Cartes du Ciel

[Cjg]

Good evening,

Any recommendations for a tutorial about Cartes du Ciel please?

I'll probably be able to figure it all out, (eventually)  but if anyone has a good tutorial that they could recommend please, it would probably save me hours.

Thank you!

Chris

[kenny k]

Sorry i never watched any tutorials on CDC but im sure they are out there.

It is a very good program which works well with Eqmod.If i Can use it anyone can?.

Make sure all dates,time,coordinates & location in CDC match Eqmod or other platform your using.

Any help just ask.

 

Kenny.

[Charic]

185 pages here....... https://ap-i.net/pub/skychart/doc/doc_en.pdf

I'm a  big fan of Stellarium,  similar to cartes-du-Ciel no doubt... http://www.stellarium.org/en_GB/

 

[Cjg]

Thank you Kenny and Charic.

I plan on using it to draw some starhopping charts for later this year / next year, that's something I don't think you can do in Stellarium?

Cheers both,

Chris

[Charic]

Yes you can!

If you go into Stellarium   select F2 then TOOLS  select Invert Colours under the screen shots tab. You can create a path to your own folder here.

You then select your chosen area of sky or constellation and save it  using  CTRL-S  the image  will appear in the saved folder, on my system ends up in  my pictures library, Stellarium. If Stellarium is already loaded, see if the folder exists in Pictures!

Cartes does something similar, but Stellarium is capable.

[Cornelius Varley]

42 minutes ago, Charic said:

Yes you can!

If you go into Stellarium   select F2 then TOOLS  select Invert Colours under the screen shots tab. You can create a path to your own folder here.

You then select your chosen area of sky or constellation and save it  using  CTRL-S  the image  will appear in the saved folder, on my system ends up in  my pictures library, Stellarium. If Stellarium is already loaded, see if the folder exists in Pictures!

Cartes does something similar, but Stellarium is capable.

The charts produced in Stellarium are more of a screen grab, CdC produces a real chart. You could probably create a reasonable chart in Stellarium but it will never be as good.

 cdc001.pdf

[Cjg]

2 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

The charts produced in Stellarium are more of a screen grab, CdC produces a real chart. You could probably create a reasonable chart in Stellarium but it will never be as good.

 cdc001.pdf

Thank you Peter, that's the type of chart I'm looking for, how did t=you produce that please?

Thanks,

Chris

[Cornelius Varley]

In CdC select your required field of view and then select PRINT in the FILE menu. CDC overlays the grid and other info automatically.

[Charic]

18 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

CdC produces a real chart

Thanks..........your right, just a screen grab, yet the image you provided with additional key  information, could be beneficial. Now I've got something else to investigate! 

When I'm out alone in my Dob tent, its pitch black, no lights, so no charts required! I suppose with my new local site (another thread) with  grab-&-go binoculars, I  could  make  better use of a Star chart and diffuse red light, especially if/when accompanied? 

 

[Cjg]

Thank you Peter,

I also found another user in N3ptune, see his post here 

Isn't it great what you can accomplish on cloudy nights when on here!

Chris

 

[Dave In Vermont]

For anyone unfamiliar with Cartes du Ciel, I'll drop off the manual for it. As well as a representative screenshot:

Cartes du Ciel Manual.pdf

                 &

 

I think it's a very good no-nonsense planetarium-program. I use it sometimes, though admittedly I mostly use TheSkyX Serious-Astronomer - which costs £££. I'm not in the habit of suggesting programs that aren't 'Freeware,' but I'll leave a screenshot of SkyX just for fun.

Enjoy!

Dave

 

 

[Charic]

16 minutes ago, Dave In Vermont said:

I'll drop off the manual for it.

            

Thanks.........The link I provided earlier is  more up-to-date! should there be any corrections to the program?

[Dave In Vermont]

12 minutes ago, Charic said:

Thanks.........The link I provided earlier is  more up-to-date! should there be any corrections to the program?

I haven't a clue, but I know who does and will send him a PM.

Take care,

Dave

[Ruud]

Make sure that you do not use the option Setup > Save configuration on exit. Remove the check mark from this option if you see one there.

Experiment a lot. If you think you found a setting that improves the usability of the program for you, use Setup >Save configuration now.

On my computer the configuration file is here: C:\Users\Ruud\AppData\Local\Skychart\Skychart.ini
I copy it so that I can go back to an older version in case I mess things up.

Here is the info on how to add catalogues to the database:
http://www.ap-i.net/skychart/en/documentation/installation_of_extra_catalogs 

[Mak the Night]

I tend to just use these (Windows) installers, you can see the first here is the CDC binary itself. The other two are additional DSO and star files. CDC runs well on Ubuntu and there are instructions on the CDC site to install it on Linux. Remember, that there are huge additional CDC files so make sure you have the memory and RAM capacity. 

I just use CDC to plan sessions so I usually configure it to be the same when I run it from opening.

At the end of a planning session I normally don't save any settings, although I leave the option open.