Astro photography tool

[Yoddha]

Hello Karl,

Thank you for your support for the APT project!

[Loupy31 (Peter)]

Hi Yoddha,

Does APT have native support for ZWO ASI1600mm pro Support?

Cheers Peter

[Yoddha]

Hi Peter,

APT can control all ZWO cameras via ASCOM driver. The native support is scheduled for version 3.70.

We are finishing 3.60 in the moment so have to start working on 3.70 very soon

[Loupy31 (Peter)]

Originally Posted by Yoddha

Hi Peter,

APT can control all ZWO cameras via ASCOM driver. The native support is scheduled for version 3.70.

We are finishing 3.60 in the moment so have to start working on 3.70 very soon

I purchased APT yesterday, looks great.

Regards Peter

[Yoddha]

Many thanks Peter!

[Yoddha]

We are very excited to announce that the long awaited version 3.60 with the automated meridian flip feature is finally here It took a lot of efforts, research, discussions and tests to reach this important milestone for the APT project. We want to express our special thanks for all the support we got during the long way to achieve this goal!

APT 3.60 comes as rewarding ending of a very productive year. We hope the coming 2019 to be even more interesting!

The usual list of the changes is available here:
http://www.astrophotography.app/news

Happy Holidays!

[Imme (Jon)]

Great stuff Ivo. Look forward to trying this out!
Milestone for you guys

[ChrisV (Chris)]

Sounds excellent. Thanks Ivo, I'll try it as soon as things clear in Sydney. Whenever that will be ...

[Imme (Jon)]

Hi Ivo,
Little advice if you can on the new 3.60 version with Meridian Flip.
It seems I'm having a few issues selecting the "Make automatic flip" check box. When I tick it a "Make sure you read user manual, etc" message comes up. I then click OK and another configuration problem message comes up about what guiding is supported. One of the listed items here is PHD2 which I am running.....seems the program doesn't recognise that I am???? I do note that APT does show it recognises I'm using PHD2 in things like pointcraft as it says "stopping PHD2 guiding"

I am guessing this is user error rather than program error....any hints on what I may/may not have set up correctly?

[Yoddha]

Hi Jon,

Since version 3.57 PHD and PHD2 were supported by same way. In 3.57 we added native PHD2 support which is used by the Meridian Flip.

Please make sure that you have selected the option PHD2 in Gear Tab->Guide.

[Yoddha]

We had to release a version 3.61 to fix some problems. Apologies for the inconvenience!

2019/01/02 - v.3.61 Fixes
- Fixed possibility to loose frames after Automatic Meridian Flip
- Fixed possibility image plan to hang on Dithering when Dithering Delay is used and there is no running guiding
- Fixed no preview when Shoot is used with RAW only on Nikon DSLR

[Imme (Jon)]

Originally Posted by Yoddha

Hi Jon,

Since version 3.57 PHD and PHD2 were supported by same way. In 3.57 we added native PHD2 support which is used by the Meridian Flip.

Please make sure that you have selected the option PHD2 in Gear Tab->Guide.

Yes, phd2 is listed in gear tab and it works perfectly in all other aspects of the program. Guiding starts and stops when it should, it auto selects guide stars, etc, etc.

.....just seems it isn’t recognising it when it comes to ‘auto meridian flip’.

If I do a ‘force flip’ with the button it starts and stops the guiding and restarts it so it knows phd2 is th eprogram of choice.

[Yoddha]

Hi Jon,

I have just tried a manual flip with the simulator, but can see the error message ?!?! Could you send me a screenshot of the guide settings?

[Yoddha]

Two more fixes could be needed for problem-less Automatic Meridian Flip. This is the reason to release 3.62. Apologies for the inconvenience!

2019/01/04 - v.3.62 Fixes
- Fixed random APT hanging after Automatic Meridian Flip when Nikon camera is used
- Fixed possibility APT to hang after Automatic Meridian Flip when PHD2 re-calibration is used

[The_bluester (Paul)]

I started using the trial version a week ago and bought the full version two days ago, overall a very impressive suite. I did have some issues with dithering, but to be honest I found mount issues that I am in the middle of fixing which may have had an impact. When trying to use dithering on short exposures it would often hang and timeout before continuing, PHD2 showed the dither and was guiding again, it seemed like APT was not getting the response that the dither was completed.


I am not ruling out finger trouble on my part yet.

[Yoddha]

Hello Paul,

Thank you for your support! I'll research and see if there is something obvious with the dithering. Please let me know how it behaves when you fix the mount problems.

[Imme (Jon)]

Originally Posted by Yoddha

Hi Jon,

I have just tried a manual flip with the simulator, but can see the error message ?!?! Could you send me a screenshot of the guide settings?

Hi yoddha. I’m away from home for a week or so. Will shoot through the screenshots when I get back.

Thanks for the ongoing support on this fantastic software package

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Is there a log file that might provide any useful information on what it is doing? My mount is functional at this stage, just not really “Fixed” yet.

If I get clear skies on Friday or Saturday nights this week I will be able to test. The near quarter moon will mean deep sky objects won’t be worth imaging anyway so I can test to my hearts content without feeling like I should be capturing image data.

[Yoddha]

The log file can be exported via Settings->Main->Export Log

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Thanks, I had not had a chance to go looking yet, having gone hunting logs in other software the assumption is normally that I will have to go find where it is being written!

If we get decent skies this weekend I should be able to set up again and see if I can replicate the behavior.