Probably the most time consuming (and error prone) process for me for setting up a sequence is making sure all the operational fields in the Target Setting dialog are set correctly.
I propose a new feature, perhaps called ‘Target Settings List’ or ‘Target Settings Editor’. It would list all the targets selected for imaging in a tabular dialog, which might look like the following:
Auto-populate End Times: X.
…TARGET…Transit…Start…End…Center…Slew…Rotate
1 IC1396 Elephant Nebula…8:21p…7:30p…9:00p…Y…Y
2 LBN529 Cave Nebula…9:38p…9:00p…10:10p…Y…Y
3 NGC7000 North American…7:41p…10:10p…12:40a…Y…Y
4 NGC281 PacMan Nebula…11:35p…12:40a…2:30a…Y…Y
5 IC410 Tadpoles Nebula…4:04a…2:30a…4:20a…Y…Y
6 IC1805 Heart Nebula…1:15a…4:20a…6:10a…Y…Y
This example is the sequence I ran last night, mostly successfully. A couple of possible bugs showed up which I detail in another posting.
On many nights I have had similar sequences to this list that had serious failures due to an incorrect setting on my part, such as using a PM when it should have been an AM, or allowing my Start or End time to encroach on my mount meridian limits. It is quite a tedious process to bring up each of the dialogs, check all the items, which of course have to be correlated correctly with the following items.
All the columns in this list would be editable, so there would be no need to bring up any of the Target Setting dialogs individually.
The “Auto-populate End Times” would allow you to leave the End Times column blank and the program would set the End time to the Start time of the following target.
Ability to change the Target order would be nice, but not essential.
My operational process has been to write out this list on a piece of paper, then transfer all the settings to the separate settings dialogs.
I think many would find this feature very helpful in eliminating errors and speeding up the setup process.