A big part of automated scheduling’s “magic” is in the specification of constraints – conditions under which a target becomes eligible.  

Leo expects to add more constraints here after the beta period, so consider this a starting set, not the final ones.

Only constraints with the “Activate” field checked will be enforced.

All constraints whose “Activate” field is checked will be “AND’ed” together – the target will only be eligible if they are all met.

Constraints must be valid for the minimum duration of a sequence for the target to be eligible.  The minimum duration is specified in the RoboTarget section under Advanced Settings.  By default it is 15 minutes.

Constraints specified in the base sequence are ignored.

I’ll use the phrase “eligible targets” to indicate the set of targets whose constraints have all been met and are thus eligible to run.  

Priority:  Select from the drop-down:  VERY LOW, LOW, NORMAL, HIGH, FIRST.  Among eligible targets, the highest priority ones will be run first.  There are many ways to use this.  For example:

1.  Give broadband targets higher priority than narrowband but specify the moon must be down for broadband targets to run.  This means your eligible broadband targets will run when the moon is down rather than narrowband.

2.  Give high or first priority to a short-lived target such as a comet or supernova

3.  Give low priority to targets you have “completed” but if nothing else is eligible, you’d rather get more data on them than sit idle

Position Angle:  If a rotator is connected, use the specified position angle.  When you import a target from RoboClip, the PA will be imported and this constraint activated.  However, if you do not have a rotator configured in Voyager Setup, this is ignored – it will not interfere with your run

Altitude Min:  The target’s altitude must be at least the specified value to become eligible

SQM Min:  The current reading of an attached SQM device must be equal or greater than the specified value

Hour Angle Start and Hour Angle End:  You can use these separately or together.  The Hour Angle is specified relative to the meridian.  E.g., an HA of 1.0 is one hour past the meridian.  An HA of -2.0 is 2 hours prior to the meridian.

Hour Angle Start: The target only becomes eligible when its hour angle is equal or greater to the specified value

Hour Angle End:  The target only becomes eligible when its hour angle is less than the specified value

Examples:

1.  This contraint is met if the target is between 1.5 hours before and 1.5 hours after the meridian:

2.  This constraint is met if the target is between 1 and 3 hours after the meridian:

3.  This constraint is met if the target is between 2 hours before the meridian and at the meridian:

Date Start:  The target is eligible only if the current date is equal or greater than Date Start 

Date End:  The target is eligible only if the current date is less than or equal to Date End

MIN Allowed Time Start:  The target is eligible only if the current time is equal or greater than the specified value

MAX Allowed Time Start:  The target is eligible only  if the current time is less than the specified value

Moon Down:  The target will only be eligible if the moon’s altitude is X degrees or less, where X is the value of the Moon Down Altitude field in RoboTarget Action -> Advanced Settings panel (see below).  May be negative to indicate below the horizon.

Moon Phase Min:  The minimum moon phase for the target to be eligible

Moon Phase Max:  The maximum moon phase for the target to be eligible.  Note:  if Activated, this constraint will be observed even if the moon is down.  

Moon Distance:  The minimum angular distance between the moon and the target for it to be eligible

HFD Sub Max:  The sequence will be aborted if the HFD value of the most recent shot exceeds the specified value.  The aborted sequence is suspended for 12 hours.  The suspension can be removed in the RoboTarget section of Voyager Advance by right-clicking the target and selecting Remove Suspend.

Max Seq. Time for Night:  The target will run no more than this number of minutes in a night, unless “Run Targets that have exceeded the maximum Shot time per Night if available” is checked in the RoboTarget Action -> Advanced Settings panel shown above and no targets are eligible that have not exceeded the Max Seq. Time for Night value.

Air Mass Min:  The minimum air mass for the target to be eligible.  Air mass is the thickness of the atmosphere through which light from the target is passing.  Directly overhead is one air mass.  Thirty degrees altitude is two air masses.

Air Mass Max:  The maximum air mass for the target to be eligible

Reset Constraints:  Click to set all constraints to defaults and uncheck all Activate checkboxes

Click the Apply button to save your target, or Cancel to revert any changes made in this form.

At this point, your target has been defined and added to the database.

However, there is nothing to do until shots have been defined.  In the next section, we’ll add shots to our target.