Planner basics

Find an eclipse for your observing site and build the plan the run console will follow. HelioMaker calculates and fills all contact times for you.

Open the planner from Tools ▸ Solar Eclipse Planner (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+E). The window is titled Solar Eclipse Planner/Sequencer. It uses the observer site (latitude, longitude and elevation) configured in HelioMaker. Make sure that is accurate before you search, because it drives every contact time.

Solar Eclipse Planner search controls showing the observer, date window,
time display, contact point zoom and visibility options. — Choose the search window and whether times are shown in UTC or the observer site's local time.

First: set your observing site

Before you open the eclipse planner, set the location where you plan to capture the eclipse. Open the Dynamic Target Tracking tool (the astronomer button) and select your observer site there. Its exact latitude, longitude, elevation and time zone are a key prerequisite for both designing and running the plan: they drive the timing of every phase.

If your location changes later, even on eclipse day Just update the observer site in the same tool. The planner automatically readjusts all the eclipse timings for the new location. There is nothing else to change in the planner, assuming your new spot is still inside the totality path. Getting accurate coordinates and time zone right is what makes those automatic timings trustworthy.

You do not enter contact times manually Select the observer site in the Dynamic Target Tracking (DTT) dialog, then select the eclipse date from the planner results. HelioMaker automatically computes and fills C1, C2, maximum eclipse, C3 and C4 for that date and that observer location. These are local circumstances calculated from the site's latitude, longitude and elevation. You do not need to look up, type or import any contact times. The Times: choice changes only whether the calculated times are displayed as UTC or observer site local time.

Find an eclipse for your site

Set the date range with the Window: pickers (a start date, to an end date). Today resets the start to the current date.
Click Find solar eclipses to list every solar eclipse visible from your site in that window.
Use Times: to switch the display between UTC time and Observer site local time (the local option shows the site's offset). The list's contact columns update to match.
Show eclipses with non-observable max includes events whose maximum happens with the Sun below your horizon. This is useful when surveying events, but less useful when planning a capture.

Solar eclipse search result with local C1, C2, maximum, C3 and C4 times,
magnitude and duration. — Select an eclipse from the results. All displayed contacts and circumstances are calculated for the observer shown at the top of the planner.

Practise on past eclipses There is no separate "past events" mode. Set the Window: start date earlier and search. Pick a real historical total eclipse for your site and rehearse the full flow against it. → Simulation options

Read the contact times & circumstances

Each row in the results list shows the event and its geometry for your site:

Column	Meaning
Date	Date of the eclipse.
Type	Total, annular or partial for your location.
Magnitude	Fraction of the Sun's diameter covered at maximum.
C1 … C4	The four contacts: C1, first contact (partial begins); C2, second contact (totality or annularity begins); C3, third contact (it ends); C4, fourth contact (partial ends).
Max	Time of maximum eclipse.
Central dur. / Total dur.	Duration of the central (total / annular) phase and of the overall eclipse.

In local time mode the time columns carry a (local) suffix so you always know which clock you are reading.

Verify your timing independently Click View all eclipses for this site to open timeanddate.com for your coordinates in your browser, and compare its C1 through C4 times with HelioMaker's. They should agree closely. A large difference usually means incorrect site coordinates or elevation, or confusion between local time and UTC. See Prepare in advance ▸ Verify your eclipse timing.

Build the plan

Select an event and HelioMaker derives a starting plan with a set of phases from the partials through the central phase and out again, each with its own exposure recipe. From here you:

Open Plan preferences... to choose Safe or Diamond ring (Classical), choose Still or Live view, select the camera and guiding configuration, and enter the physically measured full solar disk exposure, camera gain and filter ND rating. See Plan preferences.
Let HelioMaker derive the phase recipes from those inputs and Fred Espenak's eclipse exposure recommendations, then tune individual phases in the phase table. See Phase editor.
Save your work: Save as draft keeps a draft copy; Save as final marks the plan approved (this is what the preflight checklist expects to see on eclipse day). Save to file... / Load from file... move a portable HelioMaker JSON plan between machines.
For an auxiliary SharpCap sequence, choose Save to file... and select SharpCap Sequence File (*.scs) as the file type. This creates a stand-alone still-mode sequence for a second SharpCap instance, not a portable HelioMaker plan. Open the second camera and select its capture folder before running it on the selected eclipse date, with the capture PC's time zone matching the observer timezone. The second camera must support the plan's settings. This auxiliary sequence does not include HelioMaker safety cues, guiding, refocusing, alarms, telemetry or recovery. Test the complete sequence with the actual camera before eclipse day.

Final total eclipse exposure and guiding plan with phase rows,
exposures, brackets, cycles, intervals, shot counts and guiding state. — The derived plan shows each phase's exposure recipe, cadence, estimated shots and guiding behaviour. Review and tune it before saving the plan as final.

Use the Phase Editor to inspect and tune each phase

Select a phase in the plan table to load its settings into the Phase Editor below the table. The editor lets you adjust the phase's exposure time, gain, HDR bracket step and number of frames, repeat count, capture interval and other settings that apply to that phase.

For an HDR phase, expand Phase summary to preview the complete bracket as the actual sequence of exposure times, not just its base exposure and bracket notation. The summary also shows the total EV span, estimated time per HDR set and total exposure time. The Tips: panel displays HelioMaker's exposure recommendations for the currently selected phase, calculated from the plan's full solar disk reference exposure, filter density and eclipse mode. As you change the exposure or bracket settings, use the summary and Tips together to compare the resulting bracket with the recommendations before saving the plan.

The C2 and C3 diamond ring phases also provide Lead time (s): and Trail time (s):. These extend the selected phase before and after its contact time, allowing an experienced eclipse imager to fine tune how much capture time is assigned around the diamond ring and Baily's beads. For the normal workflow, let Plan preferences... derive and populate these values as part of the complete phase plan. Adjust them only when you have a specific imaging reason, then review the timeline and rehearse the revised plan. In Diamond ring (Classical) mode, these phase boundaries also determine the filter change points.

Expanded Totality Phase summary showing the complete HDR
exposure ladder, EV span, estimated time per set, editable imaging controls and phase specific Tips. — The Phase Editor previews every exposure in the selected HDR bracket alongside guidance for that eclipse phase.

See Phase editor for all phase settings, cadence and coverage controls, guiding overrides and reset behaviour.

Derive first, tune second The full solar disk exposure, camera gain and effective density of the complete filter stack are the physical foundation of the plan. Measure them with the actual filtered rig before editing individual phases. Keeping one gain across all phases is recommended. Once automated imaging starts, the current version locks exposure and gain, so complete all derivation, phase tuning, approval and rehearsal before the run.

Draft vs final A "draft" only exists because someone edited the plan after approving a final. Its existence means the running plan and the approved plan differ. The preflight checklist flags this at arm time. Reserve Save as final for the plan you actually intend to run.

Preview the eclipse simulation

The planner draws a bitmap simulation of the eclipse for your site, plus a timeline. Use it to check the geometry and the phase layout before committing:

Zoom controls frame the interesting moments: Zoom to totality / Zoom to annularity, Zoom to C2, Zoom to C3, and Full eclipse to zoom back out.
Zoom on contact point focuses the preview on the limb where the diamond ring and Baily's beads appear.
The timeline marks where the solar filter comes off (a Filter off marker) and flags a Meridian crossing during the event. This matters if your mount needs a meridian flip near totality.

Selected eclipse preview zoomed around C2 through C3 with filter
markers, eclipse magnitude, separation rate and viewing geometry. — Use the preview and its zoom controls to inspect totality, contact points, filter markers and local geometry.