Features

Main Screen Layout

Menus

Initial Setup

Eclipse Preparation

Script File Format

Camera Configuration

Notes

Troubleshooting

Shortcuts and Tips

Credits & Acknowledgments

First line (date & time):

• Date
• Time
• Julian Date
• GPS Pulse-Per-Second status
• Clock error
• Standard deviation of GPS time measurements in seconds (less than 0.1 second is good)

Second line (debugging information) :

• Script name

Third line (position information):

• Latitude being used for displays and local circumstances calculations
• Longitude being used for displays and local circumstances calculations
• Altitude being used for displays and local circumstances calculations
• Name of the observer’s location

Fourth line (GPS information):

• GPS status (not connected, not available, Valid Norm Fix 2D, Valid Norm Fix 3D, Valid Diff Fix 2D or Valid Diff Fix 3D)
• Satellites in use / viewable satellites
• Estimate position error (2σ)
• Timezone entered at the observer’s location.

Fifth and sixth line (centerline information):

• Eclipse type at this location (Total, Partial, Penumbral, None)
• Penumbral duration at this location
• Umbral duration at this location
• Duration of totality at this location

Event information:

• Event name
• Countdown to the event
• UTC date of the event or local date when local time mode is selected
• UTC time of the event or local time when local time mode is selected (a star on the right will indicate that the value is read from the current script)
• True altitude of center of Moon at that event (not refracted apparent altitude)
• Azimuth of Moon at that event (east of true North)
• Contact North angle (P) or Zenith angle (Z or V) at that event, depending on the contextual menu setting
• Eclipse penumbral magnitude at that event
• Eclipse umbral magnitude at that event
• Extinction factor at that event (1 = no extinction, 2 = you should double your exposure times, etc)

Current local circumstances:

• Eclipse type now
• True altitude of center of Moon now
• Azimuth of Moon now
• Eclipse penumbral magnitude now
• Eclipse umbral magnitude now
• Extinction factor now

Next script action:

• Camera that will be used
• Action
• Exposure time
• Aperture (focal ratio)
• ISO
• File size/quality
• Global exposure compensation

Upcoming script items (columns can be reordered):
Countdown until the item executes UTC HH:MM:SS.S when it executes Camera that will be used Action Exposure time Aperture (focal ratio) ISO Q or EV (Exposure Value), depending on the data browser contextual menu setting Mirror lock up wait time Image size/quality Incremental Comment		Exposure compensation contextual menu This contextual menu allows for automatic exposure compensation on all the exposures loaded from the current script.

Upper right countdown display:

• Displays countdown until next event in large letters

Moon Image:

• Choice of zenith up (view matches what you see through binoculars) or celestial north up
• The red tick mark denotes celestial north direction, which equatorially mounted telescopes will track. The dotted yellow line shows the ecliptic. The green tick mark denotes lunar north direction.
• The display is rather precise and depicts accurately the surface of the Moon. However, the refraction isn’t taken into account.

Eclipse map: This map can be used to determine where to best observe the eclipse and its type at that location. Your current location is in the middle of the image at the white cross. The point of greatest eclipse is displayed as a yellow dot circled by an orange ring when in view. North is up. The map scale is shown above the map. The mouse-over geographic coordinates and eclipse type info are shown in the upper-left side of the map. A contextual menu let you turn off/on this feature. A maximum eclipse diagram at the mouse-over location can also be displayed. The solar terminator is animated. The frequency of the updates, or the deactivation of the animation, can be controlled by the contextual menu of the eclipse map (use a right click). The limit curves are respectively in green for the external contacts with Earth’s penumbra, red for the external contacts with the umbra and yellow for the internal contacts with the umbra. When the Earth’s NASA Blue Marble image surface isn’t displayed, the areas where the eclipse is visible, either in its entirety or partially, are shown in light blue becoming darker little by little. Locations with no eclipse are shown in dark blue. Zoom out far enough and locations not on Earth, i.e. space, are in black. The map is fairly accurate, taking refraction into account when possible.