Stargazer95050's articles with the keyword: map

"Build your own" in this case doesn't mean soldering and writing thousands of line of code. Instead I take advantage of available HW & SW and combine them and hopefully end up with a better (and lower-cost) solution than the off-the-shelf items. This is an ongoing adventure -- come back to see the progress ...

Plate-solving is useful -- especially when you use it to correct a telescope's position in real-time . You also can feed the solver an existing photo and manually read the results but using the output can be cumbersome. Manual copy & paste coordinates of input fields of tools like Stellarium helps, but that approach isn't very user friendly. Here's a different take on this -- solve the image and instantly get the sky map of that region. Again, this is using mostly freeeware tools.

PLANNING is in my opinion one of the best ingredients to any successful venture, astrophotography & otherwise. And in another article, I wrote about the WHERE / LOCATION. The right timing of WHEN also is important If I have to explain to you WHY stargazing is great, you're at the wrong page SCOUTING WHERE to shoot is one important step : /stargazer95050/657919 DECIDING WHAT objects to photograph : /stargazer95050/704191 PLANNING WHEN to shoot is another : /stargazer95050/659063 DECIDING WHAT equipment suits the task best : PRACTICE HOW to shoot is just as important : /stargazer95050/657921 POST-PROCESSING of the captured results :

[UPDATE 2013/12/20] Predicting the position of the Sun & Moon isn't all that difficult with a bevy of apps & websites to help you. Predicting satellite positions, incl ISS, is more specialized. Several tools of the SOFTWARE TOOLCHEST come in handy and I will have to add some new ones for this task. Once you know WHEN & WHERE it will happen, the next task is to figure out HOW. Especially when you aim to shoot a transit in front of the Sun, extra precaution is needed.