Dear Ken,
Thank you for the update. I am glad to see the continous improvement to the platform.
A question: do you have intention to fix the “center here hyperstar bug soon? This one has been documented in many posts and we discussed about it last NESFS. But yet I don’t see it in any intention update.
This one might not cover many users, but believe me, it is a constant pain.
Thank you,
Yanick
I too see little to no use of the cloud/community based features for 4, however I think we all want a better focus implementation.
To a lesser degree but I need it desperately since long, true multicamera support, a request I’ve seen passed many times.
Last but not least true switch support is also very important!
And as always, less is more, also in development.
(cloud integration is already “the case” you can perfectly instruct any cloud based solution to sync data and or presets I’ve been doing that all along with my remote)
/Yves
I have to agree with Yves. I’m very excited about the new release, but I already use the cloud for my profiles, sequences and data, so I don’t understand what spending time implementing such a feature directly in to SGP will do for us - perhaps the time would be better spent on other feature requests?
I’ve used the cloud on other applications and if you operate across multiple devices it is very useful for exchanging data seamlessly. As a user you don’t need to pay attention to what device the data is collected on, it’s available everywhere with no effort.
It could also be easy to implement because the cloud provider may supply a decent API that allows it to be integrated with little effort.
An improved focus system may be very useful but could be considerably more difficult, not least because there doesn’t seem to be much consensus about what an improved focus system would deliver.
It’s already in the current 3.1 Beta which you can download today.
This is referring to number of targets/events and not the FOV of the Framing and Mosaic Wizard. Like for people that enjoy loading up 20+ targets in SGP.
The current FOV limit is not something we can change at the moment.
Not at the moment…we’re trying to squash a few bugs and then we’ll likely push it out. But having said that we haven’t started on the Auto Focus improvements either. But most everything else in that list has been completed.
I’m not going to go into the Cloud features that we’re considering as I don’t like giving false hope or previewing things that we end up deciding against. Right now it’s an idea…like a little bundle of gas in the Orion nebula, but saving Profiles and Settings is primarily being done as an initial jumping off point for a much grander vision. We feel this will have the same impact as the Framing and Mosaic Wizard had many years ago…a truly innovative feature which people don’t want to be without (which others have now blatantly copied). It will drastically change your imaging (if you so desire)
Thanks,
Jared
For 4.x I personally would like to see SGP move away from relying on 3rd party applications even if you have a great partnership.
Having built in auto guiding, calibration and polar alignment support would be wonderful.
I can’t see asking Ken and Jared to invest several hundred hours of software development time to duplicate functions that already exist. PHD2 Guiding is an excellent auto guider product and there are many great polar alignment tools available – QHY’s Polemaster being an especially useful product.
Charlie
So you don’t see the threads posted to these forums where people have various problems with SGP and PHD2 working together reliably?
Are you not aware that when one piece of software is updated opposed to the other that things can break until someone releases a new version to fix it?
Having things under the same roof helps.
Very true in an ideal world, however
This is not an ideal world and Ken and Jarod don’t have unlimited time or resources. Developing a PHD2 replacement is a vast new project.
Better they spend a little time refining the support for PHD2. If there are problems they will need logs that show a reproducible problem.
And Ken, I really appreciate this update on your thoughts for the new releases.
Although I am very happy with SGP, I have dabbled with NINA and found I don’t feel at home with it.
I have pretty good focus runs “most” of the time but a few are out of the range and it defaults to last position, rarely being at a “bad” focus position.
Of course I would embrace any auto focus improvements.
Very happy to hear you guys are looking at improving the AF routine.
One request: with the new Sagattia Motorized focuser for an OAG coming out from Optec, having the ability to use two autofocus runs on two focuser such as what they have in MaximDL would be very nice. With long focal length OTAs and OAGs, any issues with non-parafocal filters compromises the focus of your OAG relative to your main OTA. You have to focus your main OTA, but if you filters are not very good an parafocal, then there is no good focus setting for you OAG. you are left with a compromise setting. The new motorized helical focuser on the Optec OAG would be able to fix this issue. The longer the focal length you work at, the worse the issue becomes.
Using an offset would be more than enough, guidestars doesn’t need perfect focus so autofocus won’t be needed
OK, but even an offset would require support for a 2nd focus motor.
Not really, but there would have to be a driver for the off axis guider that would connect to the filter wheel driver and adjust offset based on the filter being used.
It’s probably the best solution since it wouldn’t be dependant on all software adding a feature that would be best handled by the focus motor driver.
Does this mean that we will see all the actions which SGP will do after running or resuming sequence? I mean connect equipment, sleewing, centering, focusing, … ? Will we have the possibility to skip some actions? Sometimes I pause sequence after focusing to refocus/check focus manualy and after I resume sequence to begin to take photos, SGP starts the focusing again 
Ken:
A Button “Abort with End of Sequence events” if it clouded up or you just want to finish for tonight would really be nice. Regardless of how many frames left to do in the Sequence and without recovery attempts.
A further improvement would be for this button to work while a sequence is not running
I personally will be looking forward to SGP controlled switches
Please note that feature requests added here will be lost… Start a new topic for each idea in the #sequence-generator:feature-requests category. Thx