RigTonightHow to use RigTonight to plan an astrophotography rig and night
RigTonight does two jobs. It checks that every part of an imaging rig works together, then it tells you what is worth shooting tonight with that rig. This quick start walks through both in five minutes. Each step links to a fuller tutorial if you want the details.
1. Build your rig
Open the Rig tab and click any part of the drawing: the telescope, camera, mount, filter wheel, guide scope, controller or power supply. A panel opens with the options for that slot. The list underneath the drawing does the same thing if you prefer a list.
Start with the telescope and camera, because almost every check depends on them. Then add the mount, the filter wheel and filters, guiding, a controller and a power source. Build a rig, step by step goes through every slot.
2. Read the checks
The Compatibility panel lists every problem first, then notes, then what's fine. Each check comes with the fix:
- Back focus. Your flattener or reducer needs the sensor a set distance away (usually 55 mm). The app adds up the camera, filter wheel and any off-axis guider, allows for filter glass, and tells you which stock spacers fill the gap. See Back focus explained.
- Payload. Everything on the mount is added up and compared with a realistic imaging limit, not just the box rating. See How much can your mount really carry?.
- Sampling. Your image scale is compared with your typical seeing. Set seeing with the buttons at the top of the Your rig card. See Image scale and sampling.
- Guiding, filters, controller and power each get their own checks.
Every check explained lists them all with their fixes.
3. Save and share it
Use Save rig to keep it under a name. Save several and switch between them with My rigs.
The Share this rig card gives you a link containing the exact parts. You can copy it, or post it straight to Reddit or WhatsApp. Anyone who opens it sees the same rig and the same checks, and their own rig stays safe. Save, share and go outside also covers night mode and installing the app for offline use.
4. Set your location
Open Tonight and search for your town, address or dark-sky site, or use your current location. Your location stays in your browser. The weather service only receives it rounded to about 1 km.
5. Plan tonight
The hourly strip shows darkness, a combined clear-sky score from five weather models, each model on its own row, and the moon. Hover over an hour for a plain-English verdict, or over a model's name to learn what it is. See Which weather model should astronomers trust?.
Best targets tonight ranks objects by clear, dark, moon-free hours. With My rig selected, it also weighs how well each target fits your field of view and filters. Hover a target's Great / Good / Not ideal for your rig label to see why. Plan tonight explains every row of the forecast.
6. Browse everything
The Targets tab lists 520 objects, including all 110 Messier objects. Search by name or catalogue number, filter by type, tick Suits my rig, or sort by what's best tonight. See Find targets for your rig.