Autoguiding with an Aluma U694 + self-guiding filter wheel: two questions

Discussion in 'Aluma CCD Series' started by Daniel Borcard, Sep 27, 2019.

  1. Daniel Borcard

    Daniel Borcard Cyanogen Customer

    Joined:
    Oct 23, 2017
    Messages:
    14
    Hi group,

    I have recently purchased a new Aluma U694 with autoguiding filter wheel. My two first decent images are presented in the "Astrophotos" section of these forums.

    I have a question regarding autoguiding. It seems to work properly (provided I do a good autoguider calibration), but in the guide camera window after each guiding image, apart from the movement info, I read this message:

    Error in plugin callback (519)
    Error in guide camera plugin

    Also, I don't get RMS info when I activate the guiding graph. It only reads N/A.

    Could anyone tell me what's going on? It does not seem serious since guiding works, but it would be nice to get rid of these two minor problems.

    I use the "free" MaxIm version that came with the camera on a PC with Windows 7.

    Thanks for any useful input!

    Daniel
     
  2. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2014
    Messages:
    9,932
    The callback error is a harmless glitch, which will go away with our upcoming software update. This should be released in the next week or two.

    RMS only appears when you have enough data points to calculate it. If you are guiding at a relatively slow update rate, and your RMS Window is set fairly short, you may never get enough data points! See http://www.diffractionlimited.com/help/maximdl/Tracking_Error_Graph.htm for information on how to adjust the RMS Window.

    (The MaxIm LT version isn't "free"... it's "included"!)

    Please register for software support. See step 2 at:

    https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/pages/TechSupportHowTo/
     
  3. Daniel Borcard

    Daniel Borcard Cyanogen Customer

    Joined:
    Oct 23, 2017
    Messages:
    14
    Thank you Doug (yes, Maxim LT is not free, with all the consequences I am fully aware of :) !

    OK, I don't know how many images are needed for RMS estimation in MaxIm. I may have been a bit short of them: 3 sec. guiding images and a 1 minute window, i.e., 20 images. RMS can certainly be computed on 20 data points, but it is probably rather unstable. BTW, it would be nice to have MaxIm automatically adjust the RMS window according to the time needed for its minimal requirement of number of points, given the guider integration time!

    I have registered for software support. Thank you for the directions.

    Daniel
     

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