Program Details

This page will provide detailed information on the use of the program. In many cases it will do so by referring back to previous sections.

Supported Cameras

This program requires use of one of several Canon listed in Supported Camera List

We support any lens that is compatible with Canon. We also support direct connection to a telescope

I strongly recommend that you power cycle the camera before connecting. If there is a connection problem exit the program and start again.

I recommend you put in an empty, high speed chip to collect your eclipse photos. The Canon software takes a considerable time to restart if there are pictures already on the chip. It may also delay the camera save times.

GPS

A GPS device is not required to use this program. If you have access to the internet at your site and you are at a fixed site then the GPS adds little. However, if you are moving (i.e. on a ship) or have poor access to the internet with your Mac® then you should review the information on Time or use on a ship.

This program supports GPS dongles using the Ublox7 chip such as Stemedu VK172 USB GPS Dongle

Stemedu VK172 USB GPS Dongle

Using the device is easy. Plug it in. One caveat mentioned in the other pages. It may take up to 15 minutes to be usable as a time source. Depending on how long since it was last plugged in it may also take a while to get position. The chip does not require this program to be running to get location. Once power is applied it just needs clear sky.

Support for a GPS is enabled in the Site->new item. If you plug the device in after you get past that point you will have to restart. Once in the program will do the rest.

The status display window can be in the background or closed. The GPS does not require it to run.

The two status displays are

  • Fix 3D This means that the chip has enough confidence in its location that it can make a height prediction
  • Time Ref The chip has received information from the satellite to map GPS time into UTC. In other words it can be used as a time reference

Fix Quality is a gross indication of how good the fix is. The chip returns this, but I am not sure how useful it really is. The key is whether there is a 3D Fix

Satellites This give some indication of the sources of the fix. For this chip this can be a combination of GPS (US) and Glosnass (Russian).

Main Window

The main window was previously described in the main page. This amplifies a bit on what was said there

  • The site information is on the upper left. This lists the user's site name (which is used in Site->Open). It gives the lat long of the site. Note that if a GPS is in use and we are running this does not track the GPS location. Instead "Location" tasks are included in the task list. Since every location update means the times of the C's need to be recalculated this insures that this can be done without disrupting the script.
  • The current camera state is to the right of the site
  • Below the site are two time displays.
    • The display labeled "Run Time" is what time the program thinks it is. Tasks will be triggered based on this time.

      In one of the operational time modes Time this will show a correction to a poorly sync'd system clock (or a correct system clock if you have properly synced the time).
      The practice modes are similar but the offset is chosen so the particular C is a convienient time in the future.
    • System Time this is the current clock in the computer. This is more of an FYI since all of the processing is based on Run Time
  • Moving to the upper right is the big Run button. It is big and obvious since when you are on site the last thing you want is to be searching for it. If you have a touchbar equipped Mac® then the button will also be in the touchbar.

    touch bar
    The button changes to Stop when the program is running. The program can cycle between run and stop as many times as required. In fact, it is recommended about 15 minutes before totality you hit stop and refocus. You can then resume by hitting run again.
  • To the left of the Run/Stop Button shows the running mode. The operational modes are in green, practice times in orange, and Emergency is red.
  • Below the Run button is the event list. This provides the actual times when the events will occur. These will agree with the "Run Time" time. The column to the right is the time in "System Time". This can be safely ignored.
  • Last but not least is the task list. This is a time ordered set of tasks. This is the definition of the columns
    • Countdown This give the time until the event. Task times are relative to an event from the event list. If we are stopped it gives the offset from the event. If we are running it gives the time when the event will occur.
    • EventThis is the type of the task. Choices are Image, Burst (a series of images), Play, and Location (a point where the event times will be recalculated). Note that the latter is only present when the GPS is being used
    • Trigger TimeThis is the time the event will occur (based on Run Time)
    • Exposure
    • Comment Gives the reason for this exposures such as "Chromosphere" or "Partial 10%"

Menus

The first thing that someone will notice about the menus is that they are not organized like a typical program. That is because the eclipse is not a "Document". In fact the task list is generated on the fly by the results of 3 different inputs

  • The Site
  • The Camera
  • The Scenario

Instead of trying to stuff this program into the document model I break the three types of input out separately since, for example, there are operations relative to the camera that have nothing to do with the running task list.

Note also that when the program starts it will guide the user through the 3 categories so actually using the menus should not be common. If you do want to use the menus just cancel at some point. That, for example, is how you can start the camera before defining a site.

Here are the details of the menus

Site

New

This is used to create a new site. In this you select an eclipse from the combo box, enter a site name which will be used to describe this configuration, and enter the coordinates. You will only be allowed to proceed if this site is within the band of totality. When you press Save you will go to opening the camera.

If you intend to use a GPS then the GPS is only detected using this menu item.

Note the collection of special buttons at the top. These are the predefined sites I have included for learning. Each of these is described elsewhere.

This version will report the value of ΔT and the age of this value. If the age for an eclipse in the near future is more then 6 months you may have an old version of the app (or I have not been diligent of updating). You may have to manually create the Bessel as described elsewhere.

Open

When you rerun the program after creating a site you will be brought into the Open dialog. Here you select one of the sites you have previously defined. You can also delete an existing site.

As described in "New" the app will report if the ΔT for an eclipse in the near future is old.

Note that version 1.1 created sites will have to be recreated under this version

Edit

This gives you the ability to change a site's location without defining a new site

Show GPS

If the GPS is active this shows the GPS Information Window. Note that the GPS does not require this window to be open to operate.

Camera

Open

Camera->Open is the way to attach a camera. The dialog is described in Quick Start and in Learn Using this dialog you either Select a Camera or Select using a Simulator

If you are using a camera note that it may take some time for the camera to start. A progress wheel shows that the program is not hung.

Note also that the program requires the user to manually set some items in the camera/lens.

The simulator will allow to use the program, run scripts, and take pictures. It will not allow you to do operations that require a live camera such as focusing.

Camera Preferences

The Camera Preferences Dialog is broken into sections. An overview and pictures where shown in Learn. This will present what ever detail was missing from previous descriptions

Mount

The mount setting is extremely important for proper operation. This was described in Learn

fStop

This will appear differently depending on whether you are using a lens or attached to a telescope. This is described in Learn

Solar Filter

This selects which configuration to use for the solar filter. This is described in Exposures

ISO Limits

Your mount settings also place rules on how this is used. For "Tripod" and "Tracking" these merely place limits on what exposures can be used. In "Monopod/Ship" the highest usable ISO is always used as the first choice for exposures. Note that ISO 100 may be required for the fastest exposures. This should not be changed unless there is a REALLY good reason. You can still edit what is actually used using the Exposures Dialog described below

Camera Delays

These display the current delays used during burst, between priority images (diamond ring, chromosphere, and prominence ), and for non-priority (the rest). These settings can only be changed in the Test Delay dialog since I don't know what will work for your camera.

Extras

This controls two optional, but useful features

  • Voice Inserts voice prompts into the task list. I have found these very useful, but some cautions for safety reasons
    • Filters Off Means that the camera can now be exposed to direct sun through your optics. It is unsafe to look through your optics until you can confirm that you cannot see the sun through your safety eclipse eyeglasses.
    • Chromo, Chromo This is intended as a reminder in case you forget stop looking through your optics prior to C3. Treat this as a fail safe. You should look away the first time you see a red band. This is the time to enjoy a second or so of diamond ring after a successful eclipse.
  • Sync Time If your camera supports it the program will set the time in the camera to be the current run time.

Test Delay

This dialog allows the user to test different settings for the delays and find the best set for your particular camera. This turns out to be important. The two reference cameras that I used (a 60D and an 80D) test differently. (Hint: the 60D got a plane ticket)

The test simulates C2 with the camera taking bursts speed photos within the 6 second (I don't recommend changing this) of the transition to full totality. It then switches to priority spaced photos. Finally it takes a full set of Corona exposures. The test runs for about 40 seconds so be patient. Success means it captured all of the images it expected to capture with no errors.

Just remember if you speed up the Priority Times you should increase the number of exposures in the Scenario Editor or you might miss part of the event.

What if you fail the test?

Remember you are dealing with the analog world of mirrors and diaphragms moving. Being able to run your camera fast depends on a lot of factors.

  • Your Camera
  • Your Computer
  • Your Lens (if you are using one). To take a picture the diaphragm in the lens must physically move. Your expectation should be that shooting with a lens will be slower than shooting using a telescope.
  • Your Camera Memory Chip. Use the fastest available. In my tests my 60D was able to run at 0.6/sec per shot with a 150 MB/s chip and only 1.0 sec per shot with a 40 MB/s chip

What happens if you get an error?

I see two different types of errors that can help diagnose what happened

  • Completed, but too few images - In this case the camera and computer were able to talk to each other, but your camera was not able to take photos at the rate that pictures should be taken. I have also seen this happen if the card has a lot of images on it. The error message indicates how many burst exposures it thinks it took, How many non burst (should be 11), and how many images it found when it looked to see what the camera actually recorded. You can manually verify these counts since the burst images are taken at 1/5000. This is a marginally safe condition. You did not record as many images as you wanted to, but you recorded as many as the camera could. The risk is that in a future run the camera freezes or returns a busy error (the next category)
  • The burst test failed with return: Camera cannot keep up with test requirements - This is caused by running faster than the camera/computer are able to

If you are already running with a fast memory card and you are running with your operational lens then your only choice is to increase the burst interval.

Exposure Editor

This feature is depreciated in V 1.5. The button was hidden.

Exposure Calculator

This dialog is described in Learn. The window demonstrates which exposures are permitted to meet the exposure rules. It provides an example of one of my own pictures to demonstrate what a correct exposure looks like (or what a near miss looks like)

For many values the "correct" speed is not available in the camera. So this shows both the theoretical "best" and what the camera will support.

Live Camera Menus

While the Live Camera menu Items are a part of the Camera Menu, it is best to think of them almost as separate. This menu is available whenever you have a Live Camera. It is not available if the camera is simulated.

Test Shot

This allows you to take a test shot with your camera. When it opens it defaults to your Solar Filter Exposure. Using is pretty straightforward - Just press "Take Picture". After a short time the picture will appear in the display window. You can shrink the picture to fit or display it at full resolution. Remember if you have a trackpad on 11.x you will have to scroll by dragging the image.

Pictures will have saved in your Documents Folder as described under Files

Focus

One of the key goals of this project was to improve the focus process. A detailed examples of using the Focus Function is presented in Learn

Start the process by pressing "Start". Keep in mind you are burning battery at a fairly good clip.

When fully zoomed out you can select a detail point by clicking it. The two rectangles show approximately where the zoomed views will be. By zooming in you can see more detail. Use the UP, DOWN,.. buttons to adjust where you are looking.

If you have a lens you can then directly adjust the focus with the side arrow buttons. If you have a telescope this is a good time to have a friend.

The Invert button converts the image to grayscale and inverts it. I find it makes it easier to see small spots as I demonstrated in Learn.

You may have to slow down the exposures to get a good image. The combo box allows you to do this.

Finally the Take Picture button brings you to the Test Shot dialog.

Note the spinner. This is controlling a piece of hardware that takes time to react. The spinner moves whenever a new image is received and will give you a clue regarding how fast the camera is reacting.

Time Sync

Depending on the camera model this will allow you to just display the camera time or to also set it to agree with RunTime. Note the time settable cameras also understand time zones. Since this program sets UTC it will not affect the time zone in the camera.

Depending on the camera model this will allow you to just display the camera time or to also set it to agree with RunTime.

Note that time settable cameras also understand time zones, but can report the time in UTC. Since this program sets UTC it will not affect the time zone in the camera.

Cameras (like the 60D) that do not understand time zones report whatever time is set in the camera.

Scenario

The Scenario Generator will convert the site circumstances (which are, in turn, derived from the eclipse and location) and the Camera Parameters along with some additional parameters defined in the Scenario Editor dialog to create a list of tasks that must be performed during the eclipse run.

As discussed in Learn there are actually two Scenarios editors; one for total eclipses and one for annular. The proper one is invoked based on the site information. I will be documenting these separately

Editor for Total Eclipses

In this case more phenomena are available to be recorded. Total Eclipses are complex beasts that offer fleeting glimpses of the sun disappearing(reappearing) at C2 (C3) {Diamond Rings and Baily's Beads}, prominences and chromosphere peaking out before the moon covers (exposes) them, the corona which varies by many f stops of brightness so it is impossible to capture in a single exposure, and finally an image of a new moon illuminated by the earth. Capturing each of these events requires careful timing with different exposures that must be captured precisely on time.

OK so it is hard... Let's talk about the choices available to tune the capture. Let me start with the observation that in most cases you should just accept what is presented on this page and not change anything. There are some circumstances such as a short eclipse where you do not have a choice.

C1 C4

A burst set will be taken to capture C1 and C4. This allows you to control the length of the burst and whether to perform it. I can present no good reason not to accept the default

Partial

This will control whether and how many partial exposures are taken. The partial exposures serve the purpose of keeping the camera from entering power save. Thus I strongly recommend not turning this off. Whether an exposure every 5% or one every 20% is better is left to the user.

Diamond Ring

This is a slower exposure to try to get the ring effect right before (after) the photosphere is hidden (exposed). This can be your most dramatic shot. A picture of mine from 1970 was one of my best ever and hung in my parent's house for nearly 30 years.

Baily's Beads

This is one I don't give you the option of turning off. I further strongly recommend again changing the duration.

Chromosphere and Prominences

These are two exposures that are rather close. In the past I captured these serially (Chromosphere first). I am providing the option of mixing the two. I can give arguments for and against. These are both occurring at the same time. On the other hand prominences are still visible after the Chromosphere is not. Mixed there is a chance of just taking more Prominence pictures at the wrong exposure. On the other hand the moon is chopping off the bottom of the Prominences. Personally I plan to use the Mix feature.

Corona

Now we come to the first area where real choices may be required. If this is Texas 24 and you brought your AP 1600 mount then you can capture whatever you want. But what about on a ship in 23 where the eclipse is short and your max exposure is limited by your mount moving. Then some decisions might have to be made. We talked in Camera Preferences of one solution. If you set the mount correctly you will be moved to faster ISO and faster exposures. But you may opt instead to take fewer Corona exposures with the hope of getting a second set of Corona exposures. Ah the possibilities...

2017 Eclipse HDR

Earthshine

I regard this as a bonus shot. Yes I include an earthshine image when I build a High Dynamic Range of the Corona. This is one you have have to sacrifice in 23 (unless you are on a tracking mount, use the Exposure Editor, and use Test Delay to reduce the corona delay)

Editor for Annular Eclipses

Annular Eclipses share the time up to almost C2. There is, of course, no Diamond Ring. The Prominences are not visible. Nor is the chromosphere or Corona. The only point of merit between C2 and C3 is max eclipse which itself becomes interesting

Max Eclipse

Unlike a total eclipse where Max Eclipse is largely just a point in time here most of you will want to capture the perfect ring. Thus we treat this as another time for bursts so you can capture the exact moment.

Fill

This allows you to fill the otherwise unused time between C2 and Max and Max and C3 with partial images. I thought these were useful in 2012.

Import/Export

The last two menu entries are for Import and Export. These are for the case where someone does not trust my choice of exposures. Export will save the eclipse into the Documents->CaptureEclipse->User Visible Scripts directory. It is XML formatted and should be pretty obvious of what the fields are for.

So a big caveat here is that I strongly recommend not doing this unless you really do not trust the image choices I made. These scripts are still relative to events so they should get the proper event times if you make a small shift in your location. They do not perform all of the error checking the Script Generator does when it works. So if you use this you accept the risk.

Time

The Time menu controls how Run Time is set. You will generally run in one of the Real Time modes. You will practice your task list in Practice. Emergency C2 is there is something goes wrong

Real Time Modes

The Real Time modes are described on the Time page

Practice

The three practice modes set the time to be before the C1, C2, and C3 events. This allows, for example, a complete run of the entire script. Alternative you can just practice totality. Finally you can practice the end of the eclipse.

  • C1 - Starts shortly before C1 is to occur. If you want a complete run through then initially start here. If you do decide to break at "Check your Focus" you can resume by starting the simulation at the C2 starting point.
    I strongly recommend you do this at least once to verify your camera/computer have the necessary battery life.
  • C2 - Starts about 15 minutes before C2. This gives the opportunity to practice what you will do as the eclipse approaches. This is something I highly recommend you take advantage of
  • C4 - Starts shortly before C4

You should not have a GPS installed unless you are in the eclipse track.

Emergency C2

This is your fail safe.

If something has gone wrong in the event prediction then this will force the totality sequence to start. Besides the menu Emergency C2 can be trigger via a Control-Command-e or via the touchbar.

Files

The program saves many hidden configuration files in its Library folder. These are not intended to be edited. There is really no reason to since each of these can be edited with tools provided.

But there is another class of files that are user editable and/or provide information that the user requested. The folder containing these files is in "Documents". The folder is marked with Application's icon to reinforce that it is special. Here is what is in the various folders

Bessel

As said elsewhere predictions are made using a technique devised in the 1800's by Bessel which was refined by Meeus in the 1980's. The current implementation is based on a port of that work by Espenak, et al. This provides a more complete explanation. Fred Espenak's site publishes the Bessel Elements for each particular eclipse. For example, this is the set for the eclipse that occurred on 12/14/20 in the table labeled "Polynomial Besselian Elements". Note that this program actually uses the elements within the JavaScript of the associated circumstances calculator which have slightly more precision.

When the program starts it will look for a file {}->Bessel->CustomBessel.xml. If present it will load it. If missing it will create it with the 12/14/20 eclipse as an example. This eclipse will appear at the end of the eclipse list in the new Combo box with whatever name was defined. For example I created a custom eclipse based on an eclipse that occurred in the 1300's to make my own testing easier.

When a site is created via New Menu item the Bessel currently being used is written to {}->Bessel as "Default" + {eclipse name} + ".xml". You can examine the parameters being used (I suggest using an xml editor such as xml notepad).

Live Camera

When you Take a Picture with Test Shot this is where it appears

Log

Each time you press Run it creates a new log. Mostly this contains debugging information, but there is some stuff that might be useful

  • The type of run and which camera
  • The relative times for Run Time, System Time, and Camera time. This may not appear immediately since the camera has to be asked.
  • The location and event times. Note that each Location task repeats this so if a GPS is used a location marker is set about a minute after C3.
  • The RunTime of the image and how late the image executed
    Task TakePict schedule at 04/08/24 18:40:51.8 Δexecuted 0.0007 comment Chromosphere
    This indicates the command to take this Chromosphere exposure was issued at 18:40:51.8 and was late by 0.0007 seconds. Delays are almost always less than 0.05 seconds. It is one of the reasons you want this to be the only program that is running.

Note that during annular eclipses a special "marker" exposure is taken. This marks the end of a sequence of "C" or "max" exposures so the exact time of each exposure can be determined.

Simulation Images

Anytime you run with the simulator it creates a directory where it places simulated images corresponding to the event being captured. These are from my own collection of images

User Visible Scripts

I realized when I was writing the program that some advanced users may not agree with the exposures or timings I use. Instead of just saying "sorry" I provided an escape hatch for them to be more creative. However, this program is intended to be used as documented so users need to be aware of the caveats should they choose this path.

  • Using this feature is unsupported beyond this description. You will be performing a Beta Test. I have verified that the settings are restored, but if you do find a bug it will be fixed after April 24.
  • Simply changing the exposures is relatively safe as long as you follow the other precautions below. Changing the timing of the exposure is really risky.
  • You should assume any manually generated script applies only to a single lat/long. The script has the ability to adjust the trigger times if you move, but requires the duration to not change which means you cannot move very far.
  • This program is designed to use generated scripts. Thus if you open camera prefs or the script generator it will reset the script to new generated values
  • Anyone choosing this path needs to extensively test the script for proper execution with your camera. You can do this in simulated time

If I have not discouraged you yet then here is the information you will need to understand the generated script. The script if formatted in XML. I use the app XML Notepad. You can open the file with a simple text editor, but what you will see will not be pretty.

Like any XML it is a list of keywords and values. Here are the keyword definitions that are not obvious

  • TaskType This describes the kind of task to be created "Burst Image Task", "Priority" {i.e. Chromo and prom}, "Non Priority" {i.e. Corona}. There are also some other task types such as scripting prompts.
  • Task Name What will be recorded in the log
  • Time Offset Time of start of the event relative to the startref
  • Startref One of the calculated events for the eclipse
  • totaltasktime This is only used in Burst as the others are based on the exposure{ may be used for error checking}
  • ImagePad how long to wait until the next image {not used in script execution, but may be used for error checking}
  • Speed speed to set camera
  • f stop f stop setting (or blank if telescope)
  • iso iso
  • ImageQ  not used in script
  • lduration must be the same as total task time
  • luseHighSpeed Sadly Canon broke this feature so it is no longer used

Good Luck!

Frequently Asked Questions

I recognize that those that committed to a different camera brand would prefer a release date in Feb 24 with that support. That is simply not possible. Would I consider a version for Aug 26? At the present time the answer is that it is not possible.

I reached out to Nikon to see if they off a Software Development Kit like Canon does. They do, but it is poorly structured and one required component of the distributed SDK is x_86 only. Thus it is unusable for modern Mac development. Further, by agreeing to the IP restrictions of the Nikon SDK I have also precluded several avenues to overcome the limitations. I emailed Nikon marketing and received a response that "the release is not supported", but did not address any of the issues I raised.

At this point I am putting this problem aside. I may check later this year to see if Nikon is shipping an SDK that is a universal binary; however, I have no personal need for a Nikon product so I have little motivation to pursue this further.

My advice for April 24 for those with a different camera brand was originally to try Eclipse Orchestrator. However their release rules indicate that they have entered their embargo.

What about running SEM on a VM? This will not likely work especially on an M1 machine with either Parallels or VMWare. Both products require M1 MacOS versions to run on M1 machines which excludes SEM. Even running on an older Intel Mac will only work if the VM product supports USB devices such as a camera (which VMware does), but will it be fast enough? If you want to continue running SEM treat your obsolete Mac well.

If you are going to use SEM on an x_86 I would compare its predictions against a reliable source such as Xavier's calculator and decide if the prediction is close enough to work for you. Both I evaluated this question and as did another observer. We both came to the conclusion that the publicly released version does not.

I monitor the Facebook group Solar Eclipse Chasers or you can use email: captureeclipse@almadenobservatory.net

This started as a COVID sanity project to write something for myself. As it came together I realized it might be useful to others. I have put some work into areas that I do not intend to use myself (such as exporting scripts), but this remains largely a program I need.

The second issue is how much I would actually make if I did sell it vs the extra hassle that will cause. So Apple will take 30% off top. Income Taxes will take another 30-35% plus have secondary effects as income changes ripple into other areas. Finally it will increase the fees my account charges. So when all of that is done the result is pocket change.

This is to make the lens compatible with a telescope.
This program is intended to be used in full sunlight (well at least until the shadows disappear). To see the screen requires placing it in a box (I now use a tent)
After some experimenting I determined that dark mode made reading the display quickly much easier. Light mode is not disabled, but I think you will find Dark Mode gives better contrast in the field.

Actually during development the program used High Speed mode for almost 9 months. Then the Canon software changed and I was not able to get it to work reliably again. I updated to a new SDK version in the testflight version 1.2. Part of the test plan was to see if any of the more advanced cameras could now do high speed mode. I received no feedback so in the 1.3 release I retained my 1.1 "take pictures faster" operation.

Since I felt the high speed mode was risky in the first place I am not disappointed it is gone. .

The secret sauce is the input to those equations; the Bessel Elements. My source are the Fred Espenak websites, but I anticipated that these might change. Just in case I was not able to update in time the Custom Elements feature allows the user to provide an updated set of elements and use those instead of the ones built into the program. The file Documents/CaptureEclipse/Bessel/CustomBessel.xml provides a sample. The Bessel fields are laid out in the file. It is just a matter of editing this file and then selecting it in Site->New.

Basically because I am confident the ones Espenak calls for meet up with my own experience. I did provide selections for Solar Filters because that was a case where One Size did not Fit All

If you are really unhappy you can save the Task List off with Scenario->Export Task List and edit it yourself. Note that This will not be checked for eclipse length once it is imported. You should be OK on a long eclipse like Texas 24, but this is risky in Australia 23.

Privacy

This app does not collect nor does it distribute any information about its operation.

If you have configured your Mac® under System Preferences->Security and Privacy->Analytics to share crash information with developers we will receive a report should your program ever crash. This is a Mac® feature that we have no control over.