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Re: ASTRID+FITS?
Hi Roxanne:
Apparently it can. I haven't tried it tho. You do this via Astrid Player. Here's a video where Mark shows how it's done (go in about 3:25 into the video): ???? BTW: You can import a Nightly Occult4 search list directly into Astrid which can then be used to select events for "Auto Record". George |
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Re: Jan 03 Events
Steve:
Congrats on the Home Run. Seems you 'Hit' one out of the 'Park'. Condensation..... Yeah, that can be an issue. The key is to never let your optics fall below the dew point. Condensation can especially happen a bit after sunrise as the morning warms. (Some might be shocked if they looked at their optics at 10am on a scope that's left outside). No, it doesn't directly affect observing then, but having your coatings frosted over or covered with dew for several hours isn't a good thing. With my 14.5-inch Newtonian (8-foot long tube about 17-inches in diameter), I place a light bulb in the tube and cap the ends (see attached). I have a digital readout of the temp of the back of the 30lb mirror, and I make sure the air inside the tube stays several degrees above the outside air. If I see a clear night coming up, of course, I turn off the bulb and open the tube for cooling. The mirror was originally bought/coated in the mid-1980's, and the coating is still quite/very good! Glad to hear your Astrid is working out. My adventures haven't been overly smooth but I've been working with Mark and he's been correcting some issues/bugs, plus adding some very useful features... and today's (indoor) testing yielded some quite promising results(!!). I'll probably be adding more to the "Astrid Adventures" topic on this forum soon. Again, nice that you got some clear skies and also a "Hit". G |
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Re: Jan 03 Events
Update on results for tonight:
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Had a miss with 2000 XC13 with the home observatory--which was expected given it was a 20% shot for me.? The drama on this one involved extremely bad images at set-up an hour beforehand.? So bad I thought the C14's corrector had broken (yep, got up on the step ladder with the flashlight to check).? After about a half hour of head scratching, I found the problem was condensed water all over the inside of my focal reducer (a 0.33x Meade).? I've left it out on my telescope year-round for years, and never had this happen before to my knowledge.? I do run two 10-watt dew heaters on the front/rear of the telescope 24/7/365--I guess I'll add a third at the focal reducer & camera.??
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Had a miss from my unattended home observatory with 1996 UQ3--again expected since it was a 15% shot.? The drama on this one was realizing I didn't leave enough time to set-up dome tracking remotely--I just left the slot homed (since you can only get in/out of the dome when it is home)--losing about 2/3 of the light at event time (C14 with a 10.5 mag target--not really a problem).? Just need to leave more time to get the fussy Remote Desktop connection to the observatory going.
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Got a positive on 1996 UQ3 using the C5 + Astrid from Hills Creek State Park--expected as that location was a 98% shot.? What was unexpected here was the duration--1.15 seconds, the predicted maximum duration was only 0.5.? The Astrid system worked flawlessly--I didn't, as I missed a turn for the park (where I've likely been 10 times in the past year).? The Astrid really takes the stress out of doing a prepoint.? I think it took me less than 15 minutes from parking the truck to having the pointing complete.? Even with the missed turn, I ended up with 15 minutes to spare.
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It is completely cloudy here now as predicted, and the satellite images indicate there isn't any hope for Eltigen in 30 minutes.? I'll cancel that station now...
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A good night none-the-less.? For high probability events, I'll be doing a lot more letting the observatory go on autopilot while I drive the Astrid system somewhere else in the path.
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Steve C
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Re: Jan 03 Events
I should add for Thursday night/Friday morning, I'll likely try (probability runs from 4 to 28% for me--none of these are great):
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2002 HU2 (IBEROC)--near Cleveland, but not worth traveling for with rank 26 and mag 13.7
2001 KF67 (AZevents)--no one nearby
2000 GU107 (AZevents)--near Cleveland, but not worth traveling for with rank 25
Violetaparra (AZevents)--no one nearby
1999 VT70 (IBEROC)--goes through the Cleveland area
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Of course there is a mag 8.8, rank 87 one I'll likely miss due to clouds tomorrow evening (2001 SC283).? That would be another Astrid remote site while having the observatory on autopilot (heavy sigh).
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Remember when it was rare to go for one what didn't have a name or had a number more than 1000???
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Steve C
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Re: Jan 03 Events
2000 XC13 is a Central Europe feed one (currently predicted to be clear)
1996 UQ3 is IBEROC (right before the clouds are predicted to arrive)
Eltigen is NALowMag (clouds predicted for this one)
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I haven't had time to do another Occult search for this week.? I'll start that now--Thursday night is predicted to be clear all night right now.? That might mean a night and a half of clear nights in a single week!
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Steve
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Re: Jan 03 Events
Just looked up your mentioned events. Yes, looks like no NEUS observers near the paths - tho Kevin Green is sort-of close to (2217) Eltigen (seems a near-sure thing for Steve). Clear skies have been a great rarity for me. Maybe a chance on the 5th UT. I'm hoping to do some mag & fov tests using Astrid (tho if clear, it will be just above zero). Good luck Steve.
Path maps for the objects you mentioned attached. BTW... How did you find them? OW? Occult4? -G |
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Jan 03 Events
Tomorrow is rumored to be clear up 'til about midnight in my area.? I've got two early events that I have a decent shot weather-wise at, 2000 XC13 and 1996 UQ3.? The later is especially good, with a rank 100 and combined mag of 10.3.? I don't think any of you regulars are anywhere near the paths of these, unfortunately.? I'm thinking for UQ3 I'll deploy the Astrid system remotely for the first time while my observatory records it on autopilot.? I have two possible center-line locations to travel to--an abandoned USGS station (not sure it they have no trespassing signs or not) about 10 minutes away and a state park about 15-20 minutes away that I've got permission to use.? I'll likely choose the later--much less likely to have any visitors.?
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After midnight, there is another nearly sure one for me, but it is likely to have clouded by then (plus it is faint)--that one is Eltigen.? Again, doesn't look like it gets near anyone else.??
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Steve C
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Re: Update on My Astrid
Seeing as this NEUS forum has been rather slow lately (surely it's due to all the cloudy skies).... I thought I'd give a further update on my "Astrid Adventures"...
Well, it only took about 2 weeks of "experimenting", but I believe I now have a means of establishing a reliable (I hope) WiFi connection between my Beelink U59 mini-computer (actually I have 2 of them), and Astrid. Tho I went to college for electronics and computers, WiFi is a bit of a new thing to me. I have _NO_ Home WiFi Network (herein, "HWN"). I have a router, but it's not a WiFi router (all my computers, large screen TV, etc., are connected by a hardwire Ethernet connection). Astrid was really designed assuming everyone has a HWN in their house. There are situations where Mark requires for Astrid to connect directly to your HWN to update/get files - especially in the initial setup. But due to my situation, Mark devised a way I could connect an Ethernet cable directly to Astrid and do the file updates that way. That worked fine. So I did get Astrid up and running, but I was initially having a VERY hard time establishing (and keeping) a WiFi connection between my U59 computer and Astrid. Mark suspected the internal WiFi in the U59 computer was weak - tho I got a solid 5 out of 5 "bars" when I examined my network connection signal strength in Win11 (in Control Panel / Networks) with the computer and Astrid about 20 feet apart. So I did a test and brought Astrid out in my yard while the U59 computer stayed in the house (with WiFi going thru 2 walls). I still had a solid connection at 80 feet away, but an iffy connection at 100 feet. Considering I at most will require a distance of 15 or so feet outdoors between my U59 and Astrid, I ruled out a weak WiFi signal as a problem. Essentially you load the program RealVNC on the computer that is to access and control Astrid. RealVNC connects to Astrid via WiFi and you can "take control" of the Raspberry Pi/Astrid from your controlling computer (my U59). What you see is the Raspberry Pi OS main menu on the controlling (my Win11) computer. This connection (which doesn't involve connecting to the Internet) is called an Ad-Hoc WiFi Network. But my issue was in getting and maintaining a good WiFi connection. I will say that Mark was helpful - and most certainly knows computers..... but I did a lot of troubleshooting on my own -- trying everything imaginable (spending about 35 hours in total). Long story short, Mark wants you to connect (via RealVNC) to the Raspberry Pi/Astrid unit initially by listing Astrid as "astrid.local" (Astrid becomes a WiFi "Hotspot") but astrid.local also has a numerical address (like "25.0.2.7") that you can type in the RealVNC search bar which, in a sense, is more of a "shortcut" to make the connection. Thru my own experimentation, once I tried this "shortcut", I could make a connection to Astrid every time (so far). ????????????? === AMEN !!! === It only took me nearly 2 weeks to find this !! I'm still not exactly sure why this works, but I'm just happy it DOES !! So.... Performance.... I've only had 1 clear night since I got my Astrid, and then I was still dealing with connection issues. So my testing has been very limited. But I did manage to capture some starlight (quite amazingly!) and run some magnitude tests. (I even tried for an occultation! - a Miss). Very preliminary testing puts Astrid ~about~ on par with the RunCam NE2AE in magnitude depth per similar exposure. A real advantage of Astrid looks to be in its ability to do a wide range of exposures - from 30fps to 15 seconds or so. In an early test with a 120mm f/5 (f/2.5 efl) Orion refractor I compared Astrid to my RunCam NE2AE. It does appear that Astrid has a bit lower "noise floor" than the NE2AE (also finer pixels - or simply more of them). In an early Mag Test, here's what I got: === Astrid === Mag Limit?? Frames Per Second 11.59????????? 10 12.07????????? 5 12.58????????? 3 12.68????????? 2 13.13????????? 1 13.83????????? 0.5 (2 sec) 13.87????????? 0.25 (4 sec) 14.18????????? 0.2? (5 sec) === RunCam NE2AE === 11.0??????????? 30 ("NS1") 11.3??????????? 15 ("NS2") 11.5??????????? 7.5 ("NS3") Its longest exposure. I do like Astrid. ....And I'm thinking the "connection issue" I had may be unique to me - others may not have this problem. But even if they do, there may be a "work-around" solution. I do think Astrid's program interface could be improved on, but it's adequate - once you get used to it. Overall, I DO think Astrid is quite a valuable addition to our "Occultation Toolbox" - especially in its ability to do longer exposures and also it's versatility in setting unattended stations. I must say that lately in the occultation world - especially in regard to PyMovie/PyOTE, Astrid, and to some extent, Occult, it seems having a degree in Computer Science is almost required. I really wish this would "lighten-up". I delved into that years ago, but nowadays, I would just like to ENJOY OBSERVING and not have to deal with obscure computer setups(!). There's just too many other demands on one's time these days to spend hours figuring out and/or studying obscure features in a program or tweaking WiFi and computer configurations. Anyway.... Can't wait 'till the next clear night! Possibly - To be continued............ George |
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Re: Update on My Astrid
Steve & All...
My experience with Astrid... Assembly.... Got mine on Dec 15th. Assembly was rather straight-forward. If any issue, there's a step where you have to attach the camera's ribbon cable into a slot and lock it down. It's a very fine and delicate step - that almost requires 3 hands. The ribbon cable kept slipping and I could not lock it down straight. Eventually I used a piece of scotch tape to hold the ribbon cable straight in the holder while I locked it down. You need to get this right on nearly the 1st try or there's potential "issues". How to do the Initial Start-up and Configuration... I had emailed Steve Preston and Mark as my Astrid was in transit mentioning that info on the Initial Set-up steps seemed rather scattered across the GitHub site. I sent them an outline on what I had concluded were the proper chronological steps I needed to do to get Astrid initially up and running - and asked them to verify if I were correct. I heard back from Mark... saying he was working on a video that covered the steps. Indeed, just before my Astrid arrived, Mark sent me a link to this new video - here it is: ?????? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWFcrbeaBLk I found this immensely helpful !! Big Thanks, Mark !! Actually Doing the Initial Start-up and Configuration... In (very) short... all went well. Until..... I got to the point where you need to enter the info for your Home WiFi Network (HWN) - so you can connect Astrid directly to your HWN and 1) Upgrade the Astrid software and, 2) Download various files from the Internet. Except --- I Do NOT have a HWN -- all my computers, TV, etc...? are hardwire-connected to a router that is NOT a WiFi router! ??????? === So at this point, I'm dead in the water === I mentioned this to Mark (that not everybody has a home WiFi setup!). Mark came up with a command you could enter in the Terminal when you get the initial Raspberry Pi interface to show. Entering this command allows you to connect an Ethernet cable directly to Astrid and then Astrid can be Upgraded and you can get files you need from the Internet. This worked nicely, and I was able to upgrade Astrid, and install all the needed files (like for plate solving). However (and it's BIG HOWEVER)!!... Despite trying for (to date) a total of at least 15 hours, I can not get a solid / reliable WiFi connection to Astrid. Only very occasionally can I connect to Astrid (using RealVNC), and almost always - eventually - the connection drops. I don't believe this is an Astrid issue - rather it's just a general WiFi connection issue. I am continuing to try everything imaginable to remedy this, but as of this writing, it's really not possible to use Astrid at the telescope until this can be fixed. As I'm not an expert at WiFi, trying to fix this has been a severe exercise in frustration. After 3 or 4 hours per day of trying, I need to get away from it. It may be that the WiFi signal coming off my Beelink U59 Mini-computer is simply poor. It may also be that somewhere in the 5,000 different settings you can have in a WiFi connection that something needs to be set slightly different - but finding that setting... may require a lot of prayers. BTW: I worked with Mark to troubleshoot the WiFi connection issue until I felt it was taking up too much of his time (but I will say he tried). Mark suggested trying to connect to Astrid using another device. The only other device (which would also be usable with the camera outside) that I have to do this is another identical Beelink U59 Mini-computer. I'll eventually try this. I'll also try an external antenna on that Mini-computer............ But when I can (rarely) connect to Astrid.... I have been able to check out all the settings of the program and configure them for my scope(s).? I have been able to test that the camera is indeed giving me a signal (by alternately blocking off light to the front of it), and I've been able to record some video and import it into PyMovie and see that yes, indeed, PyMovie can read timestamps generated by Astrid. So I have confidence that the camera indeed works as advertised.... ?????????????????????????????? ---- WHEN I can connect to it !!!!!!!!!!!! I do agree (greatly) with something Steve C. mentioned --- The means to adjust the brightness/contrast of the image is very crude and seriously needs to be improved on. I can see that getting stars to show clearly against the background would require a lot of hit and miss inputting of various numerical values for brightness/contrast. This seriously needs to be improved on. In closing (for now), I don't feel the WiFi connection issue I'm having is a fault of Astrid. I do wish that there were a way of doing a hardwire connection to the camera and completely bypassing WiFi tho! I'll keep trying --------------- as my patience allows. ???? No wonder I've never liked WiFi. George |
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Update on My Astrid
I've been trying to use my Astrid for at least one potential occultation each clear evening (rare!).? Some additional updates:
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Steve
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Re: PyMovie
George,
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Thanks, this worked.? I think I was "only" doing 2 or maybe 3 things wrong--that's pretty good for me!
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Steve
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Re: PyMovie
George,
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Thanks for this--worked fine.? I think I was "only" doing 2 or 3 things wrong--pretty good for me!
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Steve
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Re: PyMovie
Steve:
Try this and let me know if it works - I think it should. (I have no drift thru videos to test with - all mine are tracked).... ????????????????????? Making a finder on a Drift-Thru video: 1) With an image showing, click on a star that will be in the start and end frames of your finder 2) Right click on that star and add a Dynamic mask - Name it Track 3) Right click on it again and select "Turn yellow" (use as tracking aperture) 4) Be at the 1st frame of your finder, right click on the same star again and select "Use current position as early track point" 5) Scroll ahead in the video to someplace past where you want the finder to end (If you want to make a finder of 100 frames, move at least 100 frames ahead). 6) Right click on that same star (yellow aperture) and select "Use current position as late track point" 7) Go to "finder" and enter values for "redact" and "num frames" 8) Click on "Make finder via star align I think this should do it. Let me know. George |
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PyMovie
Anyone have expertise with PyMovie and untracked asteroid data?? Since the Astrid records in .ravf format that Tangra doesn't handle, I'm forced to use PyMovie.? I've used it before for tracked recordings without issue, but I'm clearly missing something for these untracked files.? When I try to make a finder image, I just end up with unaligned images (stars are lines).? There likely is just one checkbox or similar I'm missing (likely has a big, flashing red arrow pointing to it that I'm not seeing ? ).? Unfortunately, the YouTube tutorials are 4 years old, and the software looks quite different now.
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Steve
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Re: Occult4 301
Steve:
I re-checked and the path shown on OW Cloud for (2845) and the one generated via Occult4 are essentially a precise match - down to the size of an individual house. But then they should be... Both most likely originated from the same program - Occult4. Yes, I now get a 97% chance for you using your updated position. Too bad you will probably be clouded out (I know that feeling well). George |
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Re: Occult4 301
George,
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My observatory is at 41.74685 N, 77.31678 W.? There was an error on an old post-it I had on my monitor saying the latitude was 41.81352, is that what I sent previously?? If so, sorry!
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Steve
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Re: Occult4 301
Steve:
Thanks. I decided to do a cross-check of this event comparing the "initial" Occult4 MPC-based path with the "refined" Occult4 JPL-based path, and also the path shown in OccultWatcher Cloud (these are attached). Conclusion... The path (and 1-sigma bounds) for this event on OWC is in very close (if not exact) agreement with the path derived after calling up JPL elements in Occult4. The "initial" MPC-based path produced by Occult4 is notably south of you and has much larger 1-sigma bounds. BTW: Maybe I input the latitude & longitude of your observatory wrong, but when I enter those numbers in Google Earth, I get that your observatory is located in a forest somewhat north of Wellsboro, PA. Thus the close "Miss" of the path on the JPL-based Occult4 output - and the resulting 0% chance for you (partially due to a very small 1-sigma). As for the compiled document on the Occult4 discussion...... I'm not sure I'd like for this to be spread too far - it was a bit hastily written and I'd rather not invite arguments by folks who want to nit-pick at it.? I wrote it for our small NEUS group. That said, I DO stand by the methods outlined and results - especially when the steps outlined in "301" are done. Way too many cloudy nights, George |
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Re: Occult4 301
George,
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Thanks for this--all of these have been very useful to me.? I've compiled together most of your "Occult class" emails into the attached file (did a few very minor edits)--if it doesn't bounce for file size issues.??
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I did a quick test run using the Horizons method outlined in your last one, and an excellent event was found for just after midnight Mon/Tue night.? (2845) Franklinken occults a 9.9 mag star with an 8 mag drop for as long as 0.7 seconds--centerline basically right over my observatory (96%).? Weather forecast is dicey, but not without hope.? Unfortunately this one doesn't go anywhere near anyone else on this list with the possible exception of Kia (Kia--not sure where you are in Cleveland area, but this one is straight west-east, centered on Willoughby).? It would be a no brainer for a remote deployment for me a couple of km away if it wasn't a worknight (plus the dicey weather).? Instead, I'll try to run both the Astrid set-up and observatory to show I can get identical results for confidence building (my own confidence!).
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Steve C
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George Viscome
Steve C
