Hi @chubber,
There is an additional issue ([astro] Can't update state for channel :position#elevation · Issue #6693 · eclipse-archived/smarthome · GitHub) which sounds very similar. Did you see that too? The issue could be related to a wrong item configuration.
If it does not fit, it would be appreciated if you can open an issue in the openHAB 2 Add-ons issue tracker for it.