Astroart Forum

New to Astroart 7 so I'm having a few issues and cannot find solutions in the manual or forum (unless I'm looking in the wring places!!)

1. When I have an image open and move the cursor over the image I cannot see it as it is black on a black background but can see when the centre of the cursor goes over a star - Need to be able to see it more easily - is there a way of adjusting it?

2. Just exploring setting up the software to control my mount and camera but I cannot seem to get the FOV settings right on the Preferences/Observer page particularly as I would like to try some Astometry when I have it all sorted. I have a DSLR and a ccd camera which I use for different purposes but the 'CCD Scale' entry is asking for degrees per pixel in the two slots provided - how do I calculate that? The FL of the scope os 907mm and the Canon pixel size is 5.2 microns - the CCD is 7.9 microns

3. If I fill the RA and DEC of a DSLR image into the Find Coords panel - should I be able to plate solve or does this only work with a CCD which has a header? Is there a way of doing it with a DSLR?

Sorry for multiple questions but I am not finding it easy to get my head around the setup for camera and scope use along with Plate solving etc. Any help or pointers welcomed.

Thanks in advance
Dave

1) There are sliders along the right hand side of the Main window to adjust the brightness and contrast. You can also place the mouse cursor over the image and right click the mouse and then select: Viewrange->auto->auto.

2) it is asking for arc seconds per pixel. There are various calculators online that will tell you that for a given pixel size in microns:
for example : https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd

3) yes it should work or you can enter a name such as M101 or N2419, for Messier or NGC objects, respectively, if you know that. You can get help by clicking on the help button. It is important to enter the field size (of the long width of the frame) in arc minutes fairly accurately.

Some other hints:

1) You can also change the visualization of the background (so the "black threshold") in these ways: press SHIFT and rotate the mouse wheel, or press SHIFT and PAGUP/PAGDOWN, or use the Histogram Window. These methods are described in the chapter "The image window", you may also press CTRL for finer control.

2) Please note that this setting is used only for the "Follow minor planet" option of Preprocessing.

3) The "RA/DEC or object" is just a hint for the zone. If you are really unsure about where the scope was pointing you may increase the search zone to 40x40 degrees or more. The most important data is the field of view. Take a look at the tutorial with the M67 image, in the chapter "Find coordinates".