SG Pro

[mbocca]

I had a very disappointing night last night due to operator error, but I would have thought SG Pro would have generated an message to tip me off to the problem.

When creating the path for the files, I had an extra '\' in the path. This created an invalid path and name. The system ran all night long, and this morning I looked and there were no files stored. Checking the log, it is clear to see the path is not correct, but it seems like SG Pro should pop something up on the screen.

I watched the first 10 images come in to make sure everything was working properly then went off to bed. Well, everything I was looking at was working correctly. File storage was not checked, and it was not working properly.

Is there some error level that needs to be set in SG Pro to allow something like this to be displayed? I have not posted anything on the SG Pro forum yet, but thought I would get some input from here first.

Usually I will read an early file into PixInsight to do stats on the image but that step was skipped last night. That will teach me to deviate from my normal workflow.

Mike

[yobbo89]

that's a bit strange, once you start a sequence it shoudn't start at all until you select a valid location to save your images during imageing sequence ..

[UlteriorModem]

that's a bit strange, once you start a sequence it shoudn't start at all until you select a valid location to save your images during imageing sequence ..

This. Unless it 'thought' the C:\\path was actually a 'valid' file name somehow.

In order to avoid this sort of thing I keep it simple.

C:\ASI071MC\... date like this C:\ASI071MC\09-22-2020

That way the only thing I need to change is the date. SGP will create the subfolders appropriately if configured correctly.

ps; It may be worth searching over the drive and see if they did not land in some unexpected location.

[mbocca]

Thanks for the comments. I will check the drive tonight, but seeing the messages in the log gives me very little hope.

After the session started I adjusted the meridian flip time and re-applied the configuration to the sequence. I think that is where the illegal path was introduced. The sequence was already started, it just had to restart.

Mike

[KathyNS]

SGP is not helpful about displaying error messages. I remember getting bitten by the file path issue way back when I started using it. I had one session last week that terminated prematurely with absolutely no indicatoin from SGP that anything was wrong. In fact, it had the nerve to say "Run complete" at the bottom of the screen, when it was anything but. I figured out from PHD2, which was showing an image of tree branches, that the target went below the treetops, but it would have been nice if SGP had told me that.

And then there is the dreaded "Something terrible has happened!" message. Aside from the alarmist hyperbole, how about telling me what the problem is? "PHD2 reports guide star lost." would be a helpful thing to say, for example.

[mbocca]

Doing root cause analysis, I was the problem not SG Pro. It started out as user error, so, I can;t really blame the software. It does check on sequence start, just not on sequence resume.

It is an excellent package and I very rarely have problems with it. I have been using it for almost two years now and over the last 6 months am finally starting to use some of the more advanced features of it. The next big thing to tackle with it will be mosaic planning. The biggest problem there will processing it in PixInsight more than SG Pro.

Thanks for all of the comments.
Mike

[KathyNS]

The next big thing to tackle with it will be mosaic planning. The biggest problem there will processing it in PixInsight more than SG Pro.

I just did my first mosaic last week. It is super-easy in SGP. The learning curve is indeed in PI. I was pretty happy with my result, but it's a lot of work. One of my panels was taken on a moonlit night, and you can tell. I learned that experienced imagers, instead of taking one full panel each night, will take a few frames for each panel each night. That way, they avoid large panel-to-panel differences from moonlight, transparency, light pollution, etc.

[UlteriorModem]

Yes one of the biggest challenges in doing mosaics besides the processing is trying to get all the panels the same levels including background noise. Getting the camera in a consistant orientation is also important. Ideally you would shoot all panels in one session, though that is rarely possible.

But mosaic planning in SGP is really easy with the wizard. Probably the most important aspect is to make sure you have the camera rotation set correctly in the wizard, especially if you do not have a rotator. You can find your camera rotation by submitting a sub to astrometry.net.

Also dont forget to uncheck the box that says something like "Rotate the camera" or some such. It will throw out a warning which you can disregard. If you dont do that when it comes time to start the sequence it will halt noting that the rotator is not present