Displaying images/sky survey images

[markusd112]

Hi,

I am looking for a way to quickly display some "pretty picture" from an object in my target list and / or in the interactive atlas.

I tried the "download DSS image" options and several of the available download sources there, but I didn't find any pictures in the repositories that gives me some idea how the object looks in RGB.

Is there any simple way that I haven't seen?

Wouldn't it be some idea for a feature in the interactive atlas to enable via a button some sort of sky survey image data, like in stellarium (Digitized Sky Survey (TOAST) button), which gives you some idea of the sky region/object.

Some good example is the "Deep Sky Compendium" from Gary Imm: it is an excel list with several deep sky objects. If you move the mouse over some list item, a "pretty picture preview" is visible, that would be great in ST4 too:
   

Thanks,

Markus

[flamidey]

Hi,
The fastest way I have found was to download ad hoc images from Astrobin and add them to the objects.
It would be pretty big job for Greg to include this feature and would require getting proper authorizations for any third party image so I can understand this is not a priority.

[theskyhound]

Hello,

The Atlas does have this ability. Right-click anywhere with your mouse and select "Get DSS Image at Cursor." In the dialog that appears select source, type of image, a size, and be sure to pay attention to what Attachments folder you are placing it in. I like to tick the View Image on Completion box so the image will be displayed after download in the Image Viewer, where the brightness and contrast can be adjusted.

Once downloaded, select the same Attachments folder in the top right of the Atlas, where it says Background Images, and select Draw to the right of that. An image will be drawn in the chart background where you clicked.

There are lots of other ways to use this feature too, including attaching images to the object in the Object Info.

[theskyhound]

Hi,
The fastest way I have found was to download ad hoc images from Astrobin and add them to the objects.
It would be pretty big job for Greg to include this feature and would require getting proper authorizations for any third party image so I can understand this is not a priority.

You can add any plate solved image for display in the chart backgrounds. Click "Data" in the top level menu and open the "Plottable Images". This opens the Plottable Images Manager. To add an image that has been plate solved click Import Image.

It helps to understand how Attachments in SkyTools work. People seem to just skip that stuff, but its all there in the Help system. Its just a folder where you organize things. For example, you could put all of the images for a project into an attachments folder for that project.

I was going to add plate solving into SkyTools using an external call to ASTAP but I couldn't get ASTAP to solve a lot of my images. It just gives up. This drives me crazy when so much inf is already in the FITS header, such as the RA/Dec of the center of the image. I'll never understand why these plate solvers don't start with that info. Anyhow, when I looked for possible solutions I just found others with the same complaint. If anyone knows how to make ASTAP solve images more reliably, let me know.

[flamidey]

Thanks Greg,
I think the point the OP was making was to get "pretty to the eye" images. DSS or plate solved images don't really give a good idea of nebulas so I'd rather have a color image.

[theskyhound]

Hello,

So I get it. Apparently he was asking about pretty little color thumbnails. I don't think these are all that useful, because they can't directly represent what you can accomplish with your imaging system and your filters. This is because there are too many different types of imaging systems, filters, and approaches to processing.

Allow me to suggest a better approach: use the tools provided in SkyTools to find targets that will work well with your imaging system. Then simply google them or look them up on AstroBin.

In the end, if you just want to look at pretty pictures to select targets from, there are many ways to do that on the web.

Regarding specifics:

There is no reason a color image can't be plate solved. There are plenty of plate solvers out there, including on the web, that will plate solve them. And if the image is not in FITS format, in SkyTools the plate solution can be read from a separate file, which can be produced using the plate solver. I have color images in the chart background myself, many of them my own.

"DSS or plate solved images don't really give a good idea of nebulas so I'd rather have a color image. "

I must disagree with this. Second generation DSS images come in Red and Blue. The Blue sensitive images are sensitive to the OIII lines, and the red ones are sensitive to Ha. This is all you really need for composition.

[flamidey]

The way I do it is to make an observing list with the targets that fit my setup best and then, I'll add a pretty picture to those as a reference to see what is possible to achieve. I get the images from similar filter setups on Astrobin.

[markusd112]

Hello all,
thanks für your feedbacks.

To clarify my question a little bit: I am looking for an easy and quick way to get some visual idea of an object, either in my target list (e.g. as a thumbnail), but as well in the object info dialogue (e.g. as a bigger image than a thumbnail) and in the interactive atlas too. I am aware that such a "pretty picture" cannot give a visual feedback for all my imaging setups stored in ST4.

I know the ways, how to store plate solved images into ST4, or doing some search in astrobin, google, wikipedia or somewhere else. But this way is a little bit pedestrian, so I am looking for a way or idea, how ST4 could do the job with "one click" to get it more comfortable.

So maybe we could collect some ideas.

Maybe there is some repository available in the internet, to add it as "DSS Source" and "Survey" in the existing DSS Image download dialogue? Maybe the "HIPS DSS survey" or the TOAST survey that you can find e.g. in stellarium. Or as an additional one time download for the whole sky to store it on my computer.

Maybe in the same way NINA is offering such images displayed in the built in atlas as one time download:

https://nighttime-imaging.eu/download/

What's about some button in ST4 that opens the browser and doing a search e.g. in astrobin for the mentioned object by giving the search parameter in the URL?

e.g.:
https://www.astrobin.com/search/?q=m31

Or some ST4 online image library where every user could upload his image to a ST4 repository and every user can access this image library?

Or some connector to the "CCD Guide" of the austrian astronomy club who publishes a yearly collection of more than 5000 DSS images, so that you can open/link an image from ST4 to the installed CCD guid?

https://ccdguide.com/?lang=en

That's all some brainstorming...

Thanks and CS

Markus

[theskyhound]

One constraint: there is no room for displaying a thumbnail image in the Target Selection tool. I don't see that changing, as the design requires the user to see as many objects as possible together.

[markusd112]

It doesn't need to be displayed inside the list view, that consumes to much space. A popup when moving the mouse over some column/cell of the list item or some menu item in the right click context menu for a list item would be great as well.