NINA Imaging Statistics

I only pay attention to three numbers in this panel: Median, Min, and Max. All three range from 0-65535.

Median tells you the value of the background sky. If this number fluctuates a great deal it likely indicates passing clouds.

Min is the lowest value in the image. We don't want this to be anywhere close to 0 (pure black). There is only 1 pixel that has the lowest value of 1748. That's good.

Max is the highest value in the image. Many pixels with a value close to 65535 would indicate overexposure. Here, we've only got a few pixels  near that value. They are likely the centers of some bright stars. 

The Hocus Focus plugin for NINA selects "average" stars and measures them. This can tell us if we're still in focus.

#Stars is pretty obvious. A very low number could mean the measurements aren't very reliable.

HFR is the important one. This is a measure of how big the average star is in pixels. For this setup, a number near 1.60 is good. 

Excentricity measures how round the average stars are. This can tell you if there are guiding problems with your mount. Anything 0.40 and under usually indicates nice round stars.

Parabolic R2 shows how reliable the autofocus run was, with 1.00 being the best.

It's easy to obsess over guiding numbers, which measure how accurately the mount is tracking the stars over time. Here, the total error is 0.86"/pixel. 

Anything under 1.00"/pixel is usually good, but it depends on your system. 

Unfortunately, NINA's total error often gets stuck, so check PHD2 for an accurate number.

This panel shows you where the telescope is currently pointing. 

Meridian in tells you how long until the scope needs to flip to the other side of the mount. Here it's 23 minutes until the flip.  

Altitude shows how high the scope is pointing above the horizon.

Azimuth shows what compass direction it's pointing in. 

Side of pier shows which side of the mount the telescope is currently. 

This tells you about the star PHD2 has selected as its main guide star. 

The only thing I look at is Peak, or how bright the star is, out of 65535. PHD2 doesn't track well with washed-out stars, so I like this to be well below 60000. 

I don't pay attention to this unless the guiding is bad.