Using the QHY600 CMOS camera with a full frame sensor I often see many stars and potential comparison stars due to the larger field of view, yet still at an excellent resolution. So far my use of this has been limited to centering the target of interest (variable star, exoplanet transit) and disregarding the outer 50% of the image. The remainder is used for comparison stars.
Considering the large size of the variable star index, there should be a good chance that there are more variable stars to be found in my field of view. Due to the large full well and low noise of the CMOS camera I can afford to have a high SNR for fainter stars, even when my exposure times are adjusted for the centered target of interest. I don't think this would be a problem.
Is there a possibility to scan the VSX for star matches in my astronomy.net or ASTAP platesolved image? Does software exist which can do this? The total amount of useful data gathered will rise drastically when, using the VSX, I can knowingly observe multiple variable stars at once. It is a benefit of this large sensor I'm certainly looking to exploit (if possible).
Leon
Leon,
If you use Vphot for photometry you can bring up all the VSX variables in the image. You get to see their SNR so you can decide if your image has enough information to process them.
Also, the VSX search page lets you do a proximity search. Hit the More button once and you get entry fields for position and radius or box size. Put your plate solved center in the position and fill in the radius.
If you are looking for a programmatic way to approach it, let me know.
clear skies,
Cliff
Hello Cliff,
thanks for the answer. Following your suggestion it sounds like Vphot is the ideal solution. However after I uploaded a platesolved image, it is entirely white when in Vphot. I'm not sure what the issue is.
I then used the search page as you suggested and searched in a box the size of my image, then looked for the coordinates manually. This worked though it is surely far more time consuming than the automated Vphot solution you suggested. I've tried varying the display settings to no avail.
Nevertheless, thank you very much for the options! For now I will use the search
Leon
Leon,
Do you have a way share the image you uploaded to Vphot? Something like Google drive or other web based sharing. Also, can you share the white image with me in VPhot - select it in the list and click share. My user name is KCLA.
I will see if I can find anything wrong.
Cliff
Leon:
What software did you use to collect the images, calibrate them and plate-solve them? The BZero (32768) and BScale (1) headers are probably not set as the typical values. They would not stretch properly if that is the case and may look white or black.
Ken
Hi Ken,
yep, this was the issue back then. When I posted this I used PixInsight to calibrate them which set these differently, but I found this months ago within the Pixinsight settings. I hope this can help someone else reading this if they have a similar issue.
Leon
Hi Leon,
I'm a pretty noob to submitting reports, but for the last 2 weeks have been submitting for BU TAU in the Pleiades. VPHOT shows me ~100 variables in my FOV! When I eliminate those not followed by AAVSO and those with SNR<20 I still end up reporting 12 variables per image. So once you get the system to properly recognize your images you should be able to report multiple stars in any of your huge fields.
Good Luck,
Peter