Scheduler¶

Introduction¶

L'ordonnanceur d'Ekos est un composant important dans le flux de travail de l'imagerie. Il se connecte à INDI, démarre et arrête tous les autres modules d'Ekos, organise les tâches en tenant compte des contraintes et priorités, les surveille lorsqu'elles sont exécutées et arrête le système de manière sécurisée quand elles sont terminées ou avant l'aube. Que vous imagiez plusieurs cibles sur plusieurs nuits ou simplement une seule cible pendant quelques heures, il est conseillé d'utiliser l'ordonnanceur pour contrôler les sessions d'imagerie.

Table de l'ordonnanceur¶

The heart of the Scheduler is a table displaying the list of Scheduler jobs the user wants to run. Associated with each jobs are attributes (mostly described in the settings section below). The attributes describe the name of the job, where the telescope should be pointed when imaging that job, a description of what types of images should be captured, constraints about when the jobs should run (e.g. altitude, twilight, moon, landscape blockages, etc.), things that need to be done before and after the job is run, and strategies for dealing with errors.

Vous pouvez ajouter, supprimer, modifier ou changer l'ordre des tâches dans la tables de l'ordonnanceur.

You can add a Scheduler job row into the table by clicking the + control above the table, if all required attributes are filled out (name, position, and sequence file).

If you click on a row, you can then click the - control above the table to delete that row.

If you click on a row, you can then click the ^ or v controls to move those rows up or down in the job list.

If you double click on a row, the attributes of that job are filled in to the various settings on the Scheduler page. You can then change one or more of those attributes, and then click the checkmark above the table (after your double-click, the + became a checkmark), and the new attributes are assigned to that job.

Scheduler Graph¶

Associated with the scheduler table is a graph that represents the planned execution of scheduler jobs. Each graph line corresponds to a row in the scheduler table, plotting that scheduler job's altitude as a function of time for tonight.

If a job is scheduled to run tonight, its graph line is highlighted in green during its expected run times.

There are arrows to the right (and possibly) left of the graph to change the display to "tomorrow night" and "the night after", or to move it back to the current night.

If you click on a scheduler table row, the associated graph line is highlighted. One can also identify graph lines by hovering the mouse over them.

Clicking in the graph will display the time and altitude for the selected scheduler job.

The scheduler graph can be expanded or diminished by using the mouse to grab and drag the dotted separator between the scheduler graph and scheduler table.

Algorithme de l'ordonnanceur¶

La table ci-dessus dresse la liste des tâches par ordre de priorité, avec les tâches plus haute (de numéro de ligne plus basse) ayant la plus haute priorité que celles plus bas dans la liste (de numéro de ligne plus haut).

The Scheduler regularly plans (and re-plans) which jobs should be run, and when. It can start executing a given job, and then later preempt that job for a new one. It can become idle if no jobs can be run (e.g. in daylight), and sleep until such a time that it becomes active again. Its aim is to keep the equipment as busy as possible, while respecting the scheduler-table's priorities. Here's how it works.

When the scheduler starts (or when it replans, which it does every second while active), it looks through the entire list of jobs, starting at the highest priority job, and working its way down to the lowest priority one if necessary. When it finds a job that can run, it starts that job, possibly preempting the currently running job. A jobs can run if its constraints are met, e.g. the target is not blocked by the local terrain, it meets the minimum altitude constraint, it has not already completed all the desired imaging, ...

L'algorithme montre l'heure projetée de départ et d'arrêt pour toutes les tâches de la table de l'ordonnanceur. Il affiche également une estimation de la durée d'exécution pour les 48 prochaines heures dans le panneau de journalisation situé au bas de la fenêtre. Veuillez voir la capture d'écran au début de cette section.

L'algorithme décrit ci-dessus est connu comme l'algorithme Greedy. C'est celui qui est recommandé. Dans des versions précédentes d'Ekos, il y avait un autre algorithme, nommé Classique, qui est en phase d'être abandonnée. Il ne pouvait pas mettre en pause une tâche en faveur d'une autre et donc n'optimisait pas l'équipement autant que l'algorithme Greedy.

There is a checkbox option in the scheduler options menu called Use greedy scheduling which defaults to being checked. The system works as described above when it is checked. When it is unchecked the scheduler is prevented from scheduling lower priority jobs when uncompleted higher priority jobs cannot run. This results in less efficient use of the system, but may give you more control over scheduling.

Fichiers séquences (.esl)¶

La table de l'ordonnanceur avec sa liste de tâches peut être enregistrée sur le disque dur pour pouvoir être réimportée plus tard. Ces données sont enregistrées dans un fichier « .esl ». Les boutons pour cela ainsi que pour importer d'autres fichiers « .esl » de séquence se trouvent au-dessus de la table sur la droite.

Réglages¶

Ekos Scheduler provides a simple interface to aid the user in setting the conditions and constraints required for an Scheduler job. You must select the Target, its coordinates, and the Sequence before you can add a job to the Scheduler.

Chaque tâche de l'ordonnanceur est composée de :

Target name and coordinates: Select target from the Find Dialog or Add it from Observation Planner. You can also enter a custom name. Coordinates can also be copied from the SkyMap using the button just to the right of the coordinates.

Optional PA: The position angle (or image rotation) can be specified for systems with camera rotation hardware.

Optional FITS File: If a FITS file is specified, the astrometry solver solves the file and use the central RA/DEC as the target coordinates.

Sequence file: The sequence file is constructed in the Ekos Capture Module. It has a list of capture specifications, where each spec details the number of images to capture, which filter to use, the exposure length, the gain, file naming details, temperature settings, prefixes, download directory, etc.

Profile: Select which equipment profile to utilize when starting Ekos. If Ekos & INDI are already started and online, this selection is ignored.

Steps: The user selects what steps should be taken at the start of the job. The possibilities are: (1) Start mount tracking, (2) autofocus, (3) run a plate solving alignment, (4) start the auto-guider. One or more can be chosen.

Startup Conditions: Conditions that must be met before the Scheduler job is started. Currently, the user may select to start as soon as possible, ASAP, or when the target is near or past culmination, or at a specific time.

Constraints: These are conditions that must be met at all times during the Scheduler job execution process. These include minimum target altitude, minimum moon separation, twilight observation, artificial horizon altitude constraints, and weather monitoring.

Completion Conditions: Conditions that trigger completion of the Scheduler job. The default selection is to simply mark the Scheduler job as complete once the sequence process is complete. Additional conditions enable the user to repeat the sequence process a number of times or indefinitely, or up until a specific time.

Autres options¶

There are several other options to control how the Scheduler behaves. These are found in the Scheduler options menu, shown below, which opens with the Options... button located in the lower right of the Scheduler.

Se souvenir de la progression de la tâche¶

Among the settings shown above, one important one is known as Remember job progress. When this box is checked and a job is running, the Scheduler looks at the job's images already captured on disk, and doesn't re-capture the ones that are already there. The benefit is that if a job is restarted, or re-run another night, or if multiple jobs are being run together, stopping and starting when they are runnable, then jobs re-start right where they left off. This works well with the Repeat until terminated job-completion option. If Remember job progress is unchecked, jobs would restart from the start of their sequence specification each time, which probably isn't what you want. Unfortunately, if the images are not stored on the same computer that Ekos is running on, then this feature doesn't work and the jobs restart from their beginning.

A possibly confusing side-effect of Remember job progress is that if you've run a job using the (default) Sequence Completion finish condition, and it has captured all its images, and now you want to run the job again, the Scheduler won't schedule the job because it believes that all the images have already been captured. You'd either need to move those images elsewhere on disk, or change the finish condition to Repeat for N Times, or Repeat Until Terminated.

Répétitions de groupe¶

Cette fonctionnalité permet d'exécuter deux ordonnanceurs ou plus avec approximativement la même priorité, de telle sorte que si chacun peut être exécuté, il progresserait plus ou moins à la même vitesse. Cela peut être utile, par exemple, si vous imager une mosaïque avec plusieurs tuiles, mais est généralement utilisable pour n'importe quel groupe de tâches.

Normally the (Greedy) scheduler's job priority is set by the row the job is listed in the Scheduler's job table. Jobs on rows closer to the top run with higher priority than jobs lower down. Thus, if a job on row 2 (Job2) uses Repeat Until Terminated, and that job's running constraints are satisfied, a lower down job (e.g. Job3) will not be scheduled to run.

If you wish to alternate jobs, you can assign each of the jobs the same group name, and give the jobs one of the repeating finish conditions (e.g. Repeat for N times, or Repeat Until Terminated). With that setup, jobs in the same group will cede to each other if they have completed more 'Repeat Iterations' than the other job. So, if Job2 with group "MyGroup" completes its 2nd iteration, and Job3 with the same group name has only completed 0 or 1 iterations, when the time comes to schedule Job2, Job3 will run instead.

Practically speaking, imagine you had a 6-panel mosaic you wanted to alternate. You might give all of those jobs the same group name, make them all e.g. "Repeat for 5 times". Then, they would run in lock-step. The cadence of job switching would be controlled by the length of the sequence file assigned to each of those jobs. You wouldn't want to make the cadence too short (e.g. capturing one 2-minute image), as there is overhead in switching jobs. For instance, starting jobs may involved aligning, starting guiding, and even focusing.

Répétez toutes les tâches¶

Il existe une case à cocher et un champ nombre juste sous la table de tâches qui permet de répéter la programmation entière N fois. Cela peut être utilisé pour alterner quelques tâches. Il suffit de lister les tâches sur l'ordonnanceur, régler pour répéter N fois et les tâches se répéteront. Toutefois, ce changement est incompatible avec l'option « Se souvenir de la progression » et indisponible si cette option est cochée. (Remarque : cette option est recommandée).

En cours de modification des tâches actives¶

Il est possible de modifier la table de tâches et les attributs des tâches individuelles pendant que l'ordonnanceur est actif. Comme toujours, il faut double-cliquer sur une tâche, modifier les attributs et cliquer sur la case à cocher pour enregistrer les modifications. Si vous modifiez une tâche active, celle-ci sera redémarrée (les étapes initiales (rotation, mise au point, alignement, guidage) seront relancées. Vous pouvez également déplacer les tâches pour modifier les priorités, ajouter de nouvelles tâches ou en supprimer. Vous ne pouvez pas supprimer une tâche active.

Un attribut important des tâches de l'ordonnanceur est leur fichier de séquence (.esq) qui contrôle le module d'acquisition pendant que la tâche est active. Par exemple, il règle le nombre d'acquisitions, les filtres utilisés, le gain / ISO, etc. Le fichier « .esq » est normalement créé et modifié dans l'onglet d'acquisition, mais il est impossible de le faire pendant que l'ordonnanceur est actif. Si vous souhaitez modifier un fichier .esq » pendant que l'ordonnanceur est actif, ou en créer un nouveau, il faut utiliser l'outil de modification de la séquence d'acquisition.

Capture Sequence Editor¶

Le Modificateur de séquence d'acquisition est un outil pour créer et modifier les fichiers (.esq) de séquences d'acquisition qui peut être démarré en cliquant sur l'icône en forme de crayon juste au-dessus de la table de l'ordonnanceur. Une capture d'écran est montrée ci-dessous.

Cet outil est très similaire à l'utilisation et dans sa forme à l'onglet d'acquisition, bien qu'il manque tous les boutons pour l'acquisition proprement dit. Les tâches sont modifiées de la même manière que les acquisitions, ainsi que le chargement et l'enregistrement des files de séquences (mais il y a des boutons de chargement et d'enregistrement additionnels).

Important

Il est important de noter que les séquences d'acquisitions dépendent dans une certaine mesure de la roue à filtre et de l'appareil utilisé (p. ex. les noms de filtre, les valeur d'ISO possible, …). Cet outil, qui n'est pas connecté aux pilotes de périphériques, n'a pas accès à cette information. Au contraire, il utilise les valeurs de la dernière connexion des périphériques à l'onglet d'acquisition. Il ne fait ainsi pas de sens de créer un fichier « .esq » pour un appareil ou une roue à filtres différents que celui utilisé lors de la dernière connexion. Il faudra attendre que la tâche de la séquence soit terminée et modifier le fichier « .esl » directement dans l'onglet d'acquisition.

Il est également recommandé de ne pas écraser les fichiers « .esq » pendant que les tâches de l'ordonnanceur utilisent ces mêmes fichiers. (C'est bien de le faire pendant que l'ordonnanceur est en cours mais pas si cette tâche particulière est en exécution). En effet, cela désynchroniserait l'ordonnanceur et les modules d'acquisition, puisqu'ils lisent ces fichiers à des moments différents. Vous devriez plutôt enregistrer sous un nom différent et ensuite modifier la tâche pour utiliser ce nouveau fichier « .esq ».

Flux de travail¶

The description above only tackles the Data Acquisition stage of the observatory workflow. The overall procedure typically utilized in an observatory can be summarized in three primary stages:

Démarrage

Acquisition de données (incluant le prétraitement et le stockage)

Shutdown

Procédure de démarrage¶

La procédure de démarrage est unique à chaque observatoire mais peut inclure :

Mise sous tension du matériel

Contrôle de sécurité et vérifications

Vérification des conditions météorologiques

Extinction des lumières

Contrôle des ventilateurs et de la lumière

Déparquage du dôme

Déparquage de la monture

etc.

Ekos Scheduler only initiates the startup procedure once the startup time for the first Scheduler job is close (default lead time is 5 minutes before startup time). Once the startup procedure is completed successfully, the scheduler picks the Scheduler job target and starts the sequence process. If a startup script is specified, it shall be executed first.

Acquisition de données¶

Selon la sélection de l'utilisateur, un déroulement typique se déroule ainsi :

Pivotage de la monture vers la cible. Si un fichier FITS a été spécifié, il sera résolu et la monture pivotera vers les coordonnées de la position.

Mise au point de la cible. Le processus de mise au point automatique sélectionne automatiquement la meilleure étoile de la trame et exécute l'algorithme de mise au point.

Réalise la résolution, synchronise la monture et pivote vers les coordonnées de la cible.

Réalise une mise au point après l'alignement puisque la trame peut avoir bouger durant le processus de résolution.

Réalisation de la calibration et démarrage de l'autoguidage : le processus de calibration sélectionne automatiquement la meilleure étoile guide, réalise la calibration et démarre le processus d'autoguidage.

Load the sequence file in the Capture module and start the imaging process.

Coordonne les problème de module telle que l'échec du guidage ou de l'alignement. Cela risque de conduire à la suspension des tâches et à une nouvelle programmation.

Veuillez noter que certaines interactions entre modules sont initiées par les modules eux-même mais sont surveillées par l'ordonnanceur. Cela inclut le retournement au méridien, les mises au point automatiques déclenchées par une variation de température ou l'expiration d'un minuteur ainsi que les conditions de déviation minimale du guidage pour l'acquisition.

Shutdown¶

Once the Scheduler job is completed successfully, the scheduler selects the next Scheduler job. If no job can be scheduled at this time, the mount is parked until a next job can run. Furthermore, if the next job is not due for a user-configurable time limit, the scheduler performs a preemptive shutdown to preserve resources and performs the startup procedure again when the target is due.

Si une erreur irrécupérable se produit, l'observatoire initie une procédure d'arrêt. S'il existe un script d'arrêt, celui-ci sera exécuté en dernier.

La vidéo suivante illustre l'utilisation de l'ordonnanceur, et même si elle date un peu, les principes de base restent d'actualité :

Ekos Scheduler (https://youtu.be/v8vIXD1kois)

Surveillance de la météo¶

Un autre aspect critique des observatoires robotiques commandés à distance est la surveillance de la météo. Ekos s'appuie sur le pilote météo de INDI sélectionné pour surveiller en continu les conditions météorologiques. Par souci de simplicité, les conditions météorologiques se résument en trois états :

Ok: Weather conditions are clear and optimal for imaging.

Warning: Weather conditions are not clear, seeing is subpar, or partially obstructed and not suitable for imaging. Any further imaging process is suspended until the weather improves. Warning weather status does not pose any danger to the observatory equipment so the observatory is kept operational. The exact behavior to take under Warning status can be configured.

Alert: Weather conditions are detrimental to the observatory safety and shutdown must be initiated as soon as possible.

Weather monitoring can be configured in two ways:

Part of the equipment profile - A weather driver starts with the observatory equipment

Standalone INDI Safety Monitor - An INDI Safety Monitor driver runs independently on a separate INDI server

Important: If no standalone safety monitor is configured, the scheduler cannot check safety conditions before starting the observatory. This means the observatory may start in unsafe conditions. While the equipment profile's weather driver will activate after startup and immediately trigger a shutdown if conditions are unsafe, this start-stop cycle is inefficient and potentially harmful to equipment.

Best practice: Configure a standalone INDI Safety Monitor. When present, it always takes precedence over any weather driver in the equipment profile for determining observatory safety. The monitor can be configured to listen to any number of Weather or Auxiliary drivers (like UPS) that can pose a safety risk to the operation of the observatory. Any INDI driver implementing the INDI Standard Property SAFETY_STATUS can be added to the Safety Monitor driver. This allows the scheduler to verify conditions are safe before starting up the observatory.

Weather Alert Response¶

When weather conditions deteriorate to Alert status during operations, the scheduler initiates a protective "soft shutdown" procedure. Unlike a complete shutdown where all systems are stopped, a soft shutdown preserves the Ekos and INDI connections while protecting your equipment, allowing for quick resumption when conditions improve.

Soft Shutdown Sequence:

When a weather alert is detected:

A configurable delay period (default: 10 seconds) prevents reaction to momentary sensor issues

If the alert persists, the current scheduler job is aborted (marked ABORTED, not ERROR, so it can restart later)

The Pre-Shutdown Queue executes to protect equipment (typically closes dust caps, parks mount, closes dome)

Ekos and INDI remain running for faster recovery

The scheduler enters a grace period to wait for weather improvement

Weather Grace Period¶

The grace period is a configurable waiting time during which the scheduler monitors weather conditions. If weather improves during this period, operations automatically resume. If the grace period expires with alert conditions still present, the job is marked as ERROR and will not restart.

During the Grace Period:

Equipment remains protected (mount parked, dome closed)

Ekos and INDI connections are maintained

Weather status is continuously monitored

If weather improves to Ok, operations resume automatically

If period expires with Alert status, the job fails

Configuration:

In the Scheduler Weather Settings:

Weather Shutdown Delay: Seconds to wait after alert detection before initiating shutdown (default: 10). This prevents false alarms from brief sensor glitches.

Weather Grace Period: Minutes to wait for weather improvement. Choose based on your local weather patterns—longer grace periods work well if alerts are typically brief.

Automatic Weather Recovery¶

When weather improves during the grace period, the scheduler automatically resumes operations:

Weather status changes from Alert to Ok

The Post-Startup Queue executes to reverse protective actions (opens dome, unparks mount, opens dust caps)

The scheduler resumes normal operation

The aborted job can restart if its constraints are still met

Queue Usage During Weather Events:

Weather events use specific startup and shutdown queues:

During Weather Shutdown: Only Pre-Shutdown Queue executes (runs before stopping Ekos). Post-Shutdown Queue is skipped since Ekos remains running.

During Weather Recovery: Only Post-Startup Queue executes (runs after devices ready). Pre-Startup Queue is skipped since Ekos never stopped.

Your Pre-Shutdown and Post-Startup queues should work together symmetrically—the Post-Startup queue should reverse exactly what the Pre-Shutdown queue did.

Example Queue Design:

Pre-Shutdown Queue:

Close dust cap

Park mount

Close dome shutter

Post-Startup Queue:

Open dome shutter

Unpark mount

Open dust cap

Weather Monitoring Best Practices¶

For reliable weather protection:

Design Symmetric Queues: Ensure Pre-Shutdown and Post-Startup queues mirror each other exactly.

Set Appropriate Delays: Configure Weather Shutdown Delay long enough to avoid false alarms but short enough to protect equipment promptly (10-30 seconds recommended).

Choose Grace Period Wisely: Base the grace period on local weather patterns. For areas with brief passing clouds or showers, 30-60 minutes allows resumption without abandoning the night.

Test Your Setup: Manually test weather shutdown and recovery before unattended operations.

Monitor Connection Stability: Ensure reliable weather station connectivity. The scheduler attempts reconnection if connection is lost.

Use Standalone Weather Monitoring: Configure a standalone weather device in scheduler settings to monitor conditions even before starting equipment, preventing unsafe startups.

Startup & Shutdown Scripts

Note

NEW: Task Queue System

KStars now includes a modern Task Queue System that provides a powerful, template-based alternative to traditional startup and shutdown scripts. The Task Queue offers:

Visual interface for building automation sequences

Pre-built templates for common operations

Built-in error handling and retry logic

Real-time progress monitoring

Device-aware task execution

For new observatories or those looking to modernize their automation, we recommend exploring the Task Queue system. See the complete Task Queue documentation for details.

Due to the uniqueness of each observatory, Ekos enables the user to select startup and shutdown scripts. The scripts take care of any necessary procedures that must take place on startup and shutdown stages. On startup, Ekos executes the startup scripts and only proceeds to the remainder of the startup procedure (unpark dome/unpark mount) if the script completes successfully. Conversely, the shutdown procedure begins with parking the mount & dome before executing the shutdown script as the final procedure.

Due to the uniqueness of each observatory, Ekos enables the user to select startup and shutdown scripts. The scripts take care of any necessary procedures that must take place on startup and shutdown stages. On startup, Ekos executes the startup scripts and only proceeds to the remainder of the startup procedure (unpark dome/unpark mount) if the script completes successfully. Conversely, the shutdown procedure begins with parking the mount & dome before executing the shutdown script as the final procedure.

Les scripts peuvent être écrits dans n'importe quel langage qui peut être exécuté sur la machine locale. Un script doit retourner la valeur 0 pour être considéré comme succès, tout autre valeur indique une erreur. La sortie standard du script est dirigée vers la fenêtre des fichiers journaux d'Ekos. Voici un exemple de script de démarrage écrit en Python :
#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import os
import time
import sys

print "Mise sous tension de l'observatoire&hellip;"
sys.stdout.flush()

time.sleep(5)

print "Test de confiance&hellip;"
sys.stdout.flush()

time.sleep(5)

print "Tout est nominal."
sys.stdout.flush()

exit(0)
The startup and shutdown scripts must be executable in order for Ekos to invoke them (e.g. use ``chmod +x startup_script.py`` to mark the script as executable). Ekos Scheduler enables truly simple robotic operation without the need of any human intervention in any step of the process. Without human presence, it becomes increasingly critical to gracefully recover from failures in any stage of the observation run. Using Plasma notifications, the user can configure audible alarms and email notifications for the various events in the Scheduler.

Mosaic Planner¶

Hubble-like super wide field images of galaxies and nebulae are truly awe-inspiring, and while it takes great skills to obtain such images and process them; many notable names in the field of astrophotography employ gear that is not vastly different from yours or mine. I emphasize vastly because some do indeed have impressive equipment and dedicated observatories worth tens of the thousands of dollars. Nevertheless, many amateurs can obtain stellar wide-field images by combining smaller images into a single grand mosaic.

We are often limited by our camera+telescope Field of View (FOV). By increasing FOV by means of a focal reducer or a shorter tube, we gain a larger sky coverage at the expense of spatial resolution. At the same time, many attractive wide-field targets span multiple FOVs across the sky. Without any changes to your astrophotography gear, it is possible to create a super mosaic image stitched together from several smaller images. There are two major steps to accomplish a super mosaic image:

Acquérir plusieurs images couvrant la cible qui se chevauchent partiellement. Le chevauchement est nécessaire pour permettre au logiciel de traitement d'aligner et de joindre les petites images.

Process the images and stitch them into a super mosaic image.

The 2nd step is handled by image processing applications such as PixInsight, among others, and will not be the topic of discussion here. The first step can be accomplished in Ekos Scheduler where it creates a mosaic suitable for your equipment and in accordance with the desired field of view. Not only Ekos creates the mosaic panels for your target, but it also constructs the corresponding observatory jobs required to capture all the images. This greatly facilitates the logistics of capturing many images with different filters and calibration frames across a wide area of the sky.

The Mosaic Planner in the Ekos Scheduler will create multiple Scheduler jobs based on a central target. To toggle the planner, click on the Mosaic Planner button in Ekos Scheduler or KStars INDI toolbar as illustrated in the screenshot. The planner draws the Mosaic Panel directly unto the sky map. It is recommended to enable HiPS overlay for the best experience. The planner is composed of four stages:

Confirm Equipment: Ekos attempts to load equipment settings from INDI. If unsuccessful, you need to enter your equipment settings including your telescope focal length in addition to camera's width, height, and pixel dimensions. The settings are saved for future sessions.

Adjust Grid: Select the mosaic panel dimension and overlap percentage. The Mosaic Panel is updated accordingly on the sky map. Adjust the Position Angle to match the desired mosaic orientation in the sky. If the Position Angle is different from your camera's usual orientation, you may need to rotate the camera either manually or via a mechanized rotator when the scheduler jobs are executed. Tile transparency is automatically calculated by default but may be turned off and adjusted manually. To compute the mosaic field from the number of tiles, click the Cover FOV button. The mosaic panel can be centered in the sky map by clicking on the Recenter button.

Un grand chevauchement rendra la jointure des trames plus facile durant le traitement mais requiert davantage de panneaux pour couvrir la zone souhaitée. Toutefois, si vous connaissez déjà la quantité minimale de trames qui seront utilisée par l'algorithme de rejet durant la phase de post-traitement, vous pouvez vouloir augmenter le chevauchement pour atteindre cette quantité sur les zones couvertes par de multiples panneaux. Par exemple, une grille de mosaïque 4x4 avec 75 % de chevauchement possède 16 sous-trames couvrant l'intersection centrale, ce qui est suffisant pour l'algorithme de rejet « Winsorized Sigma ». Bien que l'empilement résultant n'ait pas la même hauteur sur toutes les parties de la trame finale, cette méthode vous donne le contrôle sur le rapport signal sur bruit et vous permet de donner du contexte à votre cible tout en devant faire un nombre relativement bas d'acquisitions.

The large number drawn in the corner of each grid pane represents the order in which panes will be captured. The default S-shaped choice (west-east then alternating high-low/low-high moves), ensures minimal movement of the mount during observation. Uncheck Minimum mount move to revert to west-east/high-low movement only. The coordinates of each pane are rendered in their center as degrees, minutes and seconds. Finally, the angle each pane rotates from the center of the mosaic is displayed at the bottom. If your field of view is large, or if your mosaic is located close to a celestial pole, you may observe that rendered panes start rotating visibly due their horizontal position or high declination. Use the overlap to ensure panes cover the desired frame extents properly.

Adjust Grid: Adjust Grid center by manually entering the J2000 center or by dragging the center of the mosaic on the sky map.

Create Jobs: The final step is to select the sequence file and directory to store the images. Target field may be automatically filled but may be changed as desired. Select the steps each scheduler job should execute in sequence (Track -> Focus -> Align -> Guide -> Capture), and adjust the frequency of automatic alignment and focus routines that must be executed during the mosaic operation. For example, if Align Every is set to 2 Scheduler Jobs, then the first job will run the astrometry alignment, while the second job will skip it. When the third job is executed, alignment is performed again and so forth.

Si vous souhaitez alterner les différentes tâches d'acquisition des tuiles de la mosaïque, saisissez un nom de groupe comme identifiant que chaque tâche partagera et sélectionnez une condition d'achèvement répétée.

Click Create Jobs to generate mosaic scheduler jobs and add them to the schedule queue. You can further edit the jobs individually, as you would normal Scheduler jobs.