New Feature : Deep Sky Image Annotation
Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:34 pm
This week's SharpCap 4.0 update (4.0.8564) includes a new feature - Deep Sky Image Annotation - which will overlay names and information about stars, galaxies, nebulae and star clusters over the image from your camera. All you need to enable this is to have a plate solving application (we recommend Astap or Ansvr) installed and configured to work in SharpCap.
You can enable the annotation from the tools menu - If you have already performed plate solving recently then the overlays will appear straight away. Otherwise you need to trigger a plate solving operation (either using one of the plate solve options in the tools menu or by double clicking on the image with the annotation active).
The plate solving information lets SharpCap work out where in the sky each pixel of the image is, and that data is compared with a built in database of objects (more on that in a moment). The objects that are in view are labelled with an overlay on the camera image (note : this info will not appear in any saved images, even 'save exactly as seen'). SharpCap tries not to clutter the display too much, so if there are a lot of objects in the same area, only the most significant ones (biggest, brightest) will be shown. Zooming in on the image to make that area larger will result in more objects being shown if some are initially hidden.
If you are using a GOTO mount in SharpCap then the overlay will track movements within a distance of about 10 degrees from the place that you ran the plate solving - if you move further then plate solve again.
If you are not using a GOTO mount then the overlay still works, but you will need to plate solve every time you move the mount otherwise you will see the objects still listed in the old location. Without a GOTO mount, it's best to use the double-click approach to run the plate solving, since after the first time it uses the last position as a hint to speed up the solving process (this doesn't happen if you use the tools menu).
The built in catalog of objects consists of about 3300 bright stars and about 13000 other items from the NGC and IC catalogs. If you have a SharpCap Pro license then you can set up additional catalogs which SharpCap will read and use automatically. I will post a follow on post with more details on how to do this. Note that using the feature with the built in catalogs *does not* require a SharpCap Pro license
For now, you can turn off the annotation by selecting it again from the menu. In the next update I hope to add a small window providing added information and further functionality, which will also provide a nicer way of turning the feature off.
cheers,
Robin
You can enable the annotation from the tools menu - If you have already performed plate solving recently then the overlays will appear straight away. Otherwise you need to trigger a plate solving operation (either using one of the plate solve options in the tools menu or by double clicking on the image with the annotation active).
The plate solving information lets SharpCap work out where in the sky each pixel of the image is, and that data is compared with a built in database of objects (more on that in a moment). The objects that are in view are labelled with an overlay on the camera image (note : this info will not appear in any saved images, even 'save exactly as seen'). SharpCap tries not to clutter the display too much, so if there are a lot of objects in the same area, only the most significant ones (biggest, brightest) will be shown. Zooming in on the image to make that area larger will result in more objects being shown if some are initially hidden.
If you are using a GOTO mount in SharpCap then the overlay will track movements within a distance of about 10 degrees from the place that you ran the plate solving - if you move further then plate solve again.
If you are not using a GOTO mount then the overlay still works, but you will need to plate solve every time you move the mount otherwise you will see the objects still listed in the old location. Without a GOTO mount, it's best to use the double-click approach to run the plate solving, since after the first time it uses the last position as a hint to speed up the solving process (this doesn't happen if you use the tools menu).
The built in catalog of objects consists of about 3300 bright stars and about 13000 other items from the NGC and IC catalogs. If you have a SharpCap Pro license then you can set up additional catalogs which SharpCap will read and use automatically. I will post a follow on post with more details on how to do this. Note that using the feature with the built in catalogs *does not* require a SharpCap Pro license
For now, you can turn off the annotation by selecting it again from the menu. In the next update I hope to add a small window providing added information and further functionality, which will also provide a nicer way of turning the feature off.
cheers,
Robin