How to purge sky 6 data?

Paul Haese · #1 09-09-2009, 06:38 PM

I have noticed of late that when using sky 6 the pointing of the telescope is a bit off. Sometimes not even on the sensor when pointing. I was told that I could purge the sync data and wondered how I go about doing this.

Does anyone know what I am talking about?

Gama · #2 09-09-2009, 06:47 PM

Do you mean resyncing it ?.
When ever my telescope is out by a little, i just place the cross hair where it is really pointing at and do a "Resync".

Theo

Paul Haese · #3 09-09-2009, 09:29 PM

Theo, apparently you can purge the faulty information contained in the program and therefore alignments go back to normal.

montewilson (Monte) · #4 09-09-2009, 10:48 PM

I haven't got the program on this computer so I am going on memory but in a drop down menu near file is an option called user defined data. That is what I think you are looking for. You can delete entries there.

Paul Haese · #5 09-09-2009, 11:28 PM

Monte I will give that a try.

Paul Haese · #6 09-09-2009, 11:45 PM

update- Monte that was not it. Thanks all the same.

Peter Ward · #7 10-09-2009, 10:06 AM

Pual,

By sync data, do you mean the t-point model?

If so just click on the icon and delete it.

rgds

JohnG (John) · #8 10-09-2009, 10:56 AM

Hi Paul

As far as I am aware, unless you are running a T-Point model as pointed out by Peter, the Temma-2 controller does not retain any sort of Pointing Model, it relies on a very close Polar Alignment and a 1 star SYNC on startup with The Sky6.

I SYNC my NJP by placing the Alignment Star in the center of the FOV of the camera and using the X-hairs function then do a SYNC, I have always found that it helps to center a known star near the object you are about to image and SYNC on that, the object is then always within the center FOV of my 2048 x 2048 imaging chip.

I presume you are using the latest ASCOM Temma driver, V 5.0.30.

http://ccdastro.net/temma.html

Cheers

Paul Haese · #9 10-09-2009, 01:18 PM

Thanks guys. Maybe just to explain. What I have been doing is a three star alignment in sky6 desk top version. One star is on the meridian or close to it. Another on the Eastern side and one on the Western side. I use as large an area as I can with known stars. Once I have sync on three I return to the first star and sync on that. Then I select my target and slew to that. When I first did this the target was always on the sensor. Now I find it keeps getting a bit off the sensor until it now is not on it at all.

Peter, I have not been using Tpoint but have considered using it later down the track when I have full time power to the observatory.

John, I found that one star sync has not worked for me except with the pocket edition. On the desk top version it does not seem to work. Perhaps I am doing something wrong. I am using the latest version of the ascom drivers. Thanks for including the link.

rogerg (Roger) · #10 10-09-2009, 01:33 PM

I'm a little confused. To my knowledge if you're not using TPoint and doing "map" rather than "sync" then TheSky6 would not retain more than the last sync.

However the telescope's mount might.

For example using my LX200 I can sync all I want via TheSky6 and/or scope and the telescope and TheSky6 only know the last sync'd position. But using my GM-8 with Gemini, I can build up a model by syncing on multiple targets, but then I need to do that on the Gemini hand controller its self. Even with the Gemini I thought syncing in TheSky simply syncs on that target, nothing more, no accumulative effect.

Perhaps it's more likely the difference you've experienced in the past between syncing on one target vs multiple is just setup/alignment on the night and what particular object you syncd on last ?

If your pointing was good and is now worse I would first suspect the mount has drifted off alignment slightly or some other mechanical factor is at play, or perhaps the date/time on PC and/or telescope has drifted off.

My 2c worth of random thoughts which might not help at all, but oh well!

Roger.

JohnG (John) · #11 10-09-2009, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

John, I found that one star sync has not worked for me except with the pocket edition. On the desk top version it does not seem to work. Perhaps I am doing something wrong. I am using the latest version of the ascom drivers. Thanks for including the link.

Interesting, I have used The Sky6 Professional Edition for some time now on a desktop in the Observatory and have absolutely no trouble at all getting the NJP to travel all over the sky and place an object in the FOV of the SBIG. Your EM-400 has the same Temma-2 controller so the setup and operation should be the same. All that is required is a 1 star SYNC and provided your Polar Alignment is very good, that is it

.

When imaging, as I said, I go to a star near the target, do a SYNC, that resets the model, and then onto the target without any dramas, on shutdown the Temma-2 loses the alignment data (unless you are using the POTH ASCOM function and go to another program).

Strange, only thing I can think of is that your Polar Alignment has shifted slightly.

Cheers

PeterM · #12 10-09-2009, 10:44 PM

Hi Paul,
I think Roger maybe on the money with the time in the PC/Scope. Have you checked the time recently in your computer that runs the SKY6. Once a month I "sync" the time in the computer to the time from the LX200GPS. The lappy often gets behind the GPS. I am also not sure what advantage Syncing on all 3 stars would be (but perhaps errors get accumulated here?) as I think the most recent sync is the one the SKY6 uses, then when you set up the PC/Scope next time you do it over again, nothing I am aware of is retained that affects the 'scope directly other than setting park position (slew limits and the basic connections usb port, scope type etc).
My routine is (it is alt az, but I have seen the same work on a polar aligned scope) - Run the SKY6, turn on the scope (it's in a user parked position that I set in the SKY6) Pick a star (only one) to slew to, press goto, GPS is found and then slews to object from park position (star is always in the focus window of the Starlight Xpress) center the star in focus window. Connect to the SKY6 and "sync" on the star and presto everything is always reasonably centered on the chip. When finished I send the scope back to the park position and shut down everything.
Also found this on SKY6 site, don't know if it is of any value but it has some procedures and symptom/cause info.
http://www.bisque.com/help/theskyV6/...ashi_EM200.htm
PeterM.

Tandum (Robin) · #13 11-09-2009, 12:28 AM

I might add that I had trouble with sky6 and uninstalled it. Upon a reinstall it showed me the same issue. I uninstalled again and then searched the hard drive and registry and deleted all instances of sky data.

Is it gone? After another reinstall it immediately showed me FOV for my scopes yet I thought I had completely removed it. You got me, I have no idea where it hides out and I do computers for a living

Dennis · #14 11-09-2009, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tandum

I might add that I had trouble with sky6 and uninstalled it. Upon a reinstall it showed me the same issue. I uninstalled again and then searched the hard drive and registry and deleted all instances of sky data.

Is it gone? After another reinstall it immediately showed me FOV for my scopes yet I thought I had completely removed it. You got me, I have no idea where it hides out and I do computers for a living

Found here:

C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR NAME HERE\My Documents\Software Bisque\TheSky6\Field of View Indicators

Cheers

Dennis

PeterM · #15 11-09-2009, 08:28 AM

Hi Robin,
I imagine you already know the info below (but some don't). I wonder if somehow the file I note below was still residing somewhere (my docs) on your computer when you reinstalled the SKY6 and thats how it found your old FOVs from a prior install? Not sure that would be possible.
Amyway, the SKY6 saves a copy of the last "save" in My Documents under My Documents/Software Bisque/The SKY6 - the SKY 6 uses this file on start up. This is a very handy file can be backED up every now and then onto say a usb stick. That way if you intentionally remove & reinstall the SKY6 or your computer dies or you want the same setup on another computer, you simply reinstall The Sky6, run it as is (this creates the new "backup" file in My Documents) you then close the Sky6. Now open My Documents, open Software Bisque then delete the file labelled Sky6. You then cut and paste the SKY6 backup you have on your usb stick into My documents/SoftwareBisque. This will then ensure when you restart the SKY6 you have all your horizons, fovs etc etc and saves having to rebuild all your settings all over.
PeterM.