AutoStarSuite Software

Yet more dark frame problems with DSI III

JonW — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:29:06 GMT

Hi All,

I'm still getting problems with dark subtraction in Envisage. I have a recurring problem where the dark subtract is taking the low end of the histogram to practically 0, in fact, the saved frames bear no resemblence at all to live image, and are noisy and have nowhere near the dynamic range of the image captured. When this has happened previously, removing the old darks and shooting new ones has cleared it up, but not this time.

Normally with my set-up the gain is set to 100 and the offset to 45, this gives a noise floor of about 4500 ADUs. When this problem strikes, noise floor is around 10 ADUs. I increased the offset to 55 which gives a raw noise floor of 10,000 ADUs, but again this sinks to around 10 ADUs with dark subtract selected.

Any ideas?

Thanks, JonW

.Net Error message from Envisage 7.05

JonW — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:22:28 GMT

Hi All,

Up till now, I've got the occasional fatal error "bitmap area already locked" if getting impatient and trying to click ahead. However, the error has started occuring with annoying regularity now, quite often straight after the DSI and DSI III are set up and the scope connected via the netserver. I've made no changes to the PC set-up (at least none that I'm aware of). The only difference between now and a month ago is I've been imaging Jupiter and the moon with very short exposure times.

Anyone else plagued with this or got any clues as to the cauese? I run XP-pro with the latest .Net updates.

Thanks,

JonW

can't write to mount using PEC tool

fornax — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 04:49:53 GMT

Hi Everyone

I have been updating my PEC on my LX200GPS with autostar II. I have been letting the DSI do the guiding. When I go to the PEC tool in Autostar Suite, I can get the information from the mount but when I try to send it back to the mount I get an error that says “ Scope can save table”. This would be a great tool to refine the PEC curve if it worked. Any ideas what the problem could be.

Thanks
Steve

ASIP Problems

Bellringer — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:52:47 GMT

Hello everybody, well I final managed to take some fits files 9 x 2 min subs of M13 and have been trying to process in ASIP ever since. I seem to be doing something wrong because each time I get a monochrome gray image. Once I got this but haven't got a clue what I did to get it. Am going to move to fits3p at least I should get some color.

This is what I normally get

Anybody got any ideas please? It's driving me crazy. Fred

POST CAPTURE DRIZZLE

PETER — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:03:31 GMT

Hi - I have been trying out Stephen Hamilton's excellent Part 2 description of Post Capture Image Processing for Drizzle. I have tried various Drizzle parameter settings but I cannot see any difference in the final composites from stacking files in the normal manner. Any comments/advice? Cheers Peter

DSI 2 DRIVER AND WINDOWS 7

PETER — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:50:34 GMT

Hi - I have searched the forums but cannot find out whether the problem of getting Windows 7 (32bit version) to accept the DSI 2 driver has been resolved. Does anyone yet have a solution to this problem? Windows 7 does not appear to allow the facility to specify drivers as did XP. Cheers Peter

Envisage not performing a dark subtract after a few frames?

JonW — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:50:01 GMT

Hi All,

I've come across a strange problem where after a few frames it seems that instead of saving images with the dark subtracted, it looks like the images are being saved in raw format. I created fresh darks for the session, and the temperature variation was 5.5 to 5.0 deg C during the frames. The attached file (luminence frame) shows an example of this, taken from the first and 6th frames.

Any help gratefully received...

JonW

Autostar Suite alternative for Mac?

LadyC — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 05:00:25 GMT

Hi

I got a lovely Meade 10" LX200R for my birthday, but when I ran the Autostar suite CD I found that it is not compatible with my mac. I'm still new to all of this, so I was wondering if anybody knows of any alternative software (mac compatible) that will do the same thing?

Problems connecting Autostar via network using Windows 7

Ramon — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:47:15 GMT

I can not connect autostar to my my LX200 scope using Windows 7. I am able to start the netscope application and to have it listening. But when I try to connect Autostar using the option Protocol-Autostar via network I got always an error message. Does anybody have suggestions how to solve the problem?

Meade Europe Wireless server

stewart — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:01:25 GMT

Has anyone else seen this? I was doing a search of prices and stumbled upon this. Looks more than a little interesting. I am surprised Meade Europe are developing products of their own.

http://www.meade.de/en/products/telescopes/telescopes-accessories/product.html?tx_meadeproducts_pi1%5Bcmd%5D=pdis&tx_meadeproducts_pi1%5Bartid%5D=0751000&cHash=7ae2a41d47

What do people think about the usefulness of this- it has me tempted.

Stewart

Network Connect Problems

pilot01 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:15:43 GMT

Hi Guys, looking for a solution to connecting my scope to autostar suite and envisage for guiding. When I follow the instructions on setting up a network connection I get the error message "address already in use" when i click the listen checkbox. I did try changing the port to 5400 and i got the error message "Invalid port number". I am running windows XP and am using version 5.5 of autostar suite. Any suggestions? I was hoping that someone else had run into and solved this problem. Thanks!

James

Help with Irritating glitch with AutoStar suite/DSI II

David King — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:08:57 GMT

My Autostar suite(version 5) and image capture works fine. However, I seem to have a glitch when I first select the DSI II camera. Although it brings up the screen and displays the image it flips back to the Autostar screen within a few seconds . It does this a number of times before it settles and stays on the image capture sccreen. Has anyone else experienced this and if so, how is it sorted out.

Thanks for your advice

David

Problems with Auto suite and EQ mount

jr#8 — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:22:02 GMT

Heres what I'm using. LX 200 10" SMT on a wedge and autostar suite ver3.08. I finally got the polar thing down. Now After I use the two star aligment, it will come back successful alignment. GOTO will be dead on. Then I'll connect to the laptop, and that when the whole thing goes to pot. Nothing will be on target. Goto will be way off. Is there a setting in the software that I need to adjust now that I'm on a wedge . I disconnect the laptop, re-align with one star, and everything will be right on again.

Problem setting up DSI with Telescope

AndyB — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:47:54 GMT

I am having problems getting the DSI software to talk to my 8" LX90 for guiding. I read Stephen P Hamiltons post at http://autostarsuite.net/forums/thread/3426.aspx dated 10-10-2005, 8.45am which appeared to be an answer to my problem but unfortunatly it has not worked.

I have upgraded all the software for the telescope & AutoStarSuite from Meade to the latest versions. I am also running Meade's software for the R232-USB adapter. My laptop is running Windows XP. The telescope and the DSI are therefore connected into 2 different USB ports on the laptop.

AutoStarSuite is talking to the telescope and all functions work through Com 6 which is the only port I found would work by trial and error.

Reading Stephen's posting the first point that he makes is that all programs are disconnected from the com port. Can someone explain what is meant by this and how do I achieve this or is it simply not connecting the USB cables?

I only get as far as clicking the following tabs in AutostarSuite "Telescope/Communications/Start Network Server". In the following dialog box that appears in the scope port field I change the default "1" to a "6" to match the com port that the telescope is on. I then click the Listen check box. The status box does not change to "Listening on port 5401" but stays at "idle". Almost instantly a Windows error message then pops up stating "Run-time error '10048': Address in use". I do not seem to be able to get any further. Can any one help?

Amp Glow/Amp Off in Envisage- DSI 111

garymck — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:10:54 GMT

hi,
following discussions on a couple of Yahoo groups regarding the DSI 111's high level of amp glow, does anyone know if Meade is planning on releasing a new version of their software/drivers that fixes the "bug" that Craig Starke identified in the Meade software?

Craig's software - Nebulosity, does not use Meade drivers, and suffers none of the amp glow problems that the Meade software exibits. His apparently properly implements amp off during exposures.

This is the only issue stopping me from buying a DSI 111 which I want to use with Maxim, however this uses the Meade drivers and still shows amp glow.

Craig also explained why, particularly with longer exposures, subtracting dark frames was NOT good enough.

Hope to hear in the positive

cheers
Gary

DSI II and saved images

telecasterguru — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 07:46:46 GMT

A quick question. I have a DSI II and I have been using it to image the moon.

I do not combine images as I have a 10" Dob on a rotating platform and it is not accurate enough.

When I have a number of images, say 20 or 30 images I stop the imaging but all I can ever find saved is the final image. Why is this? Shouldn't I be able to find all 20 or 30 images? I want all the images so I can stack them manually.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

Frank

Automating scope control and imaging for multiple objects

spikedad — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:20:16 GMT

I have an LX200 GPS and am using autostar suite/envisage to control this and my DSI 2 ccd. I would like to use this combination to start a basic supernova search programme, without the need to purchase numerous other software. Is there some front end application that sits in front of autostar suite and envisage, that allows you to both input a list of objects and which then slews the scope and takes an image of each using user defined paramteres.

I was looking at ccdsoft/sky6/orchestrate to do this as its tried and tested, however it would be great to use the resident Meade software to achieve the same, plus it ould be somewhat cheaper.

Anyone any suggestions

Cheers

Paul

autostarsuite 5.5 - what's new?

stewart — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:56:04 GMT

I notice version 5.5 is on the Meade website for download but helpfully it doesn't say what has changed. Does anyone know?

Stewart

autostar suite planner?

biggles — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:19:34 GMT

Hi, I,ve noticed that autostar suite has the ability to place whats on the cross hairs into a pannel that will create a 'tour' to be downloaded into the autostar paddle.

My question is : is there any way of typing in the objects to be viewed in this tour as in a 'planner' in the style of 'starry nite'?.

The only method I can find is to place the cross hairs over the object in the planitarium section of the software when a dialog box opens to ask me if I wish to place the object into the tour.The problem with this is the planitarium scrolling is very poor, so finding things is slow, and then if the cross hairs are not placed over desired object without micromiter tolerence is say 'no object found'

Do Meade have any other software that gets round this?

Kind regards

mike

AutostarSuite error message

DannyR — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:02:14 GMT

I am using AutostarSuite V5.5 with an ETX-80 with Autostar 494 Handset and #506 cable to control the scope through Com 1 on my Windows XP SP3 desktop computer which works fine. The only thing that doesn't seem to work is the Handbox Controller option. Whenever I try to use this it disconnects the com port and the program freezes. This is not a great problem, as I don't need to use the Handbox. I just wondered if anyone else had come across this fault.
My main reason for posting is to ask why, with exactly the same setup/program, my laptop computer will not connect to the scope? I simple get a dialog box stating: "Read Timeout; Disconnecting com port" or something similar, whenever I try to use Protocol/Autostar via serial port.
I would like to solve the problem, as I can't really take my desktop PC out on a field trip........
It did actually work for a few moments the first time I tried it. It connected to the scope and started to slew to a selected object, then disconnected as described and it won't now connect at all.

Autostar Suite software does not download DSS images

Saturn55 — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:12:09 GMT

For several days the Autostar Suite software does not download DSS images from Host.

It 'happened to you?

Thanks

Marco Bensi

Italy

Envisage 7.05 - Missing "objects" drop down menu for selecting "autoguide"

JamesD — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:27:05 GMT

I have recently installed AutoStar Suite 5.0 and Envisage 7.05 software, from the Meade website, for use with my Meade LPI imager. The problem I have is that the manual for Envisage and the software don't match. On loading Envisage I do not have an "objects" box from where I can select "autoguide" from. Again I am using the latest version of Envisage 7.05. All I have is an "image process" box from where I can select - drizzle, terrestrial, moon, planet, take darks and deep sky. The layout of Envisage on my system is also different from that in the manual. I am running the software on a XP operating system. Can anyone help get to the bottom of this problem as I bought the imager primarily for its autoguiding capability. Thanks.

file save error status=207

bitozoid — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:17:25 GMT

Hi, when I try to save images with Envisage I get a message "file save error status=207" and the files are not well saved. I also get "file save error status=115" Anyone can help me? Thanks in advance, -Menda Lerenda

AutoStar Control (Remote Handbox) Errors with "Timed Out Waiting For Next Node"

shprasad — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:53:25 GMT

Hello all,
I'm totally new to AutoStar suite. I just installed it and most of the functions seem to be working fine. Except that use of Remote Handbox to control the scope from the computer. I have connected to the scope using "AutoStar via Network" Protocol. Listener is working fine, DSI III control of the telescope working fine. But when I go to the AutoStar Control window and try connecting using the network option, I get a bizzarre error for which I dont seem to find any hits anywhere. The error is "Timed Out Waiting For Next Node".
My scope is LX200 12"
Scope connected using RS232 with USB adapter
My OS is Win XP SP2

Your help is really appreciated.
Steps to reproduce the error....
1. Net Scope is started (Listening) 127.0.0.1:4500 (Using 4500 since default 4501 is used)
2. in AstroStar Suite navigate to Protocol > Remote Handbox
# Network and port added
# Click Connect check box... and I get "Timed Out Waiting For Next Node".

I get the exact same error connecting via the com port.

Thanks
Sheetal

Would Like to Buy

grassypond@turtlecreek333.com — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:34:25 GMT

Hi All,

I would like to purchase an AutoStar install CD. I am looking for an install that has the "web" server version on the Meade NetScope program. It is my desire to look at operating my scope from a web browser.

Thanks

Joe