Bug Report: Shutter Not Opening via ASCOM - Celestron Nightscape CCD

[Dave Hudson]

Hello,

I am using the Celestron NightScape CCD (#95555) and it will not work with PHD or PHD2.  Nebulosity fixed this issue in their latest version (v3.2).

Under ASCOM, you can query the CCD with the "hasShutter" method and it returns "True" for this camera.

I am not sure what command PHD2 is using under ASCOM for this camera, but you need to startexposure "light",duration or it does not open the mechanical shutter on the CCD.

If there is another way to work around this issue, I would greatly appreciate the feedback.

I was writing a script to manually keep the shutter open on the CCD, but it looks like you can not send a shutter command to the camera, but instead must use the startexposure method and specify a light frame.  Even if I used the ASCOM hub to send a command from my script, I think it would block PHD from working properly.  Plus as it completed its exposure, the next call would invalidate the opening call i made.

Thanks in advance,

Dave

[Andy Galasso]

Hi Dave,

For ASCOM cameras, PHD2 currently does do StartExposure(duration, light) with light = true, so there's more going on than just that. I'm not sure what to suggest at this point. Maybe you could find out what exactly changed in Nebulosity 3.2 so we can make the corresponding change in PHD2?

Andy

[Dave Hudson]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the reply.  I posted a question on the Stark Labs forum.  I will let you know if I get a response. 

Dave