A question came up regarding filar measuring device and It occurred to me that it might be possible to create something that placed two curser lines on an image that could have one curser line fixed and the other moved on the image with some sort of numerical value shown of the separation between the two lines.
A calibration would have to be done on the scope/camera/zoom value etc but once made could be used by the double star enthusiasts.
just a thought
Trev
measuring double star seperation
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Re: measuring double star seperation
I have looked into this a bit more and I can see that it can be done in plate solving and by using a bit of maths.
Trev
Trev
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Re: measuring double star seperation
Hi Trev,
yes, you can definitely do it with a bit of maths - the easiest way is to use the 'Pixel Position/Click to Recenter' tool - that lets you get the co-ordinates of any pixel in the image after plate solving. You can then calculate the offset between the two (strictly speaking you should use the haversine formula, but if you are away from the pole you can get away with pythagoras as long as you account for a) 15 degrees of arc per hour of RA and b) RA differences should be multiplied by cos(Declination) to account for the shrinking of declination circles as you move towards the pole).
A separate tool to do this would be quite cool though - thanks for the suggestion!
cheers,
Robin
yes, you can definitely do it with a bit of maths - the easiest way is to use the 'Pixel Position/Click to Recenter' tool - that lets you get the co-ordinates of any pixel in the image after plate solving. You can then calculate the offset between the two (strictly speaking you should use the haversine formula, but if you are away from the pole you can get away with pythagoras as long as you account for a) 15 degrees of arc per hour of RA and b) RA differences should be multiplied by cos(Declination) to account for the shrinking of declination circles as you move towards the pole).
A separate tool to do this would be quite cool though - thanks for the suggestion!
cheers,
Robin