Workflow for imaging multiple previously created targets

Hello,

A workflow question. I’d like to prepare targets beforehand with the mosaic & framing wizard and when the weather finally clears, select the target(s) for the night according to current conditions (time of year, moon/no moon, etc). As the summer break here at 60N is over four painful months you can assume that the list of prepared targets could be rather long when the next season finally begins ;).

With one object per night this is easy. Just create a sequence for each object beforehand, and then load them up for the imaging run.

However, with multiple objects per night setting up an unattended run gets a bit messy. As I see it currently there is no way to transfer targets between sequences, so the current way would be to have one mega-sequence with all the prepared targets where you enable those that you want to image that night. If the amount of targets is large this doesn’t seem very handy in the long run.

One solution could be to implement support for importing targets from another sequence. Then you could create a new sequence for the night where you import the targets you want to image, set up the time constraints and then let it run.

Ideas, thoughts?

++ Jari

2 Likes

this is a very similar request to one I made not long ago as im in the same situation.
I make all my sequences from the F&M wizard but if I want to shoot 2 of those targets in a night there is no way of making a sequence from the previous F&M sequence data.
Maybe a feature request for future updates?

The biggest problem is compatibility. They update SGP so regularity that having a set of them pre generated would be difficult.

As for pre-generating the data, you could save the ‘stock’ images from F&M to a folder… Then plate solve them as required? I dunno if that would work for mosaics though.

Saving the framed targets as images is one option for non-mosaics, though they need to be taken as screenshots because SGP saves the entire canvas, not just the framing. If you’re going the manual route, it’s probably easier to just record the ra/dec/rotation of each target. Anyways it would be great if SGP supported this somehow.

Regarding file format compatibility, it is most likely less hassle than you think if the developers know what they’re doing :-). New features introduce new data to the file, but structural changes should be rare. Of course it’s a matter of prioritizing effort like everything else.

One other way to approach this would be to support importing and exporting target data as XML files. This would also open some new doors for interoperability, e.g. generating a target list with custom scripts.

Vehn,

You haven’t been here very long :blush:.

You can already import and export reference data out of SGP but not entire targets.

Your best bet would likely to be a couple of “mega-sequences”. You could arrange them by target type or personal priority.

Thanks,
Jared

1 Like

Thanks for the tip, I had totally missed the Export button. However, it operates only on plate solved data. The button is active after you create a target with F&M wizard, but it complains that the “Solve is not valid”. Could you initialize the reference data also from the F&M wizard?

If it was possible to export F&M targets, then I could create .sgr files beforehand and keep one “runtime sequence” for imaging. When preparing a night I’d import new targets to the sequence via .sgr files, and remove them after they have completed. This way the sequence would contain only targets in progress, which sounds good to me.

Thanks,

++ Jari