SharpCap Forums

Is SharpCap able to manage a mount flip when meridian is crossed? I've a GEM (CGX) and do astrophoto. Sometimes a long tracking needs to cross the meridian.
CGX security stop the mount at meridian+20°.
It's to acquisition software to manage the flip:
1. Perform astrometry
2. Stop PHD2 (guiding)
3. Perform mount flip
4. Realign with astrometry
5 re start guiding (PHD2)
NINA, MaximDL, Prism do it... what for Sharpcap?
Thanks for your help
Dominique

Hi,

no, not yet, but I do have it on my list of things to do once 3.3 is finished.

thanks,

Robin

Hi Robin,
Any progress on this?. I'm in the process of getting my newly acquired HEQ5 mount up and running (after working with a GOTO Dob for the past 9 months) and would ideally like to stay with SC for this function. Thanks again for continuing to develop a fantastic piece of software!
Mike

Hi Mike,

no real progress - I am now concentrating on bug fixing and 'polishing' SharpCap 4.0 - no new major features right now This will remain on the to-do list until 4.0 is all finished, released, documented and stable, then I can start on new stuff again.

cheers,

Robin

Hi,

I've been thinking about this (I've just added an Hour Angle readout to the mount area, so at least you can see how close you are to the meridian).

My prototype workflow for the flip would be

When less than 1 frame's worth of time left before meridian, do the following :

* Pause imaging
* Remember RA/Dec location and tracking status/rate
* (Optional) capture a frame to plate solve and record location exactly (potentially use last captured frame)
* Stop guiding
* Stop tracking
* Wait until the target has moved past the meridian
* Resume tracking
* Goto the target co-ordinates
* Capture a frame, plate solve, re-goto accurately
* Restart guiding
* Restart imaging

Am I missing anything?

cheers,

Robin

Hi Robin
the sequence is ok, but it's not necessary to wait when passing the meridian: My CGX is able to go 20° after and before the meridian.
If every think works well, it takes 2 minutes... but require that SharpCap is able to manage the flip.
The plate solve at the beginning and after the flip is required.

As it's not the case, I have to use NINA. It's very powerfull (dome management, rotator, meteo, automatic focuser), but the management of image acquisition is not as fine as SharpCap. I have to say that I'm not confortable with SC sequencer. NINA has also a 2 levels one. The first level one is immediately usable by anybody. The second one is very very complete, and it's hard to manage.

Best, Dominique

Hi,

thanks for the feedback - I'm just trying to get this all planned out before I dive in to implement it. I was aware that some mounts can go past the meridian, but others stop tracking exactly on 180.00, so I have to plan for the worst case. Also, as far as I can see forcing a flip by setting the 'SideOfPier' property on an ASCOM mount is not required to be implemented, so the only robust way to flip is to wait for the target to pass the meridian and then issue a GOTO.

cheers,

Robin

Any news on this?

I thought of a semi-auto process that might work for most celestron mounts.

Just add a stop capture at a certain distance from meridian, set the mount to prefer putting the scope on the east side if available up to 20deg from meridian (a setting in the CPI or hand control), then stop guiding, set exp and gain to a good setting for plate solving, then platesolve and re goto. My mount (CGEM DX), will stop at meridian but if you plate solve from 20 deg before it to 0 deg, it will flip. Refocus, start guiding, then start capturing again. I think this is likely possible with current settings

Hi,

right now there are tools in the sequencing engine to build this for yourself, but no automated support - for instance the step 'Stop running these steps when <degrees> from the meridian' allows you to wrap up the capture of light frames in a way that will be stopped as the meridian is neared. The rest of the required steps for the flip are possible too.

The main reason this isn't automated yet is that I haven't had the opportunity to build and thoroughly test an automated version, but the building blocks are there for someone who wants to play lego with them

cheers,

Robin

Thank Robin, I managed to achieve pretty much a full automation process using the attached scs file. Now and then though it runs an error stating that it cannot take two captures at once, probably need to just add a stop capture somewhere.

Hope this helps someone looking to try this.