I have looked for information on the topic, but I have found anything definitive. I would like to be able to execute a few Asiair "plans" in a night; to be specific, something like that: - plan 1: start at 8:00pm; take 40 frames of target A; take 1000 frames of target B; stop at 2:00am (which makes the "1000" number intentionally useless)
- plan 2: start at 2:01am; take 1000 frames of target C; stop at 3:00am
- plan 3: start at 3:01am; take 1000 frames of target B; stop at 5:30am
The reason for doing that is that target C for me is literally visible just for one hour. And I need to be very precise about when I should start and stop shooting it. Im theory, I can express something like that in the AsiAir app; but it's not clear to me what AsiAir really does when I click the Plan > Play button: does it just (wait to) executes the "current" (latest edited) plan? Or does it actually executes all the defined plans - as long as their execution times do not overlap? Clearly I would need the latter behavior... Has anyone tried this?
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I was told when I first started imaging two years ago that you cannot have multiple plans. Having said that, the ZWO Air has gone through several updats so it might be possible today. I would post that question on the ZWO forum and see what you get back.
You can go to multiple targets in one Plan, one after the other, but of you have specific times for each target, you need to add a delay between them by going to some interim target to use up the time until your second (or third) target comes around. Hopefully, this makes sense to you
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No, well, yes - but no  You can set up several plans and you will then get a sort of guesstimate for how long that will take. There will be things that prolong those estimates however, like dithering, refocus, meridian flip etc. But you cannot specify when a plan should start/stop. For that you would need something along the lines of NINA.
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You can go to multiple targets in one Plan, one after the other, but of you have specific times for each target, you need to add a delay between them by going to some interim target to use up the time until your second (or third) target comes around. Yes, it makes sense; but it's not a reliable solution, and it would also imply wasted time. The time taken to shoot X frames before the "time restricted" one, is inevitably variable (dithering time, focusing based on temperature deltas...). The only real alternative would be the good old alarm clock next to my bed... Anyway, I will ask on the ZWO forum; you can indeed define multiple plans today; what is not clear (to me, at least) are the semantics of the "play" button in that scenario.
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No, well, yes - but no 
You can set up several plans and you will then get a sort of guesstimate for how long that will take. There will be things that prolong those estimates however, like dithering, refocus, meridian flip etc. But you cannot specify when a plan should start/stop. For that you would need something along the lines of NINA. Sigh.
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No, well, yes - but no
You can set up several plans and you will then get a sort of guesstimate for how long that will take. There will be things that prolong those estimates however, like dithering, refocus, meridian flip etc. But you cannot specify when a plan should start/stop. For that you would need something along the lines of NINA.
Sigh.
I realize that I may have explained myself poorly, though you got the point. By specifying when the plan should start/stop I mean by exact times. You could start three plans at x amount of frames that should take "2hrs" each and probably get something in along those lines in the end. But it's very much up to guess work, sadly.
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No, well, yes - but no
You can set up several plans and you will then get a sort of guesstimate for how long that will take. There will be things that prolong those estimates however, like dithering, refocus, meridian flip etc. But you cannot specify when a plan should start/stop. For that you would need something along the lines of NINA.
Sigh.
I realize that I may have explained myself poorly, though you got the point.
By specifying when the plan should start/stop I mean by exact times. You could start three plans at x amount of frames that should take "2hrs" each and probably get something in along those lines in the end. But it's very much up to guess work, sadly.
Yep, it's clear - no worries.
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You can only run one plan at a time.
You can have multiple targets in each plan, but, as you noted, it's a guessing game on when the second target in that plan would start. Dithering, auto focus, etc make it hard to predict how long the first target will take.
You can set up other plans, but only one plan can be started/ running at a time.
So plan A is set to start at 9 pm and plan B is set to start at 1AM. You have to be awake at the end of plan A to press the start button to make plan B active.
It's been a long requested feature to add start/ stop times for each target in a plan, or to be able to have multiple plans running at the same time, but so far it hasn't been implemented by zwo.
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I usually image 2 or 3 targets. Times are guesstimates. Works well enough for me. Hit start once and let it run while i sleep.
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Sean Mc:
I usually image 2 or 3 targets. Times are guesstimates. Works well enough for me. Hit start once and let it run while i sleep. Yep, the same for me; it's just that these few targets in between two trees which give me grief...
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That sucks  |
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I've done this a few times with my Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro and the Redcat 51 v3 with 3 different objects to maximize optimal locations to image and agree with the rest… it "works" but you have to kind of add some extra time in your head for focus after moving to a different image, after meridian flip, and for me after every 2 degrees C change in temp. It's worked out really well for me though and just find it in home position in the morning to do my flats if I didn't do them before imaging. I agree though it would be awesome to have a do this plan on several targets BUT if X time hits(sun comes up) etc stop there and go to home position. ROI and better fps for planetary also if I'm being greedy |
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I suppose the best solution for now is to image using NINA running from a laptop for those sessions where you need specific start times. Then again, that will take a bit of jiggering around with cabling and might not we worth the hassle.
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Answer is yes and no.
You can add multiple targets to a plan and you can set when the overall plan starts and stops.
You can't set specific start and stop times for each target within a plan. You can only set the number of subframes for each target.
When you create/edit a plan, it will show you a graph for each target, with its estimated completion time and altitude in the sky during that time.
You have to guess when the actual end time will be because refocusing, dithering, etc are not factored into this as far as I can tell.
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Tony Gondola:
I suppose the best solution for now is to image using NINA running from a laptop for those sessions where you need specific start times. Then again, that will take a bit of jiggering around with cabling and might not we worth the hassle. It's worth the hassle. I used the ASIAir for a couple of years but limitations such as the inability to define exact start/stop times for targets and being unable to define filter offsets forced me to give NINA a go. I now use NINA exclusively, although the ASIAir unit is still attached to my OTA for when I do public outreach, when it's simplicity is useful.
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For the record: ZWO of course confirmed that this is not possible so far, but that they will keep this in mind for the future - bla, bla, bla…
On the positive side, I have spent a couple of hours to create a mac script which wakes up at 2am, starts the AsiAir app, stops the current plan, switches to a new one and starts it. Tests look good, and I'll see on the next clear night how that behaves. Just something to keep in mind for similar requirements…
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Specifying exact start and stop times would be beneficial for sure. As would being able to specify an end time. I always want to maximize imaging so I usually end up running into the early dawn with a bunch of overexposed frames. I usually take the number of filter changes x 5 minutes for focusing each one, then add another 15 for meridian flips and so on, but it's all a guess.
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To kind of close the loop on this - at least until AsiAir adds native support for this functionality: I have created a couple of macros on my mac (I used Keyboard Maestro, but you may be able to achieve the same with straight AppleScript); the scripts take care of waking up the screen, unlocking the laptop, activating the AsiAir app and executing the mouse clicks necessary to stop the running plan and to select and start a new one.
It works great, after going through the inevitable couple of glitches (like running "Caffeinated" on the laptop to avoid any kind of OS-level sleeping - otherwise macros may be executed several minutes later than expected, and adding a check to wait for any auto-focus session to be out of the way before starting the mouse click sequences).
Now I just need to remember shifting the time window 3 or so minutes every day, and I can finally inject captures of the "in-between trees" targets as part of my nightly plan without having to wake up.
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