Guiding calibration with OAG setup

Sequence Generator Feature Requests
1

Hi SGP team,
With off-axis guiding configurations, it is often necessary to calibrate PHD2 on a star close to the meridian before launching the sequence, especially if the chosen target is close to the pole. This is even part of best practices:
Get a good calibration, then re use it

  • Within +/ 20 degrees of celestial equator (Dec=0)
  • Within an hour of celestial meridian

My suggestion for improvement is to propose an option in the autoguide tab, where the user could choose to launch the calibration on selected coordinates before launching the sequence itself.
Of course, this calibration will have to be done after the rotation step.

2

that could be done by introducing a dummy PHD2 calibration target in the sequence, instructing SGP to calibrate for each target, a pause event after the target and then manually disable the calibrate for each target feature…

3

Yes, buzz, that is a solution. Since calibrating PHD2 is a recurring activity that should be done as outlined above, an automatic way to do it would be nice, though. Also, it would mean you do not have to create a new dummy target for each sequence and night.