Hi Magnus,

So I believe you misunderstand. I wrote the Mount Model feature in the align tab specifically because I have a Losmandy G11 and it really benefits from multiple align points. I'm not sure how many the G11 can take, but the more points you get the better the pointing model. I don't always use it, but I like that i have the feature. Ekos does not save any alignment data when it does any plate solve in the alignment module, it simply does plate solves and tells the mount where it is located. What the mount or driver does with that information is up to it.

For the Losmandy G11, it does all the alignment points and modeling internally. There are two commands that the G11 takes, the sync command and the align command. You need to make sure that the Gemini system is getting any additional alginment points from plate solving as an "align" command so that it updates the pointing model instead of shifting the model to do a sync. There is a menu option that you need to change in the hand paddle to make sure it is getting the right command. Once it builds a pointing model, it can retain that model from night to night, or you can replace the model with a new one. You cannot export the model to a computer or transfer a model to the mount as far as I know.

For EQMod, it can also build very complex models, but the model is built in the driver, not in the mount. But again this is not handled in Ekos, it is handled in the INDI driver. Since here the model is built on your computer, you can save and load the model using the INDI control panel. As I have said before, I don't know everything about the EQMod driver so I can't speak more to that.

Thanks,

Rob

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Yes that is correct, there is a "Mount Model" button in the Align Tab in Ekos. I wrote that feature about a year ago. First, you set up a series of targets to plate solve on, and it will run through each target, plate solving on each one. It has several features that will let you select certain deep sky objects, stars, or grid patterns to include in your target list, as well as a feature that will sort the targets so the telescope has to slew less to finish the whole set. It also lets you visualize the plate solving plan on the skymap so that you can ensure that your points are spread nicely around the sky.

There are two reasons you might want to use this Ekos feature. One of them is to build a pointing model for a mount that can build complex models such as the Losmandy Gemini System or the Eqmod system. Another reason is to analyze the quality of your pointing model (note that to do this you need to select "Nothing" in "Solver Action"). If you are analyzing the quality of your model, you would probably want to output the data to a spreadsheet file so that you can crunch the numbers.

Please note, this feature is not for everyone. There are mounts that can build complex models with numerous alignment points and the model gets better with each additional point (like my Losmandy). But there are also mounts that can only use a maximum of 3 or 4 points and don't try to correct for too many variables (like my Meade Autostar). Also, even if your mount can build a complex model, you might not really care about doing so, as many people just want to do a couple of plate solves at random locations around the sky and when their slews get close to the target, they find that acceptable.

But if your telescope can build a complex model, it can be really nice to spend a few extra minutes building a nice model to get excellent pointing accuracy, especially if you have a permanent observatory and the pointing model can be reused from night to night. This tool is meant to make that easier by helping you plan out and visualize a series of points that are spread out nicely around the sky since that is really necessary for a good pointing model. It also is intended to make the actual pointing model building process easier by automating it.

Unfortunately for Stephane's original question), I don't know that much about the EQMod mount and the INDI control panel settings for complex pointing models. But my understanding is that the EQMod pointing model that he is thinking of building is capable of a really LARGE number of alignment points.

Thanks and hopefully this helps a little,

Rob

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You just need the aircraft removal filter on your telescope. . .

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Hmm that pattern in the guide drift plot looks interesting. Mine usually looks like a random circular distribution with a concentration in the center and just a few points outside the green circle. It looks like yours is preferentially favoring certain directions. That diagonal spike is most interesting.

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I have lots of astrophotos of planes going by . . .

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I would say that is an airplane. the 3 streaks are the 3 different lights, the two on the wingtips and maybe one on the front. One is brighter than the other because it is the color of your exposure and thus the others are dim since they are being filtered out.

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I would recommend trying both methods to see which one works best for you. If you want to guide using an st4 cable through the auto guide port that is using “via qhy” but if you want to guide using pulse commands and avoid the st4 connection that is “via mount”

For almost 10 years (including the time before I used KStars), I was using the “via mount” method of sending guide commands through the mount connection since I figured since it’s already connected, why would I need another cable?

But then I did a side by side test where I tried calibrating and guiding using each method. I found that with my mount and my setup that it seemed to be more responsive and guided with less error using ST4 instead of pulse commands. But it was not a scientific carefully controlled test and it was just testing my setup. So I would recommend trying each yourself

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I did a bunch of work this summer and just about every INDI driver available on Linux in the main INDI repository and the 3rd party drivers is in the Mac KStars DMG

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It is in the latest kstars Mac dmg I believe

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I made the downloader last year because I thought it was a feature KStars really needed for Mac OS X. It was primarily intended for that audience because there really is no package installer for them like there is in Linux. Then it was suggested that I could make the feature work on Linux as well, but the issue is that on Linux the folder the astrometry files install to is write protected. KAuth is required to make them install in that location. I am not an expert on KAuth and as far as I know it should work correctly because I followed the instructions for using it as best I could. It often works but sometimes KAuth gives problems. So yes there are issues on Linux with that. I would like to resolve the Linux issues but I am not sure I can do anymore unless somebody who has experience with KAuth works on it.

The index file downloader should not have issues on OSX which is what I originally intended the download function for. PK, were the issues encountered on OS X or Linux? If on OS X do you have logs?

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