Scheduled Sequence

This section describes defining scheduled sequences. If Scheduled Mode is not active, please refer to the Expose Tab Autosave setup.

This is an alternative sequencing mode, which is especially useful for applications such as eclipse photography and laboratory imaging.

In this mode, you define a schedule on an exposure-by-exposure basis, with a designated start time for each individual exposure. You can enter the start time in UT or Local, as selected by clicking the UT/Local button.

To start a sequence, click the Start button on the main Expose tab. The exposures will not actually commence until the designated time; Start simply enables the sequence. If you wish to override the designated start time and start the sequence immediately, you can click the Start Now button.

The exposures themselves are entered into the large table. To make it easier to manipulate the table, the entire Scheduled Sequence window can be enlarged or shrunk, by clicking on the lower right corner with the mouse. This will resize the list to make it larger or smaller.

The columns of the list are:

To add a new row, click the new row button in the toolbar at upper right. You can edit fields in the row by double-clicking on them once with the mouse. Press Tab or Shift-Tab to go to the next or previous field; in edit boxes, you can use the up and down arrow keys to go to adjacent rows.

The Time row can be set to three different formats:

To set the time format, left-click on the Time column title. You can also change the format of fields on a row-by-row basis by right-clicking on the individual row time value.

To delete an existing row, click the delete row button.

To select options, click the option button to bring up the menu.

Set Download Times allows you to record the time needed to download the camera image in the available readout modes. This is used when validating the sequence, and helps guarantee that all exposures scheduled will be successfully taken. You can add and delete rows in the  list, in the same fashion as for the main sequence list control. For each row, you can set a Binning factor, and set download times for the available readout modes. Add a row for each Binning factor that you plan to use. Use a stopwatch or other means to measure the download time for the camera. You might want to enter a slightly conservative value, to ensure that there is no risk of unexpectedly losing exposures.

Perform consistency check on close will automatically validate the current sequence when you click OK. You will be warned if an exposure cannot be started at the designated time because the camera will still be busy with the previous exposure.