% % Solve.tex % % SatNOGS Optical Unofficial Guide % % Copyright (C) 2022, Jeff Moe % % This document is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 % International Public License (CC BY-SA 4.0) by Jeff Moe. % \section{Plate Solver} \label{sec:plate-solver} A ``\gls{plate-solver}'' will take an image of stars and detect the time and place of the picture. There are two main steps: \begin{mdframed}[backgroundcolor=blue!10,linecolor=blue!30] \begin{enumerate} \item Extract stars from an image, such as a \gls{FITS} file generated by \texttt{\gls{stvid}}. \item ``Solve'' the image of the stars in the image against vast databases in a \gls{star-catalogue}. \end{enumerate} \end{mdframed} See below for a list of software tools that detect/extract stars from images (e.g. \gls{FITS}). \index{detect} \begin{mdframed}[backgroundcolor=blue!10,linecolor=blue!30] \begin{itemize} \item Source Extractor. \item \gls{KStars} with Ekos adds \texttt{Internal SEP}. \item \gls{KStars} with Ekos adds \texttt{Builtin method for solver}. \end{itemize} \end{mdframed} \index{Source Extractor}\index{Ekos} See below for a list of \glspl{plate-solver} that can be used. \begin{mdframed}[backgroundcolor=blue!10,linecolor=blue!30] \begin{itemize} \item astrometry.net locally. \item astrometry.net Internet. \item astap. \item Watney. \end{itemize} \end{mdframed} \index{astap}\index{Watney}\index{astrometry.net} \section{Source Extractor} \label{sec:Source Extractor} \index{Source Extractor} \texttt{Source Extractor}, formerly \texttt{SExtractor} and some other names, is an application to extract stars from images. The software has been widely used for many years. \url{https://www.astromatic.net/software/sextractor} \section{astrometry.net} Astrometry.net is a website and software that can be run locally to solve a plate of stars that has been extracted from \texttt{Source Extractor}. XXX \index{Source Extractor}\index{astrometry.net} % https://nova.astrometry.net/ \begin{figure}[h!] \begin{framed} \centering \includegraphics[keepaspectratio=true,height=0.60\textheight,width=0.60\textwidth,angle=0]{astrometry-web.png} \caption{nova.astrometry.net website.} \label{fig:astrometry-web-web} \end{framed} \end{figure} \fbox{ \parbox{\linewidth}{ \textcolor{red}{NOTICE:} \\ Using astrometry.net online requires an account with non-\gls{libre} services. The astrometry.net software can be installed locally to avoid this. \index{proprietary}\index{astrometry.net} } } \section{Star Catalogues} \label{sec:star-catalogues} To use a \gls{plate-solver}, you will need \glspl{star-catalogue}. They can get large. The \texttt{stvid} application includes a basic \gls{star-catalogue}. XXX The \texttt{4200} index series is also recommended. \section{World Coordinate System} \label{sec:wcs} \gls{WCS} info. XXX \section{SIP} \label{sec:sip} \gls{SIP} info. XXX \section{Plate Solving with \texttt{stvid}} \label{sec:plate-solving-stvid} \index{process} Use the \texttt{process.py} scripts described in section \ref{sec:plate-solver}, page \pageref{sec:plate-solver}, to solve plates with \texttt{\gls{stvid}}.