How to connect Stellarium to a plate solver.

[Andy56]

HI,

 

I'm getting some success with astrophotography but one this that I seem to take a lot of time over is centring the target. 

I use a laptop next to my telescope. WO ZS61/flattener  with Star Adventurer and 600D and 180mm guide scope.

I use APT for the taking the images.

I plate solve using All Sky Plate Solver but the other night's target was the Virgo Cluster and the solved plate had some many galaxies I was confused as to what I was looking at exactly.

So is there a plate solver that can sent coordinates automatically  to Stellarium (or similar) so I can zoom out I see the whole picture?

In the morning I manually put the coordinates into Stellarium using the script tool but I don't want to be doing this in the cold.

I have tried Platesolver2 through APT and stand alone, but it failed to solve even after giving the approx coordinates.

 

 

As in the image below, I was hoping to get Markarian's Chain, I got some of it but not all. Overall I'm happy with the image (except the new dust bunnies).

98 X 60secs 15 darks at ISO800, some old flats and bias. I think the dust has appeared after the flats were taken. Unfortunately I've taken the rig down so I can't reproduce the correct orientation for the flats. Next time however...

 

 

Regards

Andy

Edited May 8, 2021 by Andy56

[barbulo]

Never tried with Stellarium, but I use APT to send the coordinates to CdC. If I remember well, you have to configure the same port number both in APT and CdC. 
However, I think it would be better if you manually re-center your target(s) (and rotate the camera if needed) in your FOV after plate-solving.

Edit: nice picture, by the way. Tons of galaxies there. 

Edited May 8, 2021 by barbulo

[bottletopburly]

Just choose Stellarium as your planetarium software in APT , look into using Astap via Apt , far quicker ,  just make sure you have configured Apt for your focal length , camera etc then use Goto ++ in Apt

[Andy56]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for you input.

I set up Point Craft in APT to use all sky plate solver.

Added the Remote control plugin into Stellarium and checked the port numbers matched.

Loaded some images into APT and solved them.

After some trial and error I found the magic button "Show" and Stellarium went straight there.

Now I have to get a feel of the amount of movement with the Star Adventurer for manual alignment but I notice that this can be done straight from the image taken in APT so should make things easy.

 

Barbulo: Yes loads of galaxies. I use Gimp and found how to use the masks tool to deepen the background. I still seem to get vignetting even after applying 30 or so light frame. I think I need to retake them the morning after each session.

I hope I get some good skies like the other day soon.

Many thanks

Andy