Imaging sesion Setup Steps - New to laptop control

[emyliano2000]

Hello guys and girls,

Looking at the weather forecast for tomorrow it seems that I can finally go out and try to control my imaging session from the laptop.

I ran the simulations as many times as I could to understand how it all works. All the drivers and connections are checked so I know they are working.

I came up with some steps that I would like to follow and it would be really helpful if somebody more experienced could tell me if what I'm trying to do is the way to do it .

Some of the steps will not be used in the future as my Setup will stay outside.

If you think that I would have to add,  remove or switch some steps to improve my sessions please let me know.

All the comments and suggestions are highly appreciated.

So here it goes:

0 - Choose the target to image and make a Lights plan in APT
1 - Level tripod
2 - Set home position,
3 - Connect everything to the Scope, mount and laptop
4 - Check the collimation
5 - Balance (unballance a little for imaging) - in RA - a little heavy on the rising side and in DEC - a little heavy on the camera side
6 - Start Eqmod, APT, Alignmaster and Stellarium

(EQmod)
7 - Unpark
8 - Disable limits
9 - Quick polar alignment with EQmod polarscope
10 - Enable limits
11 - Set Alignment/Sync to "Dialog based"

(APT)
12 - GoTo a bright star and focus with the Bahtinov Aid tool

(Stellarium)
13 - Do a Sync (CTRL+3)

(Alignmaster)
14 - Start Alignmaster and do a few iterations

(APT)
15 - Check PA with the DARV tool

(EQmod)
16 - Set Alignment/Sync in EQmod to "Append on Sync"
17 - Do a 3 point alignment
18 - GoTo the target chosen for imaging

(APT)
19 - Plate solve, Frame and Sync with my last image of the target

(Lacerta MGEN - standalone autoguider)
20 - Start the Autoguider and the Lacerta MGEN PC app which let's me controll the guider from the laptop
21 - Setup the guider
22 - Choose a guiding star, focus and do a calibration (looking for 95%-100% orthogonality)
23 - find the best values for the Number of exposures, Tolerance, Aggressiveness
24 - Backlash - I would like to disable one direction rather than do a backlash compensation but I'm not sure what direction to disable
(Last time I disabled the UP direction)
25 - Start guiding

(EQmod)
26 - Start to record the PEC in EQmod (I haven't done it before)
27 - When finished - Save and Play the PEC

(APT)
28 - Set Dithering for Lacerta Mgen (Distance-12, Mode-Square, Settle time-15, Max time for dithering-60, Start delay-0)
29 - Auto Cancel Exposure - ON: Auto Cancel Distance ????
(I'm not sure what to do here. Last time I had a quick test 60% of the exposures have been stopped even with the distance set to the max of 2.55)
30 - Start Lights plan and when finished
31 - Slew the scope in a vertical position
32 - Start Flats plan and when finshed
33 - Start Bias plan and when finished
34 - Park to Home Position
35 - Power off and go to bed

Thanks

Emil