What happens when you Run Sequence with a Delayed Start time?

I have a sequence involving Auto Centering with a delayed start time. When I hit run sequence, far in advance, it seems to me SGP tries to do something immediately, like a plate solve, even if start time is hours away. And it fails and ends the sequence. I’d like to be able to set things up and start sometimes before dark. Is this not possible?

Setting a start time in the future will cause SGP to wait until the set time to start the sequence.

I’m not sure which version of SGP you’re using, but I use this functionality all the time with SGP3. If you’re seeing different behavior post your sequence and I can see if maybe something isn’t setup correctly.

Thanks,
Jared

Thanks Jared, I just tried this sequence. Only one target was enabled, to start about 20 minutes in the future. I clicked Run Sequence and the first thing it did was take a plate solve, it didn’t wait for the time. After I reset SGP, and tried it again, it went straight to the wait state.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aod6X19w9TMD7B0JPS8miSsFnkGt

It sounds like you might have started that sequence previously? SGP will only wait when the sequence is “fresh” (when the button says “Run Sequence”) You can reset back to this status by using the Reset Sequence (Preserve Progress) option. This is not ideal, there are some changes coming that will address this. Essentially if you paused or aborted the sequence you don’t want SGP to just automatically run all of the start sequence events again.

image

Thanks,
Jared

I had definitely run it before, but this happened tonight when I opened SGP andreloaded the sequence and it said Run Sequence./

I’ll have to double check the loaded piece. But the status in SGP is generally “sticky”. So, for now, you’ll have to use the “Reset Sequence (Preserve Progress)” option. The main thing to watch out for when doing this is that SGP will remove the “sticky” target. So if you’re on target 2 but have frames left in target 1, SGP will attempt to run target 1.

http://www.mainsequencesoftware.com/Content/SGPHelp/ResettingtheSequenceTargetsandEv.html

I think it’s pretty reasonable to expect SGP to slew and center when starting up with a parked mount though…without having to do that. Which is the change that will be coming in the nearish future.

Thanks,
Jared

Thanks Jared. I’ll give it a try. Now if I uncheck Target 1, I assume SGP will skip right by?

Correct.

Thanks,
Jared

Related to this… Recently I’ve been using timed start more. But, I’m finding that the order of startup operations is a bit out of sequence for what seems to work best. Ideally:

  1. Set AF focuser position to the “start of night AF point” - meaning if I ran AF last night at the beginning of the sequence, and the focus point was at 15,430, then tonight at the beginning of the run, the focuser should return to 15,430. Currently, there is no automated way to reset focus back to last night’s start-of-sequence focus point. The reason this is step 1 is that this sets me up for step 2, and it doesn’t need slew, PHD, or anything else - it’s just a nice ‘start of sequence operation’. Of course, as we get into fall/winter months, the nightly temp (and hence ideal focus point) is changing night after night. But not so much that picking last night’s value wouldn’t work.

  2. Slew to a good PHD2 calibration point. Ideally this is somewhere close to Dec of 0 so I get a good calibration. Maybe this is as simple as always inserting a target in every sequence, but I haven’t figured out a good repeatable method yet.

  3. Connect to PHD2 and start a calibration.

  4. Do a Guiding Assistant for 4 minutes. Apply MinMo recommendations (no Dec Backlash)

  5. Slew to the target, center on target, rotate, start imaging.

Would love to entertain options with current SGP to accomplish or if not, i can file an official wish list item.

Dave
Thunder Creek Observatory

Issue I have is that “last night’s” run is sometimes multiple weeks ago (yes, our weather is that bad!). So often, the previous focus point is too far off for the plate solving to work. Ideally I’d like to see the option to do an autofocus first - especially when doing a delayed (and unattended) start. I’ve already posted this to the feature request forum.

Otherwise, the delayed start works well for me (except when my dome decides not to cooperate).

DaveNL

I am pretty sure I can set the focuser to have an ideal focus position based on temp, and when the focuser initially reads temp, it sets the focus point there. That might work.

Hi Jared,

I checked and after I reloaded a sequence with a delayed start and auto center target, and hit Reset (preserve progress), then hit Run Sequence, SGP immediately does a capture and plate solve. If successful , SGP goes into a wait state and all is well. However, if unsuccessful, such as during daytime, SGP ends the Sequence. I’m running the latest version.

Thanks, Wayne

Yup, so that was a bug. Long story short, SGP was attempting to sync your rotator with the sky angle at sequence start. That is not a great place to do that and has been moved. This will be out in the next 3.0 release…which probably should happen soon.

Having said that, using a manual rotator and a delayed start may complicate things. If you haven’t moved your setup then you should be good, but if your rotation has changed then SGP will be waiting on you during the auto center routine. Also I’d recommend using the ±180 option as meridian flips will cause you to have to adjust your angle, unless that’s what you want:
image

Thanks,
Jared

Ah! Thanks! I will do that.