Hi everyone,

I do mostly photometry and would love to automate my data acquisition procedures. For stars with large variation in magnitude, it would be extremely helpful if I could setup a job with the exposure time automatically calculated at the start of the job. Say that I'm surveying a variable star that fluctuates between magnitudes 12 and 16. Ideally, I'd like to take pictures with this target star at about 75% of the maximum ADU (it is important to not saturate the star, but too little signal will also result in imprecise measurements). Obviously, the corresponding exposure time will vary a lot depending of whether the star is currently at magnitude 12 (short exposure) or 16 (long exposures required).

So, my ideal job would start by taking a picture of the target star, measure its max ADU, and survey several exposure times to determine the ideal exposure time. It would then take a series of images with this optimal exposure time. I imagine that this would result in a higher level of uncertainty about the length it will take to complete a job, so that I would not be certain of how many jobs can be run in one night, but this is the price to pay.

Do you think it would be difficult to implement such a function? Also, anyone else interested in something similar?

Thank you,

jf

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