Seamless guiding and image sequencing before and after a meridian flip has never worked right for me and it's been an annoyance I've worked around and largely ignored. But now I want to solve it as it's one of the last problems on my rig. My question is: Should I use Ekos to control the meridian flip, or is it best to use the mount's hand controller, or both? I'm thinking it should be Ekos only, so it can do a plate solve afterwards and re-establish guiding and imaging, yes/no? I am using an iOptron iEQ45 Pro mount on a Tripier, with an RC8 sitting on top. Thanks guys!
Hi! I am a fork mount user. Still - letting both of them doing it is probably a direct pathway into desaster. If EKOS is controlling the sequence, EKOS should do it ...
yours wolfi
It needs to be controlled/initiated by EKOS. So the standard way is to set EKOS to flip at Meridian plus X, then set to mount to flip or stop at Meridian plus X plus Y.
The mount needs to be able to track without collision until X+Y. Also, Y should be larger than the exposure time you use, because a X it will flag the flip as pending, and execute it once the ongoing exposure is done.
If you have the mount execute the flip, for EKOS it would looks as if it suddenly starts slewing, it would abort guiding and as a consequence abort the sequence.
If you really want to be on the safe side you can set the mount to STOP at X+Y, to make sure nothing crashes mechanically should EKOS die for whatever reason. If you set the mount to do a flip instead of stop it would be a smart idea to set the mount to stop at the horizon (if it allows such settings).
Thank you for your reply! If I understand you correctly, you're saying to have Ekos control the flip, but have the mount configured essentially as a redundant back-up and have it flip at a slightly later time - I assume in the event Ekos failed to flip? Is this correct?