I’m trying to setup to take flats before starting a regular target.
I’m using a separate target without coordinates etc with event settings set to park the mount and run a script to turn on the flat panel.
SGP is still trying to start guiding and open the observatory, could an option be added so this would be skipped for calibration events?
The obsy controls I think are associated with a sequence, rather than a target.
You could create a simple flat-sequence and when that ends, run your imaging sequence.
That’s a workaround, not a real solution.
The whole point of SGP is being able to set it up, start it and make it do it’s thing automatically, but unfortauntely there’s quite a few logic errors like this that’s needed to be fixed for that to happen.
There are lots of workarounds in astrophotography, coping with the English weather being one of them.
I don’t use it myself but I thought SGP already had the ability to do flats at the end of sequence as an option. It might be worth checking out whether that includes a defined telescope position. Just because SGP does not support a feature you want doesn’t necessarily make it a logic error. If the end of sequence cal files can be optionally rearranged to the beginning of sequence (dusk rather than twilight flats), maybe this is a potential feature request.
Requiring auto guiding for taking flats is definitely a logic error.
SGP do have the ability to take flats before/after lights, but only for an unguided system since for systems using guiding it will try to start PHD and of course fail in finding a guidestar.
that does not sound logical - as a said, I don’t personally use the calibration feature but can you do something in the event settings to stop tracking / guiding as a workaround?
Nope, setting event settings to park the mount it still tries to run the autoguider.
The best fix would be to be able to mark a target or an event as a calibration target/event so SGP would make sure the mount is parked, observatory closed and ignore autoguider.