Multi-Night sessions with ASIair

[pmrid (Peter)]

In the old days, I would use a function in MaximDL to return to the exact centre of an image from an earlier night/session. It was a great asset when doing NB imaging over multiple sessions and nights. You load a reference image from that previous session and instruct MaximDL to drive the mount to the centre of that image. It worked well.

BUT, I am now more or less locked into the ASIair world and have not been able to find a similar function. It is particularly difficult when you have used the very nice function that allows you to compose your field and move it a little this way or that and then re-solve for the new centre.

Has anyone found anything in ASIair that allows me to use an image from a previous session as a master and centre on it in subsequent sessions?

[Dave882 (David)]

Yes ASIAIR has a similar function(s).
You can (Option1) go to image management and select the folder with images in it from the previous nights session. Just tap GOTO and it will platesolve and go to that exact framing. From memory it also alerts you if the rotation is off, in which case you can see and fix that in the planetarium screen.
Or (Option2) if you set up a mosaic in the PLAN tab then it will save all those specific framings for you to return to at any time.

Oh I just remembered another way you can also save a custom object location and then select that and come back to it later from preview screen.

Hope that helps…

[ronson]

Hi Peter,

David has mentioned the options. I personally prefer to setup a plan. I do the composition in the sky atlas module and once happy with the framing, create a plan which then sets the coordinates etc. Then every night you just resume/start the plan with a click of button. That's all you need to do.

If you need to make changes to the plan, e.g., reshoot a specific filter due to clouds the night before, you can reset the plan and adjust the number of frames, plan settings etc.

Here is a quick example with a mosaic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_t94WFO_Cs

[pmrid (Peter)]

Thanks guys. i do appreciate your help.

I just tested option 1 and, of course, it worked perfectly!

[AlexN]

Would the plate solving in the asiair not be able to get the exact ra/dec?

Failing that, I guess manually recording the ra/dec of where the scope is pointing, then do a GOTO. That should get you on the mark given the accuracy of your mount.

Also, hey Peter!! Been a while!

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by AlexN

Would the plate solving in the asiair not be able to get the exact ra/dec?

Failing that, I guess manually recording the ra/dec of where the scope is pointing, then do a GOTO. That should get you on the mark given the accuracy of your mount.

Also, hey Peter!! Been a while!

G'day Alex. Yes, years have slipped by. It's good to hear from you.

The Image Management/GoTo in ASIair is faster and easier. KISS principles every time.

[AlexN]

This past few weeks are really the first I'd heard of the asiair , still getting my head around all the advancements that have happened in the past 10 years!

New rig build is underway! Looking at an asiair mini or possibly a custom minipc... weighing up all the pros and cons.