CCD Navigator 2, written by Steve Walters and sold by CCDWare, is used to plan astro-imaging sessions. It provides a selection of interesting objects to image. The objects shown are based on the date, time, location, and various other parameters that can be set by the user - such as object brightness and object size. When any of the small object images is clicked on, another window comes up (2 are shown on the right) with more detailed information about the object, including a graph of the object elevation (imaging is usually done around transit - when the object is highest in the sky, and you are imaging through less atmosphere), also showing the elevation of the moon, and the local horizon (i.e., elevation of obstructions, such as trees). If the object is added to the session plan, it pulls up TheSky6, where it provides a selection of orientations to automatically position various guide stars on the guide chip. Once an orientation has been selected, the object is added to the session plan. A number of objects can be added to the plan for a night, and these can be adjusted for maximum imaging time (when the objects are in the most favorable positions in the sky). Then, the session plan can be exported from CCD Navigator and imported into CCD AutoPilot. From there, imaging is done automatically.

As of mid-2010, CCDWare had introduced CCDNavigator v.2, which incorporates many new features, including assisted guidestar selection. I am now using CCDNavigator 2 - at least for seeing what is up and matches my criteria, if not for actually generating a CCDAutoPilot imaging plan.