|
If you wish to cover a large area of the
sky with a small CCD detector here is how. First you MUST be in a field of
view smaller than 50 degrees and second you must drag the area of sky you want
to image. Then use Tools | Mosaic feature.
Drag the area around the
object
you want to image in TheSky
Use Tools | Mosaic
feature
You must have pre-set your field of view
indicator first. This is done by specifying a Field of View Indicator in
TheSky that matches your CCD detector and focal length of your scope. This
is how the Mosaic function determines how many images it will take to cover the
area to be mosaic. This is done using the View>Field of View Indicators
option in TheSky. Just Add a new Rectangular field of view indicator by
entering the CCD detector from the list provided or enter your own custom
detector size if it is not listed. To add a new detector you must use the
Add CCD option and enter the size in millimeters of the
detector.
Compute Field of
View
Enter
Detector Size and Focal Length
This field of view determines how many
CCD images it will take to cover a given area. In the Mosaic function you
must select a pre-defined Field of View indicator and a percentage of overlap
first. The more overlap the more images it will take but the easier it
will be to piece the images together later. Note that most field of views
will not be nearly as large as this. It is more likely that your field of
view will be something less than 30 arc minutes. I chose the above example
to keep this simple. In this case 4 images with the ST-8 will cover all of
Andromeda. With a C-8 at f/6.3 this would be more like 100 CCD
images!
Tools-Mosaic
Dialog
Select CCD detector from list
and % over-lap
TheSky computes the RA and
DEC
of all images needed automatically
The
Mosaic is based on your Field of View Indicator
After creating the mosaic in TheSky you
need to export this data in the form of an Orchestrate script. Choose the
List Format>Orchestrate Script from the General Tab located on the Export
dialog as shown. This will create a format that Orchestrate can use
directly as opposed to a simple ASCII format.
Data-Export
Command
Create Orchestrate Script
Select Mosaic Content
Destination to Clipboard
You can add the Orchestrate commands for
waiting, switching filters, and imaging from the Scripting Tab. These are
then attached to each object in the script.
Add the Orchestrate Commands
here
Add the
necessary Orchestrate
commands from within
TheSky
IMPORTANT: When creating Mosaics make sure
that you are using the SlewToRaDec command only. The mosaic points are not
altitude/azimuth.
You need not be too concerned with how
the data is sorted. When you create the list of objects the display in TheSky will show you
the route the telescope will take.
Sort Criteria
Choose Create
List
Show
Path and Label Items
Route the telescope will
take
Shown
in TheSky
display by Show Path and Label Items
Here is the script created by TheSky for the above
mosaic. This is the easy part now that it has been automated. The
hard part is the piecing tougher of all the individual images. I
personally recommend Adobe PhotoShop for this purpose.
SlewToRaDec , 0.6411123H
40.759843D
WaitFor , 10 ,
TakeImage , 120 ,
AutoMapSlewToRaDec ,
0.7309093H 40.386403D
WaitFor , 10 ,
TakeImage , 120 ,
AutoMapSlewToRaDec , 0.7824546H 41.917454D
WaitFor , 10 ,
TakeImage ,
120 ,
AutoMapSlewToRaDec , 0.6908121H 42.299837D
WaitFor , 10 ,
TakeImage , 120 ,
Example
1
Another Example, image the entire moon
with a C-8 and ST-7 using the lunar option in the Mosaic tool,
Full Moon
Image
Make Sure
you set the Lunar option
Tools>Mosaic
Set Lunar Rate
Example
2
Mosaic the ecliptic searching for new
minor planets.
Search for Minor Planets
Cover a degree of sky per night
Since the telescope and camera do all
the work you cover large amounts of the sky while you something
else.
|
