---
title: "Imaging Night Simulation"
canonical: https://stackingstarlight.com/equipment/night-sim
description: "A full imaging session: select target, slew, track, capture hundreds of subs, meridian-flip at transit, repeat — typically 6–10 hours."
---

# Imaging Night Simulation

> A full imaging session: select target, slew, track, capture hundreds of subs, meridian-flip at transit, repeat — typically 6–10 hours.

A real session spans the hours of darkness. You pick a target, slew and plate-solve onto it, engage tracking and guiding, and capture a long sequence of sub-exposures. As the target crosses the meridian (its highest point), a GEM must perform a **meridian flip** to avoid hitting the tripod. Plan so the target transits near the middle of the night for the best altitude (least atmosphere). Sequencer software (NINA, Voyager, SGPro) runs the whole thing autonomously: GoTo → plate solve → autofocus → capture → flip → repeat. More subs = better SNR.

---

Source: [https://stackingstarlight.com/equipment/night-sim](https://stackingstarlight.com/equipment/night-sim) · Part of [Stacking Starlight](https://stackingstarlight.com) by Michael Kalika.

LLM resources: [LLM index (llms.txt)](https://stackingstarlight.com/llms.txt) · [Complete LLM text (llms-full.txt)](https://stackingstarlight.com/llms-full.txt) · [Markdown homepage (index.md)](https://stackingstarlight.com/index.md)