So i have just recieved my WD 20, have downloaded the drivers and set up on step. Curious what i need to set in NINA and the mount when it comes to making sure it will do a propper meridian flip. I tried doing it last night indoors, but it did not flip. I noticed that when whatching the mount track the RA and DEC were not changing, but the Alt and Az were. I have it set to GEM mode. Any advice and help would be appreciated.
Hi!
If the RA/DEC coordinates not changing, it means that you’re on normal tracking.
For performing a meridian flip controlled by NINA, you need to setup NINA meridian settings, please refer to NINA guide here:
Automated Meridian Flip - Nighttime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy (nighttime-imaging.eu)
Several conditions you need to considered for meridian settings:
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Default meridian limits of mount is Meridian East 0mins, Meridian West 20mins(5 degrees). So the window area allowing meridian flip controlled by NINA is Meridian to past meridian 20mins. You need to set NINA meridian time in this 20mins.
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If mount reached 20mins past meridian position without NINA ever sent a meridian flip command, the mount will be triggered a flip controlled by mount itself, as failsafe control.
-You must sync time/location and started a normal operation(Goto/Solving/Align) so that failsafe will be enabled, not related with flip controlled by NINA, just a failsafe feature. -
For a flip controlled by NINA, NINA will active flip when reached Mins after flip position, if your exposure still in process, NINA will wait until your exposure completed, then do a flip. If the time already exceed max mins after flip position, NINA will not do a flip. So you need to consider both settings and your exposure time.
Details refer to NINA documentations.
Thanks, i will check my tracking mode, although im pretty sure i have it set to sidereal. I will check that and see if that helps. All my other settings are pretty much as you described.
I want to resurface this topic again…
Last night, I was imaging and had NINA perform a meridian flip. I noticed that after the flip, the autofocus routine (part of the flip routine) failed because tracking wasn’t enabled again after flip. It was tracking before without issue, paused to flip, flipped, never re-enabled tracking, couldn’t autofocus, so I had to cancel the automated routing and do everything manually.
I had two scopes out last night. One on the ZWO AM5 and the other on the WD-20. Both run by NINA (on different computers). The AM5 had no issue with the flip routine, it flipped and tracking was enabled afterwards.
I’m wondering if this is another OnStep driver issue or a setting somewhere?
This can sometime occur because of a conflict with the mount and Nina flip thresholds.
Can you share the Onstep tracking limit and the NINA flip settings. I think I have the mount set to about 10 degrees and NINA set to about half that. I have just been dialling in my PHD2 settings. Meridian flips are next on my check list before I start serious imaging. Most of my images are 50+ hours exposure.
Gustavo, I did some experiments with meridian flips. I set +5 for both East and West. In both cases, the mount tracks past the North or South meridians and then automatically flips 5 degrees past the meridian. This is 5 degrees on the RA axis, not on Azimuth.
Since 5 degrees is 20 minutes (time), I set my NINA meridian flip settings to 5(min) and 12(max) minutes. In that way, since my longest exposure is 5 minutes, it will do a few exposures past the meridian and then force a flip, without hitting the scope’s limits. That checked out too.
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