Thursday, September 4, 2014

Using SGPro and CCD Autopilot simultaneously

One feature I am really missing from SGPro is to take dusk/dawn flats. Especially for narrowband filters, an LED panel doesn't work well. If I'm at my scope early enough, I usually run CCDAP at dusk to take the flats and then connect SGPro to start imaging.

But recently I kept the camera connected in TheSkyX and then connected the camera (and filter wheel) in SGPro. I noticed this mistake a few hours later ... but everything worked.

I then checked if I could also take images from TheSkyX - and it worked too.

So, as long as I don't try to image from both apps at the same time, they CAN CONNECT SIMULTANEOUSLY TO THE CAMERA AND FILTER WHEEL! So, now, I'm connecting both programs at the beginning of the night. Let SGPro run but set an end time 30 minutes before the sun reaches the altitude that I entered in CCDAP to start flats. And then click "Take Dawn Flats" in CCDAP. Now, SGPro happily runs the entire night. It stops in the morning and parks - or the imaging session gets cancelled and SGPro parks the scope. And then in the morning CCDAP kicks in, unparks the scope and starts taking flats. Voila!

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