Auto Re-Aquiring Guiding After Clouds

[Astro_Hoff]

Hi,

I use SharpCap 3.2 Pro with PHD2 for long exposure astrophotography and it works very well together for me. One question I do have is whether it is possible somehow to automatically plate solve and re-aquire a guide star after passing clouds cause the loss of guiding?

I've lost so much data when a brief cloud passes over during the night.

[admin]

Hi,

Right now there's no way to do that that I can think of. SharpCap 3.3 is adding closer integration with the guiding application and one of the things you will be able to do the sequencing tool is trigger guiding to start. Although that doesn't quite solve the problem, it's one of the building blocks that would allow a solution to be put together.

I will put this on my to-do list

Cheers, Robin

[Astro_Hoff]

Thanks,

I didn't think it was possible. It's frustrating to leave your equipment running for a few hours only to return and find you have only 1 or 2 captured frames due to a cloud passing over shortly after starting capture.

Hopefully there will be a solution for this one day, as 100% clear nights are extremely rare here. As for now I will have to keep the coffee pot full for those long sleepless nights.

[admin]

Hi,

It should be possible – for instance SharpCap can send messages to PHD2 to instruct it to select the hardware, start the camera, select a star automatically, then start guiding (performing calibration if necessary). I already have this available inside the sequencer tool using the 'Start guiding if necessary' step. All I need to do is put in some code to make that step get used (say every 60s) if the guiding is lost during capture. Eventually, the cloud will clear, the restart of guiding should succeed and capture should resume.

Cheers, Robin

[Astro_Hoff]

Well that sounds awesome.

Can't wait to try out the new version of SharpCap when released. Should make life a little easier for those of us not technically minded