I often use Kstars to examine FITS files captured previously. (File > Open Image...) Would it be possible to add plate solving capability to the fits viewer? I have to use another application to solve the image which is a shame because Ekos has this capability in the align module.

I second the request for this!

Any updates on this? I too would love to have this option available. Even better, a way to tell ekos to plate solve every new image that it takes in the capture module.

Right now I'm using the local astrometry solver (solve-field) with a script to plate solve my images at the end of an imaging session (I need to plate-solve before uploading to VPHOT for online photometry analysis). It works, but the internal solver is much faster.

Thank you,

jf

I use Kstars as well for photometry. Another really useful function would be able to draw a circle or place an aperture in fits viewer to get a simple measurement of maximum and mean pixel count. This would help me a lot when getting the exposure correct before running a variable star or exoplanet sequence of images. At the moment after taking a test image I can see it in fits viewer and can move mouse around the stellar image but its difficult to pick up the maximum count. I usually open the fit file in AstroImageJ just to make this measurement. Would you find that function useful?

That sounds useful to me! I also do photometry work and my current strategy is to run test exposures until I see clipping on my star of interest and decrease the exposure a little from that. Having a quick way to get the maximum ADU for a region (one star, or a group of stars) would be useful.

jf

Also, for anyone wondering, it is possible to plate solve from inside the FITS viewer in KStars. The trick is to make the side menu visible (by clicking on histogram or statistics for example) and then select the "plate solve" tab. Unfortunately, I could not find how to tell the solver to read automatically the coordinates from the fits header to start searching in correct region.

jf

Jean-Francois: Check out the KStars Handbook docs.kde.org/trunk5/en/kstars/kstars/kstars.pdf section on the FITS Viewer, specifically Section 6.3 on the FITS Viewer Solver. Specifically, to constrain the position just check the Use Position checkbox and fill in RA and DEC values and click solve. Also, to get the sidebar you can also click and drag that dotted vertical line on the left side of the view.

Also, if you look in section 6.1 for the words Selection Rectangle, you can see that there is a way to get some statistics for a configurable rectangle inside the image. I believe the statistics given are mean, median and stddev.

BTW, I believe the handbook should also be available in French and other languages, though I don't know the URL for that.
Hy

Thank you for the answer and happy new year! I did see the option to specify the RA/DEC but what I would love to have is an option for the fits reader to automatically populate this field with the coordinates in the fits header. The idea is that the coordinates in the fits header are probably just a little bit of (due to mount tracking imprecisions) and I'd like to solve my images to get accurate coordinates. Starting from the RA/DEC location indicated in the fits header should be super fast because it will be close to the true solution. Typing the coordinates by hand in the box is not nearly as efficient as having the program pre-populate these boxes with the values from the fits header.

I might end up looking at the code for the plate-solving in EKOS and reuse it to write my own little solver. I really enjoy Kstars/Ekos

Thanks for pointing out the selection rectangle option. Unfortunately, this one does not help much for my specific application. The statistic that matters the most for me is the max ADU in a given region (to make sure I do not saturate my star of interest). What would be great is if the selection would result in refreshing the full statistics on the left menu with values taken specifically from the selected region.

After 14 years of leaving in the US, I'm more comfortable reading documentations in English than in French

jf

Jean-Francois, I was able to extend the selection rectangle feature so that when it is enabled, it also displays the statistics in the Statistics side panel, including min/max (as you suggested). This was just added to the KStars codebase so if you compile/run the latest code, you can pull this and try it. It should be available in the next nightly beta, whenever that's ready. Otherwise, it'll be available in the next KStars release.

I suppose it would also be nice if the ROI could have a circular selection option, but currently it's only available as rectangular.

Hy

Hy, thanks for the very useful information on how to select an area around a star. The max value is essential for photometry. Currently I read the file in AsroImageJ to make this measurement so looking forward to using your change. Users will only find this feature by carefully reading the manual as there is no clue in the GUI. The link from Kstars Help>Kstars Handbook (f1) takes me to KDE Documentation and not the Handbook. Could this be fixed?
I don't get the plate solve icon visible in the Fits viewer although plate solving works when aligning. If the image has already been plate solved, is the icon hidden?
Thanks David

Thank you so much! really appreciate all you hard work on this amazing project.

jf

Hy, did a software update in Stellarmate and got the fits viewer version with Plate solving in 3.6.8. Thanks very much. Looking forward to seeing the selection square showing the maximum value stat. when released. That will be extremely useful.