Plan an imaging night
Clear hours go quickly when you are changing filters and waiting for refocus. Leave a filter until later and it may miss the dark hours it needs. Start with capture advice on the target's page to work out the whole project, then use Plan my night to decide what fits into tonight.
Start with the light you want
The signal profile helps you choose what to collect, showing the strength of Hα, OIII, SII and continuum. Each has a source and confidence, and profiles based on object class are labelled “Estimated”. Capture advice takes your camera and the filters you own into account, along with a bright Moon.
Use the integration plan to set a goal for the whole project, split by filter. It accounts for the target's surface brightness and your sky's Bortle class, as well as your focal ratio and filter bandwidth. It also suggests sub length ranges to work from.
Decide what tonight is for
You may have plenty of time through one filter while another still has hours to go. Plan my night works from what each of your projects still needs, so you can pick up where you left off.
Choose a night, using your saved site and rig, and set the hours you have available. You can include up to 3 projects, with mosaic panels if needed, and give each project a priority.
Leave room for the gaps
Moving to another target costs time before the next sub starts. The planner counts that alongside filter changes and refocus, and allows for rotation as well as download and dither settling time. Adjust those overheads to suit your rig.
The meridian flip needs room too. On an equatorial mount, blocks end at the flip, with no changes within 30 min of it. The planner schedules whole subs and leaves out slots below your altitude limit or skyline, or too poor because of the Moon or twilight. It flags a filter's last acceptable chance of the forecast week, so you can see what is running out of time.
Take the plan to the telescope
Each block on the timeline gives you a number of subs and an exposure length. Export for ASIAIR or N.I.N.A. (in beta), or keep a capture sheet beside you. If you need to change course, you can replan the remaining night.
Afterwards, use “Log what you shot” or import your subs into the project. The next plan starts from what is left to shoot.