Delayed start of capture plan

[Gordb]

Hi. I'm wondering if it might be possible to introduce a delayed start or set a fixed time to begin a capture plan? For example, if I have a near automated setup and I wanted to create a dark library taking images in the early morning could a specific time be set to initiate the plan and/or a field to start the plan in "X" minutes. It this way example, I wouldn't need to be at the laptop to start the imaging run.

Cheers,

Gord

[admin]

Rick is correct, however, I have increased the delay from 9999 to 99999 seconds in 3.1.  This should give just over 27 hours of delay.

Regards,

[astroman133]

There is currently no way to specify a start time for a capture plan, but you can specify a delay between the time the plan starts and the time imaging begins.

The following is a workaround that you can currently use to provide an extended start time for capturing your dark frames.

The Delay field in the Capture Plan Center allows you to specify a delay of up to 9999 seconds (about 2.8 hours). In addition you can also specify a Pause between exposures of up to 999 seconds (16.65 minutes). To start collecting your darks at some point in the future you could use a combination of the above.

For example to begin shooting darks in 6 hours You could use a delay of 9000 seconds (2.5 hours) along with a dummy step in the capture plan that takes 14 short images with a 900 second pause between them.  This combination should provide about a 6 hour delay from the time you start the plan until you start capturing the dark frames.

[Gordb]

Excellent! Thanks for the tip.

Cheers,

Gord