There are some differences in the appearance in DSLR and CCD/CMOS modes in order to cover the specific properties and features of the Canon/Nikon and CCD/CMOS cameras. These differences are described in details in the following sections Camera Battery / CCD Power, Storage Card space / CCD Temperature, Plan Editor, Histogram Panel and Camera Tab. All other features are common for both DSLR and CCD/CMOS modes.
Status Panel
This panel contains various status information.
Note: When the laptop screen is with 4:3 aspect ratio (not "wide-screen") the Status panel is placed between the "LiveView / Image Preview" and "Log" panels.
In this panel you can see the image that comes from LiveView, the last taken image or a loaded image using the Image Browser.
In the top left corner there is a small rectangle which is visible for every even image displayed and is hidden for the odd images. This makes easier to see when the picture on the screen is changed when you are using LiveView or you are loading similar images when small differences like such taken without dithering.
In this panel is displayed logging information for the current session since the APT start. This includes details about the camera like shutter count, imaging plan execution progress, errors, warnings and etc.
Makes active the Summary tab - it shows a summarized information from the other tabs, tools and aids, that is most needed during the imaging imaging process. See Summary tab section for details.
Makes active the Camera tab. There are two layouts of the Camera tab depending on the selected mode - DSLR mode or CCD/CMOS mode. This tab gives access to the camera control and image acquisition features. See Camera Tab (DSLR mode) or Camera Tab (CCD/CMOS mode) sections for details.
When there is asterisk symbol (*) that means that there is active connection to a camera.
When multiple cameras are used at the same time the tab name changes to "Camera [n]" where "n" is the APT instance number. See Multi-Camera Operation section for more information.
Makes active the Gear tab. It gives access to features for Telescope, Focuser, Filter Wheel and Rotator control as well as to PointCraft. See Gear tab section for details.
When there is asterisk symbol (*) that means that there is active connection to one or more devices like Telescope, Focuser, Filter Wheel and Rotator.
Available only in DSLR mode. Increase the LiveView zoom level to 5x (or 10x of it is clicked two times). For most EOS cameras Zoom x5 is very close to the representation "1:1" - "one pixel from the image, represents one sensor pixel". It is a valuable feature when planetary astro-photography.
The CCD/CMOS cameras have no hardware supported Zoom. In order to make a software zoom you can use Tools->Magnifier feature.
It is a tri-modes button. The modes toggle in the flow OFF -> Crosshair mode -> Object Scale mode -> OFF. These modes use the preview area and work without camera connection, during LiveView or over a previously taken image. Crosshair mode is designed to help in alignment tasks like: Drift Alignment, GoTo Alignment, Precise mode checks for Meade mounts and everything else that you can think of.
Takes one image using the exposure parameters set in Camera tab. If Image destination is set to PC, the stored file will have prefix "Single_". It is useful to take test images when you are framing an object or determining the optimal exposure.
For actual imaging use the Plan Editor to create an imaging plan.
Toggles between "Full Screen" and "Window" modes for the main APT window. "Full Screen" mode covers the whole screen and doesn't allow window resizing.
Once a plan is started the Status monitor becomes like :
On first line is the number of the image that is in progress, the total count of the images that will be taken, the current status and the seconds since the start of the current image, pause and etc.
On the second line is the estimated remaining time for the plan execution followed by the expected time for the plan completion. APT monitors the transfer and saving times, so these values can be revaluated during the plan execution.
Show the laptop battery percent and the remaining time to batter depletion (when not charging). It can be configured to flash when critical level is reached. See Advanced Settings.
In DSLR mode shows the remaining free space on the camera storage card. It can be configured to flash when critical level is reached. See Advanced Settings.
In CCD/CMOS mode shows the current temperature of the camera sensor.
Shows the current Air Mass value. This is the thickness of the atmosphere between the object and the scope. The value in Zenith is 1.00 - one atmosphere. At altitude 30 degrees above the horizon the air thickness is the equivalent of two atmospheres. Near the horizon there are 35 atmospheres between the object and the scope... The value is stored in the FITS header when CCD/CMOS camera is used.
This feature needs an active connection to telescope - See Gear Tab.
Shows the current sky quality value. Sky quality can be tracked by devices like SQM (Sky Quality Meters) or evaluated by the imager and manually entered. In order to see this section you have to enable it from Temperature & Sky settings tab.
Double click on this section or use the Alt+Q shortcut to open the Sky Quality calculator where you can convert value between MPSAS (magnitude per square arc-second) and NELM (naked eye limiting magnitude). Also if you have selected manual entry in the settings you can enter the measured sky quality value here.
Sky Quality value can be used as part of the image file names and to be stored in the FITS keys when CCD/CMOS camera is used. See Main Settings Tab.
The Darkness Clock shows various information in a compact form - Sun set/rise, Moon set/rise and Civil, Nautical, Astronomical twilights and the full darkness. See Darkness Clock
Double click on this section will open the Deep Sky Darkness calculator where can see data for various events, to see how much imaging time you have for a given night or to search for night with needed dark hours. See Deep Sky Darkness calculator.
The Meridian Flip Clock show information related to Meridian. How much time there is till flip, or passed after the flip and the exact flip time. See Meridian Flip Clock.
This feature needs an active connection to telescope - See Gear Tab. It can be hidden from Main Settings Tab.
