MantisBT - Issues

0002900: CCDCiel 0.9.93 crashes when autoguider is settling

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 16:04:55 +0100

I have a new computer running Win10 instead of Win7. I have installed the latest CCDciel version 0.9.93. Unfortunally CCDCiel has crashed at least three times during the last two clear nights. It happens at Auto guider settling. See attached log. This has never happende before. My previous computer was running CCDCiel 0.9.92

Last lines in the log

2026-03-08T20:50:59.367 3: Autoguider: Start Guiding
2026-03-08T20:50:59.497 3: Autoguider: Looping Exposures
2026-03-08T20:51:01.575 3: Autoguider: Settling

or at

2026-03-08T19:03:25.958 3: Autoguider: Looping Exposures
2026-03-08T19:03:28.059 3: Autoguider: Settling
2026-03-08T19:03:28.063 3: ASCOM.QHYCCD_GUIDER.Camera: Set binning 2x2

I switched now back to version 0.9.92 to see if this fixes this problem

Any idea what could cause this behavior?

0002899: Faster TIFF unit

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 21:07:28 +0100

For ASTAP I have developped a TIFF unit which can save/load monochrome and colour 16 and 32 bit float TIFF files. The advantage using this unit for CCDCiel would be that it is faster then current FCL image (and handle 32 bit but that would not be interesting for CCDCiel)

Would you be interested in replacing FCL image (FPReadTiff, FPWriteTiff, FPTiffCmn) in cu_fits? See attached unit_tiff. If so I could work on it.

cs, Han

0002898: Some minor compile problems

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 20:14:44 +0100

Noted the following after a fresh code download:

1) Laz_synapse is not in CCDCielcomponents v0.0

2) In cu_tpcserver

line 202, if ClientSock<>NoSocket then

I get the following compiler error:
cu_tcpserver.pas(202,24) Error: Range check error while evaluating constants (-1 must be between 0 and 18446744073709551615)

0002893: Draw concentric circles in a transparent, moveable, screen overlay to show photometry apertures

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 08:53:53 +0100

When taking images for asteroid photometry the target passes close to a star. It would be very helpful to have a moveable, transparent overlay of concentric circles to show where my photometric apertures will be. I can then determine if the asteroid is passing too close to a star and stop imaging that asteroid and move to a different asteroid while waiting for the first asteroid to move far enough away from the problem star.

I have done something like this in SkyChart by creating 3 finder circles in the Eyepiece tab of the Display menu The 3 circles represent my photometric central aperture, the "dead zone", and the outer background sky anulus. I then lock on the asteroid and advance the time to see if it passes too close to a star. The only problem here is sometimes the asteroid isn't exactly where the orbit places it ,even updating the orbits for that day. It would be very helpful to place my 3 aperture circles over a star in the asteroids path and I can wait and watch to see if the asteroid gets too close.

I don't know how many others this feature might help, or how difficult writing the code would be, so I can understand if it goes to the bottom of the list. Thank you for your consideration and for creating SkyChart and CCDCiel, the only programs I have used for 10+years of asteroid tracking (an I've tried several others). The programs are amazing, wonderful, reliable, easy to use .... (insert endless complements here).

Thanks you.

0002897: Decimal angle/hour coordinates

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 16:05:16 +0100

All angle/hour coordinates are expressed in degrees/hours, min, sec.
It would be useful to add a configuration option to express all cooordinates (both input and output) in decimal degrees/hours.

0002896: SVBony powerbox switch

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 15:57:55 +0100

I couldn't connect to the SVbony SV241Pro powerbox (https://www.svbony.com/products/sv241-remote-astro-power-controller) using ASCOM. It shows an error: "ASCOM.SVBONY.Switch: Connection error: Method 'Connect' is not supported by automation object"

The ASCOM driver is installed, and I can connect it from Astro Photography Tool (APT). Also, if I use INDI (running on Raspberry Pi), I can connect to it from CCDCiel running on Windows.
But I couldn't change values in the PWM fields in the switch window. They always immediately return to default values. The only option is to set it directly in the INDI server settings.

0002895: Corrupted BC/AD buttons

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 14:54:39 +0100

Era (BC/AD) buttons are corrupted, and difficult to be selected with the mouse.

0002885: VMA-9.0 > CcLun > Ephemeride: date / time display

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 10:02:29 +0100

Whenever I want ro use ephemerides for a specific date / time it is nagging that these are not readlable because the fields for the numers are too small. They won't grow and cannot be resized even when cclun displays full screen, see screen shot.

Apart from this issue, I am full of praise about VMA.
Big thanks to all involved!

0002892: Inccorect discription of the crater name origin

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:53:08 +0100

The following crater name is Anton Maria Schyrlaeus von Rheita, and the country of origin for the bearer of the name is indicated as follows: “17th century Czech Astronomer born in Czecoslovaquia.” In the 17th century, the name of the country could not be Czecoslovaquia; instead, the region should be referred to as Bohemia or the Czech lands. The link for this may be followed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_the_Czech_Republic
. The usual name for the country at that time was Bohemia.

0002870: Meridian flip near pole

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 20:03:39 +0100

If the object passes through the lower culmination (e.g. close to the pole), CCDCiel thinks that the object sets and finishes it in sequence. And it doesn't make an automatic meridian flip in such a case. The only possibility is to stop the sequence and re-run it again - now the object is already after culmination, and the mount is flipped.

0002827: Something happened near pole - Unexpected time past meridian

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 20:03:21 +0100

Hello,
last night we want to image NGC188, which is located near celestial north pole. The sequence was started to run at 23:00:00. Goto and Platesolving were ok. Starting imaging failed with "Unexpected time past meridian 702". I was still awake and could handle this with disabling automatic merdianflip and start sequence again.

Thomas

0002887: Installation problems for beginners

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 18:18:05 +0100

When I install CCDCiel (nightly build) completely I noticed a problem which could be problematic for beginners:

1) Error after solving:

21:55:35 telescope/0: Slew is complete
21:55:35 Settling for 5 sec.
21:55:40 camera/0: Take control exposure for 10.0 seconds
21:55:42 Resolve control exposure
21:55:42 Resolving using ASTAP ...
21:55:44 Open file C:\Users\h\AppData\Local\ccdciel\tmp\ccdcielsolved.fits
21:55:44 Astrometry resolve successful. Solved in 1 seconds
21:55:44 Error processing temporary file in C:\Users\h\AppData\Local\ccdciel\tmp
21:55:44 Precision slew failed! <===========================================================
21:55:44 Error: Goto: M1_NGC1952
21:58:30 Configuration saved

The image in CCDCiel becomes weird see attached screenshot and log.
The path is available and there is an image in the path

2) I had also a problem that the initial frame size was again 5x5 pixels. But I can't reproduce it a second time. I had to reset and set the frame to get full frame size. Is the frame size made blank after installing a new camera?

0002891: Display Automatic Sky Colour

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 18:07:46 +0100

Hi again!

Different issue. When I use the Automatic Sky Colour it is showing the December sky colour lighter than September. Hopefully see attached screenshot comparing 15th Sep 26 with 15th Dec 26. The last time I was producing these printable charts the sky colour worked as expected - darker in winter lighter in summer.

Thanks

Terry Webb

0002890: Configuration Options Spurious Changes

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 18:00:27 +0100

Hi

I'm trying to set up a 'printable' chart and so change configuration items to make it easier to read in a small format. However when I say change the width of constellation lines it also re-enables planets even though I have dis-abled them, and when I change say the star 'size' it re-sizes the constellation lines to 1pt when I previously had set them to 4pts. As if the code sometimes goes to reset some other disconnected config item.

Also as I have to save the Config INI file and rename it so I can use it at a later time it would be good to be able to Save and Reload Config INI Files via the Config Interface.

Thanks

Terry

0002889: Pb de compilation de libpasastro

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 18:24:47 +0100

Bonjour,

En vue d'installer CCDCiel sur mon RPI5, j'ai suivi la procédure de compilation de libpasastro qui ne semble pas aboutir:

robert@raspberrypi:~/libpasastro $ sudo make install PREFIX=/usr
./install.sh /usr
Install LibPasAstro to /usr
install: impossible d'évaluer 'getdss/libpasgetdss.so.*': Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce nom
install: impossible d'évaluer 'plan404/libpasplan404.so.*': Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce nom
install: impossible d'évaluer 'wcs/libpaswcs.so.*': Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce nom
'/usr/share/doc/libpasastro/changelog' supprimé
'changelog' -> '/usr/share/doc/libpasastro/changelog'
'/usr/share/doc/libpasastro/copyright' supprimé
'copyright' -> '/usr/share/doc/libpasastro/copyright'
ln: impossible de créer le lien symbolique 'libpasgetdss.so.1': Le fichier existe
ln: impossible de créer le lien symbolique 'libpasplan404.so.1': Le fichier existe
ln: impossible de créer le lien symbolique 'libpaswcs.so.1': Le fichier existe
make: *** [Makefile:58: install] Error 1
robert@raspberrypi:~/libpasastro $

0002888: atlun: error while loading shared libraries: libGLU.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:43:24 +0100

On my Ubuntu 26.04 wayland session (x11 does not exist on 26.04) starting atlun i have the message:
atlun: error while loading shared libraries: libGLU.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Note: other functions: photlun, datlun, weblun, calclun... seems working ok.

0002886: Alpaca, filterwheel. New connect method instead of connected

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 20:47:34 +0100

While testing my Ascom/Alpaca Simulator, I noticed that for the filterwheel a new method is used.

Put /{device_type}/{device_number}/connect Starts an asynchronous connect to the device.
Put /{device_type}/{device_number}/disconnect Starts an asynchronous connect to the device.

For camera, mount, focuser still this method is used:
Put /{device_type}/{device_number}/connected Sets the connected state of the device

So different methods. Is it wise to make all method new or try both connect and connected?

I have updated my simulator for connect/disconnect. There is only one line reporting an error. Delay required?

20:41:08 Connecting Filter wheel ASCOM Alpaca "filterwheel/0" …
20:41:08 filterwheel/0: Connection error:
20:41:08 filterwheel/0: Connected
20:41:08 Filter wheel connected
20:41:17 filterwheel/0: Connection error:
20:41:17 filterwheel/0: Disconnected

0002884: Stumbled JSON data on some commands

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:33:20 +0100

The python/jsonrpc interface returns stumbled JSON data on the following commands (maybe more, just tested these):
CoverStatus
CalibratorStatus
CalibratorBrightness

For example CoverStatus gives:
Closed, "id": 1}

0002856: Adding a target in sequence from Skychart hide the window

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 18:25:12 +0100

Adding a new target in a sequence using Insert row / From planetarium then choosing the target in Skychart, hides the small modal "Planetarium position" popup under the "Edit target list" windows. As the popup is modal it is mandatory to find it and close it to continue, it's a bit painful doing this each time, maybe it's possible to bring the popup at the top over the target list windows ?

0002881: Change window displayed when selecting target from Planetarium

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 11:13:15 +0100

Hi Patrick,
When selecting a target from the planetarium it would be helpful if the sky chart window was displayed to enable target selection. At the moment the small planetarium window opens but this is not useful at this point in selecting the target, it would be much more useful if Skychart was brought to the front. switching back to CCDciel the small planetarium window can then be edited if required.
My MacBook Pro has only a 16" window so it is no practicable to run CCDciel side by side with Skychart.
Many thanks.

regards,
Rob

0002876: Issuse with display of galilean moons and Titan.

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 17:16:51 +0100

Jupiter's moons (main example being Ganymede) do not rotate as time is advanced. If i zoom out and in again, they do update/rotate.

Ganymede also shows as transparent when in front of Jupiter - sometimes.

Regarding Saturn/Titan, Titan shows up sometimes when behind Saturn, and does not show up sometimes when in front.

When watching eclipses of Titan (shadow of Saturn crossing Titan) the image does not update as time is changed. Most of the time.

The Galilean effect also appears to be the case with 4.2, but most of these observations were made with 4.3.

Cheers

Nick

0002883: Calclun > Year Tab > 28 Days per month and phase does not match accurate table below

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:48:21 +0100

Calcun will only produce 28 days per every month. Also the phases graphically represent 3 days late. Table below is accurate. Repeatable every single start up and no known way to correct regardless of attempt.

0002869: Store astrometry in FITS header

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 20:19:30 +0100

Is it possible to write a solution for plate solving in the header of FITS files? I couldn't find any option in preferences/sequence settings, etc.

0002838: Changement d'oculaires sans modification d'orientation

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 12:03:28 +0100

Bjr,
j'ai configuré
deux téléscopes (Mak et Newton)
et pour chacun d'eux 5 oculaires.
Il y a donc 10 lignes de configuration pour les oculaires qui tiennent compte des modifications d'orientation dues à la conception optique des téléscopes.

J'ouvre AVL sur un premier quartie de lune.

Je sélectionne un premier oculaire,
par exemple le Mak 17.5mm,
le lune apparait alors correctement sur l'écran (taille et orientation).
On remarque par ailleurs que les boutons de rotation et d'inversion se sont activés.
Si je tente de changer d'oculaire et de choisir le Newton 12.5mm,
la taille de l'image de la lune à l'écran a changé
mais pas l'orientation.
L'orientation est restée bloquée sur le premier oculaire...
Je vois donc la lune au bon grossissement mais pas dans la bonne orientation.
Les deux boutons (rotation et inversion) sont restés activés.

0002837: La fonction "Plein écran" déplace l'interface sur le premier écran du PC

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 12:03:05 +0100

Bonjour,
merci pour tous vos efforts à délivrer/corriger ce merveilleux logiciel.
J'utilise la version 9.

J'ouvre l'interface générale de l'application via le shortcut sur mon bureau du portable (écran 12").
J'active AtLun => AVL s'ouvre sur l'écran de mon portable (12").
Je déplace l'interface du logiciel sur mon écran de bureau 40 pouces.
Je pousse sur le bouton du bandeau "Plein écran".
Le logiciel se met en plein écran mais retourne sur l'écran de mon portable (12").

Si je déplace le shortcut de AVL sur le bureau de mon écran 40", AVL s'ouvre alors directement sur mon écran 40".
Quand je souhaite activer la fonction plein écran, rebelotte, il se met en plein écran mais sur l'écran 12" de mon portable.