Feature request - have a metadata file name tag for sky quality and tracking quality

Sequence Generator Feature Requests
1

Hi Guys,

As the year draws to an end I thought I might make a suggestion that should be simple to implement and really valuable to users - have file name tags for Sky quality and Tracking quality.

So Tracking quality - given you are using PHD2 and SGP is monitoring it - simply have a table that looks at the variations and say < 1 arc seconds - great, 1 - 1.5 arc seconds = decent, 1.5 - 2 arc seconds = ok and > 2 arc seconds bad.

The Sky quality - if not read from a meter could be inferred from the image - HFR and number of stars per image.

The beauty of having these file name options is one can tell at a glance at the end of your imaging session - which frames should be worth stacking and which ones aren’t!

Many thanks, Matthew

2

@Matthew_Kendall

This feature is not included in any image acquisition software primarily because it is not needed. Image processing software like PixInsight have sophisticated, built-in processes to evaluate the quality of every image in a batch of images so that you can make a decision as to what to keep and what to throw away.

Charlie

3

Well wrong - AAPT does it (at my suggestion) it proves immensly useful when deciding which images to process in PixInsights WBPP.

ASTAP can also rank Sky Quality, provide number of stars and HFR - and not just merely plate solve each captured image. The more accurated and detailed information you put into your FITS files the far easier you make it for PixInsight.

An example - my mounts calibration was a quite a bit out - and when APT or SGP solve images - they don’t used the solved RA / DEC coordinates to save in the generated FITS files - they use the telescopes reported position - even if they can see its way wrong. Now I confirmed on the PixInsight forums a day ago there is no batch process in PixInsight to correct RA and Dec cordinates in a few hundred images affected. You can use Image Solver - updating one image at a time - but if you try and feed in a batch of images it ignores the coordinates you supply - it tries to solve them thinking they should be very close to target and then fails.

So things I would really like - that would make things so much easier for PixInsight:

  1. Record your tracking information
  2. Record your SQM from ASTAP (as well as number of stars and HFR)
  3. Record the actual solved RA and Dec in each image

Having those details at a glance would make preparing for WBPP in PixInsight a trivial task!

Cheers, Matthew