One of our eager and capable customers, Dick Berg, has produced an extensive ACP Reference Guide and published it online. He keeps updating this and it's already loaded with all sorts of good information, reference material, links, you name it. Take a look!
With ACP and MaxIm DL/CCD you can automatically acquire all types of astronomical images while controlling all of your instruments and other equipment.
If you haven't yet gone through the one-timeGetting Started process, do it now!
The work flow through the web interface is very easy and totally suitable for single targets, even multiple images in multiple colors with guiding etc. You simply fill out a form and push a button!
Start ACP
Make sure the web and FTP servers are enabled. Click this button
to open ACP's Servers tab. Make sure both Enable Web Server and Enable FTP server are checked.
Click the Use Web Browser button on ACP's main window to start up ACP's main user interface. This access cannot be used from the Internet, only from a browser on the same machine as ACP, so your computer is safe from hackers.
On the left, expand the Live Observing bar and select Single Image or Color Series.
Fill in the form. Note that coordinates must be in J2000. If you have an internal or off-axis guider (rotated or not) you must use a Field of View Indicator to get the coordinates and position angle for guiding. See this video for details using TheSky X.
Press the Acquire Images button. That's it!
Acquiring Images of Multiple Targets
The real power of ACP is its ability to execute observing plans, acquiring images of multiple targets in a single run. Here is the general work flow for automated data acquisition:
Plan your run, choosing target times and sky locations, exposure intervals, and filters. The best way to do this is to use the freeACP Planner! If you have TheSky or Starry Night, so much the better because ACP Planner lets you plan right in the planetarium display. For your first run, make it simple! One or two targets with a few short images each.
Once you have planned your run, save it to your default Plans folder (typically My Documents\ACP Astronomy\Plans). Click this button
to open ACP's Local User tab to see where your default directories are. Your plans are kept on file here, thus you may use a plan multiple times after saving it.
At this point Notepad will open showing you the plan. Don't change anything! Just close Notepad.
If ACP is not already running, start it now! Connect to the scope and or camera (Telescope and Camera menus).
Click the Use Web Browser button to start up the main ACP user interface in t
Start your run by clicking the Run button. This starts the AcquireImages.js script. The run will start. Your plan folder will open; select the plan to run. When it starts, you can see its progress in the console window. This info is permanently saved in a "log file" in your default Logs directory (typically My Documents\ACP Astronomy\Logs). Click this button
to open ACP's Local User tab to see where your default directories are. The log file name is the UTC date and time.
At this point, after you gain confidence, you may wish to go to sleep etc. Unless you disable it (in the General tab of Preferences) ACP will make a loud beeping sound if there is an error in your run, hopefully waking you up.
As your run progresses, the acquired images are placed in your default Images directory.
When your run is complete, you should first view your run log to detect any problems that may have occurred.
Once you've done this process a couple of times, it will be very easy.
One of our eager and capable customers, Dick Berg, has produced an extensive ACP Reference Guide and published it online. He keeps updating this and it's already loaded with all sorts of good information, reference material, links, you name it. Take a look!