The Astro PM Instructions container looks like one sequencer item, but it runs your entire night. Here is what happens inside, in order, and what all the status displays mean.
Schedule Build at First Run #
When the sequence reaches the container it:
- Pulls the selected rig’s latest settings from the cloud (or uses the local cache offline).
- Fetches your active targets with remaining work, filtered to this rig.
- Runs the same scheduling engine as the desktop simulator – same strategies, same moon rules, same horizon – producing tonight’s block-by-block plan.
The result appears right in the sequencer: a block list (target, time window, planned subs, meridian info), a live status row, the nightly graph, and the full schedule log.
Executing a Block #
For each block the container:
- Waits for the block’s start time, then verifies the target is actually viable (altitude, darkness).
- Slews, plate-solve centers, and rotates to the target’s stored coordinates and position angle – with escalating retries if a solve fails (short waits for transient blips, minutes-long waits for a passing cloud band). A block that cannot center is skipped, not fatal.
- Starts guiding (if a guider is connected).
- Runs the exposure loop – filter changes, exposures with the plan’s gain/offset/binning/readout, and dithers, following the schedule. Your parent-container triggers (autofocus, meridian flip…) fire between exposures.
- Reports each capture to the cloud so project progress updates in real time.
Live Status & Controls #
The container shows what it is doing at every moment: current command, target, filter, exposure number, camera settings, coordinates, and rotation. Two buttons give you manual control: Reset clears the schedule and refetches targets on the next run, and Skip Block abandons the current block and moves on.
Interruptions & Session Boundaries #
The design assumes real observatory life:
- Safety closures / sequence restarts – the schedule survives in memory; on resume the container continues the active session rather than rebuilding (see Playback Modes for how it catches up).
- Stale sessions – if a re-run happens after the session already ended, the container detects it and rebuilds fresh for the new night instead of instantly reporting “session complete”.
- Session complete – after the last block (and flats, if enabled), the loop condition releases and your dawn instructions run.