Hi Jasem and Eric,
As you know, I am using the scheduler extensively, it is what makes astrophotography feasible for me without compromising my job. In the past, I reported various issues that were then promptly fixed and that have tremendously improved the usability of Ekos. However, for some reason, these fixes are then often removed again during "upgrade" to the next version. For instance, in the last nightly build I used the scheduler no longer reassesses the object list and aborts after the first target although the next target still falls well within the altitude and time (ASAP) parameters. The only way around that was to manually delete the first target and then restart the scheduler. I have therefore reverted back to Ekos 2.9.8 (August 18-2018 build), which does not have this problem.
However, it has a different one which also had been fixed previously: Once the first target has fallen below the lower altitude limit and after switching to the second target, if that is still on the other side of the meridian the guide module fails to recalibrate or at a minimum swap the calibration data. As a result, all images show the stars jumping around wildly with multiple ghost images on each frame, basically trashing all frames until the meridian flip occurs, which then force recalibration.
Previously, Jasem had been able to fix this very quickly, by adding an additional button in the Scheduler tab in Ekos that allowed me to select an option instructing the guide module to force recalibration upon switching to another target. Recalibrating the guide module really does not take that long, less time than a trashed frame, or worse, many trashed frames. It would be great if that button could be added back again.
Finally, the only other remaining issue in 2.9.8 is that it fails to take flats. That also was fixed by Jasem within hours of me reporting it during the summer.
From my perspective, if only these two problems could be fixed in VERSION 2.9.8 and if you could then post a stable v2.9.8 that has ONLY THESE TWO flaws fixed, as far as I am concerned Ekos would be doing all that is required for my work flow.
Would that be possible?
Thanks for considering.
Jo
This what happens to the second target if it is still on the other side of the meridian