Re: mosaicking feature

Lawrence Harris Jul 12, 2003

> From: Bill J Gray <pluto@...>
>Subject: Re: mosaicking feature
>
>Hi Josch, Lawrence,
>
> I'm not sure of what you're looking for. It sounds as if at least one
>componen would be a way to redefine the cursor panning hotkeys
>(and corresponding toolbar buttons) so that, instead of meaning
>"move over half a screen", they would mean "move over this many
>degrees in RA, or this many in dec." (Or both at once if you hit
>the diagonal keys.) Is this correct?
>

We start with Guide and the telescope synchronised (and I haven't yet
mastered this). The CCD field can be defined to show on the screen, but
I don't know that this is really essential. What I simply would like
would be to have a hot-key or some other method to pan Guide (say) 10
minutes east/west or north/south and to then command the scope to do the
same. The latter part is already there. If the 10 minutes was
adjustable, so much the better. It is not easy - in the dark - to
select the next position using the mouse and remembering where you
started.

At the new scope position, the image sequence is then performed.

Then the next move is done, and a sequence of perhaps three or four
moves completed, each with a couple of pictures. We then move down/up
one slot and repeat the process in the reverse direction.

The whole process might involve a total of 3-4 scans e/w and 2-3 up/down
scans. The end point is *not* critical because by its very nature,
software will merge the images. So we might end up with four in one
direction matching five in the opposite, leaving an unused overlap.

> The motion amount would normally be almost the height or width
>of the CCD field, minus a bit for overlap.

Yes. This would be the 10 arc minutes part.

> This part wouldn't be at all difficult to arrange. Trickiest part would
>be to ensure that panning up, left, down, and right returned you to
>your initial point. (This is analogous to walking on the earth a
>kilometer north, then a kilometer east, then south, then west.
>Because the earth isn't flat, you won't return exactly to your
>starting point. Already in Guide, hitting up-arrow/left-arrow/
>down-arrow/right-arrow doesn't return you to where you started.)

As mentioned, ending where you started does not seem critical to me.

Hope this all makes sense - and is possible at some time.

TIA

Lawrence