This request is following on from a post in the Sequencing section.
“How to prevent End of Sequence if guidder is loosing star for a few minutes?”
Far too often (and this a consequence of the weather not the software) clouds get in the way and can cause the guiding to loose the star and the sequence aborts and you loose the image being taken. If this happens near the end of the exposure, say 28min into a 30 min exposure, the sub can be saved by simply covering over the scope and waiting for the timer to end and save the file. This works ok, if the cloud is thin and the guide star can still be seen, but if the guide star is lost, the exposure is lost as well even though I have covered the scope and I don’t care about loosing the guide star.
All this does presume you are not using off axis guiding and you are there at the scope ready with the scope cap.
I have asked before about being able to stop the exposure and save the file, but I was told this was not possible. So an alternative could be to add a third option to the abort sequence that just ignores any lost guide star errors. This would be a one time single action that would not repeat again unless you press the abort sequence and pick “ignore lost guide star” again after re-starting the sequence.
A second box could popup as a confirmation stating that this will not stop the current exposure and that you need to cover the scope or guiding will be lost. If this option can be made available it could also be used for off axis guiding as well, just press the abort, select this option and straight away cover the scope.
This issue happens so often it’s really frustrating. It does not matter for short exposures say 5-10 mins, but to loose 30 mins of integration, argh!!!
Mike