' AIMING EXPOSURE PARAMETERS
catType = 5                           ' Catalog used to plate solve aiming exposures 
                                      ' (3=GSC-ACT, 5=USNO-A2.0)
catPath = "c:"                        ' Path to catalog specified in catType
arcsecPerPix = 2.39                   ' Pixel scale of aiming exposures (arcsec/pixel)
aimMinBrt = 150                       ' PinPoint's Min. Flux parameter to be
                                      ' used when plate solving aiming exposures
aimSigma = 2.0                        ' PinPoint's Min. Sigma parameter to be used when 
                                      ' plate solving aiming exposures
catMaxMag = 17.                       ' Limiting catalogue mag. to be used when plate
                                      ' solving aiming exposures
catExp = 0.35                         ' PinPoint's Catalogue Expansion parameter (%) to be
                                      ' used when plate solving aiming exposures
minStarSize = 3                       ' PinPoint's Min. Star Size parameter (pixels) to be used
                                      ' when plate solving aiming exposures
SolveTimeLimit = 12                   ' Formal time limit (sec) for plate solutions;
                                      ' PinPoint sometimes exceeds this limit
ActualSolveTimeLimit = 18             ' This is the constant plate solve time (sec)
                                      ' assumed in program the scheduler configuration file

This section may be skipped by all users except those ACP users who wish to use the so-called aiming exposures. These are special exposures taken before the actual imaging of some targets in order to correct for telescope pointing errors. If your telescope has pointing errors much smaller than your CCD field-of-view, you do not need to use aiming exposures. Users of Meade LX200 telescopes often use aiming exposures to improve their pointing accuracy. If you wish to use aiming exposures, you should enable them in the scheduler configuration file.

• catType. This parameter specifies the star catalog which will be used to plate solve aiming exposures. The allowed values are given in the following table:

  Value	Catalog
  0	GSC 1.1
  1	USNO SA2.0
  3	GSC-ACT
  4	Tycho-2
  5	USNO A2.0
  6	UCAC2

• catPath. This is the complete path to the catalog specified in the previous parameter.

  Note: If you use either the GSC 1.1 or GSC-ACT catalogs, catPath must be the complete path to the directory which contains the catalog subdirectories, \gsc and \tables.

• arcsecPerPix. This is the pixel scale of your aiming exposures, expressed in arcseconds/pixel. It corresponds to the parameters Horiz Scale and Vert Scale in the Solve Settings tab in Visual PinPoint 4 and to the plate.ArcsecPerPixelHoriz and plate.ArcsecPerPixelVert properties in the PinPoint Engine.

  Note: Cameras with non-square pixels are not currently supported in MU. Please contact the author if you need that support be added to such cameras.

• aimMinBrt. This parameter represents the minimum flux for a star to be detected in the process of plate solving an aiming exposure. It corresponds to the parameter Min Flux in the Solve Settings tab in Visual PinPoint 4 and to the plate.MinimumBrightness property in the PinPoint Engine.

• aimSigma. This parameter represents the minimum brightness ratio above background for a star to be detected in the process of plate solving an aiming exposure. It corresponds to the parameter Min Sigma in the Solve Settings tab in Visual PinPoint 4 and to the plate.SigmaAboveMean property in the PinPoint Engine.

• catMaxMag. This parameter represents the faint magnitude limit to be used when selecting stars from the catalog specified in catType. It corresponds to the parameter Max Magnitude in the Solve Settings tab in Visual PinPoint 4 and to the plate.CatalogMaximumMagnitude property in the PinPoint Engine.

• catExp. This parameter specifies how much the field-of-view dimensions will be expanded to produce the catalog search area, that is, the area centered at the nominal image center from which reference stars will be selected in the process of plate solving an aiming exposure. If you set catExp to 0, the search area will be the same size as the field-of-view. If you set it to 10, both dimensions of the catalog search area will be 10% larger than the corresponding dimensions of the field-of-view, and so forth. If your telescope has small pointing errors, you may use a small value for catExp, such as 10. catExp corresponds to the parameter Expansion in the Solve Settings tab in Visual PinPoint 4 and to the plate.CatalogExpansion property in the PinPoint Engine.

• minStarSize. This parameter specifies the minimum diameter (in pixels) for a star to be detected in the process of plate solving an aiming exposure. It corresponds to the plate.MinimumStarSize property in the PinPoint Engine.

• SolveTimeLimit. This parameter is a formal time limit (in seconds) for the process of plate solving an aiming exposure. It corresponds to the parameter Max time to try solving in the Solve Settings tab in Visual PinPoint 4 and to the plate.MaxSolveTime property in the PinPoint Engine. The PinPoint Engine will abort the plate solution process if it is not finished SolveTimeLimit seconds after it started.

• ActualSolveTimeLimit. This parameter should have the same value as the plate solving time specified in the scheduler configuration file. Since sometimes the process of plate solving an aiming exposure will take somewhat longer than SolveTimeLimit seconds, the value of ActualSolveTimeLimit will normally be larger than the value of SolveTimeLimit. After your first observing runs, the average time required to plate solve an aiming exposure may be determined from the time stamps of the entries in the MU log file which record each plate solution. This average time should be the value of both ActualSolveTimeLimit and the plate solving time specified in the scheduler configuration file.