Hello,
Please forgive my ignorance with the following questions. I've been doing astronomy and astroimaging for less than a year and want to move up to and rcos 12 - 16 " scope. I currently have an ap 1200, tak toa 150,fsq 106, maxim dl w/pinpoint le, the sky 6.0, and focus max. I'm green as grass to all of this, and have no local experts.
Do I need a separate astrometric engine, or can I utilize the existing software that I have? Last night I tried to use the focuser section of autopilot ( downloaded 60 day version ). I failed due to errors in the initial set up. I think the telescope platform was wrong. I've used the ap gto platform in ascom and all the other software programs. Do I need to shift the platform to the sky telescope control for ascom?
Last night seeing was not good so I didn't have the time to troubleshoot the problems encountered. Any help for tonight would be appreciated....Thank You for any help, Jerald

Hi Jerald,

You will need some type of plate solving to use CCDAP effectively. PinPoint LE will not work with external applications - it is limited to use with Maxim only.

In the interest of simplicity, I suggest you use TheSky6 for the telescope control program and make sure you can control your mount with TheSky. You should have no problem with that.

Then, make sure FocusMax is properly set up and working with at least 10 v-curves. This is necessary for reliable focusing.

Then, you can experiment with CCDAP's focusing alternatives.

Hi John,
Thank you for your reply. Last night was a total failure. When I would go to connect to ccdap, it would say that I did not have the latest version of focusmax. ( I had downloaded it the day before and had added the patch from your website). After that, ccdap would then remove FM from the focuser selection and replace it with "none." My OS windows xp sp2.
I also receive an error message code 200, indicating that the sky 6 was not being communicated with. In the sky 6 I have the telescope control set to the ap 1200 gto. All the other software has been set to the sky 6 telescope control.
I guess, I mistakenly thought that skystar would work with the sky 6 providing the astrometric engine for plate solving. Was I wrong in my assumption and therefore need to purchase a separate program? Which would you recommend?
FM, maxim, the sky 6, ect., all seem to work fine on their own. It is only when they are all integrated with ccdap that problems result.
Any ideas on how to solve this problem?
John, don't get me wrong. Ccdap is a great program and would greatly benefit me. There has to be some little glitch that is preventing me from using it.
Thanks for any help that you or others can provide......Jerald

Hi Jerald,

Automated imaging demands a rigorous approach to be successful. If FMx is not reporting the correct version despite the patch, then the installation of either the base app or the patch is faulty. Make sure the installation and the patch are both in C:\profram files\FocusMax. I suggest you carefully go through the walkthrough in the help file. You can check out much of the operation during the day using simulators. Make sure you start your apps before connecting CCDAP to them. Read through the Troubleshooting topic in the help file, especially the hint.

If you have CCDSoft and TheSky6, you can use that combination as your astronometric engine, whether you use CCDSoft for your camera control program or not. Again, see the help file for details.

Hi Jerald,

Have you set TheSky6 Server up to allow remote connections ? In TheSky6, look at Telescope | Server Settings and make sure you have all the boxes checked. If you are not running a dome, you can leave "Log current telescope position to:" unchecked. Now start TheSky6 and then start CCDAP3. In the Telescope box on the Settings page of CCDAP3, select TheSky6 and click on connect. CCDAP3 should connect with TheSky6 and the connect button should change to disconnect and at the bottom of the CCDAP3 window on the left you should see a green ball and the words "Connected to TheSky6". Do you get this same connection status when using just TheSky6?

Also, CCDAP3 generates a log every time it runs. Posting that log here with a description of your issue will help provide information to get the issue resolved. HTH ....

Hello Frank and John,
Thank you for your responses. I'm almost there. I got the focus max to work. Turns out that the patch for fm was residing in another file instead of the file which contained fm.
I still cannot get the connection to sky 6. I did find a copy of ccdsoft so that I can plate solve. Seeing has been lousy here for months and last night was no exception. When I manually focus on a guide star and then go to initiate with ccdap, I see the following messages:
1.) Plate solve failed try again (I assume that this means that ccdsoft is integrating with ccdap?)
2.) Unable to slew telescope. The sky6.document: no connection error code = 200 (0xc8).

I did do what John suggested and connected the ap 1200 to the sky6 and checked all the boxes in the telescope tab of sky6. I was able to successfully slew the scope remotely with sky6. I am able to connect ccdap when I hit the connect button on ccdap and the green button at the bottom shows a connection with fm, maxim, the sky. So I don't understand why I cannot plate solve. I'll go back to the video tutorials and see if there is something else that is missing.
In the meanwhile, do you guys have any further ideas for troubleshooting? Where can I find the log that Frank speaks of and how do I attach it to send it to John?

Thank you again for the help.........Jerald

Hi Jerald,

If you have not setup a specific Images folder on the Options tab under Image Management, then the default folder indicated there is where you will find the log folder.

CCDAP3 controls your telescope through TheSky6. If TheSky6 is running, CCDAP3 will connect to it and you will see that indicated in the bottom left hand corner. However, if TheSky6 is having trouble controlling your mount, so will CCDAP3. So a good place to start is to resolve any issues between TheSky6 and your AP1200 mount. What version of the AP firmware is loaded into your hand paddle? What version of ASCOM do you have loaded on your computer? What version is your AP controller? ( ie GTOCP2, GTOCP3) How are you initilizing your mount, through TheSky6 interface, or with the hand paddle? Are you leaving the hand paddle plugged in or unplugging it when using TheSky6? How do you have your com port set up that you use to connect TheSky6 to your mount? Are you using a USB to serial converter? Some brands work better than others.

For plate solving, what camera, scope combo are you using? What version of CCDSoft/Maxim? CCDSoft can currently only plate solve FOVs under 1 degree square. What star catalogs do you have active in CCDSoft? Have you checked the Detection Threshold value in CCDSoft to make sure it is around 1.25? Getting all the parameters tuned will increase your success with plate solving. HTH ...

Hello Again Frank,
Thank you for the help. I will check all that out. There may be a clue in the fact that Max indicated that his key pad seemed to cause a disconnect with the sky6. I'll investigate that.
I currently have gtocp3, with the latest drivers. Ascom is the latest version 5. The initializing of the mount is done with pulse guide and then disconnected after unparking ap 1200. The handpaddle is still connected to the mount. I'll use your suggestions to further troubleshoot.
The thing that is driving me bats is the fact that I see the connection to ccdap at the bottom along with all the other software.
Frank, is it possible to just slew with the ccdap once you are connected to the sky6 and B4 you try to and hit the initialize button on ccdap?
That be another avenue in tracking down the problem.
BTW, I am using edgeport/anywhere rs 232 to usb converter with an ethernet connection.
Take care and thanks.........Jerald

Hi Jerald,

Just to clarify, the connection you see at the bottom of CCDAP3 is simply verifying its connection to the control software you have specified. It does not go any further than that. You can connect to all your software in simulator mode and CCDAP3 will still indicate that it is "connected" to your software.

I also use the edgeports and they have worked very reliably for me.

Yes, you can slew the telescope via CCDAP3 and TheSky6 before you initialize. That is one of the ways to position the scope on a good guidestar for the initialization process. What I do is once CCDAP3 is connected, I use TheSky6 to slew the telescope to DEC=0 and the meridian on the West side. I then initialize CCDAP3 with the guidescope selected as "unguided". This established my plate scale and PA.I then click on the FOVI in TheSky6 and this gives me the 2 orange boxes (one in the center and one on the outer edge of the circles for the guiderchip). I click and hold my mouse on the center box and drag the FOVI around until I have placed a nice bright star on the guidechip in the FOVI. Next I go back to CCDAP3 and click on "Get" on the targets tab. This places the coordinates of the center of the FOV on the targets line. Next I will right click on the target line and select "slew to target". I have "Precision slew to target" checked. CCDAP3 will move the scope to the coordinates and plate solve the image, and make an adjustment slew based on the results of the image link. The scope is now at the location of my FOVI in TheSky6 and the star I put on the guider chip is there when I take an image with the autoguider. I then calibrate the autoguider with CCDSoft (this is what I use), and when it calibrates sucessfully, I change my guider in CCDAP3 from unguided to one of the other selections determined from the guider I am using. The I click on initilize, and CCDAP3 does the rest. So after that long explanation, . ... yes you can slew the scope without being initilized. HTH .....

Hi Frank,
I think you're getting closer to the solution. I believe that ccdsoft is where the problem lies. I've always used maxim for all the image processing in the past. I've never used ccdsoft.....so there is obviously something that I have not turned on in ccdsoft to do the plate solving. The reason I say that is that while slewing in ccdap, operations will stop while the bottom task bar is showing "solving." The program then seems to keep trying to solve until the sky 6 appears on the screen and the message in ccdap says "no sync or correcting slew."
Would it be possible to call you? my email is mizzou@wildblue.net.
I'm not familiar with setting up all the parameters in ccdsoft for astrometry plate solving. I think this is where the problems lie......Thank You, Jerald