Five minutes of setup makes everything else in Astro PM work: visibility charts, the scheduler, moon avoidance, and weather all depend on knowing where you image and what you image with.
1. Add Your Observing Site #
In the Equipment section, create your observing site with its latitude, longitude, and elevation. These coordinates drive twilight times, target altitude, moon position, and the weather forecast for that location. If you image from multiple locations (backyard plus a dark-sky observatory), add each one as its own site. See Observing Sites for every field in depth.
2. Add Your Telescope, Camera, and Filters #
Add each telescope (focal length, aperture) and camera (sensor, pixel size) you own, plus your filters. Astro PM derives field of view and image scale automatically from the telescope + camera combination. The deep dives: Telescopes, Cameras, and Filters & Exposure Plans.
3. Create an Imaging System #
An Imaging System is a named rig: one site + one telescope + one camera (for example, “Dome A – EdgeHD 8 – ASI2600”). Projects and the nightly scheduler are organized around imaging systems, and each NINA installation identifies itself as one of them. See Imaging Systems.
Where Your Data Lives #
Astro PM stores everything in a local database on this computer. Updates never wipe it, and the schema upgrades itself automatically with new versions. Cloud sync shares your active targets and settings with NINA and the phone app, but the master copy of your planning data is always local.