v0.3.0 — first field-testable alpha

Argos v0.3.0 — first field-testable alpha 🔭

This is the first version of Argos meant to leave the desk: a complete,
capture-first acquisition experience for the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro, validated
against the real telescope (firmware 7.18) — all four Alpaca devices
connect, frames download end-to-end, plate-solving is wired.

Capture-first redesign

• 4 modes, one workspace: Connect → Capture → Analyze → Configure. Everything
  you touch during a session lives in the Capture screen.
• Fully dockable workspace: every panel (Camera, Sequence, Histogram,
  Statistics, HFD trend, Mount, Focuser, Filter wheel, Light curve, Log) is a
  dock — move, float, tab, hide. Layouts persist across restarts.
• Theme presets: Equilux, Charcoal, High Contrast, and Night (Red) for
  dark-adapted eyes.
• Display rotation: the portrait Seestar sensor is shown landscape by
  default (Auto/0°/90°/180°/270°, display-only — science data untouched).

Acquisition

• Camera ownership state machine: live preview, single shots, sequences and
  autofocus can't fight over the camera — sequences preempt, autofocus
  hands back cleanly, the UI shows who owns what.
• Advanced sequencer: multi-step plans (type/filter/exposure/gain/count/
  interval), pause/resume at frame boundaries, dithering, AF-every-N-frames,
  on-complete actions (stop tracking / park), live progress with ETA on every
  screen, presets saved as JSON.
• Autofocus with live V-curve in the Focuser dock, HFD trend history.
• Robustness: bounded 5s shutdown (no zombie processes), mount
  auto-reconnect after a Wi-Fi drop, sequence cockpit lock.

Photometry (the bonus that makes it Argos)

• Live light curves during acquisition: solve → VSX/VSP catalog overlay →
  assign target/comparison roles by clicking stars → one point per saved sub.
• One measurement pipeline for live and batch: FWHM-adaptive apertures,
  BJD_TDB timestamps, airmass, 9-column CSV, AAVSO extended-format export.
• Batch re-run over saved subs with progress + cancel.

Validated on hardware (2026-07-05)

• Real Seestar S30 Pro, firmware 7.18: mount, camera, filter wheel and focuser
  all connect over the built-in Alpaca server on port 32323 (no bridge needed).
• Real camera limits read from the driver: gain 0–600, exposure 30 µs–2000 s.
• Filter wheel truth: Dark / IR-cut / LP positions confirmed.
• Test frame downloaded end-to-end (3840×2160 uint16).

Field-testing this alpha

• Follow docs/hardware_test_plan.md —
  a 9-section protocol from connection to park, with a PASS/FAIL report template.
• At home (station mode) or in the field on the Seestar's own hotspot
  (AP mode, 10.0.0.1:32323) — both documented in the plan.
• No telescope? The whole app runs against the ASCOM OmniSim simulator:
  see docs/simulator_testing.md.

Known gaps (alpha)

• Battery / storage / thermal telemetry not yet surfaced (needs §9 protocol
  capture from real-device observation).
• Theme changes need a restart to fully restyle dock title bars.
• Sections 4–8 of the hardware plan (autofocus on stars, sequences, photometry
  under the sky) still await a clear night — that's what this alpha is for.

Full diff: v0.2.1...v0.3.0