2022-05-23, 05:03 PM
SINCE THIS MAY BE OF INTREST TO OTHERS ON THE FORUM - BELOW IS MY ORIGINAL EMAIL TO SUPPORT:
I am new to Astrophotography and am beginning to use iTelescope. My belief is that the use of Sky Tool 4 Imaging is the best way to plan to make the best use of the subscription fee. I have been able to determine how to set up most items in an plan to be submitted to iTelescope; but am uncertain how to determine the need to select Autoguide for a specific telescope. Is this already selected in the configuration for a telescope and will automatically be set for a plan; or do I need to determine that this needs to be set and manually check to enable? If I need to manually select, any guidance on how to determine if a telescope requires Autoguide would be appreciated.
My thanks for an excellent product and I look forward to many fine imaging projects.
AND HERE IS THE EXCELLENT RESPONSE:
Most options are built into the imaging system settings, but Autoguide is one of the exceptions (to enable more flexibility). The best way to determine if a given iTelescope requires the Autoguide selection is to look at the description of the iTelescope on their web site.
Unfortunately this information has been getting harder to find over time (it used to be an obvious top level menu selection), and worse yet, its starting to be placed in multiple places on their system, so finding it can be inconsistent.
The most reliable way to find the information for an iTelescope is to log into the iTelescope itself, like you were going to make a reservation or control it. On the top left there is a menu item that reads "Telescope Info."
That same info appears to be linked here:
https://support.itelescope.net/support/solutions/161305
Once you find the information page you may need to read the operation notes for clues. Also look for a line like this:
"*Guiding*: MOAG with Loadstar SX2"
This means it has an autoguider and the Autoguide option must be enabled.
You can usually get away with assuming that the Autoguide option should be turned on. In almost all cases, if there is no autoguider available, it will simply ignore the command. But it is safest to o only enable it when necessary. Once you make this selection for a given imaging system on the Scheduler it will remember it for the next time.
The ones that don't use autoguiding are generally the Planewave scopes, such as T30, T17, T24, T21, T11, etc. Their mounts are so good that they can track for up to 10 minutes with need to guiding.
I am new to Astrophotography and am beginning to use iTelescope. My belief is that the use of Sky Tool 4 Imaging is the best way to plan to make the best use of the subscription fee. I have been able to determine how to set up most items in an plan to be submitted to iTelescope; but am uncertain how to determine the need to select Autoguide for a specific telescope. Is this already selected in the configuration for a telescope and will automatically be set for a plan; or do I need to determine that this needs to be set and manually check to enable? If I need to manually select, any guidance on how to determine if a telescope requires Autoguide would be appreciated.
My thanks for an excellent product and I look forward to many fine imaging projects.
AND HERE IS THE EXCELLENT RESPONSE:
Most options are built into the imaging system settings, but Autoguide is one of the exceptions (to enable more flexibility). The best way to determine if a given iTelescope requires the Autoguide selection is to look at the description of the iTelescope on their web site.
Unfortunately this information has been getting harder to find over time (it used to be an obvious top level menu selection), and worse yet, its starting to be placed in multiple places on their system, so finding it can be inconsistent.
The most reliable way to find the information for an iTelescope is to log into the iTelescope itself, like you were going to make a reservation or control it. On the top left there is a menu item that reads "Telescope Info."
That same info appears to be linked here:
https://support.itelescope.net/support/solutions/161305
Once you find the information page you may need to read the operation notes for clues. Also look for a line like this:
"*Guiding*: MOAG with Loadstar SX2"
This means it has an autoguider and the Autoguide option must be enabled.
You can usually get away with assuming that the Autoguide option should be turned on. In almost all cases, if there is no autoguider available, it will simply ignore the command. But it is safest to o only enable it when necessary. Once you make this selection for a given imaging system on the Scheduler it will remember it for the next time.
The ones that don't use autoguiding are generally the Planewave scopes, such as T30, T17, T24, T21, T11, etc. Their mounts are so good that they can track for up to 10 minutes with need to guiding.