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Ekos Scheduler using Artificial Horizon as Job Constraint

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Hi!

Like a few of you, maybe more, I'm mostly imaging from my back yard. This works great: I set up a job, the telescope does everything overnight and I wake up to find a parked telescope with some new data stored on it.
Although like many back yards, mine has some trees and a neighboring house next to it. So I set up an Artificial Horizon, tracing the outline so I can see which target is visible at what time.

One thing would be soo much better though: If I can select a Job Constraint in the Scheduler that sees if a target is above the Artificial Horizon. It then can start and stop jobs as long as they are visible, thus maximizing observation time.

For example, I can still get a few images of Abell 21 in the evening, but it sets in an hour or so. Next I manually move on to M82 & M81, which sets early in the morning. Then M51 is up and I would like to image that a bit.
Now I have to baby-sit the instrument until Abell 21 sets, move on to M81 & M81 and forget about M51.

What are your thoughts? Is this interesting for you as well?
Do you use Artificial Horizon to plan your targets?

Clear skies!
Bart
3 years 11 months ago #51657

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I completely agree. But that feature is still in the wishlist... You can, however, simulate the thing by using the altitude restriction. Check the altitude of your target when it disappears behind trees, and use that value as restriction to abort the job and switch to the next. It works for both rise and set altitudes, but, of course, you need two jobs if the rise and set altitudes are different.

-Eric
3 years 11 months ago #51664

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Thanks Eric,
I understand the workaround. Yes that would work, although is very cumbersome at least.
Do you know when this can be developed and what I could do to contribute to make this happen?
3 years 11 months ago #51683

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No real idea when this could be implemented. The Scheduler requires unitary and integration tests written before we can move on with new features, because the risk of regressions is now too high. So, if you want to get into test writing, either UI in kstars_ui_tests, or unitary as in auxiliary and fitsviewer, you are welcome!

-Eric
3 years 11 months ago #51736

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@Bart: I just submitted  invent.kde.org/education/kstars/-/merge_requests/365 which uses the artificial horizon constraints in scheduling.
If activated, it would delay a job until the target is above the artificial horizon, and stop a job once it falls below the artificial horizon. 
To use it you both need to check a new checkbox and include that with your scheduler job, similar to the way you'd include an altitude constraint, 

 

and also, you'd need to have at least one activated artificial horizon constraint.

 

This doesn't completely solve your request, as the scheduler still is picky about changing the order of jobs, but I believe if you put the jobs in the 
right order you could get what you want. I also added a significant amount of testing to the scheduler, invent.kde.org/education/kstars/-/merge_requests/305 so I'm hoping this will open up the possibility for more scheduler changes in the future.

Let me know if you have have the chance to try it out (currently in the beta software--you know you're running it if you see the "Use Artificial Horizon" checkbox on the Scheduler Tab).

Hy
The following user(s) said Thank You: alacant, Scott Denning, Rafa Barberá
Last edit: 2 years 7 months ago by Hy Murveit.
2 years 7 months ago #74088
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