The Equipment panel is the foundation everything else is built on: scheduling needs your site coordinates, framing needs your optics, and exposure plans need your camera and filters. Enter it once, accurately, and the rest of the app takes care of itself.
Observing Sites #
A site is a physical location: name, latitude, longitude, and elevation. Coordinates drive twilight times, target altitude and transit, moon geometry, and weather forecasts – so use real values, not city-level approximations. Each site can also carry a custom horizon describing trees, walls, or terrain that block part of its sky.
Telescopes #
Telescopes are defined by focal length and aperture. Focal length combines with the camera sensor to derive field of view and image scale – there is nothing to compute by hand anywhere in the app.
Cameras #
Cameras carry sensor dimensions and pixel size, and optionally the readout modes your camera offers. Readout modes matter if your camera behaves differently in, say, high-gain vs. low-noise modes – each exposure line in a plan can select one, and NINA applies it during capture.
Filters #
Add each filter by name – the names should match your NINA filter wheel names (small differences are tolerated: Astro PM matches names case-insensitively and by prefix, so “Ha” in Astro PM finds “Ha 3nm” in NINA). Filters are referenced by exposure plans and by moon avoidance profiles.
Field of View Is Always Derived #
Astro PM never asks you to type a field of view. It is computed live from the selected telescope + camera pair, everywhere it is needed – Sky View framing, mosaic planning, and target thumbnails all stay consistent automatically if you ever correct a focal length or pixel size.