KStars/Ekos Mount Model Tool With OnStep
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- Опубликовано: 5 окт 2024
- The Mount Model tool within KStars/Ekos can be used to quickly align your mount using plate solving.
The steps are:
1. Start a 3 or 6 star align from the INDI driver, or the Android App.
2. In the Capture tab, select 'Sync' as the action for 'Capture and Solve'.
3. From the Align tab, Select Mount Model, then populate the tool with the stars you want, or make it select stars automatically for you, e.g. by increasing the altitude.
4. Press the Run button.
Thanks Khalid for your work on OnStep and your videos are helpful to users making transition to this system.
Can you make a video about Polar alignment using Ekos using OnStep please?
If you are autoguiding, then don't bother with precise polar alignment, since autoguiding takes care of it anyway. I just use the polar scope for a rough align, and continue with my session.
If you want to do better polar alignment then just start a 3 star align in OnStep, then use "Capture and Solve", with "Sync" as the action, and do it for 3 stars. OnStep will tell you the error in the altitude and azimuth. If it is large, you may decide to do Refine PA by slewing to a star on the meridian, then centering it using the Alt and Az knobs.
Too much work for something that is not necessary, if you are autoguiding.
Hi Khalid, nice and simple video/use of the alignment tool, unfortunately didn't work for me - so I am wondering the possible reason why. In my situation : I run kstars in Ubuntu18 and just am trying my new onstep controler (MksGen2+TMC2130+Nema17, 0.9deg.rev). I am using offline solver (as in your video) and I was able to solve plates without issues while Telescope +CCD Simulators are used in Ekos. However, while using OnStep controller as a telescope driver in Ekos/kstars ( otherwise working well and being able to align in Sky Planetarium in win8) the Ekos - align process fails all the time: I am guessing why but not sure how to fix it. While using Telescope+CCD simulators I am able to see the stars (from GSC) and then Astrometry.net solve the plate( in most of occasions). When using OnStep Telescope drivers - the window become filled with noise only instead of visible stars and background noise. I gues kstars/Ekos are getting a different position on the sky from onstep and so the plate coordinates are not solved correctly. Here is what I am getting:
2020-04-17T13:40:05 Solver failed. Try again.
2020-04-17T13:39:59 Starting solver...
2020-04-17T13:39:59 Image received.
2020-04-17T13:39:58 Capturing image..
Is there any way of fix this or it is because of MksGenL2? I haven't yet tested on the mount yet. Would you suggest any further steps? Thanks for reading.
Plamen
I don't think the MKS Gen-L V2 or any OnStep board has anything to do with this. It is all in INDI and Ekos.
One thing that causes failure is the field of view and the astrometry.net indexes. They have to match. If your field of views is X degrees, then you have to have indexes for 1/10th of X degrees too. Jasem explains that in a video. The best way to measure the field of view is to take an image, and upload it to astrometry.net and the solved image will have the exact image dimensions.
Another thing that may be the cause is your camera's pixel scale. If it is not set right in INDI, then solving will fail.
A third thing is the dimensions of the images that you capture. For example, when I use a DSLR, and use a different image format (e.g. fine medium), plate solving no longer works.
A final thing is that plate solving never works right in the Milky Way. So stay away from that.
@@khalid_ba Thanks a lot! I will check Jasem's video for more details.
Hi Khalid, you did not said, how to make the model permanet. In the OnStep driver are buttons "issue Align" and "write align". What about them?
Model can only be permanent if the mount is in a fixed pier. The way to do that is to Park the scope after you have finished the alignment. Then the next you power it up, you do an Unpark and it will load the previous model.
The term "issue align" just says "I am done with one star, move to the next". I can't remember what "write align" is for.