Pointing software

[Somnium (Aidan)]

i wanted to see what people were using for telescope pointing. i have a NEQ6 pro mount with a 10" f4 scope. at the moment i am using the hand controller but i will be (fingers crossed) working on a more permanent observatory. i am looking for a piece of software that will recognise data from my scope and overlay what objects are being displayed, i would also like to be able to click on objects in a planetarium and re-point the telescope. i understand that the second half can be done via Stellarium and EQMOD, but i want to map real data to the planetarium to ensure that where the scope is supposed to be pointing is actually correct. is there anything out there that can do this ?

[astrodavid]

Hi,

it sounds like what you're after is Stellarium/Eqmod used in conjunction with something like Astrotortilla.

This has the ability (once configured) to take a picture using your imaging train, plate solve, and correct the difference between what the image presents and where the software thinks it's pointing.

[astrodavid]

Glen,

I agree the skysafari is an elegant solution to planetarium control of the mount - but I think the OP was looking for a system that took camera input and aligned the two models.

[glend (Glen)]

Whoops, my apologies. Mods can delete,; stripped out the content.

[bugeater (Marty)]

Originally Posted by Somnium

but i want to map real data to the planetarium to ensure that where the scope is supposed to be pointing is actually correct. is there anything out there that can do this ?

I use Astrotortilla which takes an image from my guidecam. Once you get it up and working, it works well. Essentially you tell it to take an image, it analyses it, checks where EQMOD thinks you are pointing, then moves the mount so it is actually pointing there. It can also recheck and can update the pointing model too, so future goto accuracy is higher. I don't even look through an eyepiece anymore.

[Somnium (Aidan)]

thanks for the info guys, i have had a look at astrotortilla and it looks like it would be really handy for pointing, the only other thing i wanted to get out of it that it doesnt seem to do is to see what objects are in the image. i am looking to do some variable star analysis so i would love to know exactly what stars are in my picture and which ones they are. i found UniMap which seems to do just that and does plate solving, are there any others?

Originally Posted by bugeater

I use Astrotortilla which takes an image from my guidecam. Once you get it up and working, it works well. Essentially you tell it to take an image, it analyses it, checks where EQMOD thinks you are pointing, then moves the mount so it is actually pointing there. It can also recheck and can update the pointing model too, so future goto accuracy is higher. I don't even look through an eyepiece anymore.

[Somnium (Aidan)]

just got eqmod working with cartes du ciel and astrotortilla. all the components connect properly,just need some clear skies to test it all out