Start the programme; clicking on Plug-in/CCD camera will screen the CCD camera - Control Panel. Check your camera in the CCD Camera drop down list, then click Check CCD, and another panel opens.
Check the details of your camera there and click OK. If it is OK, there will be silence, if the programme complains, make adjustments to suit it.
When allowed to enter, click Image and uncheck New window, then Start, and a 3 sec frame will be taken. It will be screened and probably blank, but full of noise. However, you now know all is set for work.
Move the Control panel to a corner of the screen to be out of the way. Send the telescope to a brightish star, take another frame. If you have the star in the picture, click Focus/Guide, then with the mouse left button, draw a square round the star and click Focus. This will invoke a small screen with the star on it, probably well out of focus. Adjust the telescope's focuser to focus the star using this screen. Aim for lowest FWHM numbers and highest focus number, and look at the picture of the star too.
You’ll have to let it run a few seconds after each adjustment to settle the movement of the telescope after your hand has been on it. The average readings should be judged rather than individual ones as seeing will affect things, but practice makes perfect. When happy with the result close the panel and take another frame to verify the focus. Then mark the position on your draw tube or wherever you can to save work next time.
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Send the telescope to your chosen target and go to the Settings tab on the Control panel and change to 4x4 binning. Take some frames to compose the scene. An Important Point here when ready to take your frames in earnest, is to remember to reset the binning to 1x1 after this, a repeated failure of mine. Take a few more frames to determine exposure at 1x1.
The general basis I work to is long sub frames for nebulae and shorter for bright objects. A mix of both in the same object, like M42 and globulars will need some of both to get the best of it, then lots of fiddling with in Photoshop. Repeat the focusing step. Focusing is most important, and will change with altitude and temperature, so keep an eye on it.
As mentioned before, without a guiding system you’ll have to restrict your exposures to your mount’s capabilities. Even the perfect mount, and there isn’t one, will need guiding. So, if you have an auto-guiding system, this is what you need to do.
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Setting up the Guide camera. I’m assuming you’ve connected all the mechanical and electrical bits and pieces as they should be.In the Control Panel click Setup then Telescope. The Telescope Control panel will screen. Click the Guide tab. Then I usually move this panel to below the Control Panel, again to keep the screen clear. I set the main parameter there to “Same Connection of Setup” but you may have to try others, and I use Com 4 in the next window, but again you may have to try others before it all works.
Back in the Control Panel, click Focus/Guide and choose the second camera, which AA thinks of as the guide, adjust the binning to 2x2 then click Guide. The guide camera will take a frame, which may be blank white because the first usually flushes electronic buffers. Take a second and if there isn’t a reasonably bright star in the frame, move the setup, either by adjusting the guide telescope or the main telescope with the direction buttons, till one comes into view, repeatedly taking frames with each reposition, this can be a fiddly business.
An aid here is to adjust the exposure time for the guide camera. This is just above and to the left of the Guide button you’ve been clicking on. Default is 0.3 sec, change this to 1.0 sec or more, but not more than 1.5 unless you have a very good mount as it’ll make corrections less frequent.
Another problem here is that the guide telescope may not have the star in focus, and no amount of increased exposure will help. My solution is to get the guide telescope in focus using a particular eyepiece then replace it with the guide camera fitted with a parfocal ring that matches that eyepiece. When you can see a star in the guide camera’s window, draw a square around it and click Guide again. This click will open the Guide Window panel. Click on Connect telescope there, and your square with star will appear. If it’s out of focus you’ll need to focus it in the same way you focused the main telescope, but this time using the Guide Window. You don’t have to be as accurate, as the software calculates the centroid of the star for guiding purposes, but it must be well enough focussed so as to have the guide star stand clear of the background or the software will hop from light patch to light patch or from one side of the OOF star to the other with poor guiding results. Sequencing the clicking and squares here is important, and they must be done in the right order, or AA will not understand.
With the Guide window open and a single distinct star in it, go to the Telescope Control panel (where the Guide tab was clicked), and click Calibration. The software will check the speed of the telescope drives and enter its advice of settings into the Telescope Speed area of the Telescope Control (Guide) panel. Click the Mark Guide Star button in the Guide Window and Red and Green crosses will centre on the star. The Green is the software's aim point and the Red marks the star. The software will try to move the telescope to keep the Red cross on the Green one.
Watch the guiding for a few minutes, checking for stable control. If not stable, adjust the X and Y speeds and possibly the Inv.X and Inv.Y, in the Telescope Speed section. Allow some time here for AA to settle itself as it uses a learning algorithm, and will get better on its own if the parameters are reasonable. Green arrowheads will appear to indicate the direction the software is trying to move the mount to get the crosses lined up.When stable you can return your attention to taking a picture.
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On the Control Panel, click Sequence, then the number of frames and click Autosave and indicate where you want the programme to file the frames. If you don’t do this well it’ll not know where to put the frames and fold its arms on you without telling you what its upset about. Enter your chosen exposure in the box to the right of START - and you’re ready to take the picture. But first unclick the New Window box or you’ll have the screen full of pictures that clog the system up.
You’ll need to be quite disciplined about where you file your work as you’ll soon accumulate thousands of frames. My system is Subject/Telescope/Camera/FR or barlow/exposure ie, M31-80-25-63-900. All the frames I take are than transferred onto my Desktop PC for processing. The filing system of directories there is Camera/Object/Date taken, such as M25C/M31/080910.
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