Target selection

[RobF]

What are people using for target selection and planning these days?
My tools in the past have been astroplanner, planetarium software with FOV superimposed and most recently the mosaic planning wizard in sequence generator.

The planetarium isn't always great for planning wide field stuff. Do you regularly use online tools/databases? Would be interested to hear.

[Atmos]

I tend to largely use TSX and Google to select what to image. I then use CCDFieldCalc by Atik on my iPhone to figure out my FOV.

[Andy01]

Sky Safari with the user customised FOV overlay is great!

I also use a wide variety of websites & pages for research into targets that might best suit my gear including the Sharpless catalogue, www.intergalacticsafari.com, DSO Browser, APOD etc.

[codemonkey]

I've been using dso-browser.com (http://dso-browser.com/) lately to find targets, and then SGP's Mosaic & Framing Wizard to get the FOV / rotation figured out so I can get going more quickly.

[RobF]

Thanks Colin. I've heard how good the SB stuff is, but my wallet won't stretch that far currently. Not unless I buy one of their mounts one day.

[RobF]

Thanks Andy. Hearing Marc say he used SS5 for framing did pique my interest too. Might have to upgrade from SS4 perhaps to be able to do this?

[RobF]

thanks Lee. I'm particularly interested in online catalogues, especially those that allow some sort of FOV indicator to be superimposed. Will check it out.

[jjjnettie]

Sky Safari for me.

[ozstronomer]

Rob, SPG has a great Mosaic planner, It's an extra plugin.

[multiweb]

You can do that in SS4 already. Just installed SS5 and it migrated all my scopes settings from 4. Pretty cool.

[RobF]

Thanks guys and gal. Will check out SS4 pro again before I get carried away.

[RobF]

thanks Geoff - yes, totally agree. Forked out for the mosaic addon and have been very happy with it, even for planning a single field.

By the way, I stripped down my Robofocus this afternoon looking to change motors. Very embarrassed to find the problem was just grub screw tightness on the coupler between focuser shaft and robofocus. :ashamed:

Should really have spent that 30mins before AF given 20/20 hindsight.

Still, its focusing like a champion again tonight. Thanks for your moral support at AF :)

[multiweb]

The upgrade for $25.00 is worth it IMHO. Quite a few features in 5 and it runs smoother on my device.

[RobF]

I'm on iPad - hopefully available for IOS too? Will go looking....

[ozstronomer]

Oh well... at least you have found the problem.

Should be all good form here on :thumbsup:

Cheers Geoff

[RickS]

Hi Rob,

SkySafari 5 Pro and Astroplanner are the main tools I use.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Clancy Lane]

Rob,

I thought you might like to see the pic taken at Duckadang when you were setting up!

May I ask where you got the puck with the Losmondy plate for the HEQ5 from?

cheers,

Phil

[RobF]

Thanks Rick. Have updated to SS5 tonight and will have to spend more time coming to grips - from what I've seen last night the FOV settings seem to make it very intuitive to "feel out" large fields like the Veil area.

I thought you might have mentioned some of the big online survey sites for sussing out the 4 panel mosaic you'd prepared for too?

[RobF]

Hi Phil. Man, we really needed a beer at that stage after all the driving and setting up for first evening :P
And I'll have to tell Damian his bum is now in the public domain :lol:

The saddle is ADM - great piece of kit. There is also a dual Vixen/Losmandy one if you want that flexibility. I've replaced the pucks on both my 5 and NEQ6 and also bought a "D to V" adapter just to cover all bases.

This is a good read on the options and people's experiences (and website links to ADM):
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=143447&highlight=adm+heq5

[RobF]

Have also been reading up on the SGP option for manual rotator with plate solve assist. Thanks for the tip to check that out too Geoff.

[RickS]

I just pinched the mosaic idea from a very wide Ha mosaic done with a camera lens I found somewhere on the interwebs.

I don't use online survey sites a lot but I do use the WISE catalog to check for IFN (http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/Missions/wise.html), Hyperleda for info on galaxies (http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr/) and Aladin (http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/) for identifying objects.

[RobF]

Thanks muchly Rick. Pretty clueless on those - will have to do some surfing and playing. Exactly the sort of thing I wanted to check out.