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Meridian Flips and Catalog Management
6
Greetings All- I¡¯m a visual astronomer who just upgraded to Level 6 to pave the way for a possible jump into imaging (heaven help my bank account). Four questions I have either been unable to find or discover answers for: 1. Does anyone know if, while doing a GoTo via the Hand Controller, there¡¯s a way to always force a meridian flip. I know I can check the Flip box in the dialog just before pressing Goto, but can I somehow make that setting stick? 2. In L6, when tracking an object across the meridian, will the Gemini-II automatically flip and continue tracking, or does it just stop once it hits a safety limit? In L5, I believe it just stops and sounds a beeping alarm. 3. To reduce scrolling through an ever-longer catalog list in L6, can I delete unwanted catalogs? 4. Can I reorder the catalogs, perhaps by renaming what I want at the top by prepending a 1, e.g., ¡°NGC¡± becomes ¡°1NGC¡±, ¡°Messier¡± becomes ¡°2Messier, etc? Thanks in advance for sharing what collective wisdom you might have. -Paul
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Hi All, I recently hooked up a Linux PC/indi driver to my Gemini 2, and it seems that ever since then my ASCOM driver or Gemini 2 does not track in sidereal (RA). I¡¯ve reset my USB Settings in Windows, I¡¯ve reset my Gemini 2 controller, powered off, and then cold restarted, and I¡¯ve also re-inputted my mount¡¯s settings. Still, when the mount is commanded to slew to a point, such as when calibrating PHD2 guider or starting a sequence in SGP, it does perfectly but instead of the expected point stars, I observe star trails and no sidereal tracking upon reaching the target point. I¡¯ve uploaded a set of troubleshooting logs located in files/ ¡°promero 12-3-2024¡±. A look at the gemini webpage for iphone shows nominal voltage and battery voltage. I have tried going back to the .25 ASCOM driver version, but nothing changes. I have the latest firmware updates. The mount is a MI-250. In a perhaps related issue, when used, my ethernet connection disconnects after a minute or two, but my USB connection seems stable. This started occurring after I changed my router model and network physical setup. All other network devices work fine. Clear Skies, Paul
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Just got my G811 back from Losmandy with the L6 update. Tonight it is giving me star trails when tracking on short exposures (5 seconds). I have no idea what's going on, any advice?
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Problem, G11 Gemini 2 cold start & GOTO
5
Thank you all for your past help, I¡¯m all upgraded with ver 6 and servo driver 3. I have my date, time, time zone, Lat/Lon all set correctly. I noticed that when I do a cold start in CWD pointing north with my mount angle set to the proper angle, then tell it to go to Polaris, the servos kick in and move the mount, I¡¯d assume that it shouldn¡¯t move, that it should assume that it¡¯s alreadypointing at Polaris upon cold start, am I incorrect? I then manually pointed and then pressed synchronize on Polaris, then I told it to GOTO Jupiter, after mount movement the upward angle looked roughly correct but it was pointing about 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Any thoughts? Many thanks, Bob at 7,000¡¯ in dark sky Flagstaff, AZ
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Folks, Gemini L6.02 firmware and Hand Controller v1.61 firmware are now out of beta test, and available to everyone. This version enables full use of PEC with L6 and with PEMPro. In addition, it addresses some issues reported by the Southern hemisphere users, and adds a few new serial commands that make Gemini controller even more powerful. Steps to update 1. Update Gemini firmware using the latest GFU utility, v1.0.31 https://gemini-2.com/GFU-download.html. Update HC version also if yours is older than v1.61, by checking the HC checkbox near the top of GFU window. 2. If you use PEMPro, install v3.10.07 or later that's compatible with Gemini L6.02 from here: https://www.siriusimaging.com/PEMProV3/PEMProV3_Release_v3.10.07.exe. Follow instructions by Brian Valente for using PEMPro with L6: /g/Gemini-II/files/Gemini%20L6.02%20beta%20files/Losmandy_PEC_Primer_for_L6.pdf 3. If you use ASCOM, you may want to update your version to the latest driver (v1.1.25): https://gemini-2.com/ASCOM.html 4. Latest serial command documentation is available: https://gemini-2.com/web/L6V02serial.html NOTE 1: If you can't use GFU, you can still update the firmware to L6.02 by using the combined firmware file from here: https://gemini-2.com/firmware1/combined602.zip and update Gemini using Gemini web pages or by copying the appropriate files directly to the microSD card through FTP or by removing the SD card. NOTE 2: Remember to also update PIC controllers to v3 firmware to get the 4x encoder resolution if you are upgrading from L5. You should see this in the Gemini web pages after the update: Regards, -Paul
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I recently added an RA extension and 12" pier extension to my g11 mount. I wanted to improve functionality around the meridian and these upgrades did exactly that by reducing the time I need to wait to execute a flip. As usual a new problem became apparent... My rig generally shows guiding accuracy of 0.5 seconds or less. After the two upgrades it will be going along fine then all at once guiding turns to garbage. I attached a screen shot as an example. My first thought is something is loose in/on one of the extensions but I did take care to tighten the set screws with considerable effort. Before I pull the scope off and check everything, I thought I would ask the group if there were any other ideas. Several of the screws on the RA extension were installed at the factory and the ones I checked felt tight. Any ideas, including the obvious one, are are appreciated. Tom
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Guiding with ASIAir Pro and Gemini-II Level 6
2
Hello everyone, I'm transitioning from primarily visual observing with the Gemini-II system to astrophotography and would appreciate some advice. My current imaging setup is as follows: Takahashi TOA-130NFB with the 645 Field Flattener ZWO ASI 6200MM ZWO OAG-L with ASI 174MM Mini as the guide camera Losmandy G11G with Level 6 upgrade ASIAir Pro for running imaging sessions While the imaging hardware itself is solid, I'm struggling to dial in the guiding settings on the ASIAir Pro to achieve good results. I'm dealing with elongated stars and inconsistent guiding graphs. I'd love some suggestions for baseline settings to get started, especially considering the focal length and mount.Parameters I¡¯m looking to optimize: Gain (for the ASI 174MM Mini guide camera) Calibration Step Size Max DEC Duration Max RA Duration Dither settings Guide Camera Binning (1x1 or 2x2) Dark Library (Yes or No) Guide Exposure Length RA Aggressiveness % DEC Aggressiveness % Notes about the setup: My focal length is ~1000mm with the TOA-130 and field flattener. The Losmandy G11G is well-tuned with the Level 6 upgrade, but I'm still learning how to best use it for imaging. I typically image under moderately dark skies. If anyone has experience with a similar setup, I¡¯d appreciate any tips or recommended settings to get better guiding performance. Any tricks or advice specific to the ASIAir Pro with an OAG setup would also be super helpful! Clear skies, Ryan
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Dumb question
7
This will seem like a dumb question to you experienced Gemini 2 users: I finally managed to get my ethernet connection configured and running. Now...here's the question- when starting a new session, do I just click on the Gemini icon and then click the "connect " button on the hand controller icon? Then, can I start up NINA and connect to the mount? Just wanted to make sure I'm doing it correctly. Thanks! Ron Abbott
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Indi Driver: Longitude always returns 0
9
Folks, I've been tearing my hair out for the past month on this. The initial symptoms were that it was impossible to polar align my mount using the PAA routine in Kstars. After enabling logs, and Hy over on Indilib.org reviewing them, we found that either the driver or the mount are reporting my Longitude at 0. Here is what I see in the log: [2024-11-25T20:27:31.687 EST DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Losmandy Gemini : "[SCOPE] RES <Harold> " [2024-11-25T20:27:31.687 EST DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Losmandy Gemini : "[DEBUG] Site Name <Harold> " [2024-11-25T20:27:31.688 EST DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Losmandy Gemini : "[SCOPE] <getSiteLatitudeAlt> " [2024-11-25T20:27:31.688 EST DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Losmandy Gemini : "[SCOPE] CMD <:Gt#> " [2024-11-25T20:27:31.688 EST DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Losmandy Gemini : "[SCOPE] RES <+26 20> " [2024-11-25T20:27:31.688 EST DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Losmandy Gemini : "[SCOPE] VAL [26,20,0.0] " [2024-11-25T20:27:31.688 EST DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Losmandy Gemini : "[SCOPE] <getSiteLongitudeAlt> " [2024-11-25T20:27:31.688 EST DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Losmandy Gemini : "[SCOPE] CMD <:Gg#> " [2024-11-25T20:27:31.688 EST DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Losmandy Gemini : "[SCOPE] RES <+080 08> " [2024-11-25T20:27:31.688 EST DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Losmandy Gemini : "[SCOPE] VAL in CartographicLongitude format [-80,6,0.0] " [2024-11-25T20:27:31.689 EST INFO ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Losmandy Gemini : "[INFO] Mount has Latitude 26:25:0.0 (26.3382) Longitude (0 to +360 Eastwards) 360:00:00.0 (360) " [2024-11-25T20:27:31.690 EST DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Losmandy Gemini : "[DEBUG] Configuration successfully saved for GEOGRAPHIC_COORD. " [2024-11-25T20:27:31.690 EST DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Losmandy Gemini : "[SCOPE] CMD <:GG#> " Things that might be useful: I have a Losmandy GPS unit plugged into the GPS/Serial Port. When I hit GPS Query on the hand controller, it appears to be correct. Kstars is set to get it's time and location from the Mount. If I clear the model and cold start the mount, I can do a Goto from the hand controller and it will go to the right area in the sky for a given object. After I connect to Kstars, the mount slews (from the HC) to a completely opposite part of the sky for the same object. Versions: Gemini Firmware Level 6.02 Built Jan 29, 2024 HC Firmware V1.61 Build Aug 2 2023 Servo Drive Firmware RA V3.0 Dec V3.0 I have replaced the battery in the Gemini I have done an reset HGM Defaults my guess is that somehow the dialog between kstars and the mount is causing the mount to completely lose its Longitude setting. I have also included the verbose log of last night's session. Help!
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We had to replace our Gemini 2, along with the H/C back in August 2023. One of our members noticed that after the system starts up and initializes, the hand controller doesn't go to the "Home" screen, you have to push the "Back" button twice to get to the home screen. Is this normal, or do we have to do something to get it to start up in the home screen after initialization? I have included 2 pictures of the H/C to show information.
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I've been having issues with elongated stars within the ZWO environment. Have not been able to pinpoint yet why this is happening but was wondering if the mount had anything to do with it. I had the software updated to 6.1 months ago but have only now started to use the scope. Here are some pictures of my setting. I was hoping that someone with more knowledge of this could tell me if any setting looked "off". Thanks
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RA stall on HGM Titan mount
7
Last night at our club observatory, we tried to power up our scope on a Losmandy HGM Titan mount. As soon as we turned it on, we got a "RA Stall" warning. Scope wasn't used for the past 6 weeks due to weather, and it was 17F last night. Mount was purchased in 2014. I'm not sure when the last time the mount was serviced. I tried to move the scope on the DEC axis too, but it was extremely sluggish, and only moved a few degrees before it stopped. Scope is perfectly balanced. We are looking for some reasons why this may have happened, along with suggestions on how to correct this. My feeling is that the mount needs to be serviced, possibly due to inadequate lubrication, or the lubricant has hardened. appreciate any input/suggestions.
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HC reboots
6
I am having a problem with the HC rebooting when doing my mount modelling. It appears to be the cable wiggling but spraying with DeoxiT and swapping it around along with reseating doesn't seem to work this time. I searched the topics for information on a cable replacement but no luck. Anyone have a suggestion for a replacement or I will ring Losmandy? On a separate but related topic does anyone do modelling via the Virtual HC or other method so I can bypass the HC itself? Thanks, Ken
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I ran PEMPro on my new G11T (new RA axis upgrade, older G11 Dec). I think the RA axis might be a little out of spec (11.743 arc-sec pk-pk at 320s), but the rest of the graph is so much better than I've ever seen on any other mount I've owned, including the G11G, that I'm not sure it is worth fussing over. Do I send the axis back and roll the dice that it comes back with more errors elsewhere that are entirely within spec and not as easily guided out? My reluctance to demand what was promised stems from a series of easy though irrational lessons in over-politeness. My reluctance to get what I wish for stems from harder lessons entirely based on logic. Also, from what I can tell, it was only 1 cycle that showed greater than +/-5 arc-sec error. Given my newbie status in caring about PE, I'm not sure what, if anything, that means, but it seems significant for real-world usage. First, it looks like PEMPro did an amazing job overall. The correction shows pk-pk error quite reduced. My G11G's corrected curve looked nothing like this. The correction looks like it should be manageable in PHD2. Having said that, the error around 42 seconds appears to have gotten worse with correction, going to 1.5 to 2.3 arc-sec. This was a correction for 2 periods. This is probably also something that PHD2 can correct by selecting 42s for the period length with PPEC, but should I try something else in PEMPro to bring this down natively before depending on PHD2? George
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DHCP question
2
After a recent software update to my Gemini, I started seeing a message at startup " DHCP: No IP received". Since I hard wire connect the mount to my Asiair controller, I unchecked the box in the settings section of the mount on the hand controller. I assume that's ok?
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Greetings: my older version Gemini 2 seems to be working okay, good internal 3v battery, version 5.1 firmware. I launched the firmware updater and it couldn¡¯t connect on either Ethernet or USB from either a Windows laptop or desktop, however when I unplug the USB my computer beeps so it¡¯s seeing a connection. I tried logging onto the default IP address and the Gemini address via a web browser, neither connection worked. Any suggestions? Many thanks, Bob at 7,000¡¯ in dark sky Flagstaff, AZ
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I realize this isn't a PemPro support group, but I'm hoping someone here can answer my question quickly. I downloaded the trial of PemPro v3 and gave it a try last night. I own a GM811 in a remote observatory, so I picked the Gemini II 4/5/6 telescope option and followed the documented workflow, starting with calibration. I'm running Gemini II version 5. The guiding results were a little worse, so that was frustrating. I ran everything again and it didn't help. Has anyone used PemPro with a GM811 and gotten better results?
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I looked for this, but I couldn¡¯t find it anywhere so apologies if it is somewhere and I overlooked it. What type of cable is between the hand box and the Gemini II and what is the maximum length I can go? My observatory is being planned with a warm room separated from the scope room and I may need up to 25 feet of cable so I don¡¯t have to walk out to the mount to do the start up every time with the hand box. The hand box will be on a desk beside my PC running NINA. I will leave the Gemini turned on, but shut off power to it when not used, so no other need to go to the mount at startup or shutdown. Unless this will cause issues with the Gemini. FWIW, 20 feet of USB 3.0 from PC to Pegasus UPBv3 works fine. Will try 25 feet soon. Many thanks
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Can these mounts guide at 0.37" rms and below?
6
Hi, I'm looking to buy a mount that guide my reduced C8 (1450mm, 0.5"/px) at 0.37" rms or better. see this link for details: https://www.astrowithroro.com/guiding 203 mm aperture, 1450mm focal length, 1" seeing Also, at some future point I want to buy a Stellarvue SVX152T and then I'd need to guide it at 0.4" rms or better. Do people think these Losmandy mounts are capable of this performance on a regular basis? I currently own an EQ6-R and it performs at about 0.38" - 0.48" rms on a regular basis. If I can get that performance from an EQ6-R what performance would I get with a brand new Losmandy? Thanks for and advice or help people can give.
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GM811g user here. I want to automate sky flats at the start and end of each sequence in NINA. However, NINA only provides a "Park" option and not the other park options available in the HC or Gemini software HC. Is there a way I can use a Python script to issue commands to my mount so I can customize the sequence with a Park at Zenith option?
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Image Name
Sat 8:39am
Sat 8:39am