Centering after meridian flip

Joseph Beyer

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Aug 22, 2022, 1:39:23 PM8/22/22

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Hi everyone,

I’ve got a basic question regarding NINA. I typically haven’t used meridian flips during narrowband imaging but last night started imaging early and flipped mid sequence. I had the SII filter in place at the time of the flip. When it came time to recenter the plate solve failed. My standard plate solve settings are configured for the Luminance filter and obviously the exposure was too short with the SII filter. I figured out the reason for failure pretty quickly and got back on track.

I’m curious where the proper instruction should be placed to change the filter to “L” in this case of narrow band imaging. Possibly under “Instructions” just prior to the “Slew and Center” under the Exposure Info tab? Then I’m assuming once the imaging queue resumes the filter last used for prior to the flip will be selected again?

The meridian flips and recentering using LRGB filters have always gone off without a hitch. I’m assuming because the exposures are sufficient for plate solving regardless of which one is in the light path.

Joe

Francesco Meschia

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Aug 22, 2022, 1:41:37 PM8/22/22

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That’s strange – would you like to share your NINA log file?
Francesco

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Joseph Beyer

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Aug 22, 2022, 3:06:48 PM8/22/22

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Francesco,

Yes, no problem. Thanks for the offer. I just remembered the flip itself didn’t occur as planned. I generally use the smart meridian flip feature with my AP Mach1 and it works every time. I forgot to change that parameter in my narrow band template and even though the banner appeared and counted down the steps for a flip it didn’t happen and it kept imaging. I was getting ready to flip the mount from the AP software and in the meantime quickly stopped and started the imaging sequence. After starting NINA again it flipped immediately but couldn’t perform the plate solve with the Sll filter in line. Not sure what happened but for some reason I’ve not been able to configure a flip using the standard trigger.

I’ll get the log when I go out to update the sequence on the computer at the mount.

Thanks again, Joe

> On Aug 22, 2022, at 10:41 AM, Francesco Meschia <francesc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> That’s strange – would you like to share your NINA log file?

> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sjaa-astroimaging/17E075DB-6D6A-46EB-BED4-8A454FDE6376%40gmail.com.

Joseph Beyer

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Aug 22, 2022, 11:26:56 PM8/22/22

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Francesco,

The log file from last night can be downloaded from the following link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nZnbnkdIAYESLfSDumwAeT7Vnd9x4ruc/view?usp=sharing

The imaging session was uneventful until the meridian flip which was scheduled at 23:18. Not sure what ultimately triggered the flip. After I noticed the pointing problem, I tried repointing manually from Framing Assistant then noticed the filter wheel was still using the SII filter for plate solves. Changing the filter got me back on the object but restarting the program didn’t automatically change the filter and I needed to trigger a switch to SII. After that things went along as planned until I shutdown due to fog. I’ve since changed the sequence to include a smart meridian flip. Probably won’t get a chance to image tonight, the fog is nearly here already, I’ll try again tomorrow night. As I mentioned I don’t remember performing a meridian flip during SHO imaging.

Thanks, Joe

On Aug 22, 2022, at 10:41 AM, Francesco Meschia <francesc...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Francesco Meschia

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Aug 23, 2022, 12:13:03 AM8/23/22

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There seem to be multiple things that didn’t work. The standard meridian flip failed to command a successful flip for the mount, first of all. There could be different reasons for that, including a bug, but if the Smart Meridian Flip works for you, you can continue using that and not worry about possible bugs.

Then, the recentering routine didn’t trigger a filter switch. I have no idea of the reason for that, it always worked reliably for me.

I recommend setting the log level to DEBUG for the future, at TRACE as it is now it is too verbose to analyze comfortably.

Francesco

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Joseph Beyer

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Aug 23, 2022, 12:22:17 AM8/23/22

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Thanks Francesco,

Yes I agree. When I set up the program the instructions I followed recommended setting logging at Trace but until today I had no idea how big the files were after several hours of imaging. Exactly like you say, there’s too much information in the file to comb through looking for abstract problems.

I’ll see how the next session goes and let you know.

Joe

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Francesco Meschia

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Aug 23, 2022, 12:25:01 AM8/23/22

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I am pasting below an example of a “normal” meridian flip. As you can see, the recentering routine commanded a filter switch to Luminance. The odd part is that the class that does that, MeridianFlipVM, is shared between the default meridian flip trigger and the smart meridian flip trigger. Which makes me suspicious that something else may be at play.

Current target coordinates RA: 19:38:12 Dec: 32° 35' 29" Epoch: JNOW

Remaining wait time: 00:00:00

Pause Time Before Meridian: 20

Minutes After Meridian: 35

Max Minutes After Meridian: 35

AutoFocus After Flip: False

Recenter: True

Use SideOfPier: True

Settle Time: 30

2022-08-20T23:08:51.6065|INFO|PixInsightScript.cs|RunPixInsightScript|64|Starting process: "E:\Program Files\PixInsight\bin\PixInsight.exe" --execute=153:"C:\Users\Francesco\AppData\Local\NINA\Plugins\PixInsight Tools\Scripts\calibrate.js,'32890e23-3883-40f8-a980-684019aea3a8','D:\2022-08-20\LIGHT\Maa 1_2022-08-20_22-58-34_SII_0.00_600.00s_0004.xisf','E:\Francesco\Documents\N.I.N.A\LiveStack','E:\Francesco\Astroimaging\Calibration - ASI294MM\MasterDarks\MasterDark_Gain120_Offset10_Temp-10C_600s.xisf','E:\Francesco\Astroimaging\2022-08-08\master\masterFlat_BIN-2_4144x2822_FILTER-SII_Mono.xisf','',False,0,False,'','_c'" --automation-mode

2022-08-20T23:09:41.1062|INFO|PixInsightScript.cs|RunPixInsightScript|64|Starting process: "E:\Program Files\PixInsight\bin\PixInsight.exe" --execute=153:"C:\Users\Francesco\AppData\Local\NINA\Plugins\PixInsight Tools\Scripts\resample.js,'e3f17e43-351b-4ea8-8f0b-7b026016dd77',E:\Francesco\Documents\N.I.N.A\LiveStack\Maa 1_2022-08-20_22-58-34_SII_0.00_600.00s_0004_c.xisf,2,E:\Francesco\Documents\N.I.N.A\LiveStack\Maa 1_2022-08-20_22-58-34_SII_0.00_600.00s_0004_c_i.xisf,E:\Francesco\Documents\N.I.N.A\LiveStack" --automation-mode

2022-08-20T23:09:48.2761|INFO|PixInsightScript.cs|RunPixInsightScript|64|Starting process: "E:\Program Files\PixInsight\bin\PixInsight.exe" --execute=153:"C:\Users\Francesco\AppData\Local\NINA\Plugins\PixInsight Tools\Scripts\alignment.js,'fa38cb9d-9d5c-49c5-9c00-0f2989df4a54',E:\Francesco\Documents\N.I.N.A\LiveStack\MASTER_LIGHT_Maa 1_SII.xisf,E:\Francesco\Documents\N.I.N.A\LiveStack\Maa 1_2022-08-20_22-58-34_SII_0.00_600.00s_0004_c_i.xisf,E:\Francesco\Documents\N.I.N.A\LiveStack" --automation-mode

2022-08-20T23:10:06.5782|INFO|PixInsightScript.cs|RunPixInsightScript|64|Starting process: "E:\Program Files\PixInsight\bin\PixInsight.exe" --execute=153:"C:\Users\Francesco\AppData\Local\NINA\Plugins\PixInsight Tools\Scripts\pixelmath_stack.js,'b8353c6e-00f6-443f-964c-b492dbe31ccb',E:\Francesco\Documents\N.I.N.A\LiveStack\Maa 1_2022-08-20_22-58-34_SII_0.00_600.00s_0004_c_i_r.xisf,E:\Francesco\Documents\N.I.N.A\LiveStack\MASTER_LIGHT_Maa 1_SII.xisf,E:\Francesco\Documents\N.I.N.A\LiveStack,False" --automation-mode

2022-08-20T23:10:12.2909|INFO|ImageSolver.cs|Solve|41|Platesolving with parameters: FocalLength: 730 PixelSize: 4.63 SearchRadius: 120 BlindFailoverEnabled: True Regions: 5000 DownSampleFactor: 0 MaxObjects: 500 Reference Coordinates RA: 19:37:19 Dec: 32° 32' 18" Epoch: J2000

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Joseph Beyer

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Aug 23, 2022, 12:51:01 AM8/23/22

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Interesting, this must be the level of detail recorded at DEBUG level. At TRACE level there were tens if not hundreds of lines for a single minute. I saw a lot of entries where Dec and RA coordinates were recorded in triplicate for who knows what reason.

I'll need to create a test SHO sequence for a target that crosses the meridian earlier in the evening so I can watch the progress more closely.

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Francesco Meschia

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Aug 23, 2022, 12:54:24 AM8/23/22

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This is actually at log level INFO, even less verbose than DEBUG.

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Joseph Beyer

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Aug 24, 2022, 12:53:22 PM8/24/22

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Last night the smart meridian flipped worked just like it should. I still had the problem where the centering plate solve failed. Sent a message to Discord and found out it’s likely because I hadn’t selected the luminance filter to use in Options > Plate Solving set up menu so it was set to “Current”. Likely why there was no filter change from the narrow band filter used in the image prior to the flip. I’ve changed it to use the luminance filter and will give it a try tonight. Imaging in LRGB and narrow band is an entirely different experience than OSC!

Thanks for the help. Joe

On Aug 22, 2022, at 9:54 PM, Francesco Meschia <francesc...@gmail.com> wrote:

This is actually at log level INFO, even less verbose than DEBUG.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sjaa-astroimaging/CBF16273-9241-4F3A-9443-4001ABA20878%40gmail.com.

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