Guide with PHD2

A Guider makes the operator run PHD2 for one telescope. During a reservation, the operator starts PHD2, connects it to the guide camera and the mount, and then leaves it idle. You calibrate and guide from KStars, through PHD2’s event server, as you would with PHD2 on your own computer.

Declare the guider

The guider names its telescope and the optical train whose camera guides. A guide scope is a train on its own small tube. An off-axis guider is a train on the imaging tube.

apiVersion: observatory.liken.sh/v1alpha1
kind: OpticalTube
metadata:
  name: east-guidescope
spec:
  telescope: east
  aperture: 50
  focalLength: 200
---
apiVersion: observatory.liken.sh/v1alpha1
kind: OpticalTrain
metadata:
  name: east-guiding
spec:
  telescope: east
  opticalTube: east-guidescope
---
apiVersion: observatory.liken.sh/v1alpha1
kind: Camera
metadata:
  name: east-guide
spec:
  opticalTrain: east-guiding
  driver: {name: indi_simulator_guide}
---
apiVersion: observatory.liken.sh/v1alpha1
kind: Guider
metadata:
  name: east
spec:
  telescope: east
  opticalTrain: east-guiding
  pulses: Mount

pulses says where PHD2 sends its corrections:

• Mount sends them to the mount’s driver, over the mount’s own connection. Use this unless you have a reason not to.
• Camera sends them through the guide camera’s ST-4 port, for a mount that is cabled for ST-4 guiding.

The operator writes PHD2’s profile from these resources: the INDI server, the guide camera and the mount by their INDI names, and the guide tube’s focal length. PHD2 computes the pixel scale from the focal length and the camera’s pixel size, so give the guide tube’s real focal length.

What the operator does

When a reservation of the telescope reaches its StartGuider step, the operator starts PHD2, connects its camera and mount, and waits until PHD2 reports both connected. Then the reservation is Ready.

The operator never loops, calibrates, or guides, and it never starts tracking. Calibration needs a tracking mount and a star, so you align the mount, start tracking, and then start guiding.

At the end of the reservation, the operator stops guiding and exposures, and stops PHD2 before it disconnects the camera and the mount.

PHD2 runs in the pod <guider>-guider, such as east-guider. The pod runs on the same node as the telescope’s INDI server, and so does the guide camera unless its claim puts it elsewhere, because PHD2 reads a guide frame about once a second.

Guide from KStars

The guider’s status.endpoint names PHD2’s event server, with its host, such as east-guider.observatory.svc, and its port, 4400. From a desktop, forward the port:

kubectl port-forward -n observatory svc/east-guider 4400

In the Ekos guide module, choose PHD2 as the guider, with host localhost and port 4400, and connect. Ekos then shows PHD2’s state and its guiding graph, and its buttons start looping, calibration, and guiding. Reserve a telescope gives other ways to reach the port.

PHD2’s own window is not visible. It draws on a headless display in the pod, because PHD2 cannot run without one.

Read the guiding

kubectl get guider -n observatory
kubectl get telescope -n observatory -o wide

The guider’s status holds what PHD2 reports:

• state: what PHD2 does, such as Looping, Calibrating, Guiding, or LostLock
• calibrated, and pixelScale in arc-seconds per pixel
• rms: the guiding error in arc-seconds, in right ascension, declination, and total, over the last 100 guide steps
• star: the guide star’s SNR and its HFD in pixels
• alert: the last alert PHD2 showed, or the last calibration that failed

The telescope’s Guider column, in -o wide, shows the guider’s phase and PHD2’s state together, such as Ready, Guiding.

When PHD2 restarts

If PHD2’s pod is deleted, the operator creates it again and connects PHD2’s camera and mount. The operator also connects them again when the telescope’s INDI server restarts. A new PHD2 starts idle and not calibrated, so calibrate and start guiding again from Ekos.

If PHD2 exits and the kubelet restarts its container in the same pod, the operator does not connect the camera and the mount again. Connect them from the Ekos guide module, or delete the pod so that the operator creates a new one:

kubectl delete pod -n observatory east-guider

PHD2 can exit by itself when it opens a dialog that waits for an answer, because the headless display has no one to answer it. If the guider restarts again and again, read its log:

kubectl logs -n observatory east-guider -c phd2 --previous