SGP tries to flip before sequence

Sequence Generator
#1

I had a frustrating time trying to image Comet Lovejoy. Because it is moving, I manually acquired the target and framed the shot before starting the sequence. The target was 15 minutes past the meridian when I started the sequence. The mount was on the correct side of the mount for an object west of the meridian. I had unchecked the Slew and Centre options for the target, and I had unchecked the auto-meridian-flip setting.

When I started the sequence, it immediately tried to take a plate-solving shot and slew the mount. I aborted that operation, at which point it told me that I was aborting a meridian flip! Why would it be trying to do a flip when the target was already past the meridian, with the mount already in the correct orientation?

Not only that, but when I confirmed that, yes, I did want to abort the flip, SGP failed and shut down. I ended up reverting to Nebulosity to get my sequence.

I am using a CEM60 mount. The ASCOM driver for the mount is version 2.4.

#2

Keith,

Please see this post and we’ll see what we can find:

Ken

#3

As Ken is mentioning we need logs to look into this.

There is also a known issue with the CEM60 ASCOM driver. It reports the incorrect side of pier which is why SGP attempted the flip when it didn’t need to. However if the meridian flip option was unchecked it should not have ran. Was it unchecked prior to the sequence start?

The sequence file and log would be helpful.

Thanks,
Jared

#4

OK, I looked in the log file and found: bDoAutoMeridianFlip: True. So the question became: where was it getting that setting from? In my Equipment Profile, Auto Meridian Flip is not set.

Finally, I opened the Control Panel and found that Auto Meridian Flip was enabled there. OK, my fault for not remembering about the control panel.

Am I right to think now that a Control Panel is actually part of a Sequence, and that each Sequence can have a different Control Panel? That is not obvious from the user interface.

A suggestion therefore: the Sequence View has the sgf file name at the top; the Control Panel should have the file name also, so it is clear that it is a specific Control Panel for a specific Sequence. It would also be nice to have a button on the Sequence View to open its Control Panel, as a visual reminder that there is other sequence data to check.

#5

Keith,
Profiles are like templates. You can use the profiles to create a sequence (which populates the values in the profile to the Control Panel). But if you edit the profile the sequence doesn’t get updated unless you do it manually.

So if you want to make something happen at the immediate time you need to modify the sequence.

More info about profiles can be found here:
http://www.mainsequencesoftware.com/Content/SGPHelp/Profiles.html

You can hold Control+E to open the Control Panel or you can click on the Control Panel icon on the top menu bar. I would screen shot it but I’m not on a device where I can do that.

Thanks,
Jared

#6

Yes, I understand (now) how to get to the control panel. My comment was about user interface design. The interface should give clues to its operation. Too often the tech support response is, You didn’t dig deep enough. The user shouldn’t have to dig.

#7

Keith:

Any complex software package requires a lot of digging before you can reliably use it. If you really want to see a package that needs a lot of digging, try out MaximDL. I have used Nebulosity and it is a good, simple package that basically doesn’t do very much other than download an image. For many people, Nebulosity is perfectly adequate but if you want to really automate your imaging routines, nothing on the market beats SGPro.

cm