[Aavso-photometry] Automated star finding

[Tomas L. Gomez]

Hi Jim,

I you know how to write a Visual Basic script, I think that PinPoint
will do the job. After using the method "Plate.Solve" it produces a
collection of objects "PlateStar" one for each star detected. The
properties "PlateStar.RightAscension" and "PlateStar.Declination"
is what you are looking for. In fact, I think that it makes two collections
of objects "PlateStar" one for the objects detected in the plate,
and another for the stars in the catalogue which have been matched
to the objects detected.

If you need help with the script, let me know.

CCDSoft might be even easier. When you make a plate solution,
it adds to the FITS heading one line for each star matched, with
RA and Dec. The problem with CCDSoft is that I am not sure if it
will show list objects not in the catalogue (for instance, a nova).

Hope this helps,

Tomas Gomez (GOT)

On 8/9/07, Jim Roe <jroe at jamesroe.com> wrote:
>
>
> Michael Newberry wrote:
> >    It sounds like your problem is a matter of database software. You get
> > the photometry from your favorite astronomical IP software and then you
> > save it to your master database for subsequent mining. Is your problem
> > is that you match by (RA,Dec) and the database program doesn't know how
> > to handle the format? If someone could write a macro to process the RA
> > and Dec, and maybe do some precession if needed, then couldn't you use
> > something as generic as Microsoft Access?
> >
>
> I can handle the database challenge.  I can take images in V and Ic.  I
> can plate solve and save WCS in the FITS header.  What I can't do (yet)
> is, in one automatic operation, pull each and every detectable star from
> each and every image in a CSV (or other) listing with RA, DEC,
> instrumental magnitude, etc on each line.  From there I can easily input
> into the database.
>
> AIP4Win will do the listing I want in PixelX and PixelY, but it doesn't
>    seem like they can use the WCS info in the header and their
> astrometric procedure seems primitive because it is manual.  I suppose I
> can write a routine to transform their PixelX and PixelY coordinates to
> RA and DEC using the WCS info but I was hoping to find a faster solution.
>
> Maxim and Charon will let me manually select any star I want and give me
> the RA and DEC and photometry numbers but some of these images could
> well contain 1,000 stars or more.  I'm too lazy for that.
>
> In my limited study of Mira, I'm not yet sure if it will do what I want.
>   I see pieces of the puzzle laying around everywhere but haven't found
> the missing piece (yet). :-)
>
> Jim Roe
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