I believe that this addition will be more than welcome.
This feature is already under the Scheduler, but what about the Capture module?
The ability to recenter the target after Meridian Flip and the ability to recenter the target after N frames. Probably that could fit under the limits section.
I could say that it would be extremely helpful, especially for anyone who captures without or with a single filter (if you use a filter wheel, ok go for Scheduler). I could personally easily skip the Scheduler and use Capture if, for example, I would like to shoot Ha all night long.
The point is that both functions are already there - but I do not know how easy would be to work on Capture too.
Exactly as I've already said both those features are already included in the Scheduler module. The point is to have them directly in the Capture module.
From a systems engineering perspective, it is much better to put this in the Scheduler. There you have one module (Scheduler) controlling two others (Capture and Align) instead of Capture and Align negotiating with each other with many possible edge cases (meridian flip, scheduled and temperature-based auto-focus, ...).
Why don't you use the scheduler to gain this functionality?
Now that I've switched to full-mono, Scheduler is my way to go.
But if someone shoots without a filter, with a dual-band, or just wants a single night with a single filter, it is much easier to just set the Capture with 20 frames and shoot.
Both functionalities are already there, so from a user's perspective only, this is just another checkbox - I bet that it is not so simple of course, but you get my point
The hard part in adding that feature in capture, is, as I said, making sure it doesn't break things if the alignment is need just before a meridian flip, or when the temperature change triggers an autofocus, or ... It's the many little complication, not the feature itself.
All that said, perhaps there could be something done to simplify starting up the scheduler for one target, to ease those who've previously just used capture to transition to scheduler.
Personally, I have a set of my most common capture-sequence files, so for me to start a simple schedule, all I do is this:
- Frame a target in the SkyMap, and click on the scheduler button that copies the SkyMap position into the scheduler RA & DEC boxes.
- Type in a name for the job.
- Load the sequence file I want
- Click ASAP, repeat until terminated, twilight, artificial horizon, park mount, focus/guide/align/track. (I think that all my favorite buttons there are all kept the way I like them so really all this clicking isn't necessary)
- click + to load the simple schedule
- click play to start the scheduler.
If I was planning on repeating the job the next night, I'd save the .esl file.
It really doesn't take me that much time to start a job (compared to the thinking about what target I want, how to frame it, etc), but if you think there could be something done to make it quicker/simpler, please let me know.
Hy