1° Forum di Astronomia Amatoriale Italiano

' Sample script demonstrating simple autoguider operation
' (c) 1999 Diffraction Limited

' This script is intended to demonstrate basic autoguider
' operation.  It can be used with an SBIG ST-7/8/9 camera,
' or separate CCD imager and main camera.  This script is
' a bit simple-minded and is intended only to demonstrate
' very basic operation.

' Tip -- for testing purposes, you can make a second copy
' of the camera simulator.  Go to the MaxIm DL program
' directory and make a duplicate of the CCDPlugDummy.dll
' and call it CCDPlugDummy2.dll.  You will now get two
' drivers called "Simulator" in MaxIm CCD; select the
' first one for the camera and the second one for the
' guider.

Dim cam  ' "The" Camera object

Set cam = CreateObject("MaxIm.CCDCamera")
cam.LinkEnabled = True
if Not cam.LinkEnabled Then
    Console.PrintLine "Failed to start camera."
    Quit
End If

' Take initial exposure
cam.GuiderExpose 1
Do While cam.GuiderRunning
Loop

' We'll assume the guider is already calibrated
' and the Declination setting is correct
' if no guide star in guider image, an error is generated.  The following code traps the error (so the scope
' position can be adjusted) rather than  crashing the script.
 On Error Resume Next                        ' Failure here should not be fatal
 do
       ' Search for guide star
       err.clear                               ' clear any error codes
       cam.GuiderTrack(GuiderExposure)              ' if fails (no guide star) err.Number != 0
       if(err.Number <> 0) then
                    ' no guide star found.
                    'adjust scope position slightly
       end if
loop while (err.Number <> 0 )
On Error Goto 0

' Take a series of short exposures.  A "real"
' script would probably save the images, and
' might do something more useful than a busy-wait
' loop while waiting for the exposure to complete
cam.Expose 1, 1, 0
Do While Not cam.ImageReady
Loop

cam.Expose 1, 1, 0
Do While Not cam.ImageReady
Loop

cam.Expose 1, 1, 0
Do While Not cam.ImageReady
Loop