Automatically Re-Aquiring stars guiding after clouds

[giraud]

Hello,

I am using Sharpcap with PHD2 as guiding application for DSO imaging.

It seems that when the guiding is lost for some reason (clouds, obstacles), it is not reactivated later on during the session when conditions become good again for guiding.
I am using the Deep Sky imaging window, and I am wondering if I am missing something in the configuration to ask for automatically re-aquiring stars after the clouds have gone. Or if I need to use the Sequence Planner to have access to such functionnality.

Many thanks.

Eric.

[admin]

Hi Eric,

if you are using live stacking then SharpCap currently does not request PHD2 to restart guiding if it is lost. The theory there is that live stacking is something that you are generally watching, so the observer is on hand to deal with that (SharpCap will restart stacking once guiding restarts).

The sequencer is designed for unattended imaging, and that will try to get PHD2 to restart guiding if it has stopped - the step that captures still frames will attempt to restart guiding automatically if the 'requires guiding' flag is set and there is also a specific step to request PHD2 to start guiding.

cheers,

Robin

[giraud]

Thanks Robin,

Very clear.

I am using the Deep Sky Sequence Planner with the 'require guiding' flag on so I should be all good.

Thanks.
Eric.

[admin]

Hi Eric,

yes, that should be fine - it will try to restart guiding every 60 seconds until finally it succeeds, then it will continue capturing images.

cheers,

Robin