Image Acquisition Sequences:
 

• 16 separate light and dark frame Series.
• Each Series can contain any combination of bin size, filter and exposure time.
• Each Series contains a descriptive filename of your choosing.
• Each Series can be saved in a user defined folder.
• Each Series can have multiple exposures.
• File names and total sequence times are developed and displayed before starting the real sequence.
• Closed Shutter Filter Changes turns off the guider and takes a very brief and small dark frame which closes the camera shutter closed while the filter is changed.  This has the impact of eliminating the fogging that is sometimes seen on color sub-exposures with the SBIG color filter wheel. 
• A programmable "flush" series can be used before dark exposures
• RA, DEC, Altitude and Azimuth is written to the FITS header compatible with SBIGFITSEXT 1.0 and Mira version 7.
• IMAGETYP keywords are written compatible with SBIGFITSEXT 1.0 or Mira version 7

Pause/Resume

• A running sequence can be paused under user control and resumed from where it left off when desired.
• Once the pause is initiated the current exposure will complete then the sequence will pause.
• The user is notified in the status window that the CCDAutoPilot is on standby awaiting user input to resume the sequence.

Automatic Focusing:
 

• Automatic focus between exposure series to refocus to accommodate filter offsets, temperature drift of mirror shift.
• Additionally for those focusers that support it, temperature compensation can be turned off and on. 
• Filter focus point offsets can be programmed and executed as a function of the selected filter.  Eight filters are supported.
• An appropriate keyword is added to the FITS header for non-zero offsets.
• Appropriate FITS keywords for focus position, guide star position and optionally the rotator angle for the RCOS Instrument Rotator. A telescope control program is not required for operation.

Programmable Auto Guide Exposures:

• Allows setting the auto guide exposure for each filter in advance.
• When taking LRGB sequences, you can use a short guide exposure for faster guiding with the clear filter and longer guide exposures for the R, G and B sequences to make up for the lower transmission of the color filters.
• You can optionally turn off the guider at the end of the lights exposure run.
• A guider auto-dark can optionally be taken before each exposure to prevent the guider from falsely locking on a hot pixel, instead of a weak guide star. 

Dithering:

• Guided Dithering - During guiding, the guide star is slightly moved from one sub-exposure to the next.  This insures that hot pixels and other artifacts align differently with respect to the target. 
• Unguided Dithering - The telescope is moved slightly between images for unguided imaging to accomplish the same results as in guided dithering, above.

Telescope Control:

• At the end of a light sequence, tracking can be turned off stopping the mount at its current position.
• The telescope can optionally be parked at the end of the light series to place the mount in its permanent park position.
• The telescope park position is user defined from the telescope control program i.e. TheSky or Ascom.

CCD Cooler Control:

• The camera cooler can be shut down and the end of the light frame sequence.
• Optionally, the camera cooler can be shut down after the telescope parks and takes all dark frame series.

External Application Control:

• At the end of your image acquisition run, you can launch external applications and/or scripts.
• Allows for applications such as closing observatory domes/roofs and powering down equipment.

Profiles:

• Save all CCDAutoPilot image acquisition setting in user definable profiles.
• Move profiles from different machines.
• Load profiles to repeat image acquisition runs at later dates.
• Save profiles for easy flat frame acquisition sessions.

Interactive Help System:

• Robust online help allows for quick access to instruction on every feature in CCDAutoPilot.
• Step-by-step tutorial explains basic operation of CCDAutoPilot to get you up and running quickly.