Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg Bock
Hi Jase,
yes, Orchestrate is used to script the point, and image steps. The selection of galaxies comes from database queries from SkyX.
And, yes, its archaic, but works, however, if only using Sky6. I have found that Orchestrate and Skyx using TeleApi for Maestro (the application that control the Skywalker telescope controller) has a problem in that Orchestrate does not wait for a slew command to finish before it then initiates a 'Take Image' command, effectively just stepping through the list of commands without waiting.
So, I still use it with TheSky6 for now.
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Sounds good Greg. Not sure if you guys have considered using ACP with
Scheduler. Not cheap but boosts observation efficiency, at least that's what I've found. I'm using this for setting up 'pretty picture' imaging plans but it really is more orientated to scientific work. It wouldn't surprise me if you could hit 1200 galaxies a night with Scheduler. The rising plan delay algorithm minimises meridian flips amongst many other optimisations. You may also be interested in
VOE where your gear is automatically alerted of astronomical events such as Gamma Ray Bursts, Supernovae, Cataclysmic Variable outbursts, etc. in realtime. If the scope is online it will go off an image the area, then return back to its normal processing queue.
Let me know if you've got any queries on ACP or Scheduler. I know of a couple of others here using ACP, not sure about Scheduler though. You can download trial versions to see if it would introduce efficiency. The scripting language is easy to understand, much easier than Orchestrate. Scheduler uses
RTML for scripting so slightly different.