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Re:Re:Re:Re:How to schedule two objects based on time?

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Hi!

I'm trying to get my head around what I really can do with the scheduler. Tonight, I wanted to image M101 until 2.40 am, when NGC6888 becomes visible for me at 38 degrees altitude (northeast). Any suggestions for how I could set the scheduler for this? I try setting it with an abundance of exposures for M101, thinking that it should be interrupted at 2.40 and switching to next job (giving second job highter priority). But that renders the second job invalid, because the first (M101) will continue until dawn.

So: is there a way to have a second job interrupt a first, swiching tagets based on either altitude or time?

Magnus
Last edit: 4 years 11 months ago by Magnus Larsson.
4 years 11 months ago #37970

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Last edit: 4 years 11 months ago by Wouter van Reeven.
4 years 11 months ago #37973

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Most simple is to specify a number of repeats which make the first job end at the adequate time.
You may also specify a time at which the job must end. But as this end date embeds the day, it must be reconfigured each night.
You may also specify an altitude restriction, under which the job will stop. This can be used multiple nights in combination with the twilight restriction and looping repeats.
Also ensure "Remember Job Progress" is not set for greater flexibility.

-Eric
4 years 11 months ago #37987

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Hi!

OK. I'm trying to avoid depending on calculating number of exposures or repeats, since time to a large degree depends on focusing, and that is not predictable for me. So I'm looking for other ways.

So you're saying I could use the end and altitude restriction parameters. Hrm. When I've tried that, they seem to apply not just to job no2, but to the whole process, rendering one job invalid. But you are saying that I should be able to set such paramters (such as end time) per job?

Magnus
4 years 11 months ago #37991

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Restrictions are configurable for each job, yes. Double-click a job line, edit, and apply. The only part that are "applied" to the whole process are the startup and shutdown blocks, plus stuff nested in the Ekos Scheduler options tab.

-Eric
4 years 11 months ago #38025

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Hi!

OK, so here is a file for 2 jobs. First scheduled to stop at 2.30 am, second to start at 2.40 am. Then there is the twilight restriction - I'd like the mount to park at dawn. But second job is rendered invalid. WHat do I do wrong here?

Magnus
4 years 11 months ago #38043
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Hi!

Just noted that on my R-Pi running stable (not nightly), scheduler starts immediately, ignoring the "Twilight" constraint. So I shifted to a SD-card with Stellarmate and Nightly, and now it respects the twilight constraint.

Could my problems above be related to having all happened on Stable, rather than Nightly?

Magnus
4 years 11 months ago #38139

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Not sure there is that sort of regression between nightly and stable. I had no time to test your jobs this weekend unfortunately. Twilight restriction must configure your job to run between the astronomical dusk and astronomical dawn (those are computed for the current day for now). When you combine this with a start-at restriction, it may happen that the job is made invalid because it cannot start at the requested time. What happens when you remove the start-at restriction of the second job? The scheduler is expected to plan the second job after the completion of the first with no end-user help (no need to tell the job when to start).

-Eric
4 years 11 months ago #38226

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Hi!

OK. I find it a bit difficult to both describe and be clear about my issues, partly because I so far don't know how to test other than at night (when twilight is a real restriction) and it takes time to wait the process out, and I want to spend time imaging ... :)

But: my idea has been to have
job 1: start when twilight is over (using the twilight restriction for start of the job
- be long so I use the whole time a long first job (50 exposures of 300 secs
- and to be interrupted by the second
job 2: I would want this when the object rises above 38 degrees, and then interrupt the first job.
- to keep going until dawn and be interrupted by the twilight restriction

So I use sequence files for both that contains 50 exposures - that streteches beyond the calculated end points.

But it invariably renders the second job invalid. So I guess I would need either to understand why, and/or to have another strategy to accomplish the same thing.

As a side comment: the start-end-restrictions I use seem to apply to both jobs, in Stable. THat is, double clicking on the job shows the same settings for both jobs, even though only the second should have the 38 degrees startup paramater.

Does it help if I produce a log file, does that add to this? But I mean, the log file does not contain the "invalid" because I never run it in that state.

Magnus
4 years 11 months ago #38228

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You can use the simulators to test and run things, but indeed, unless you change your geographical location to shift night time, twilight will remain twilight :)
Here's my take at your original M101/NGC6888, done from Rennes, France.
I add a new job, M101, with default restrictions (asap, alt>0, twilight). Scheduler says job starts at 11:06pm today.
I add a new job, NGC6888, with default restrictions except for Alt, where I set 38 degrees. Scheduler says job starts at 03:18am tomorrow.
I use a dummy 11x1s sequence for those two jobs, so Scheduler says job 1 ends at 11:09pm, and warns job 2 has more than 4 hours of lead time. I'm only interested in start times for now.
Now I know that I have roughly 4 hours available for the first job, so I configure the first job to run until tomorrow 3:00am(completion condition "repeat until"). Lead time to next job is now 18min.
Then I configure the second job to run until terminated, knowing that the twilight restriction will abort it. I make sure the preemptive shutdown is configured with 1 hour.
From there, I can change the sequence files to whatever series of captures I need. If you need multiple filters on the same target, you may duplicate the scheduler job, change the sequence file and adjust the completion condition to keep NGC6888 starting at 3:18am.
You probably noticed it, but the UI flow requires you to double-click on existing jobs to edit them. In order to duplicate a job, you edit it, validate the changes with the checkbox button and immediately click the + button to add another instance of it. This is admittedly not very user friendly, and should improve soon.


-Eric
The following user(s) said Thank You: Wouter van Reeven
4 years 11 months ago #38308

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That's an interesting way of scheduling jobs. Thanks.
4 years 11 months ago #38315

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Hi!

Thanks, I will try that.

So, you set a finishing time for the first job. Just to understand the paramters then: Would it then be possible to have a longer sequence, that does not finish its first run, before the finishing time? Not that I see any immediate benefit from doing so, just thinking.

Magnus
4 years 11 months ago #38324

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