The sequencing engine can control a large variety of DSLR and CCD cameras as well as several different filter wheels. I was able to download the ASCOM driver for my Starlight Xpress filter wheel from the SX website and easily install it in SGP for full control of my electronic filter wheel. You can type in any variety of targets or events. One event consist of your choice of a Light, Dark, Flat, or Bias frame as well as your selected filter, exposure time, binning, and number of frames. You can set up a large number of events and have it either finish one event before going to the next one or you can have it rotate through the events.
With the powerful Auto Focus feature I am now wanting to invest in an automated focuser to keep things focused spot-on for the entire night. SGP will measure the HFR (Half Flux Radius) of the stars and keep your scope focused without needing to slew off target to find a suitable star to re-focus when the temperture drops. Just start the evening in good focus and Auto Focus will take care of the rest. With the Flexible Focusing Patterns feature you can define patterns using time, temp, filter changes, or frame intervals to keep your images sharply focused when the temperature drops by as little as 1 degree.
SGP also has an Automated Meridian Flip feature. When used with PHD guiding and Elbrus plate-solving, SGP will automatically stop the guiding, flip the mount, re-center your target within pixels, restart the guiding and then continue your imaging sequence. I have yet to try this function but many have commented about how great it is. Once I become more familiar with Elbrus and do some wire management on my mount I will feel comfortable using this. The last thing I want now is for a wire to get caught while the mount if flipping meridian unattended. I am sure I will love this once everything is lined out, as no operator assistance is required!
SGP also has a Framing and Mosaic Wizard that is a $39 add-on. I am currently using the 45 day free trial but I will certainly be purchasing this soon. I have only used the Framing so far and it works great. Simply right click where you want the image centered and select "center here". SGP directs the mount and places your target right in the center. I have only used this a few times so far but it has worked perfectly for me every time. I'm looking forward to trying out the Mosaic Wizard sometime soon.
The Flats Calibration Wizard has been extremely useful. With my SBIG STF-8300M the target Mean Value for my flats is 30,000 ADU. I just enter this value as the target and select +/- 500 ADU as my tolerance value and it computes the exposure time needed for each filter. This has made quick work of acquiring flat frames as opposed to my previous trial and error method!
SGP supports Apogee, SBIG, QSI, FLI, Starlight Xpress, and Atik CCD cameras and filter wheels as well as Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras.
This is only a small sample of what SGP is capable of. It has excellent camera control features where you can enter the desired sensor temp and will cool down and warm up your sensor in a user defined time frame. It is also capable of controlling your mount with dithering and can control PHD, MetaGuide, and Astroart autoguiders. Frame & Focus, and many other features. I encourage anyone looking for a program like this to check out Sequence Generator Pro at http://mainsequencesoftware.com/Products/SGPro.
Elbrus is a free telescope pointing program. It uses plate solving to tell exactly where the telescope is pointed in the night sky by analyzing stars from an image and calculating the exact coordinates. The first night I used this I had the scope pointed toward M109 and told the mount to go to M51. I forgot to check "slew to" on the user interface and it took an image around the area of M109, figured out where it was after a few seconds, and then slewed the telescope to M51. Since I have started using Elbrus I have not had to hibernate my mount and I have not done anymore go-to alignments. I can now re-balance or switch out to different telescopes and not have to worry or fuss with doing a goto alignment anymore. This has made things much easier. I now just align my marks on RA and DEC at the beginning of the night and tell the mount to slew to a target. The program will then take a 5 second exposure of the stars and know exactly where it is at and move the mount to where I am wanting it to be.
It is a wonderful program that I am just beginning to explore. It has failed on me a few times but that could be due more to user error than anything else. Astrometry.net is a similar free program that I may try out sometime to use as a backup when I get things all set up. PinPoint is another plate-solver that is supposed to be very good but it cost $150. I will try Elbrus and Astrometry first because several people are reporting good success rates with these programs.
With SGP and Elbrus working together I can see myself getting a lot more imaging done in the near future. I will be able to punch in an imaging sequence on one target, and when it finishes that have it slew to, center, and start imaging another target. The best part of this is it will be working while I am indoors getting some much needed rest! I will be able to walk out to the observatory in the morning and get the data it has collected for me during the night. Well, at least this is the plan. I think with a little more time to get familiar with the programs it should become a reality sooner rather than later.
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