PixelSkiesAstro SoftwarePSA Capture
One application that runs the whole night: from planning and focus to capture, safety and the morning report.
PSA Capture is astrophotography acquisition and observatory automation software, built and tested on real remote-observatory nights at PixelSkiesAstro. It plans targets around the Moon and darkness, focuses and plate-solves automatically, captures and grades every frame, watches the weather and the safety monitor, and closes the night down safely. You can follow all of it from your phone with PSA Monitor.
Everything an imaging night needs, in one place
PSA Capture is organised the way a night unfolds: plan, equip, observe, calibrate, and review. Each area below is part of the same application.
Targets & framing
An interactive sky atlas with your exact sensor frame overlaid. Rotate to your measured camera angle, build mosaics, and add targets straight to a sequence or campaign.
- Live framing for your focal length and sensor
- Measure & save camera angle from a plate solve
- Mosaic panels and custom coordinates
- Optional offline sky survey on the PC
- Target Discovery suggests what is well placed tonight
Scheduling
Three ways to run a night, all through the same proven Sequencer: a Campaign Planner that chooses targets for you, a Custom Scheduler for set routines, and Night Plan for block-by-block scripting.
- Altitude, darkness and meridian rules
- Moon gap (separation) and Moon illumination limits
- Setting-first ordering and multi-night campaigns
- Never repeats frames already saved
- Night Plan resumes from its checkpoint after a restart
Sequencer
The engine that actually images: slew, plate solve, centre, focus, guide, expose, dither and save — then repeat, filter by filter, target by target.
- LRGB, narrowband and one-shot-colour plans
- Built-in plate solving with a local star catalogue
- Automatic meridian flip with re-centre and refocus
- Periodic re-centring and dithering with settle checks
- Every frame graded SHARP / OK / SOFT / POOR; poor frames rejected
Autofocus
Focus that refuses to accept a bad curve. PSA Capture only accepts a real V-shape, approaches from one direction to remove backlash, and refocuses when stars start to grow.
- Profile-guided sweep around your last good focus
- Rejects flat or edge-of-sweep curves and retries smartly
- Validation exposure at the chosen position
- Drift refocus when stars grow by your chosen % for N frames
- Refocus on filter change and after a meridian flip
Guiding
Use PHD2, or PSA's own Native Guider built into the application. Guiding RMS, dithers and settling are tracked, and dither moves are kept out of the statistics.
- PHD2 integration with readiness checks
- PSA Native Guider with calibration
- Guide-star loss detection and recovery
- Live RA / DEC graphs
Dual Rig
Two telescopes on one mount, imaging in sync. Each rig has its own camera, focuser and autofocus, and one rig's problem never ends the other rig's night.
- Synchronised capture with a shared mount
- Focuser identity check by serial number — catches swapped focusers
- Rig B recovery: reconnect, power-cycle, then pause while Rig A continues
- Separate drift refocus settings per rig
Calibration
Flats, sky flats and calibration batches with flat-panel control, so calibration frames match the night they belong to.
- Flats wizard with automatic exposure
- Twilight sky flats
- Flat-panel light and cover control
- Calibration batches with camera warm-up afterwards
Science
Beyond pretty pictures: scheduled observing for asteroids, comets and transients, with precise timing for astrometry.
- Small-body astrometry with Tycho Tracker integration
- Galaxy Patrol for supernova searching
- Occultation and transient workflows
- MPC / ADES-format astrometry reporting
Polar alignment & remote rigs
A dedicated polar-alignment tab, and Remote Rig control for equipment attached to another PC on the observatory network.
- Guided polar-alignment workflow
- Remote Rig agent for a second PC
- Equipment hub with one-click Connect All
Designed to fail safe, not fail silent
Remote observatories run while nobody is watching. PSA Capture's safety rules have been reviewed line by line and tested against failure cases, and every protective action needs real evidence.
Safety monitor you can trust
Reads ASCOM or Direct Alpaca safety monitors through a protected lane. UNSAFE acts at once; SAFE must hold for your chosen time before imaging restarts. Changing the safety source always requires a fresh SAFE.
Weather awareness
Observing-conditions telemetry (temperature, humidity, dew point, wind, sky quality) is shown with its age. An optional weather-file fallback is clearly flagged when active.
Safe shutdown
At dawn or on a fault: park or home, confirm the mount has really stopped, warm the cameras, then switch power off — but only when the mount is confirmed safe.
Hardware recovery
Camera reconnect and power-cycle, focuser recovery, and an optional, opt-in Windows restart that resumes the same night after the cameras are warmed.
Watchdog & resume
An independent watchdog restarts PSA Capture after a crash or hang and resumes the previous plan once Safety is SAFE. Waking from Windows sleep is held until conditions are verified.
Global Stop
One button stops everything: Safe Stop (park and warm) or Quick Stop (leave the camera cold) — your choice, every time.
From dusk to the morning report
- DuskWaits for darkness and SAFE, powers the equipment, connects and cools the cameras.
- First targetSlews, plate-solves and centres, then autofocuses each rig.
- ImagingGuides, dithers and grades every frame; refocuses on filter change or when stars grow.
- Something changesClouds or UNSAFE pause the night safely; imaging resumes after SAFE has held.
- MeridianFlips, re-centres and refocuses automatically.
- DawnParks or homes, confirms the mount, warms the cameras and powers down.
- MorningThe night's report is waiting: frames, integration, focus runs, guiding and interruptions.
Your observatory, on your phone
PSA Monitor is a private, read-only dashboard for every telescope PC, reached securely through Tailscale. It works on a phone, tablet or office PC browser, and it can never move a telescope or change a setting.
- One summary — how many telescopes are imaging, waiting or need attention, with the reason.
- Now, next, progress — target, filter, countdown, accepted and rejected frames, next target.
- Activity timeline — pauses, resumes, target changes, autofocus results and why a frame was rejected.
- Focus & guiding graphs — tap any point to see its value.
- Latest image — with target, filter, exposure, HFR and verdict written on it.
- Weather & safety — with the age of every reading; stale data is always marked.
- Tonight & Reports — the plan for tonight and a morning report for each night.
- Night red display and optional Discord alerts.
Works with the equipment observatories already use
Data stays organised too: a capture database knows what has already been taken, and the optional cloud archive verifies every file's checksum before any local copy may be removed.