutes you get very good results.
www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articl...by-robert-vice-r2760
Genious and simple, and it works.

If I just had time and knew how to inplement… I would do a simple routine like

1. Turn tracking on
2. Analyse the cameras FOV parameters and calculate the best parameters for slew speed for a D.A.R.V.

3. define / search a star near south / declination zero.
4. Slew to the star and do capture and solve
5. do D.A.R.V sequence and show it in the FITS viewer
6. show a simple advice what to do, "Repeat sequence" button, "Next" button

7. define / search a star near east or west / declination zero.
8. Slew to the star and do capture and solve
9. do D.A.R.V sequence and show it in the FITS viewer
10. show a simple advice what to do, "Repeat sequence" button, "Finish" button
11. repeat sequence


Cheers Axel
Last edit: 4 years 8 months ago by Axel .
4 years 10 months ago #38732

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Hi altogether,

now that my setup of OnStep, the astroberry pi, focuser and so on is ready, I am starting to dig deeper into KSTARS and EKOS.

Since I use D.A.R.V. (manually) and wanted to integrate it into my workflow, I came about Jasems development guides. For programming, I don't have the time at the moment. Fortunately INDI is easily scriptable: indilib.org/develop/developer-manual/104-scripting.html - and I did it :-) Feel free to mail me your ideas or post at this thread - no cross posts supported (really!) ;-)

This is my very simple bash script which should do the thing. It works on the simulator. I cannot test it at the moment.

- github.com/apos/kstars_scripts/tree/master/d_a_r_v


One question. Setting the position of the scope can only be positioned with RA/DEC, not ALT/AZ coordinates. This is OK, and I am using the (bad) algorithm to get near the meridian. I know the following solution is not very good. If someone has a better idea -> post here.

<code> south=$(date +%I)
actMinute=$(date +%M)
actSecond=$(date +%S)
indi_setprop "${indi_telescope}.EQUATORIAL_EOD_COORD.RA;DEC=$south:$actMinute:$actSecond;$(( 0+$decOffsetNS ))"</code>

=><code> indi_setprop "Telscope Simulatior.EQUATORIAL_EOD_COORD.RA;DEC=09:39:23;0"</code>
where 09:39:23 is the local time in 12 hour format.

Cheers, Axel
Last edit: 10 months 19 hours ago by Axel .
3 years 11 months ago #52172

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