Hi,
I’m wondering if it would be possible to add a button in the Target Settings window to get the Mount’s Current reported position for ad-hoc mobile imaging. My logic behind this would be to be able to setup a mobile mount, go to the target using CDC or similar then get the “current position” of the mount and have SGP look after plate solving (Correcting any error in position) and centering/syncing position. This would mean that I wouldn’t need to transcribe coordinates especially seeing as some of the sites I image from I have no internet access even on the mobile (Yes these places do still exist ).
The reason we don’t have this is because it validates a pattern that allows users to assume that their mount coordinates are correct (this ultimately leads to an increase in the amount of time we spend with support). Instead we promote a pattern where, the scope image is solved and then allow for that location to transfer to the target settings window (no transcribing necessary).
Thanks for the response Ken, understand your logic and the need to reduce the support queries. I may have missed a step in your suggested workflow (I am reasonably new to SGP so sorry if I’ve missed a feature, feel free to point me to a section or more of the manual). So before SGP I would slew to a target, Plate solve, sync, re-center. So now I seem to be finding a target, transcribing the coordinates into the target location, plate solve etc… Would it be possible to call it “Copy ASCOM Position” and make it something that could be turned on in advanced menu (maybe with a no position error support warning ). Hopefully I’ve just got it all wrong and I’m missing something. In short I guess what I’m trying to achieve is to plate solve sync and slew on the current reported mount position and have the co-ordinates populate the target field, so the missing link may be the use of the current reported position to kick off the process?
Im almost certain that SGPro can replace your older process, BUT, instead of listing the “how”, maybe we should start with the “what”. In the spriti of this:
What is it you are trying to do?
Simply get on to specific, pre-determined location in the sky an start imaging for a target?
Move around the night sky and determine, at that time, what you’d like to image for that target?
Something else entirely?
Also…
Is your rig permanent or mobile (meaning, are you setting up right before imaging or not)?
How do you normally sync your mount’s position with the sky?
If I can make sure I understand that stuff, we can recommend a workflow.
Thanks again for getting back to me Ken, most appreciated.
I’ll take you through my previous workflow which I’m aiming to replace with SGP. I image 100% mobile and setup before imaging. Between the *'s is what I was hoping to be able to replicate with SGP, I have everything but the syncing working (obviously ).
Polar align (Slew and Drift with PHD)
Slew to target using CDC or similar.
*
Focus
Capture and platesolve using AstroTortilla on current target, with “Sync scope” and “Re-slew to target” enabled, (Usually through a few iterations).
Start Guiding
Begin Imaging
*
It’s the capture, sync and re-slew without having to manually transcribe the “ASCOM reported” position of the mount that I’m trying to integrate into the SGP workflow. I’ll re-iterate that I’m new to SGP, so the feature request for the button was based around the “ad-hoc” use of planetarium SW then the syncing of the mount and plate solving to correct the pointing error from cold start on a mobile rig. I thought that using the SGP plate solve engine after populating the target field would be one way to achieve this.
So to answer your question “How do you normally sync your mount’s position with the sky?” Via AT’s integration with BYE and platesolving, and was hoping to use SGP’s plate solve to achieve this somehow.
I have been wanting a feature like this for a while now. I’m also very often mobile in places that have no internet access and would love to be able to just slew to an object using TheSkyX and frame it there and then switch to SGP and start my sequence at my current position. Easily saving that position to the sequence would be great if possible. Are you saying that I could just plate solve and populate the target from the plate solve somehow?
I’m not clear exactly what you are asking - but if you frame the object somehow with some other software and you are sitting there with it all framed as you want - then you can just do a plate solve and click the checkbox that says “Use these results as the reference image for target.” That will put the solved coordinates in as the reference coordinates for that target.
There is no cutting and pasting from the planetarium program to SGP - but you do need to have the object actually framed on the ccd and able to be plate solved.
Is that what you are both asking for?
It doesn’t matter how you sync the mount as long as sgp can actually do the plate solve and find the coordinates from the solve.
Hi Frank,
I’m wanting to use SGP for everything apart from the drift align (PHD) and the slew to target (CDC or similar). So I would slew with a polar aligned mount with no sync and then use a plate solver to sync and centre the target I’ve slewed to (so as far as ASCOM is concerned there would be no coordinate change from the initial slew). My hope would be to leverage one of the plate solve engines in SGP to sync the mount to the sky to then make it my (nearly) one stop shop for imaging. So I guess where I would be in a workflow wouldn’t be up to the framing stage yet. If I had reliable internet I could use the Populate from web link feature. Basically I’m after a “backwards Solve and Sync” (I would like to be pointing where ASCOM thinks I am, I could use solve and sync, go back to CDC, re-slew, solve and sync… Hopefully that makes sense.
I think this would be a useful feature also - but primarily for people who are transitioning to the product, from more traditional separate product areas (capture using your choice of ccd tools, astrotortilla solve, pHD guide etc). The SGP workflow is a little foreign to new users - this may help them feel more at home initially.
I, much like hamiland, will often travel to remote dark sky areas (with no internet connection) to image, and have found on a few occasions i’ve had objects framed up and planned to image in SGP that haven’t quite worked because of the area we were in (trees, cover, cloud, glow etc), and have changed targets from my plan on the fly.
This kind of feature would allow to setup the imaging run quickly, then be able to resume on another night etc without issue.
A great feature to be added with a disclaimer on it to save you the support hassle…
Sure, this is what SGPro is designed to do. I would go even further and say that your “slew” shouyld also be handled by SGPro. No reason to relegate it to CDC… SGPro can get you on target with precision, focus, start guiding and start imaging.
Define the position of the target you want to capture in target settings (use a previous image, raw RA / DEC, the framing wizard, somebody else’s image, etc)
Ensure that you have “center on” target checked in the target settings
In the AF settings, make sure to have AF on sequence start as one of the triggers
Ensure that you have PHD2 set up and all the options you want including dither size and settling options
With your scope in any position and OK focus (and ANSVR blind solver installed), click the “Blind Solve & Sync” button. This will sync the scope to the exact position in the sky.
Click “Run Sequence”.
This will cause SGPro to center exactly where you want, auto focus, start guiding and then start the sequence
Thanks for the reply @Ken,
I think it is the point:
That what I’m struggling with, As I image from sites with no internet connectivity or mobile coverage, I have to rely on a planetarium application to find my target, the easiest way to copy the coordinates I have found is to use the planetarium app to slew, then solve and sync the mount’s current position, which kills 2 birds for me:
Firstly It centres me on the target without me having to copy the RA/DEC values
Secondly it allows me to sync the mount
The ability to copy the ASCOM reported coordinates into an area which would allow me to sync and solve to the current reported position is what I’m after. If I have to copy and paste the ASCOM/Planetarium coordinates to SGPthen I’ll go down that path. I just thought it would be something that wouldn’t be a unique request and easy to implement in software seeing as SGP already has the ASCOM driver open. Hey I may just be lazy not wanting to copy/transcribe between apps.
Why not simply set up your desired target when at home with a wifi connection, use the Framing & Mosaic wizard or Astrobin or DSO Browser for example? I would have thought you have chosen your target before you go mobile anyway.
As Ken then described once this is already set in your pc, all you need to do once you’ve carried out PA, calibrate PhD2, you just click Run Sequence.
I’m 100% with Anders on this. Sometimes, for whatever reason, your planned
target may not be possible. I would prefer to choose a target in TheSkyX,
slew to it & choose a rotation angle, then center/rotate. Then plate
solve/sync in SGP to populate the target coordinates. It seems like a good
mobile workflow to me. A button in SGP to solve/sync/populate would be
great but it’s pretty easy to do it manually.
Known target coordinates - use slew, solve and sync to center
Manual target selection (using any method to move the mount to the required position) - use solve and populate target coordinates from result.
If you are manually aligning the mount, you don’t need to sync to populate the coordinates - but you would use sync when you came to repeat the alignment at some other time, say on a follow-up session.
@buzz This is a perspective thing as a workflow is a number of steps to achieve a certain goal, so what you spit into two workflows, is in my perspective one, which at the end of the day is the reason behind the feature request, to improve the software for people who do are time poor and select targets on the fly based on obstructions, light pollution etc. So me "manually aligning the mount is using CDC etc. To reiterate, all I am after is a way of taking where ASCOM “thinks” my mount is (before sync). Populating these coordinates into the target box, then being able to add that to my capture plan, and have SGP, solve, sync and re-center.
To note, I have found a number of people that in the recent past have been asking for assistance IMO the addition of this feature may assist with this for those with similar thought process (and maybe an 18 month old child removing planning time).
This appears flawed - if you are using SGP to solve sync and center, it is doing that to a target value so that the image is accurate to the target coordinates. Populating incorrect target values reported from the mount to the target box, solving and syncing, will go somewhere else.
I have an obsy now but I like you imaged with a mobile rig for several years. That included times where I did not use SGP to align on the subject in the first place, but having started to take images (with the sequence star options to slew and center disabled), when I came to add more images to the sequence on a subsequent night, I would solve an image and update the target coordinates. Next time, I just let SGP do its thing and did not bother with mount alignment at all.
I think you are missing one step in what I’m doing, I’m using an app (CDC, stellarium, whatever…) to perform my slew to target, so the ASCOM and the mount think they are in the correct location. Thus my want to “copy” the location into SGP and use the inbuilt plate solver.
Previously then I would use AT to solve, sync and slew, then start my imaging run. I acknowledge that SGP is more designed for more autonomy of multiple targets, permanent setups and planning,
I’m finding it interesting to see different the different logic that people use, @SXBB obviously thinks the way I do and @jamiep understands. As I mentioned before, there are a other threads on these forums that the author IMO would benefit from this feature request.
When you say [quote=“hamiland, post:18, topic:5962”]
Thus my want to “copy” the location into SGP and use the inbuilt plate solver.
[/quote]
Is that to make the plate solver work? I could see a reason to have the initial plate solver hint being populated by an ASCOM read of the RA and DEC coordinates.
Are you concerned that when your mount slews to the position given by CdC or Stellarium its pointing accuracy will mean at the end of the slew it will be pointing outside of the tolerance of PS2 or local ansvr to be able to solve?
If not, as Frank posted above, you can right click on the image, choose to solve and synch and SGP will plate solve and you can use the actual co-ordinates of your framed target as the reference for all future slews/centering (not where the mount thinks it is pointing).
Sorry if we are not grasping your point: I am not trying to be obtuse, honestly. I used to set up each night in my garden and used SGP this way, using Elbrus many years ago.
).