What is CCD Commander?

Transcription

1 Matt Thomas

2 What is CCD Commander? Multi-target imaging automation tool Controls all aspects of the imaging system Camera (Imaging and Guiding); Mount (Fork or GEM) Dome/Roll-of-roof; Focuser; Rotator; Weather Monitor Simple, yet powerful Graphical User Interface Provides ease-of-use for beginning automation Extremely flexible with endless possibilities for extreme multi-target imaging.

3 General Overview Setup is based on actions Most actions are similar to what you would do manually while imaging Some actions are Move the telescope Focus Take Images CCD Commander contains a list of actions that get executed one at a time. Execution progresses through the list from top to bottom

4 General Overview Action List is fully editable even while executing Running or completed actions cannot be changed CCD Commander can be imaging one target, while additional targets are still being setup Check boxes to selectively enable or disable actions Execution can be paused and resumed at any time Allows for manual intervention when problems Clipboard aware Actions can be copied, cut, and pasted Greatly simplifies setup especially when repeating similar actions.

5 GUI Overview & Simple Action List Move to Target Take Images Park Mount All done!

6 Move To Action RA & Declination coordinates for any target JNow/J2000 Coordinates Either can be used J2000 is best for stationary targets. Allows for reuse of same coordinates over days/years. JNow coordinates only valid for the moment they are created. Works okay for stationary targets, but coordinates become less accurate over time.

7 Move To Action Get RA/Dec from TheSky Pulls coordinates from any selected object in TheSky6. Can get either JNow or J2000 coordinates Get RA/Dec from Current Telescope Position Queries the telescope position JNow coordinates Object Name Can be any text either real name or just reference

8 Move To Action Find Object in TheSky Uses text in Object Name to search the database in TheSky. Gets either JNow or J2000 coordinates. Recompute Object Coordinates before Slew Only available with JNow coordinates. Very useful for rapidly moving targets (minor planets) Object Name must exist in TheSky.

9 Take Images Action Imager Information Typical Imaging parameters These no different than what seen in CCDSoft or MaxIm/DL Calibrate Images Will automatically calibrate images Both Raw and Calibrated images are saved

10 Take Images Action Autoguider Exposure Time, X/Y Position are disabled here. The Auto Guide Star function is enabled. These are enabled when the Auto Guide Star function is disabled Max Error to Start Error is checked before starting exposure. Max Guide Cycles to Wait is upper limit on guide cycles

11 Take Images Action Dithering Moves the guide star or mount (Unguided Dither) between exposures. Dither Frequency How often to Dither Dither Step How much to Dither Maximum Dither How far to move from start Maintain Dither Position with Filter Change Useful for RGBRGBRGB imaging

12 Dithering

13 Take Images Action Center AO When Complete Important to ensure correct image alignment Rotate 180 degrees after Meridian Flip Usually always necessary May have some scenarios where this is not desired

14 Take Images Action Use Global Image Save Location When enabled, files all go to the same location. When disabled, can put images from each Take Image Action into a different folder Autosave Exposure File name can be any text File Name Builder

15 File Name Builder Can select any number of parameters. Each parameter is represented by a token in the filename box. Tokens will be evaluated at run time and replaced by the appropriate value. Allows unique file naming without having to manually edit the file name. Example text always shows the same values

16 Take Images Action Plate Solve and Sync after Meridian Flip Necessary unless mount pointing is extremely accurate More info on plate solve soon

17 Park Mount Real Park Sends a Park command to the telescope driver Simulated Park Repeatedly slews the mount to the same Alt/Az coordinate Alt/Az coordinates must be entered Simulates a park by keeping the mount in the same position until mount can be shutdown

18 Better Simple Action List Move To Focus Star Focus Move To Target Plate Solve Take Images Park Mount

19 Plate Solve Action What is a Plate Solve? Start with an image The stars in the image are matched to a star catalog Using the stars in catalog, the exact center of the image is determined Why Plate Solve? Even high end mounts may not exactly center the target Inaccurate centering may result in Difficulty getting the desired guide star (self guided/oag) Poor target framing Plate Solve does take time, but results in better images

20 Plate Solve Action Exposure Information Exposure Time should be long enough to get plenty of stars in the image. Bin can be high (3x3) without major impacts to plate solve accuracy. Wide field images may not want to bin. Sub-frames may be necessary when using CCDSoft for plate solves.

21 Plate Solve Action Sync Selection Sync Mount will send a sync command to the mount using the coordinates from the plate solve Sync command is not always desirable Offset Position will compute the difference between the telescope coordinates and the plate solve result. Future slews will go to a position offset from the requested coordinates

22 Plate Solve Action Slew to Original Location after Solve Not always necessary to re-center the target Abort if Solve Fails Normally if the Plate Solve fails, execution continues. With this option, execution will abort. More on Sub-Lists later.

23 Plate Solve Action Retry 2 nd try may help Slew Mount can avoid obstruction (clouds) Skip to Next Target also useful for cloud avoidance. Can save Plate Solve exposures with images (or elsewhere) for later evaluation.

24 Focus Action Focus using any filter Focus Offsets are available Offsets don t use the Focus Action Exposure Time can be settable computes exposure time automatically With FocusMax possible to specify the star location.

25 More Example Action Lists Now can create action lists suitable for all-night imaging Repeat Focus Filter Sequences Back-to-back Targets

26 Sub-Action List Just like the Main Action List, but Can Repeat Until Aborted For a fixed number of loops For a fixed period of time Allows the Main Action List to be much cleaner and adds considerable flexibiliy.

27 Sub-Action List Examples Similar to previous examples, but much cleaner Repeat Focus Filter Sequences Back-to-back Targets Plate Solve Failure

28 Sub-Action List Link to File Sub-Action List can be a separate action list Linked sub-actions will be loaded from the file immediately before they are executed. Useful for action lists that never change Startup/Shutdown action lists Also useful for remote editing of sub-action lists Since the sub-action list is not loaded until execution, if the linked file changes the new list will be executed when it is time to run.

29 Wait for Altitude Action Pauses execution until the coordinates reach the altitude. Similar to Move To action, TheSky6 can be used to get the coordinates. Rising/Setting selects what exact event is desired. Rising means to stop waiting when target is above the requested altitude. When object crosses meridian, wait always finishes Setting means to stop waiting when target is below the request altitude.

30 Wait for Time Action Pauses execution until the requested time is reached. Absolute indicates the entered time is regular clock time. Relative indicates the entered time is a number of hours and minutes to wait.

31 Warning for Wait Actions Neither Wait Action does anything other than wait. If the mount is tracking, it will continue to track during the wait. This can be useful if it is expected But this can cause problems if not If you have a long Wait Action, always Park the mount using the Park Mount action prior to the Wait Action.

32 Skip Ahead at Time Action Skip actions are a powerful tool in scheduling your targets. Skip Ahead at Time will cause the action list to jump forward to the Skip action at the requested time. All actions between the current executing action and the Skip action are skipped.

33 Skip Ahead at Altitude Action Similar to the Wait for Altitude Action Extremely useful to Stop imaging when target gets too low Start imaging when target becomes high enough

34 Scheduling Example Action Lists Wait to start Skip to 2 nd target Skip at dawn Wait/Skip combinations

35 Rotate Camera Action Simple action to rotate the camera. Can use TheSky6 Field-of-View Indicator to determine the desired Position Angle. Use button to automatically retrieve the PA.

36 Dome Control Action Any function operating the dome will use the Dome Control Action Simply select the function desired

37 Intelligent Temperature Control Action Disable Cooler will slowly warm up the camera. Fan On to turn fan on or off. Enable Cooler enables the Use Intelligent Cooling checkbox. Use Intelligent Cooling selects between Simple Cooling and Intelligent Cooling. Simple Cooling just sets the camera temperature and moves on to the next action.

38 Intelligent Temperature Control Action Intelligent Cooling gives more control over the temperatures. Desired Temperatures is a list of all the acceptable temperatures. CCD Commander goes through the temperature list one at a time attempting to set the camera to the coldest possible temperature.

39 Intelligent Temperature Control Action Maximum cooler power is the acceptable power level of the final temperature. Maximum time for temperature to stabilize sets how long CCD Commander will wait at each power level. Temperature and cooler deviations set what is stable power. When power is stable, next temperature is attempted until there are no more to try, or a temperature cannot be reached.

40 Automatic Flats Action

41 Automatic Flats Action Flat Information Exposure Setup Frame Size When setting up the flat exposure, especially for twilight flats, large CCDs with slow download can make it impossible to keep up with the sun. Changing this to half or quarter will speed up the download and better allow the exposure setup to keep up with the sky brightness. Flat Frame Size This is the frame size for the actual flats. Filename Prefix Can use File Name Builder to auto name files.

42 Automatic Flats Action Flat Information Take Matching Darks CCD Commander will keep track of all the flat exposure times. After all the flats are complete, matching darks will be exposed. Dark Exposure Time Tolerance sets the range of flat exposure times for a single dark exposure time. Continually adjust exposure time to match ADU target While exposing the flats, the exposure time will remain fixed if this is unchecked. Otherwise the exposure time is adjusted to match changing brightness levels.

43 Automatic Flats Action Mount Information Sets where the mount will be while the flats are exposing. Park Mount, Slew to, Do not connect Dusk Sky Flat and Dawn Sky Flat are special CCD Commander will automatically compute the time to start taking flats based on the Sun altitude entered. At the computed time, the Automatic Flats Action will act like a Skip At Time action, jumping ahead in the action list to the Automatic Flats Action.

44 Automatic Flats Action Rotations Defines all the rotation angles flats should be taken at. Flats for all rotations are taken at one filter before the next filter is selected. Flats are taken at the rotations in the order listed. Filters Defines all the filters flats should be taken at. Flats are taken with the filters in the order listed. For Dawn/Dusk flats it is important to put the filters in order of increasing/decreasing throughput.

45 Weather Monitor Action Simplest action window, but lots behind the scenes. When enabled, the weather monitor hardware is queried on a periodic basis. Once bad weather is detected, the action list is immediately paused. Dome can also be closed. Once paused, no other action is executed until the weather turns good. One exception Skip Ahead at Time and Altitude actions will still execute.

46 Weather Monitor Action Interaction with Skip actions. Since the Skip Ahead actions are active, there is a potential for a minor problem. Skip Ahead action may stop imaging and jump ahead to a series of shutdown actions. But if weather is still bad, after the Skip action executes the action list will still be paused. None of the shutdown actions will execute. To prevent this problem, the Weather Monitor action will never be skipped. When a Skip Ahead action takes place, while skipping over actions if a Weather Monitor Action is encountered it will execute. Then the Skip Ahead will continue skipping actions.

47 Putting it all together Complete example with: Rotate Action Dome Action Intelligent Temperature Action Weather Monitor Action

48 Run Program Action Provides extensibility with scripts or other programs. CCD Commander can wait for the script or executable to finish, or continue concurrently.

49 CCD Commander Setup Control/Device Tab Sets all hardware control programs CCD Commander must know filter assignments. Can get from both CCDSoft and MaxIm/DL. Not all are required Only Camera and Mount must be set

50 CCD Commander Setup Mount Parameters Tab GEM Setup is most important selection for automation Eastern and Western Limits determine where mount flips Slew Scripts allow additional functionality whenever the mount slews.

51 CCD Commander Setup Auto Guide Star Tab Parameters specify guide star search algorithm. Guide Box Size must be set based on Camera Control program settings. Continuous Autoguiding keeps the guider running all of the time. Disable Guide Star Recovery New star search is done with every Take Image action.

52 CCD Commander Setup File Options Tab Global Image Save Location Can be used in any action to save all files to the same location. MaxIm DL FITS Compression Reduces image sizes, but FITS file can only be read my MaxIm/DL.

53 CCD Commander Setup Plate Solve Tab Select and setup Plate Solve program. Most parameters are PinPoint specific. Dark subtract all plate solve images Reduces noise and improves plate solve performance MaxIm/DL must have calibration group setup

54 CCD Commander Setup Focuser Options Tab Filter Offset setup Each filter can have an offset amount. Whenever a filter change occurs, the focuser will move by the amount set here. No need to enact the filter offset during the action list.

55 CCD Commander Setup Rotator Tab Home Rotation Angle and Guider Calibrated at Extremely important for proper rotator/guider operation Best to set these values using the FOVI in TheSky During Move To that flip Some rotators are very slow Maintain Rotator Angle can speed up slews especially when rotation will be changing after slew.

56 CCD Commander Setup Dome Tab

57 CCD Commander Setup Alerts Tab Can send when problems/events occur can be sent to e- mail/text messaging capable cell phones Can select for what events will be sent.

58 CCD Commander Setup Weather Monitor Tab Pause Action When Selects conditions to pause Close Roof/Dome When Selects conditions to close Emergency Contact Closure will close dome in most cases - this is why nothing selected here. Conditions for good reading Good reading can be any combination

59 CCD Commander Setup Weather Monitor Tab Park Mount when Pausing Important when mount can possibly collide while the action list is paused Repeat last action after resuming When conditions are clear, the action that was interrupted by weather will be repeated. Otherwise the next action in the list will run

60 Autoguider Error Graph

61 CCD Temperature Graph

62 Import Target List Advanced tool typically for survey work. Target List containing RA/Dec for multiple targets can be imported For each target, any number of actions can be setup to execute At a minimum, Move To and Take Images actions Move To action coordinates will automatically be filled in from the target list

63 Thank you! Questions? me: Visit: to download a free trial version