HOW-TO The Beginners Guide to Using Astrophotography Tools v3.52
05 Focusing
Under the Tools tab you will find a host of tools that can aid you in your imaging session. Among them is a Focus Aid, Bahtinov Aid, Auto-Focus Aid and Pixel Aid. The most useful for manual focusing is the Focusing Aid tool. By clicking on the button you are given a screen which you place the preview box over the star you want to focus. This will display a readout of your FWHM current and Best readout with an option to reset values. You can also use the Magnifier tool to help make sure it is in focus
06 Adding/Editing Plans
Once you have your stars in focus you can start imaging with your setup. Once you choose the Camera tab you will need to setup an exposure plan. Click on the drop down and choose “test” underneath the Light Plans and then click Edit. Here you can set the Plan name, exposure bin, pause and # of each exposure by “adding as new” or “update the current” plan line. We recommend that you create several plans for later use so that you can maximize your imaging time. See Appendix Image
07 Imaging
Once you have your Plan setup and saved you will see it on the right side of the screen. To start imaging click on the “Start” button and your plan will run through its course. You can pause the plan by using the Pause button Depending on the plan you have setup you will hear audio alerts based on when an exposure has started or ended. This is a nice feature if you like to walk away from your computer during long imaging sessions. If this becomes too much of a distraction you can go back into your settings screen and change the sounds.
16 Practical Astrophotography