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Multiple night returning to the same location
Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2021 3:11 pm
by Rab722
I normally select my targets on Stellarium but when I image a target on multiple nights sometimes its hard to get back to exact spot the next night. It would be nice to have a separate list of the RA and DEC for the live stacks. Then have the ability to select from that list and send the mount a go to command. After that plate solving should get me right on target.
Rick
Re: Multiple night returning to the same location
Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2021 2:19 pm
by admin
Hi Rick,
that's quite a nice idea - thanks for suggesting it.
As a starting point, in SharpCap 4.0, the co-ordinates of the mount should be saved in the .CameraSettings.txt file (although I have only tested this for normal capture - not sure if it will get saved for live stacking. I will check)
cheers,
Robin
Re: Multiple night returning to the same location
Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2021 6:32 pm
by Rab722
I know that the RA and DEC are in the fits file but getting those into either Stellarium or the mount ASCOM interface is a pain. They all seem to use different coordinate units.
Your software is already sending commands to the mount so I was thinking open a window with a list of previous live stacks pick the target and then press a button to command the mount. Easier in the dark than retyping the coordinates and hoping to get the units correct.
Thanks for considering the idea.
Rick
Re: Multiple night returning to the same location
Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 1:52 pm
by admin
Hi Rick,
yes, makes sense - the other thing I had considered was a 'go to image' function - select an existing image and SharpCap will plate solve it and go-to the co-ordinates returned by the plate solving engine.
One of the things I noticed when writing the sequencing tool was that RA/Dec co-ordinates are a mess with no standard form. In the end I made SharpCap accept pretty much any format I could find so that you wouldn't have to reformat the co-ordinates - for instance all of these will work in the sequencer (and take you to the Orion Nebula):
Code: Select all
05 35 17.3 -05 23 28
05 32 49.8 -05 25 21
RA 5h 35m 17s | Dec -5° 23′ 28″
5h 35m 17s -5° 23′ 28″
5h35m17.39s/Dec-5°23'28.24"
RA= 5h 35.4m, Dec= -05° 27´
RA: 05h 35m 24.0s Dec: -05°27'00"
5h RA, -5° DEC
RA 05h 35.4m |Dec. -05° 27″
RA 05h 35.4m, dec. –05º 27’
{RA=05:35:16,Dec=-05:23:28}
5.58805 -5.391
(05:35:20.556, -05:18:32.593)
(83.84, -5.309)
cheers,
Robin
Re: Multiple night returning to the same location
Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2022 8:44 pm
by Rab722
Just doing some multi-night images on the same target and still wishing for this functionality.
I would be great to pick a Sharpcap generated fits image from the night before, grab the RA and DEC from the header and issue a command for the mount to slew. It appears you are already sending slew commands to the mount after a plate solve.
1) Pick the file, read the header.
2) Show a dialog with the values and ask whether to send the command to the mount.
Rick
Re: Multiple night returning to the same location
Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2022 9:00 pm
by Rab722
Robin, I'm looking to write a small utility program that would slew the mount based on the RA and DEC values you write into the FITS header. I've got the mount part using the ASCOM libraries for C#. Just wondering if there are any C# libraries for reading the FITS header, or could you post a bit of code to just read the header.
Rick
Re: Multiple night returning to the same location
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2022 2:07 pm
by admin
Hi Rick,
hold on until Monday... this feature is nearly finished
- Capture.JPG (68.48 KiB) Viewed 561 times
I am still working on tidying up the user interface and making it look nice. If the file you select is a FITS then it will use the header information as the start point for plate solving, so the plate solve of the image will be quick (and will get the correct center even if the FITS headers are slightly off)
cheers,
Robin
Re: Multiple night returning to the same location
Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2022 2:49 am
by Rab722
Super, thank you.