Option to take into account SideOfPier when deciding whether to Meridian Flip

[Yannick Dutertre]

Currently NINA only takes into account Time to Meridian (plus whatever value is in MinutesAfterMeridian) to determine whether it should flip.

This can cause some issues, in which some mounts will point to the Western part of the sky but put the scope on the Eastern side of the pier (assuming Northern Hemisphere) if the target is sufficiently close to the Meridian. This means that a Meridian flip is not needed - however NINA will attempt one anyway - in which case the telescope would end up on the West side of the pier, pointing West, which is a very bad thing (tm) in that if nothing is done the scope will end up hitting the pier or tripod.

Suggested solution is as follows:

• Add setting in the Meridian Flip section "Check Side of Pier" as an on/off button. Default is off.

• when starting a sequence, if the option is set to On but the mount driver does not implement the SideOfPier functionality, error message should pop up "The mount driver doesn't support Side of Pier reporting. Meridian flip will not use Side of Pier", and variable should be set to 0.

• If option is set to off, Meridian Flip logic is as usual.

• If option is set to on, add an additional check in ShouldFlip method of MeridianFlipVM: 1. If CheckSideOfPier == 0 then perform the same check as before. Return true or false. 2. If CheckSideOfPier==1 then

If SideOfPier!=0 (e.g. West side, or driver is returning -1 or invalid values) and telescopeInfo.TimeToMeridianFlip - (profileService.ActiveProfile.MeridianFlipSettings.PauseTimeBeforeMeridian / 60)) < (exposureTime / 60 / 60)), then return True

If SideOfPier==0 (e.g. East side) then return False

[Stefan B]

Added to develop. Will be available for release 1.9.

Thank you for this contribution!