Sky FLats target time

[astroguy pd]

As a user who is using Sky Flats, it is necessary to be able to start a sequence of taking Flats at the very end of the session before sunrise or at the start just after sunset. Having this feature available in the sequencer 2.0 would be of great help to complete an automatic session.

The Sky FLats target time to start the Flats sequence should be when the sun is at -4 degrees below the horizon for Dusk and -7 degrees for Dawn.

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[Kyle Goodwin]

I would definitely like this feature. I recently finished putting together a setup with a large reflector and I am currently using Voyager to automate this one setup (NINA for all my other setups) because it can do automated dawn flats and I don’t have a flat panel big enough for that scope (well, I have one, but I’d have to manually put it on top of the scope and I like everything to be fully automated).

[Scott Thompson]

I whole-heartedly concur that an option for automated sky-flats would be fantastic. It could be added to a sequence such that at the appropriate time (as astroguy pd indicated), the telescope would wake up, slew to the proper point (e.g. 1 hour west of zenith after sunrise, 1 hour east after sunset), then run the flat wizard to capture “skyflat” type images (without prompting for dark-flat frames, which can be taken once the telescope is stowed and covered). This would necessitate automating the flat wizard in the sequencer and giving to option to not ask for dark flats.

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The complete sequence for a sunrise capture would be something like:

1. Capture light frames as usual (if taking sunrise skyflats, otherwise, NINA just waits until after sunset)
2. park scope and perhaps warm camera
3. start cooling the camera N minutes before sun reaches proper position (e.g. 10 minutes)
4. when the sun is at the correct position for sky flats (as astroguy indicates), slew to 1hr west (sunrise) or east (sunset) of zenith
5. run flat wizard to take skyflat type images
6. For sunset flats, wait until dark and commence imaging. For sunrise flats, park and power off etc. as normal.

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[Michael Mulcahy]

I too would like to run the flat wizard from within a sequence to take sky flats.

[Stefan B]

in 3.x you will be able to take sky flats using an instruction in the advanced sequencer