Rotation amount indicator in APT?

[BrendanC]

Hi all,

When I'm revisiting a previous target or doing a mosaic, and I really need to get the rotation angle just right, I plate solve in APT and then Show the result in Stellarium. This gives me an exact rotation angle, from where it's an iterative process of rotate, solve, show, repeat. 

However, it just occurred to me that it would be incredibly useful if APT could just show the angle of rotation instead. I'd still need to iterate, but wouldn't have to jump across to Stellarium (which isn't very easy to make out sometimes).

I know that a compass icon is displayed top left after the plate solve, but ideally there would be an actual figure there too, for more precise alignment.

I must admit I don't have APT in front of me right now and this might already exist! If so, could someone tell me where I should be looking please (ideally before tonight!)

Thanks,
Brendan

[geeklee]

21 minutes ago, BrendanC said:

I must admit I don't have APT in front of me right now and this might already exist!

Hi Brendan - I had to go look this up myself as I was sure I'd seen it but wasn't sure where in Apt it was.

It's in the Pointcraft interface when you solve an image.  I ran a quick test - loaded an image and ran a blind solve:

There's an Angle: indication there.  Now I knew where it was, it was easier to find in the manual:

https://www.astrophotography.app/usersguide/pointcraft.htm#id_8

Edited July 13, 2021 by geeklee

[BrendanC]

Outstanding! Thank you so much! It must have been there staring me in the face all along...!

[Paul M]

There is also a recent addition to APT called Framing Mask. It's a way of overlaying two reference points from an existing image on to a new image allowing the camera to be rotated in real time to exactly align it with previous image runs.

[BrendanC]

Interesting! I'd read about them but never really understood what they're for. This could be really useful, thanks.

[Paul M]

19 minutes ago, BrendanC said:

Interesting! I'd read about them but never really understood what they're for. This could be really useful, thanks.

I haven't used it in anger yet but did play with it a while ago just to see if : a) I understood it   b) if it might be useful.  It does what it says on the tin.

Going forward I'm sure I'll use it eventually. I don't often change the rotation of my camera and if I do I always return it to my default angle before next session.