PIER-14 Out of focus frames

mmmmm

Looking into it now but it looks like the 1 hour imaging blocks we reverted to over the Autumn/Winter/Spring period are suffering during the summer intense heat

I think we may have to revert back to 30 minute blocks to allow for the "FSQ" cool down tube shrinkage effect

Leave it with us

Steve

Hi Steve, 

Just looked at job 1692 for wr132. Might I suggest that you too have a look at that job when you get the chance.

From looking at those subs it doesn't appear to be a problem of gradually losing focus over time with tube shrinkage, more a case of the focusing failing. All the blue subs are out of focus so it's not the case that focus slipped during the exposures, it failed to focus at the start. Green is also a problem, however, to me the red frames looked decent. In the case of the oxygen they started off okay, but at around one hour in and presumably when it refocused, the following subs were out of focus. Just refocusing on a more regular basis would not necessarily cure the problem, but could cause loss of focus upon refocusing to occur more frequently. 

As I said perhaps you could have a look and draw your own conclusions.

Cheers, 

Ray 

Hi Steve, 

Just looked at job 1692 for wr132. Might I suggest that you too have a look at that job when you get the chance.

From looking at those subs it doesn't appear to be a problem of gradually losing focus over time with tube shrinkage, more a case of the focusing failing. All the blue subs are out of focus so it's not the case that focus slipped during the exposures, it failed to focus at the start. Green is also a problem, however, to me the red frames looked decent. In the case of the oxygen they started off okay, but at around one hour in and presumably when it refocused, the following subs were out of focus. Just refocusing on a more regular basis would not necessarily cure the problem, but could cause loss of focus upon refocusing to occur more frequently. 

As I said perhaps you could have a look and draw your own conclusions.

Cheers, 

Ray 

Hi Ray

Already on it behind the scenes Ray, new curves etc being run anyway as well as checking the star brightness used for focusing.

As you know I don't always give you the full picture of what I am up to behind closed doors LOL

Steve

Hi Steve, 

Thanks for the update. Regarding the last sentence, there may well be some people out there in the wide world that would be. :) I doubt though any of us members would. Still that's a great relief knowing that, nudge, nudge!

Cheers,

Ray 

Hi Steve

Upon examination, almost 50% of the narrowband frames are OOF, which could be a waste of the precious clear nighttime in the summer. Could you take a closer look at the focusing system?

Hi Steve

Upon examination, almost 50% of the narrowband frames are OOF, which could be a waste of the precious clear nighttime in the summer. Could you take a closer look at the focusing system?

 

 

Hi and afteroon

May I ask job numbers and dates of affected subs please, the reason I ask is we started changing setting and focus frequency on this pier a few weeks ago so I am checking if they were before this date or recent ?

It may also be a case of older jobs on the 1 hour instead of 3omin imaging blocks which had been creating " FSQ cool down issues"

Cheers

Steve

Hi Steve

Upon examination, almost 50% of the narrowband frames are OOF, which could be a waste of the precious clear nighttime in the summer. Could you take a closer look at the focusing system?

 

 

Hi and afteroon

May I ask job numbers and dates of affected subs please, the reason I ask is we started changing setting and focus frequency on this pier a few weeks ago so I am checking if they were before this date or recent ?

It may also be a case of older jobs on the 1 hour instead of 3omin imaging blocks which had been creating " FSQ cool down issues"

Cheers

Steve

I am seeing from 1707, 1566, 1530, and 1515. Unfortunately, I deleted the bad frames so hard to check the time. I believe some of them are newer frames

Hi,

just had a look at jobs # 1540 and #1541. The problem of out of focus frames continue. Please do get it fixed as lot of data is being wasted.

thanks

vikas

We have been doing some work on this over the past few nights trying to resolve any focus issues on P14. We are still testing at the moment but you will be pleased to hear are now getting consistently low FWHM values. We may put in a couple of  test jobs in and will be closely monitoring it.

Regards

Peter

After Pete's last email we continued testing and the focuser at times focused perfectly then others it did not so we have the "Spanish" contingency taking a look at the mechanics as the motor have done 3 full summers so he heat may have loosened a locking bolt or some other such thing. We will see what they say and let you know what we find out :)

Steve

Hi,

just had a look at 1717 IC 5146 Cocoon Nebula  widefield. Lots of out of focus frames in Green, Blue and Ha..... cannot use this dataset. In Lum the stars are bloated while Red was okay.

vikas

Hi all, between the lads in Spain and Pete in the UK we have been working every night on this issue, we are hoping now its solved but we will monitor none the less.

However, As from the 17th of this month please keep an eye on all new frames and give us some feedback on the new settings please. We cannot react unless we are made aware :)

Older frames that have been affected I am afraid we cannot do anything else apart from ask you to resubmit them

Steve

Hi,

Job 1766 Target W63

Many out of focus frames.

All of the frames of Ha are out of focus and have been take on the 15th of august are out of focus rendering the dataset unusable

Many frames of Sii and Oiii taken on or after the 17th of august are also out of focus

Really need to get this sorted before taking more datasets

Am i the only complaining ?? i dont see anyone else talking about this

vikas

Hi,

Job 1766 Target W63

Many out of focus frames.

All of the frames of Ha are out of focus and have been take on the 15th of august are out of focus rendering the dataset unusable

Many frames of Sii and Oiii taken on or after the 17th of august are also out of focus

Really need to get this sorted before taking more datasets

Am i the only complaining ?? i dont see anyone else talking about this

vikas

 

Hi,

Job 1766 Target W63

Many out of focus frames.

All of the frames of Ha are out of focus and have been take on the 15th of august are out of focus rendering the dataset unusable

Many frames of Sii and Oiii taken on or after the 17th of august are also out of focus

Really need to get this sorted before taking more datasets

Am i the only complaining ?? i dont see anyone else talking about this

vikas

 

Hi Vikas,

When we last left it it was working fine but we will take a look none the less and get it sorted

May I ask which jobs after the 17th still have issues please ?

it will help narrow things down

kind regards

Steve

Hi Vikas, 

Thanks for pointing those out to us. 

I totally agree that it is very frustrating. Up until recently I haven't been doing much with data from that pier, but if I had been then I certainly would have been commenting much sooner. This is particularly annoying when after having had to wait several months and only recently received the data, the majority of it needs retaking. Just received the data from the Tulip nebula I submitted, not quite so long ago though, and more than half of that is unusable. 

Unfortunately it's something difficult to deal with quickly when you're not able to be hands on. The team always try and do their best. Bless them. :) 

Now knowing what a really wonderful person Steve is, and recalling what he did before when I think it was pier 1 was giving us grief, maybe he will share some of his data with us from other piers in the future.

Nice to hear from you again Vikas, and like Mark another wanderer has returned.

Cheers,

Ray 

Hello everyone,

Steve and I have been working on this issue and I was hoping we had resolved P14 focus. During adjustments, testing and calibration we were been getting consistently good focusing. I will continue to work on the issue and keep you updated. 

Regards

Peter

hi,

i cud be wrong but this was the first data set taken after the 15th....

vikas

Rather off topic I'm afraid, but I did so as Vikas is subscribed to this post.

Vikas,

Congratulations on the recent astrobin iotd with your nightscape image titled "Oasis". Beautiful in every aspect. Did you use Photopills to determine where you would need to be located, or, was it by recommendation? The Sahara is after all a large expanse and would not be somewhere you'd likely stumble upon. 

I'm sure a calendar featuring some of your images would be a big hit, so if you do please let me know.

Your prowess in the astrobin community is second to none, even if you don't think so. 

Cheers,

Ray 

hi Ray,

thanks for your kind words and having a look at my astrobin profile. Having imaged nightscapes for quite a few years i usually know where the milky way is in the night sky. I use sky safari sometimes to see the azimuth where the core is when in doubt and then use its compass to align foreground objects.

best

vikas

Hi everyone, we are still working on Pier-14 focuser at present and will keep at it, we think the focuser may have developed an intermittent fault. We are on a maintenance trip in a few weeks so will fit a new focuser while we are there so it will be back up and running

In the mean time please treat pier-13 as yours so when placing jobs in the Pier-14 portal please be aware that they will be inputted into Pier-13 so be aware of FOV camera angles and target selection when inputting your job :)

Steve & Pete