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Old 16-08-2019, 09:59 PM
RussellH
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Ekos polar alignment backwards?

Hi all,

Anyone use Ekos for polar alignment? I just tried my first polar alignment using Ekos. Not sure if it’s a new record, but it’s taken me about 4 hours. The reason being because it’s my first time, I didn’t know what to look for when the routine kept failing me, and because Ekos seems to have the correction vector backwards!

Watching the official YouTube video describing how it works, Jaime says the put the star on the end of the correction vector, and move it into the crosshairs. I did that for over 3 hours, wondering why every time I redrawn it, that my alignment seemed to be getting worse. The it finally clicked. If it kept getting worse instead of better with each iteration, the it was pointing in the wrong direction. So I simply started reversing the vector, putting the star in the crosshairs and moving it to the other end of the vector, and lo and behold, I now have an alignment with 26 arc seconds of error, instead of the 2-3 degrees I’ve been struggling with all night.

So, has anyone else noticed this? Is it possibly a Southern Hemisphere thing? Is there a setting I should be putting somewhere, or is it just a bug that I haven’t found reported elsewhere, so I doubt it).

Russell.
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Old 17-08-2019, 02:41 PM
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Spartacus
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Hi Russell,

No such problems in EKOS for me.
Are you using the polar alignment assistant in an Automated fashion? I find it best to do a quick polar alignment with SharpCap and a polemaster type set up. This gets me close. I then use the automated EKOS polar alignment although that is just my routine. As long as you are not miles off EKOS should work on its own. (This won't work if your FOV is too narrow (i.e. SCT F10).
Let it do the 3 captures (push up the speed to X600 as mine wanted to default to X64) and work out the vector. I then go toggle on to the expanded screen and zoom in so that everything is nice and big. Find a bright star and click on it once. The vector path will show up in purple from the star to a cross at the end of the line.
Now toggle back to the polar alignment tab and click refresh (1 sec is OK esp if using the main scope rather than a guidescope). Toggle back to the expanded star field with the alignment vector. Now move your azimuth and alt controls until the star is directly under the cross.
Bingo! you are usually within 5 arc mins of the pole.
Go back to the alignment screen and click done.
The mount will go back to parked position and you are done. You can re-do but I have never found that really worthwhile.
If you want spot on PA you are best to drift align in PhD2 IMHO.

Hope this helps

Mike
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Old 17-08-2019, 03:05 PM
RussellH
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Thanks Mike.

I also went to the Indi support forums with the question, and Jasem the developer said he has seen the problem before but has no idea what’s causing it. He’s just patched the Ekos nightly builds to flip it for the southern hemisphere, so I hope it doesn’t mess up anyone who isn’t having the problem!

I just have to figure out how to get the nightly build now....
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Old 18-08-2019, 10:44 AM
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Hi Russell,

I had the scope out last night and the PA routine was pretty faultless. We often see this with KStars. No idea why some users have problems while others don't.
So much potential for problems as everyone's gear introduces possibilities for differing interactions with the software.
Last night I was unable to get the ANSVR solving on Windows but the offline solver on my Odroid was perfect, solving in 15 secs so go figure eh?
At least we are getting some clear skies around Brissy now even though they always coincide with full moons.
I read your post and Jasem's reply on the INDI forum. Hope that the nightly build sorts it out. At least others are having similar problems.
Let us know how you get on.

Mike
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Old 18-08-2019, 11:34 AM
RussellH
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Well the build worked for polar alignment, but as mentioned over there in my reply, I’ve given up on running Kstars directly on the Pi. Just hangs too much and is very slow sometimes, although oddly enough, it was plate solving locally in 9 seconds, which is leaps and bounds better than online which was taking 65 seconds.

Ht I’ve spent the whole morning today getting all the astrometry setup on my Windows machine, which will be image processing workstation, so we’ll see how ANSVAR treats me tonight.

I’m also doing a clean install of OSX High Sierra on my old iMac (still an i7 with 12Gb RAM though), as it’s the machine in my bedroom, where the scope is just outside when viewing, so easy access. This machine has been running like a pig for years, taking 5 minutes to boot up and the hard drive thrashing the whole time I use it. I’ve tried many times to run cleanup routines which make no difference, so hopefully this will give it some new life. If not, OSX will be dead to me and I’ll turn it into a Linux box.

So I’m just going to run Indi Server on the Pi headless usually, unless I need at-scope adjustments, in which case I’ll vnc using my iPad. Only pain dong it this way is that I have to leave ones of my desktop machines running for the whole session. Maybe when the Pi 4 build is stable, I’ll revisit a compete Pi solution.

I’ll have to compare solving on the Mac with native Astrometry vs ANSVAR on the windows machine, as if the Mac works OK, it’ll probably be the one running all night.
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Old 18-08-2019, 04:16 PM
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Hi Russell,

Yep, the Pi was too slow for me too. An Odroid XU4 with 4GB ram is sooo much faster and pretty cheap too. I suspect that the Pi 4 will be even better in it's 4GB guise but I am not going to be an early adopter as currently everything works well and if it ain't broken as they say etc.
In my experience the ANSVR solver is a bit sensitive to settings and occasionally it just stops working. Interestingly when this happens I just reinstall it and everything works again. No idea why.

Good luck
Mike
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Old 18-08-2019, 06:07 PM
RussellH
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I haven’t investigated Odroids before. Never knew they were an option. A quick google has me intrigued. 4A PSU! That’s a beefy for 5v. Don’t see any mention of build in wifi. Do you have to add that extra? I’ll have to see if there’s any benchmarks with the Pi. No that I’m looking to get one. I’m broke already from all this Astro gear, and still have other more essential things to buy.

Russell.
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Old 19-08-2019, 08:05 AM
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Hi Russell,

The XU4 odroid works well for me. It needs cooling as it produces more heat than a Pi. You can get built in fans and heat sinks. WiFi is just a plug in arial so factor that in. I have put mine in box with fan, motor focuser, dew controller, 12 volt distribution supply, and USB3 7 port hub and. A single 10 A 12 volt supply supplies the lot with a step down for the Odroid.

There is a new Odroid, the N2 but VNC possibilities are limited (No Machine is the only one that I know of that works). Team Viewer works with the Odroid (not Real VNC). I run Ubuntu Mate and is generally pretty stable (well as stable as KStars gets anyway .

Happy to advise if you take the plunge.

Mike
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Old 19-08-2019, 05:07 PM
RussellH
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Thanks. I hunt you down if ai need a Q&A
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