Software to Identify what your looking at?

[Hailfire101]

Hi Guys. 

My partner just asked me if there is a software that can identify stars, clusters and so on, via the guide camera? 

She'd like to use my equipment while I work away, but isn't the best at finding things. And I don't have a goto mount yet. 

Ideally, a software that shows what your looking at and maybe an arrow or something to show her with way to move the scope? 

[paul mc c]

I dont know if your scope is suitable,but you can use Stelarium to control your scope.

[Hailfire101]

I thought that, but it needs good goto motors. I'm after something that sees what's on the camera, knows what your looking at and helps you find a target. 

Like Google skymap does. 

[JemC]

there are these, http://www.celestron.com/browse-shop/uncategorized/series/skyscout-personal-planetarium

i have never used one so not sure how good they actually are, can pick them up quite cheaply now on ebay and other places,

[furrysocks2]

Plate solving - see http://astrometry.net/.

Quote

If you have astronomical imaging of the sky with celestial coordinates you do not know—or do not trust—then Astrometry.net is for you. Input an image and we'll give you back astrometric calibration meta-data, plus lists of known objects falling inside the field of view.

The online server lets you upload an image and it should display results on a webpage. You can also get astrometry.net running locally which, along with a local copy of databases relevant to the angular field or view you get with your kit, can show you where you're looking. It won't help with navigation as such, so is only part of the story, but it is possible to get the coordinates that fall out of plate solving to be displayed in Stellarium, etc, though I've not done it and it's probably not trivial to set up.

 

[Merlin66]

I'd also recommend All Sky Plate Solver

http://www.astrogb.com/astrogb/All_Sky_Plate_Solver.html

Works 100% for me!

[Hailfire101]

Thanks for these suggestions, I'll give them a go and see if she likes the way they work. Hope so. 

Hoping to get a 32mm panaview this week, so I can find things quicker.

[furrysocks2]

Some mobile phones with both accelerometers and compass internally can be mounted to your scope and used as a rough guide with several planetarium apps, though the compass can be affected by metal in the vicinity. I briefly had one mounted on my scope and after two-star alignment was able to get close to things, but found the screen to be too bright. Perhaps not all apps allow you to align such that you don't have to have the phone pointed directly at the object itself, ie you can mount the phone at any angle and align to where the scope's pointing. I used SkEye on Android.