Last nights we turned on a major update to LightBuckets. The primary new feature is call Multi-targeting.

This should be a great addition for researchers doing variable star, minor planet, and exoplanet work.

Multi-targeting gives you the ability to image a target, slew and image another target, and keep going. No more setting up multiple individual imaging runs. Imaging multiple targets in one plan also saves a fair amount of overhead time at start up.

Using Multi-targeting is pretty self explanatory. Just click on the Add Target tab in the planning area to insert a new target into your imaging plan. The rest of the set up for filters, binning, subframe count, and subframe duration is the same.

You can edit any target in your plan by simply clicking on the tab for that target.

You can also change the order of your targets in your plan. Just click on the left or right arrows on the tab for the target you want to move. It will move either left or right accordingly.

There is a slight change to the Imaging Plan set up submenu that you will notice. Instead of a "submit" step we now have a "booking" step. It is fundamentally the same as before. If you are doing a Schedule for Later imaging run with a Multi-target plan you will see all of your targets in the timeline slider bar.

We've also made some slight changes to the Account area when you click on an imaging run you have scheduled. Instead of creating Image Packages on the same tab where your individual data is found, there is a new tab to create the package and get the package download link.

Another good change in the Account area is that every subframe from your imaging run will have a unique identifier as part of the filename. This will help greatly when you are working with data taken over many evenings...no more duplicate filenames to have to manually rename!

There is a lot "under the hood" that has changed as well that I won't bore you with. I think Multi-targeting will be a big help to the LightBuckets research community. Let us know what you think.

Remember, you can always send me an email directly at steve@lightbuckets.com.

Cheers,

Steve

P.S. There may be a hiccup or two as we find issues in the new interface and features. Please let me know immediately if you find something that doesn't seem right or is not working. We are on high alert to get any issues sorted straight away so don't be afraid to send us an email.