Hello! I use both a lightbox and am working on getting Twilight flats. In both situations, I would like to point the scope straight up. I can do this manually during evenings to sit the box on the scope or take twilight flats; however, for morning twilight flats, I’d like to do it as part of a sequence once nautical twilight starts.
In the Sequencer, I selected RA/Dec for the target. Since RA will vary depending on date/time, is there another way to point straight up? For example, specifying scope Azimuth of 0 (or 180) and altitude of 90? (I only see the previous for the observatory in the manual) or some other method.
Is there a way to specify nautical twilight (or astronomical twilight) in the sequence so that I would not need to manually input it for each observing session?
you will probably have to write an ascom VB script that you can run pre-event. someone posted this some time back in response to my query about it. of course you need to change the name of your telescope object depending on your driver… i’d suggest pointing your scope where you want it manually and then looking in your driver for the Alt/Az of the position you’ve slewed to. not sure what’s given below is correct for “straight up”
Dim Telescope
set Telescope = CreateObject("ASCOM.Celestron.Telescope")
Telescope.Connected = True
Telescope.Tracking = False
Telescope.SlewToAltAz 302, -1
Telescope.Connected = False
i think that probably works, though if i remember right if i tell SGP to park my mount at end of sequence, it just parks in place rather than going to the park location that i have set in my AP driver. not sure if that’s an ASCOM thing, or if SGP explicitly asks the driver for a park-in-place (if that’s possible.) custom park positions are definitely suppported in the AP driver and APCC but since i don’t know what mount @msheald is using i didn’t mention it.
Hello! I’m still working this issue.
I need to turn off tracking or Park the scope while at the same time enabling light frames to be taken. I tried Parking the scope, but SGPro would not allow me to take light frames. Perhaps a VB script as above? Stop guiding in a VB script would work better than stop tracking since the light frames could still be taken and the scope then Parked. Best regards.
Mike