AStroart 7 photometry & Astrometry question

[nemesis83]

Newby here. I have been considering purchasing Asrtoart 7 but have a couple of questions before I buy. I am interested in using Astroart 7 to do some reasonably serous work in the area of photometry and astrometry. I started by going through the tutorials. All went fine until I hit tutorial #9. Using the supplied M57_SUM.fit I attempted to find reference stars. After I brought up Stars pull-down menu and the star atlas. I could not recognize any stars that showed up in the M57 image. further research found that the internal GSC data base atlas did not show any stars below a 5.3 degree times 3.1 degree field. My cameras are only capable of a 36.6 minute times 27.3 minute field. If the GSC data base has this limitation then Astoart 7 is useless to me.

Question; Is there a better data base or a more complete GSC data base that I should be using? If so where how would I obtain them. Size is no problem as I have 4 Terabytes of storage space. Finally, how would I load them - is a call to their folder in Astroart preferences sufficient reference or would extra code be necessary?

nemesis 83
Himesa Obs

[fabdev]

Hello, the GSC catalog is not internal, it's located in the folder "GSCData" of the CD and it should be copied on the harddisk, in a folder where you usually keep your astronomic data. Then that folder should be set in the Preferences of the star atlas.
There are better catalogs by the way, for example the UCAC4:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=134
or the USNO or GAIA2 which can be downloaded in realtime, without installing anything. The catalogs can be set in the Preferences.

[nemesis83]

First thank you for the quick reply - greatly appreciated.

Have downloaded GSCData to my C drive. Still have same problem. Downloaded M57_SUM from images in Astroart. GSC data base atlas does show any stars below a 5.3 degree times 3.1 degree field. The M57 image looks to be roughly 1 degree by 1.5 degree making selection of matching stars impossible as GSCData quits showing images of stars below 5.7 by 3.1 field of view. Need help here to determine where I have gone wrong as I am reasonably certain others have had no problem like this happen to them.

[einari]

I can confirm it works your problem sounds strange.
Have you tried different area/image ?

[fabdev]

Do you see a writing "Not found - GSC..." in the upper-left zone of the atlas?
This means that the C:/... folder was not selected in the Preferences

[nemesis83]

Thanks to all who have responded - much appreciated.

Einari, evidently had a bad GSCdata base. Cleaned computer reloaded Astroart 5.0 which I own and problem of no stars goes away.

Fabedev. have not gotten that kind of error. Still trying to figure how to load some of the other data bases you have mentioned. Looks like an uphill battle as I am unfamiliar with the way the bases are listed on their sites. I am used to being presented with some kind of *.exe file. Will try to figure what is wanted.

nemesis 83
Himesa Obs

[Dunmunro]

Thanks to all who have responded - much appreciated.

Einari, evidently had a bad GSCdata base. Cleaned computer reloaded Astroart 5.0 which I own and problem of no stars goes away.

Fabedev. have not gotten that kind of error. Still trying to figure how to load some of the other data bases you have mentioned. Looks like an uphill battle as I am unfamiliar with the way the bases are listed on their sites. I am used to being presented with some kind of *.exe file. Will try to figure what is wanted.

nemesis 83
Himesa Obs

Typically you create a folder called (for example) GSC or USNO and then download the files to that folder, for example C:\GSC and then set that location into the Star Atlas preferences window.

[nemesis83]

All,

Again thanks for all the help, really appreciate it. Have purchased Astroart 7 and have GSC 1.1 and UNSO B (www) running just fine. One last question, does anybody have a good site for USCAC4? The ones I have found seen to describe the contents of the data base but not provide a downloadable capability.

Nemesis 83
Himesa Obs

[fabdev]

Hi,
AFAIK the UCAC4 can be downloaded only via FTP (maybe there are some torrents too?)
So, you will need a FTP software: if you choose Filezilla remember to set "binary mode" in the Options, otherwise the download will be corrupted.

[AdrianoV]

Hi, I can't get the UCAC4 catalog read at AA7. In the folder where I entered the catalog there are two subfolders u4b and u4i but AA7 still does not find the catalog. In the configuration mask I put the correct path.
Adriano

[fabdev]

Hi, verify that in the u4b folder there are 900 files, check the file size of some of them to verify that it was downloaded correctly.
Here is the list:

u4b-files.txt

(20.23 KiB)

[AdrianoV]

In the u4b folder, there are 300 files,
Ciao Adriano