main controls

documentation of the main controls panel of ALS
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Introduction

During this chapter, you will:

  • get familiar with ALS main controls
  • Deepen your knowledge on key features

Overview

The ALS control station is the Main Controls interface panel

Located on the left side of the ALS interface, it organizes the most used controls and displays into sections:

The main controls panel of ALS, with several sections: Session controls with START, PAUSE, and STOP buttons, Stack Size 39, Stack Exposure 0:02:36, Status started; Stack settings with Align, mean, and Min. matches slider at 19; Image server with START and STOP buttons, Status started with URL http://10.0.2.15:8000; Image saver with options Save current image and Save each image; Modules with Queue size and Busy status; Issues with a warning icon and the label Issues.

The main controls panel

Session

The session section of the panel includes 2 areas:

Session Controls

  • R or 🖱️ click START to:
    • start a new session
    • resume a paused session.
  • R or 🖱️ click PAUSE to pause a running session.
  • X or 🖱️ click STOP to stop a running session.

Session Status

Finally, the status of the current session.

In this example, the session is running.

User interface of the session section showing the START, PAUSE, and STOP buttons. Below, information about the current session: Stack Size 39, Stack Exposure 0:02:36, and status started.

The session section

Stack

The stack section of the panel controls the Stacker module.

Alignment and Stacking Mode

  • A or 🖱️ check Align to enable subs alignment

  • Use the dropdown list to set the stacking mode to use:

    • mean

      Used for electronically assisted astronomy or for monitoring a series of acquisitions.

      ⚙️ The value of each pixel in the generated stack is the average value of that pixel across all subs in the stack.

      ℹ️ Outliers are rejected automatically once at least 5 subs are present in the stack and the Astrophoto profile is in use

    • sum

      Used for creating star trails or circumpolar images.

      ⚙️ The value of each pixel in the generated stack is the sum of the values of that pixel across all subs in the stack.

Minimum Matches

Alignment works by comparing each sub with the alignment reference, looking for matching star groups.

Poor quality subs, with too few or distorted stars, may not produce enough matches to be aligned reliably.

Any sub with fewer matches than the configured minimum is discarded.

  • 🖱️ Use the Min. matches slider to adjust the minimum number of matches required.

When a sub is discarded:

  • The sub is not added to the stack and the Stacker module waits for the next sub.

  • A WARNING is added to the Session log. It contains the text ‘Alignment match count is lower than configured minimum’

  • The Acknowledge button in the Session Log panel is activated.

    If the session log panel is hidden, the issue indicator appears in the Issues section.

User interface of the stack section showing a checkbox labeled Align, checked, and a dropdown menu with the mean option selected. Below, a slider labeled Min. matches set to 19, positioned towards the left side of its range.

The stack section

Stack Information

On the right of the alignment controls and minimum matches setting, you will find information about the stack:

  • the number of subs currently in the stack
  • the cumulative exposure times of the subs in the stack.

In this example, we have stacked 42 subs for a total of 2h 6mn.

Image Server

The Image Server section of the panel controls the Server module.

Server Controls

  • W or 🖱️ click START to start the server.
  • W or 🖱️ click STOP to stop the server.

Server Information

Below the server controls, you will find its status display.

When the server is started:

  • the URL built from the displayed address and port configured in Preferences is added to the status.
  • Q toggles the display of the QR code for the server URL.
The image server section, containing the 2 buttons START (grayed out) and STOP, the status: started and the server URL

The server section

Image Saver

The Image Saver section of the panel allows triggering additional saves beyond the default operation of the Save module.

Save Controls

  • S or 🖱️ click Save current to save the last processing result with a timestamp.
  • F or 🖱️ check Save every frame to enable saving each next processing result with a timestamp.
Image Saver section of the user interface showing a button labeled Save current image and a checkbox labeled Save each image. The checkbox is unchecked.

The image saver section

Modules

The Modules section of the panel displays details of each main module.

  • The size of the associated queue.
  • The module status: Displays busy when the module is processing an image.

Available Update

When Check for updates on startup is enabled in the General preferences, ALS checks for an available new version after startup.

If a new version is available, the label ALS version is available appears below the Modules section, where version is the available version number.

Issues

When a new issue is detected and the Session Log is hidden, the Issues button appears in this section.

L or 🖱️ click Issues to display the Session Log and review the new issues.

TODO

Modules, Available update and Issues

Conclusion

The main controls of ALS are no longer a mystery to you!

Next step: the Processing panel.

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