I've been fiddling around with the scheduler, and am noticing something that's got me baffled ...

   


I've created a project as shown; 60 SNR, "Main extent/ arms" detail, IQ of A, multiple nights exposure ...

   

... when we look at the project in the Night Bar it looks OK; we have a blue line when it's possible to expose, a red line for the altitude, moon is tucked away, and we have two green bars; the top one we see an IQ B period from 2240 to 2300, an IQ A period from 2300 to 0050, then another IQ B band from 0050 to 0205, finally a "no way" band from 0205 to 0215.  In the lower bar we see a short period for setup in red, a period of time from 2305 to 0050 when it's good to expose and a yellow indent bar to indicate what region it's indicating.  That's all good ... I specified the minimum project detail as IQ A, multiple nights, cool ... and that's reflected in the top listbox ...

Notice on the bottom listbox it's giving me my filter time starting at 23:05 with 62x1 lights (it's occluded, but that listbox indicates it will be 2% complete toward my SNR 60 goal with this.  That makes sense, this is an SQM 19.1 site so I expect a short exposure time to help mitigate the skyfog, integration time of 62m ..

Look at the "Schedule" listbox though ... it shows at 23:02 I slew on over and change my filters and it's scheduling me for 62x1 lights, that's fine ...

If I bring up the "Exposure Calculator" to get a better idea of my signal and sky ADU values the Night Bar looks similar to the main one, and I get three "Exposure Opportunities" which correspond to the three green bands in the main bar; I've selected the middle one for IQ A, cool ...

... but here's where it gets strange; in the "Exposure Opportunities" for that IQ A row it's telling me a duration of 65min (fine, that's pretty close to 62min) but it's saying the ideal exp time is 1sec, when on the main dialog it's calling for 1min (one second is too short anyway unless I'm taking 65 * 60 lights for a total integration time of 65min).  Stranger still, in the "Calculate SNR for Exposure" it first set the "total time" edit for 115m and then in the group box it's telling me about 13 exp at 8min, which gives us a total integration time of 114min which matches the time of 115m it put into the edit box.

If I manually adjust the 115m that it put there to the 65min that the main dialog and the "Exposure Opportunities" listbox row call for then the text numbers get closer ... but am I doing something wrong that's causing these effects in the first place?

Thx!

Greets all!  A quick question while I work with this ST4 wonder! I understand that I can schedule a project for multiple or single nights to control when it completes, as well as ongoing to keep repeating the session again and again.  There is also (apparently only for comets and minor planets) the ability to get multiple observations per night ... but what if I want to get repeating completions per night?  

In other works, say my project of a DSO can complete with session time of 60min, but the object will be in the appropriate IQ area for 130min that evening.  I have set the exposure to be "Ongoing" so what I would like to do would be to have ST4 schedule two runs of the session, just like it does with multiple observations, so I would finish the night with two project completions rather than one ... changing the object type to Astrometry or Photometry doesn't ungrey the Exposure Goals checks from which I would control this capability ... ideas?

Thx!

All -

While I have seen the spate of recent announcements regarding ST4 Imaging, and am therefore anxiously anticipating the release of ST4 Visual Observing, I decided to become better acquainted with my copy of ST3.

In order to incorporate ST3 more seamlessly into my observing, and because I do NOT take my computer out when observing (since my old scopes are manually powered!), I wonder:
- is there a capability to use an Android tablet/phone, or possibly some other mobile device on the same network, to view observing maps and/or to take log notes
- have people found some other efficient way to print out observing sheets with star hop guides (ala Visual Sky Simulations) to more seamless gain the benefits of ST without using a Windows computer?


TIA
Ed

I just upgraded to SkyTools 4 and in the process of setting up my equipment. I noticed that Optolong filters have not been included and it is asking for a data file to create new filters. Can someone advise how I can get the data files for Optolong LRGB, Ha, OIII and SII filters? If data files do not already exist how do you create them? All I have to go off of is the wavelength graph on the Optolong web site. Given the scale of the graph I would think it would be fairly difficult to create accurate files manually. Is there a better way?

Thanks for the info.

Andrew J

Greg,

Since you are still working on the visual version of Sky Tools 4, I would like to see if you have incorporated some additional observing list object selection options. I just started playing with the planner options in Sky Safari 6. Do you by any chance have it? If so, could those planner options be included in Sky Tools 4 visual? And I think a couple more would be helpful.

If you don't have it, let me know and I will send the planner options in Sky Safari 6. To me they would be very useful, particularly for public star party planning.

Thanks,

Roger

Hello everyone,

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Greetings all,

I am attempting to add objects to an observing list.  I am doing the following:

1. Searching and finding the object
2. Under action menu, choosing add to observing list
3.  correctly selecting the group and the observing list
4.  making certain my settings for observation status includes show observed, show not yet observed, show no value.

What am i missing?  Also, sometimes the menu will say that it is included in a particular observing list, but I cannot see it there.


Thanks for the the help!

We had a clear spell in Brisbane on the evening of Sat/Sun 21/22 Apr 2018, although the seeing was quite variable, estimated to be between 3-5/10 on the Pickering Scale.
 
I grabbed 39 sets of RGB data, 30 sec each filter with a pause of 210 secs between sets, spanning 11:50pm (21st) to 03:15am (22nd) with Jupiter transiting the Meridian at 01:07 am (AEST). From these RGB sets I managed to generate a 39 frame animation.
 
South is at the top of the animation.
 
Date(UT)=21042018.
Start(UT)=135005.153.
End(UT)=171542.914.
 
Tak Mewlon 210 F11.5.
TeleVue 2” PowerMate x2.0.
Camera=ZWO ASI290MM.
SX USB Filterwheel.
R=30 sec.
G=30 sec.
B=30 sec.
Pause=210 sec.
 
Diameter=44.21".
Magnitude=-2.47.
Focal Length=4830mm.
Resolution=0.12".
 
Altitude:
Start = 78 deg (E).
End = 57 deg (W).
 
Seeing:
Variable from 3 to 5 Pickering Scale.

Link to animation on PVOL website: 
http://pvol2.ehu.eus/pvolimages/jupiter/j2018-04-21_13-50-00_rgb_dsimmons.gif
 
I have attached a single frame from the sequence, where the seeing had dropped to around 4/10. It is interesting to see the larger image scale using the ASI290MM (2.9micron pixels) compared to my previous effort with the ASI120MM-S (3.75micron pixels).
 
Cheers
 
Dennis

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Why can or I not update the database to include new minor planets, namely NEO's?
I have downloaded the MPCOrb.dat file, then tried update by the to read option but nothing gets updated.


Thanks
Randy

Here is an image of Jupiter with Galilean moons Europa (with shadow), Io and Ganymede taken on 10th Feb 2018.
 
Generally, the seeing was quite good with some light cloud around.
 
Taken with a Takahashi Mewlon 210 F11.5, TeleVue Powermate x2.0 (efl 4800mm), ZWO ASI 120MM-S and Starlight Xpress USB FW.
 
The image is made up of 30 sec R, G and B AVIs and is my first time using RGB filters in planetary imaging.
 
Cheers
 
Dennis

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