having a remote observatory I rely a lot on the scheduler. What have been made so far is very powerful and with the last enhancements is even better (thanks Eric, Jasem and others that worked on that) but when planning an observation I still struggle to find the optimum schedule for different jobs.
E.g. if I plan 3 hrs on M31 it can be then too low on the horizon and knowing that, planning just 2 hours could lead to a better result .
After that, next job could be 2 hrs on M42 but starting 3 hours from now, M42 could be in a position too close to the meridian.
Of course I can simulate the timing of the job on the sky map or rely on the scheduler scoring but having a visual aid on the sky map that shows the tracks of the objects in the hemisphere could be very useful.
As a picture is worth a thousand words, in attachment a basic drawing of what I mean. Dotted / continuous line is like a job progress bar.
I can feel your concern, I agree. We added warning and arrow markers to help with that, but it is still not easy.
If you configure your altitude restrictions properly, you should be able to adjust the duration of your jobs. Note that currently the order is rigid and that aborting a job due to altitude will push all other jobs, but we have incoming fixes for that.
Looking at the arrow icon at startup and completion, you should be able to determine whether the target will require a flip during its capture. You can then use culmination startup with a positive offset to avoid a flip.
You can also try the automatic sorting per altitude, but I think it might not be satisfactory enough.
Most features are there, but indeed need to be refined. We are refactoring code currently, but next features are templating sequence files and horizon restrictions (the red obstructed area one can define in kstars).
However, providing visual hints on the star map is a different story. Currently there are rise/culmination/set times displayed in a pop-up, or as curves. We could eventually show curves in the scheduler, if we could pack them in the UI.
I agree - and then - I don't suspect it's taking my custom horizon (tree tops) into consideration. What good is a sequence of a target that is higher than 30 but still behind trees?
I know this is a complicated request. so I look at a little app called Observer pro on my phone with my custom tree line that tells and shows me the time and placement of the target throughout the night. BUT - Kstars/ekos is so dang cool and powerful it should be albe to do this as it continues toward it's reign of ULTIMATE ASTRO IMAGINE PACKAGE.
Thank you to ALL WORKING ON THIS INCREDIBLE suite of software.
AP Mach1 / CP4 APCC & PEMpro.
EXP SCI - ED152cf APO - Celestron 11" RASA - Stellarvue 80mm
Baader F2 HS NB filters, Lodestar X2 guide camera / OAG - ZWO 290mm mini
ZWO ASI1600MM Pro / ASI174M (solar) / ASI094MC
NEXDome, CLoudwatcher, AVX mount/ASIair and Stellarmate
Great, because even though I watched it and loved the power shown. When I went to try it myself - I was lost.
Also if we've loaded a photo sequence... there is no way to edit it? To do so we'd just have to create and load a new photo-sequence?
AP Mach1 / CP4 APCC & PEMpro.
EXP SCI - ED152cf APO - Celestron 11" RASA - Stellarvue 80mm
Baader F2 HS NB filters, Lodestar X2 guide camera / OAG - ZWO 290mm mini
ZWO ASI1600MM Pro / ASI174M (solar) / ASI094MC
NEXDome, CLoudwatcher, AVX mount/ASIair and Stellarmate
I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to figure out the scheduler as well. Is there howto documentation based of the recent version of EKOS. I’m eager to start trying mosaic’s.