This is also a good time to remind you of some settings that you will have to manually perform on the camera. In some cases the program can determine if they are made. In others it cannot and you will have problems if they are not set
And while we are at it a reminder to either turn off sleep on your Mac® or set it for a long time. It is 90 minutes from C1 to C2. You will probably be letting the computer run during that time. While the partial phases are boring, you don't want your computer to take a nap.
Connect your Camera then start the App. Since you ran the Quickstart you will see the Open Dialog for the Texas 24 site. This one is fine. Accept it.
This time instead of the "Did Not Find" dialog you will get a dialog to select a camera.
When you accept the camera the Canon software may take a considerable time before it continues (it builds a catalog of its chip). The Button is replaced by a spinner to confirm I am not hung.
One you have a legal and tested camera configuration the program will present the scenario dialog. Accept this.
Now you are ready to perform a test run with your camera. Select Time->C2 again. The main monitor window will be the same as what you saw before.
A reminder. . .
During an annular eclipse the sun surface will always be exposed. It is NEVER safe to look at the sun without eye protection.
Accept the dialog
Now have a look at the middle of the Annual period. Note how different the tasks are
With annulars you want to capture a perfect picture of the ring (like mine above). Thus
we have another Burst at max eclipse.
As a reminder v 1.5 will automatically insert marker exposures into the scenario so the user knows which exposures are for the Cxs and max. The log can be then used to determine the actual exposure time.
The second part of this section is to set the f/stop. This is a combination box if you are using a lens. If you are using a telescope this becomes a text box where you have to give the f/stop of your optics. This is required
The camera will tell the program whether it has a lens attached or not. If it says it does not then you are in telescope mode. You can simulate this by simply using the body cap for your camera.
lens
telescope
The next sets some of the operating parameters for the camera. In the Live Camera demo we used the default which uses the same value as the priority exposure time ( default 1 second). If your camera can support faster exposures this is where you enable it.
Press the Test Delay Button will allow you to test whether your camera can be more aggressive and take more exposures. See that section for more explanation.
The times for Burst Delay, Priority images (Diamond ring, Chromo, and Prom) and Corona Image are displayed, but they have to be modified in the tester. The defaults are probably OK, but different cameras may respond differently.
The last section is a miscellaneous which enables two optional features.
The first is voice where you hear prompts recorded by me of various events. SEM had these and I found them useful. I added some more
"Sync Time" depends on your camera type. If your camera allows the program to set the time then this is enabled. The 60D shown here does not. For more information see Camera Time
Unfortunately his settings for solar filters are obsolete. "ND4" is a type of solar filter referred to as "Photographic". It passes so much light that the only source I knew of stopped selling them for safety reasons. When I looked at the three filters I owned I found that all three had different sweet spots and none matched his "ND5"
Since we are talking about solar filters this is good time to reiterate the warning under voice.
If you enable voice commands then one of the commands is "Filters Off". It is critically important to understand that command. This is the point where it is safe to expose your camera to direct sunlight. It is NOT safe to look through your optics at this point . In fact, until you visually confirm, with your safety eclipse glasses on, that the last bead is out (i.e. you see nothing) it is unsafe to look at the sun. I specifically did NOT put a "OK it is safe now" message in the program, but did include the "CHROMO CHROMO" warning to prompt you that visually it is unsafe. Even here, as I describe in my video series, if you see a band of red along an edge it is time to stop looking Right Now
The only 100% safe method is to NEVER look through your optics (or binoculars).
The trick here is to reduce the exposure delay during the C's ( and during Annular Max). This allows more photos to be taken in a very short time. The tradeoff is not all cameras support it (or support it well). During Development I used two cameras (EOS 60Da and EOS 80D). The 60D would take 10 to 12 exposures within the 6 second C window (although with tests immediately before the release on an M1 native system I could no longer get that speed and had to go back to 1 sec). I could not coax the 80D to run that fast. It had to remain on the 1.0 second setting (OK I got it down to 0.8, but would probably run it at 1.0). But because this involves some risk of losing exposures the program requires you prove the camera is capable of correct operation before changing the defaults.
Note that the defaults may even be too fast for some cameras. My 20D (which this program cannot support) is not able to run this fast.
Note that the Burst Time is twice the number you enter in the scenario generator. Even at a 1.0 second delay this will capture 6 shots during the C interval which is more than I have gotten in the past.
I would leave the Priority and Corona numbers as they are. But this is the place to change them. Feel free to experiment if you like. I was happy with being able to capture 6 seconds of C (which is 3 second on either side of the predicted C point for an ideal moon. Version 3.0 will make significant changes in the scripting of total eclipses that will encourage you to use a faster corona time if you camera will support it.
NEVER try to focus your camera on the sun unless a proper solar filter is in place.
I demonstrate in my eclipse lecture series that it is possible to focus you camera on a distant target and then put on your solar filter and point your camera to the sun. I actually had to do this in Texas since I so rarely saw the sun that it was not possible to focus on it. Remember this technique in 2030 when sunspots might be rare.