Revised Startup for APT/Stellarium/PHD2 et al.

I've updated all the software I use for image acquisition: APT, PHD2, Stellarium, and ASCOM. 

All the updating went without problems, so Yay!

However, my old way of starting all these in order of APT first, then Stellarium, and finally PHD2 seems to not work well any more. What seems to happen is that APT and Stellarium can't work through ASCOM correctly, and APT sometimes launches an instance of PHD2 out of impatience?

Some experimenting was needed, and the result is that the order of starting now goes like this:

1. Power the mount and allow time for it to boot. My Gemini 2 takes a couple of seconds, most others are probably faster
   
2. Power up everything else and insure it's all running and has made its USB connections.
   
3. Start Stellarium and let it connect to the mount (if all is good it should correctly show the direction in which scope is pointing)
4. Start PHD2 and connect it to the guide camera and mount
5. Start APT and connect it to the camera
6. Start the camera cooling via APT
7. Connect APT to the mount
8. At this point use PoleMaster to do a polar align using the ASCOM hand control, finishing with the scope in its park position (counterweight-down and approximately targeting the NCP)
9. Re-aim the scope far away from the NCP and train PHD2. You can delay this step until after you have pointed the scope at your target.
   
10. Sync the mount using APT's Point Craft (I use ASTAP for plate solving---it's amazingly fast and almost never fails to solve!
    
11. Use either Stellarium or APT's Go-To to acquire your imaging target. Do whatever composing you want.
    
12. Start PHD2 guiding or let APT handle things. 
13. Make sure your focus is perfect and start your exposure plan

Basically: power up, start the helper apps, start APT, start camera cooling, do polar align, sync the mount, acquire target, train PHD2, start imaging. If you're using autofocus, insert its setup where appropriate.

Worth noting is that the use of Stellarium (or any planetarium program) is entirely optional. APT provides extensive object lists and has similar Go-To and Sync features---everything you need to image.

FSQ106 First Light Image; Astronomical League Open Cluster Observing Program: A To-Do list for Astro Photography Tools (APT)

At last! My FSQ system was complete and I could take it out for a first light image. Nothing fancy, just a lot of stars. I also made it a point to process it only with PixInsight, replacing ImagesPlus for calibration and reducing my dependence on Photoshop. The image is here at AstroBin. Below is a preview, along with a 1:1 scale of M13 itself. Click each for larger views.

 

 

The image is based on a bit under three hours of LRGB. There's a lot of room for improvement in this image, I know, but it's wildly better than my previous efforts.

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I think one of my first long-term projects for the FSQ is going to be the AL Open Cluster Program list. The AL provides a PDF document listing the 125 objects in the program along with their coordinates which is helpful because quite a few of the clusters are from obscure catalogs like Berkeley, Trumpler, and Dolidze Dzimselejsvili.

I'm using Stellarium and APT to control the G-11 mount. Wouldn't it be nice if there was an observing list of the AL open clusters for one of those so that I could do simple a simple go-to for each object? Unfortunately Stellarium doesn't seem to support user-defined object lists but APT does. 

Some poking around failed to turn up a list. In APT it's fairly easy to create lists by loading objects into the ToDo list. Start by opening the Object Browser. If a cluster is in the Deep Sky list, find and select it, then click the "Add in ToDo" button. If an object isn't in the list, use the ToDo list's Add New button. When you're done creating a list, just export it. The data is put into an easy-to-read XML file.

This is just what I did! If you use APT and want a copy of the list, click this link:

https://app.box.com/s/l3ji97b1ysm3xxvpve2mgud34nv4x34c

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And now a footnote to my last post in which I was saying goodbye to the Nebraska Star Party for a while. I should mention the same applies to the Iowa Star Party. The last two times I've attended that the heat and humidity were incredible. Those were on the Labor Day weekends, and this year it's a week earlier--meaning the probability of excessive heat is even greater. Much as I hate to give up on ISP, I probably won't go back until they move it into late September or October. 

Yes, I know, I won't be missed by either event, and yes, I'm a weather wimp 😄