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Show Equipment/Conditions Bar

Equipment/Conditions Bar

The Equipment/Conditions Bar contains information about both the equipment you are using for observations, and the sky and weather conditions during your observations.

equipment bar
Equipment/ Conditions bar

Equipment

The Equipment portion of the Equipment/Conditions Bar allows you to tell Deep-Sky Planner which equipment (Enabled for active use) you are using so that it can show you useful information about this specific combination of equipment. It also warns you when you are using a combination of equipment that produces an exit pupil that exceeds your fully dark-adapted eye pupil size.This means that some of the light delivered by your optical system cannot enter your eye, so the light is wasted. This feature can help you to choose equipment combinations that match your own physical abilities. The equipment selected on the Equipment/Conditions bar is used by Deep-Sky Planner in various features throughout the product, like Visibility Modeling.

Some combinations of equipment don't make sense. For example, you can't use a barlow with binoculars. In these cases, the information shown ignores the effect of the equipment item that doesn't make sense, showing only pertinent information.

Conditions

The Conditions portion of the Equipment/Conditions Bar shows both the sky and weather conditions during observing. You can enter these values manually, or you can read sky darkness and weather data automatically and continuously from supported devices.

[] Conditions Menu

The Conditions Menu display is toggled by clicking the hamburger button [] on the Equipment/Conditions Bar. The menu allows you to set the sky and weather conditions for your observing time and location. You can perform the following functions:

Darkness Conditions allows you to select the Darkness Conditions that apply to your observing session. Darkness data can be entered manually or it can be read automatically from a connected Sky Quality Meter (SQM). The meter may be configured in Sky Quality Meters. The darkness value shown on the Equipment/Conditions Bar affects the visibility model for extended deep-sky objects.

Transparency Conditions allows you to select the Transparency Conditions that apply to your observing session. The transparency value shown on the Equipment/Conditions Bar affects the calculation of atmospheric extinction and the visibility model for extended deep-sky objects.

Seeing Conditions allows you to select the Seeing Conditions that apply to your observing session. The seeing value shown on the Equipment/Conditions Bar affects the visibility model for double stars.

Weather Conditions allows you to enter Weather Conditions that apply to your observing session. Temperature, humidity and barometric pressure may be entered manually or they can be read automatically from an ASCOM supported weather device or service. The ASCOM supported weather device or service is configured in Weather Devices. Temperature, relative humidity and dew point are shown on the Equipment/Conditions Bar in the unit of measure selected in Preferences.

Refresh Data information items on the Equipment/Conditions Bar. These are normally updated when changes occur elsewhere in the system that affect Equipment. For example, if you delete an eyepiece in the Eyepiece Browser, the list in the Equipment/Conditions Bar is updated. If you delete the Favorite eyepiece selected in the Equipment/Conditions Bar, the selection there becomes None.

If you believe the Equipment/Conditions Bar needs to be updated, click Refresh Data to force an update.

Help opens this help topic page.

Information Items

Darkness

Darkness Source icon may be one of:

[no icon] No darkness data is available. 'No Dark' is displayed on the Equipment/Conditions Bar.

The darkness value was entered manually and is displayed on the Equipment/Conditions Bar.

Darkness values are being read periodically from a connected SQM. The latest value is displayed on the Equipment/Conditions Bar. The time of the displayed reading is displayed in the hover hint. Hover the mouse cursor over the MPSAS/NELM display box and the reading time is shown in the hint.

Darkness values were being read from a connected SQM, but an error occurred. The latest reading is displayed on the Equipment/Conditions Bar while the system tries to re-establish connection. The system stops trying and reverts to 'No Dark' after 3 failed attempts to acquire data. A lost connection may mean that a wire to the device has been detached or the Internet connection to the service was lost.

Darkness values were being read from a connected SQM and errors occurred. Communication retries were exhausted and the system canceled automatic darkness data reading.

No Dark/ MPSAS/ NELM is the present darkness value as entered manually in Darkness Conditions or read from a connected SQM. If No Darkness Data is selected in Darkness Conditions, this box shows 'No Dark'.

If darkness data is available (either entered manually or read from a connected SQM), the latest darkness value is shown in both magnitudes per square arcsecond (MPSAS) and naked-eye limiting magnitude (NELM). When darkness data is read from SQM, the time of the latest reading is shown when you hover your cursor over the MPSAS/NELM box. Also, a color swatch is shown corresponding to MPSAS that represents the darkness zone as used in The New World Atlas of Artificial Sky Brightness (Falchi et al, 2016).

Transparency

Perfect/ Clear/ Slightly Hazy/ Hazy/ Very Hazy/ Extremely Hazy is the present transparency value as selected in Transparency Conditions. If no transparency value has been selected, this box shows Perfect.

Alternatively, you may enter Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD). AOD is measured from satellite data and is available on various Internet websites. Click Show AOD to visit an AOD information web page.

Seeing

Perfect/ Good/ Moderate/ Poor/ Very Bad is the present seeing value as selected in Seeing Conditions. If no seeing value has been selected, this box shows Perfect.

Alternatively, enter the seeing in arcesonds or click Show Seeing to visit a seeing information web page.

Weather

Weather Source icon may be one of:

[no icon] No weather data is available. 'No Weather' is displayed on the Equipment/Conditions Bar.

Weather data was entered manually and is displayed on the Equipment/Conditions Bar.

Weather data are being read periodically from an ASCOM supported weather device or service. The latest values are displayed on the Equipment/Conditions Bar. The time of the displayed reading is displayed in the hover hint. Hover the mouse cursor over the weather data display box and the reading time is shown in the hint.

Weather data were being read from a weather device or service, but an error occurred. The latest reading is displayed on the Equipment/Conditions Bar while the system tries to re-establish connection. The system stops trying and reverts to 'No Weather' after 3 failed attempts to acquire data. A lost connection may mean that a wire to the device has been detached or the Internet connection to the service was lost.

Weather data were being read from a weather device or service and errors occurred. Communication retries were exhausted and the system canceled automatic weather data reading.

No Weather/ Temp, RH, Dew are the present values of temperature, relative humidity and dew point as entered manually in Weather Conditions or read from a weather device. Dew point is calculated from temperature and humidity. If No Weather Data is selected in Weather Conditions, this box shows 'No Weather.

If weather data is available (either entered manually or read from a connected device), the latest temperature, humidity and dew point values are shown in the unit of measure selected in Preferences. When weather data is read from a device or service, the time of the latest reading is shown when you hover your cursor over the Temp, RH, Dew box.

Alternatively, you can click Show Weather to visit a weather information web page.

Visual

Magnification is the computed total magnification of the system. This applies to visual combinations of equipment (no camera selected.)

True FoV is the computed circular true field of view of a visual combination of equipment (no camera selected.)

Resolution is the computed resolving power of the telescope or binocular instrument in arcseconds.

Pass Band describes the optical wavelengths in nanometers delivered by a filter to the optical system. These values are usually available from the filter manufacturer. If the pass band includes any well-known emission lines (such as hydrogen alpha at 496 nanometers), it is noted.

Exit Pupil is the computed diameter of the pencil of light delivered by the optical system. This value should be no larger than the Eye Pupil value described below. If the exit pupil is larger than the Eye Pupil, some light delivered by your optical system is lost at your eye pupil.

Eye Pupil is the measured (or estimated) diameter of the selected observer's fully dark-adapted eye pupil.

Imaging

Image Scale is the computed normalized area of sky captured by a single pixel on a CCD or CMOS chip. Sky area is normalized to represent a square pixel whether the physical chip has square pixels or not. This applies to imaging combinations of equipment (CCD camera selected.)

FoV is the computed rectangular field of view of a photographic combination of equipment (CCD or film camera selected.)

Resolution is the computed resolving power of the telescope or binocular instrument in arcseconds.

Display of the Equipment/Observer Bar is toggled by the Equipment/Observer | Show Equipment/Observer Bar menu item.

What About?

Several problems can occur when you have chosen to acquire darkness data from a Sky Quality Meter. The system reacts to these problems thusly:

▪If you start Deep-Sky Planner with no SQM connected, the system automatically reverts to No Darkness Data mode. No icon is shown on the Equipment/Conditions Bar.

▪If you start Deep-Sky Planner with an SQM connected, the first reading is acquired immediately. Subsequent readings are acquired on a schedule specified in Sky Quality Meters. If the connection is lost, Deep-Sky Planner will make up to 3 attempts at scheduled read times to acquire a reading before it reverts to No Darkness Data mode. In this case, the Darkness Data Failed icon [] is displayed and 'No Dark' is displayed. Open Darkness Conditions to restart reading (after connecting the meter), or enter a value manually.