I use SGPro with a dome and it would be really useful if the dome controls and status were more easily visible please.
At the moment, you have to open the Control Panel to slave and unslave the dome, open and close the shutter, and see the dome status.
I can see the logic in having Open / Close / Home / Sync “hidden” on the Control Panel so that they are not inadvertently set / unset (although a confirm message box would alleviate this potential issue) - but Stop really needs to be at the forefront and easily accessible in my view. Also, the other evening for some reason the dome dropped out of “slave” for some reason (probably user error!!) and I didn’t realise until I lost my guide star as the scope tracked away from the slot.
I would be great if you could make this all more visible by maybe adding an Observatory dockable module so that this is all visible and controllable from the SGPro main screen.
Also - would it be possible to add a “Slewing:” property to the existing Control Panel panel, (and the proposed module!) …and even a “Target Azimuth” (not sure about this one because I don’t think it’s an ASCOM property though) please?
To be honest I’m not entirely sure why we haven’t added this yet. I think for the most part the dome is generally just secondary to other hardware. But I do agree this should be added.
Thanks for coming back on this. I agree that a dome or observatory is not a primary part of AP equipment, but I’m pleased to read that you think it should be added because if the observatory isn’t open or tracking - nothing else will yield any results!
Don’t mean to nit-pick here, but in terms of real-estate and necessity is it reasonable to infer that if the azimuth is not moving that it is not slewing or is there a reason that assumption is not true?
As for slaving, that’s useful info and can be added.
We don’t report “Slewing” for the dome anywhere. Slewing can be true for different things. Generally if the azimuth is moving or if the shutter is moving. However I think this can be inferred in both cases. If the shutter is moving it will state “Opening” or “Closing” rather than Open/Closed. And if the dome is rotating then the azimuth should be moving (unless your dome slips (like mine) and then it just sits there for a bit and eventually gets some grip (maybe))
I’ve asked for “Slewing” because my dome driver returns ASCOM “Slewing” as True only when the Azimuth motor is running and it doesn’t update Azimuth as it slews - only when it stops - so I can’t infer it. I appreciate that this may be just an issue for me only and recognise your constraints on space - so I can live without “Slewing”. (I can always have a look at the Webcam!).
