Is there a more or less staight forward way to do a manual image acquisition, outside of a sequence.
The best way I found is to just use the frame and focus to control binning and exposure. There is a box to check to save these images. Otherwise after the frame downloads, you can right click and save as a FITS.
Thank you, that is what I suspected was the way forward.
As far as choosing a target and slewing to it, it has to take place in a squence?
The sequence interface is where that would happen. You would need to add a target and enter the RA/Dec of the object (or populate via Astrobin, Telescoplus, or Flickr). Then you can use the "Slew Now” followed with “Center Now” if you want the to use plate solving to precisely center it.
Other options include:
- Mount hand controller (physical or virtual)
- Planetarium program connected to your mount
Is there any particular reason you seem to be wanting to avoid the sequencer interface? If you just want to slew around and take quick single images, then I would recommend going the Planetarium connected to your mount route. I do this with TheSky when I just want to bounce around the sky.
Thank you. I am having a hard time getting all the pieces to play fair. So I have been looking for methods to get around, say “center here” or even have the plate solver kick off right away. With Plate solving I get the first 2 steps in the proccess but Plate Solving fails on the “Validate” step. I have what I have thought was meticulously set up the Plate Solve parameters but it keeps biting me.
You can automate as much or as little as you want with SGP. Disable the “Centering” options in your targets…and don’t bother setting RA/Dec coordinates for them. Then manually slew to the location, run auto focus…or focus manually and disable AF. Minimally I’d recommend having PHD2 and SGP talking but you can also select “None” for your autoguider but this will leave you with no dithering between frames.
Then setup the target sequence to whatever you want and hit the “Start Sequence” button. SGP will happily capture frames without slewing or plate solving. But that is about as “manual” as you can get. I would NOT recommend using the Frame and Focus routine as that is very arduous.
Jared
Jared, thank you. That sounds pretty reasonable until I get my legs under me. I’m actively trying to get up to speed and quite farcing around.
I’d highly recommend playing around with the ascom simulators to get a feel for things. You won’t be able to plate solve and what not but it can give you a good since of how to use things in the manner in which you’re trying to use them. And best of all you can do it during the day.
Though for what you’re after with manual imaging you should also be able to use your actual gear since you wouldn’t be plate solving anyways.
Jared
Jared, Thank you. Ultimately I will be sorting out what is hanging me up with Plate Solving. It is definitely a journey.
You can just right click any target you’d like outside of a sequence and start centering routines manually.