Sequential numbering for file name

Hi,

I was studying the Voyager manual recently to prepare for running it for our observatory. One particular feature I am looking for is using sequential numbers for the output file name. I can see that there is lot of flexibility in formatting the file name, using target name, time, temperature, exposure time, filter, etc. However, I don’t find an obvious way to name the file only with sequential numbers. I hope people here can give me some guidance on this.

What I want is file names like this:
CCDXXXXXX.fits
where XXXXXX goes from 000001 to 999999. This file name format will be used throughout the life time of the observatory (or the particular camera), and the sequential number just keeps going until 999999.

I want to do this because this is what’s commonly used in professional observatories. Their file names are all sequential numbers plus simple prefixes. Data like target name, observer name, exposure time, coordinates, filter, etc are all written in the FITS header, while the observer keep track of which file is which in a nightly observing log. My observatory will be used by myself for wide-field imaging, by my colleagues for research on variable objects, and by college students for science training. Because of this, following the professional naming convention and file management would work the best for everyone.

I appreciate if you can suggest a way to achieve such in Voyager.

Cheers,
Wei-Hao

Hi Wei-Hao,

sorry but its not possible to achieve what you have requested in Voyager. Sequential numbers are allowed but memory is only retained at sequence running level. This is a kind of feature to ask as a custom development if you are interested in.

All the best
Leonardo

Hi Leonardo,

Thanks for the reply. How should I request such a feature? Obviously for this to work, the system needs to know the last file number even after Voyager is closed and re-launched.

Please send a request to the support email:
https://software.starkeeper.it/support/

All the best
Leonardo