How to plan shooting session when there are obstacles in the way

[DSOBug]

Just starting out and have a few questions.  I have a pretty good view of the sky, but I do have trees along the back part of my property, and my house on the other side. How do you plan a shooting of an DSO when It comes up in sight at around 2:00am then out of site around 5:00 am with obstacles in the way.  Can you set  your Asiair plus to start imaging when target is at a certain location then stop at another location?  Or do you have to be up at 2:00am the start session and plan how may images till the target is in the lowest shooting location.     Also Ive heard you can take several targets during the night,  any suggestions tks ....

[900SL]

There's several tutorials on the plan mode on the asi air on youtube. You can use one of the apps like sky safari to check the position of DSOs relative to your location and time

Edited October 21, 2023 by 900SL

[Ouroboros]

Interesting question this. I also have the same problem here. I must say I’ve always assumed I was stuck with it so choose a target that doesn't have that problem. 

I guess you could just leave it running regardless and throw away the duff images. On the other hand what does the ASI do when it loses guiding for some length of time?  Or rather more importantly can it re-establish lock once the stars are back in view again?  It can if the stars go out of view for a short time. What it does after longer periods of lost guiding I don’t know. 

[bosun21]

Buy a good alarm clock ⏰. Seriously though I know that the asiair has a plan utility that you can preset to take a certain amount of exposures etc. I don't know whether it will shut down after it's finished though.

Edited October 21, 2023 by bosun21