Automatic Object list observing Comets

[Observatory Grömme]

Dear,

Question about the Automatic Observation list and observing comets.

Is it possible, or is this possible in the near update future to update the Comets coordinates before slewing to the object?
For instance: i set up an observation list of comets i want to observe for the night.
When i have some fast moving comets in the morning, the coordinates when setting up the list, aren't correct anymore and the comet will be far out of imaging area.
Is this possible to update comet position before actually slewing to the comet?

For instance in CCDC there was this option witch worked great.

[Hamza Touhami]

This is a very good question, let me find out from the developer. As far as I know, this is not yet possible but is a very good proposition


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[Cyril Cavadore]

Reply : not today.
This is in the todo list.

[Observatory Grömme]

Dear,

Okey, this would be great to have! Because as i want to use Prism 100% for comet observing, this function is absolutly critical for me.

[Hamza Touhami]

thanks for the great suggestion

[Observatory Grömme]

Dear All,

It is nice to see that there is now the option for COMET or ASTEROID object in the automatic observating method.
But there is a bug regarding the comets name.

If the comet name is short : "78P/Gehrels" for instance, then this comet will be stored in the imaging object list as "78P/Gehrels" and so when going to this target, the softwares looks up for the comet coördinates, gets the latest one and goes to that point and the comet is right in the center of the image. This is what i needed, great!

Unfortunately long named comet for instance: "29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann" are stored in the imaging object list as : "29P/Schwassman-Wa... ( a few dots after the cutoff name ). And so when it is time to slew to this object, the software then searches for "29P/Schwassmann-Wa..." instead of the compleet comet's name, resulting in not finding new coördinates and not slewing or slewing to the wrong position.

Can this be updated? Thank you very much!

[Hamza Touhami]

you bet, I am taking note of the limitation and will look for a resolution. As you can see, we listen to your needs and add great options such as NEO imaging with updated coordinates

[Observatory Grömme]

Yes, indeed this is great, great service!!!
If i may: There is some very interesting and very important feature in observing comets:
For a very correct photometry of comets it is absolutely important that the comet has not moved more then one pixel against the stars on one single image.
There for we need to calculate the pixel movement and so we know how long we can image for one image.

A comet program called : Orbitas from Cometas Obs has got this feature. But it can also be downloaded from MPC
It uses the orbital elements to calculate the total motion in arcsec/sec in the skies and use this value to devide the arcsec / pixel value

For instance: C/2017 T2 PANSTARRS

1.20" ( My CCD pixel value )
----- = 130 seconds of exposure i can take on one frame.
0.0092

Is this possible to add this in the object list or in the AUTO object list. Then when there are 20 comets in the object list, with only one click, there is a row with prefereble maximum exposure times for this comet. It is then a lot easier to insert correct exposure times in the auto observation file.

I use fixed exposures of 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210, 240, 270, and 300seconds according to the exposure time possible for the comet.

Thanks you.