Plate solving, how to download catalogues?

[Atacamallama]

I am trying to use the PinPoint Astrometry function in MaximDL.

What I would like to do would be to download some of the catalogues it uses, but all my attempts to google and find them seem to finish in a dead end, so maybe there is something I'm not doing right....

[Psychobilly]

Which catalogs can it use...? and what format do they need to be in...?

I have quite a collection whhich I can use with CDC and TheSKy6 but the latest set I am downloading has been on the go for the last 8 days and another 2 to go until I have it all...

Billy...

[Psychobilly]

Telescope Reviews: Platesolving in Maxim - catalogue problem

[FraserClarke]

Not easy to find is it The link you need is this one; Downloading and Using PinPoint Reference Catalogs (Updated May 2010) - DC-3 Dreams Communication Center

squirreled away in the DC3 forum pages on pinpoint.

Guide Star Catalog (GSC) is available here; Index of /

That should be good for most uses, but if you have a small field of view (say <15 arcminutes) you might want to try USNO-A2.0 catalog. It's large (6Gb). I have a copy on DVD in Oxford if you want to borrow it.

[Psychobilly]

After my netbooks been on the case for the last week .. I also have a copy of the USNO-A2.0 Catalog... as all 6 GB of it came down at a massive 9.75 KB/Sec from the USNO FTP Server....

[Paxo]

You need to download the gscinstall.exe fil from Index of /

This is the GSC 1.1(Corrected) data set I use.

Steve

[ncjunk]

If you need to plate solve because your completely lost then I use astrometry.net

Its very quick.

If I am close then i use pinpoint and ACP. But i have had the odd night where everything was out of wack and astrometry.net saved me.

I have the A2.0 catalogue for ACP, I think...

[Atacamallama]

thanks for the leads. I have managed to download a catalogue but have not quite got it to work yet. I do use Astrometry but this does not always work quickly - last night it was taking an hour or so...which is why I am looking into local solutions....

[Paxo]

The Pinpoint version in Maxim uses a spiral search pattern, so if your a bit off in your intended slew it will take a while to calculate your position. The other critical factor is getting the arcseconds/pixel value for your setup as accurate as possible, get this wrong and it can take forever. On my system it usually takes about 15 to 20 seconds to plate solve.

Steve

[ncjunk]

I have been way off and its taken ages in maxim...its strange but i've never had problems with astrometry.net. Its always found the image within a few minutes 45sec subs x2 binned (smaller sub easier to upload to the website)

Maxim and pinpoint work great once your setup finishes close to the target but i have found spiral search a nightmare.

There is a guy on the acp observatory control forum who has done some software to search for patterns, as the astrometry website does, it generates a database (fairly large,based on your cameras field of view and is meant to be usefull if you have a remote observatory and you've got your setup lost.

Not sure if its only for pinpoit, acp or maxim with pinpoint...i'll find a link.

TBH if Astrometry is taking an age then could it be a setup problem? Subs too short or field of view too small? Just asking out of interest..i had a problem with it one night only when i was shooting through partial cloud so not many stars appeared on the sub.