Your First Plan (TheSky, no rotator)

Your first plan should be for a single target night. Plan ahead! Don't wait till it's time to start your run!

  1. Run TheSky Plan Capture. TheSky and Planner will automatically start.
  2. If needed, set TheSky's Data/Location to your observatory.
  3. Set TheSky's date/time for the start of your run (later tonight!) and stop time flow if needed.
  4. Locate your target in TheSky. It must be "up" high enough to image when you run starts (the time set in TheSky, right?).
  5. Capture the target:
    1. In TheSky Plan Capture, click the Click here then click an object in TheSky button.
    2. Click your target in TheSky.
    3. Select your target from the list of TheSky objects near your mouse click. The Planner will appear and your target will be in its list.
  6. Add images. If you have filters, add some images for each filter and binning you want.
  7. Click the Update button. The total imaging time (including overhead) will appear in red. The time in TheSky will jump to the end of your run, showing you where your target will be then.
  8. Adjust your images and click Update again until the total time is what you want (the target is not too low in the west!).
  9. Select File/Save and save your plan, for example FirstPlan.txt. It should go into My Documents, ACP Observing, Plans.
    1. Enter any comments you want in your plan in the form that appears.
    2. If the ACP Start window appars, answer No.

That's it! Either run your plan on your local ACP or upload it to the remote observatory and run it there. Of course, the observatory must be ready to image and it must be the date for which you made the plan. The plan will wait till the time you set in Step 3 above, then start imaging.

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