Meridian Flip Timing

bunyon

I know there are dozens of these but I haven't found exactly my question and certainly don't know the answer.

Is it possible to use the Asiair (mini) to delay the flip until after completion of an image and then flip immediately?

Right now, I've got it set to stop at the meridian and flip when the object is 1 minute past. Writing, I suppose I could tell it to flip at 0, too. The issue is, I can go well past the meridian without bumping anything and I could go to an object 5-10 degrees before it gets to the meridian. Last night, shooting 180s exposures, it paused because the object was 165s to the meridian. Then I had to wait until it was a minute past. Small stuff, I know, but that is a wasted four minutes. It would be nice to tell it to pause after completion of the last image made before it's ready to flip.

I know some need to pause early and wait to flip. But a lot of don't. It would be nice to have the option and I'm hoping I'm just missing something in the set up. Thanks.

w7ay

bunyon Is it possible to use the Asiair (mini) to delay the flip until after completion of an image and then flip immediately?

No.

The ASIAIR will stop capturing images so that exposures do not overlap into the "stop tracking x min before Meridian" parameter.

And it will not start to send GOTO commands (those are what causes meridian flips) until the "Auto Flip x min after Meridian."

In the ASIAIR, both of those are positive numbers. I.e., you have to stop before Meridian transit, and you can only flip after transit.

The most extreme that you can do is to set both parameters to 0. And even there, ASIAIR will still stop imaging before the first parameter (and that could be as long as the exposre time).

Chen

bunyon

w7ay Thanks. That's too bad. Would be nice if a negative sign was added and let it finish an image a little past the meridian.

For now, I'll set all zeroes.

w7ay

bunyon For now, I'll set all zeroes.

If you want to do that, make sure that your mount can be set to track past the meridian, otherwise, the mount itself may stop before the last image exposure is fully complete.

And make sure none of your instrumentation hits the pier.

Chen

bunyon

w7ay Yes, definitely. And that is mostly my point, I can track over an hour past the meridian without anything bumping the tripod. I don't need to be nearly as conservative as the Asiair makes me be.