Finding position angle of FOV after plate solving

[SunburntAstronomer]

I have searched everywhere but can't find an answer for this.

After I have done a plate solve on an image, it would seem likely that the position angle of the FOV would be able to be derived/seen. Is this data visible anywhere?

I want this to update the planetarium software to correctly show the PA of the FOV when planning imaging.

Thanks for considering.
David from Downunder

[Menno555]

Hello and welcome

There are two ways to get that info:

1) When doing the plate solve and there is a solution, on top there will be a temporary horizontal bar. At the end of that text, there is a Copy button. This copies the info and when pasted into your text editor, it gives this:

Solution : RA=06:18:36,4,Dec=+78:21:19 (J2000)
Field of View : 0,7046x0,4680 degrees
Time : Mon, 14 Jul 2025 12:57:20 GMT
Orientation : up is 179,8 degrees E of N
Focal length is 1921,8mm

2) After a successful plate solve, use the Deep Sky Image Annotation. This is the small red button left of Target Name in the upper menu bar or under the Tools tab. A new small window appears and you then can get info per detected object in your FOV.

Menno

[admin]

Hi,

just to note that the addition of the orientation to the text that is copied from the plate solve data is fairly recent (last couple of months), so if you don't see that information it means that you need to update your version of SharpCap.

Also, another option is the Pixel Position tool (https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.1/#Pixel% ... 20Recentre) which shows the celestial directions on an overlay above the image.

thanks,

Robin