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Imaging Planning - Finding more advanced targets

Fabien Chéreau et al. Stellarium ZWO ASI183MM Pro Acquisition Deep Sky
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Craig Dixon avatar
Craig Dixon avatar
I'm struggling with imaging planning and wondered how the more advanced users work out framing, especially for lesser-known targets. I currently use Stellarium with scope/sensor combinations setup to match my equipment but much of the dark nebulosity and many of the more faint targets just aren't shown. Try and find the quid nebula in stellurium  as an example. Astronomy tools has the same problem as the target list is so limited.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to input my scopes/sensors or a basic FOV and view a sky atlas that features a detailed sky survey with fainter targets, IFN, etc  included. Does such a thing exist? Astrobin is a good source of inspiration but I find that my scope/camera combination is rarely used (ZWO FF65 with ASI183MM Pro).
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Dark Matters Astrophotography avatar
Dark Matters Astrophotography avatar
Have you tried Telescopius?
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
I like the quid nebula. I guess it looks like a giant £
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
Seriously though I use CdC (and I don't want to know what they look like) but otherwise I find NINA gives the best functionality together with a pretty good rendering of the sky.
Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
NINA is what I use. Just use the built in sky atlas to locate the object. If the atlas won't find it you can enter the RA and DEC directly in the framing wizard. You can also enter your camera specs, scope focal length and how much sky you want to see. The are a number of survey atlases to choose from for the imagery, some go fairly deep. On top of all that it can control all your hardware and run your imaging session. All for the low, low price of $0.00 US.
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Katelyn Beecroft avatar
Katelyn Beecroft avatar
Nico of Nebula Photos did a great video about planning and framing using Telescopius.

https://youtu.be/1IOtiDJJ7sQ?si=d6p-kE1ZTfbRrMik
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Jeff Ridder avatar
Jeff Ridder avatar
Two methods are most useful to me:
1) Watch what other people are imaging and bookmark the good stuff.
2) Like others, the NINA offline sky atlas is incredibly useful. It shows nearly everything, and I can immediately see the framing, play with rotation, and even get a little ephemeris graph that tells me where it is relative to my horizon. Thanks to that little ephemeris graph, it's easy to pan and zoom around to find objects transiting when you want them to.
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Itto Ogami avatar
Itto Ogami avatar
i use stellarium and have the same issue. I find the object in stallarium, look for pictures on astrobin that have the target im looking for and use the stars in that image to frame the FOV in stellarium. I take a picture of the stellarium framing and use the stars in the field to frame the target on my sensor. This method works well athough time consuming. I'm always able to get the exact framing I want in the end. I hope that helps.

Regards,
Itto (Jim)
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Ashraf AbuSara avatar
Ashraf AbuSara avatar
I second Telescopious. Really great free online tool.
Dark Matters Astrophotography avatar
Dark Matters Astrophotography avatar
I use Telescopius and Voyager Web Dashboard to frame and load targets for imaging.
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Bill McLaughlin avatar
Bill McLaughlin avatar
Tony Gondola:
NINA is what I use. Just use the built in sky atlas to locate the object. If the atlas won't find it you can enter the RA and DEC directly in the framing wizard.


+1 for that. You can copy/paste coordinates directly from an Astrobin details page to the NINA framing then move it around by dragging to suit. For really small or faint stuff you may need to use star patterns since not all stuff is obvious on the framing images.
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apennine104 avatar
apennine104 avatar
I like to use Stellarium with the DSS2 (Red) survey turned on, it highlights way more nebulosity than default.
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Oscar avatar
Oscar avatar
when I'm rushing with my ASIair, I squint at the dim view of the sky atlas and hope for the best

when I'm not rushing, I use Telescopius

and sometimes, if Telescopius is not enough, like for framing exotic and very dim NB targets, I go to ultra deep Astrobin images, and try to manually match stars on Telescopius with the Astrobin image, kind of like what you do with star hopping, just matching small star patterns and mentally building reference points; from that I can figure out the size, location, and shape of the object in my frame, then I could plan my framing
Franco Grimoldi avatar
Franco Grimoldi avatar
I use Stellarium with the DSS2 Red (F+R) survey. It looks great and inspiring:


Then I switch to NINA for the final framing, using the offline map
Craig Dixon avatar
Craig Dixon avatar
Thanks for the replies. This is what I get in Stellarium with either the DSO coloured or DSO red survey enabled. This is SH2-129 and, as you can see, there isn't anything here to help with precise framing.

Here's what I get in NINA. There are only 6 surveys to select from but neither show anything at all in the area.
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
You should download the offline Sky Map. That will show it.
Bill McLaughlin avatar
Bill McLaughlin avatar
Maybe I am old but sometimes you just need to match star patterns from the Atlas to another image.
Craig Dixon avatar
Craig Dixon avatar
andrea tasselli:
You should download the offline Sky Map. That will show it.

That's much better, thanks.
Franco Grimoldi avatar
Franco Grimoldi avatar
Craig Dixon:
Thanks for the replies. This is what I get in Stellarium with either the DSO coloured or DSO red survey enabled. This is SH2-129 and, as you can see, there isn't anything here to help with precise framing.

Here's what I get in NINA. There are only 6 surveys to select from but neither show anything at all in the area.

Stellarium can definitely show pretty nice images on that area using the DSS2 Red (F+R) survey:

I'd recommend reviewing your settings, this specific survey is terrific.
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Craig Dixon avatar
Craig Dixon avatar
Franco Grimoldi:
Craig Dixon:
Thanks for the replies. This is what I get in Stellarium with either the DSO coloured or DSO red survey enabled. This is SH2-129 and, as you can see, there isn't anything here to help with precise framing.

Here's what I get in NINA. There are only 6 surveys to select from but neither show anything at all in the area.

Stellarium can definitely show pretty nice images on that area using the DSS2 Red (F+R) survey:

I'd recommend reviewing your settings, this specific survey is terrific.

Which survey is this please?
Franco Grimoldi avatar
Franco Grimoldi avatar
Hi @Craig Dixon ,  as mentioned, the survey is DSS2 Red (F+R):

You might need to review the Stellarium settings to find out how to make it display the images. The first time it takes a little longer as they are downloaded and cached.
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hughsie avatar
hughsie avatar
I use a combination of Aladin with the DSS Red set up and NINA. First I search the night sky in Aladin to find a suitable target then use its search function on a nearby star to give me its RA/Dec. I then enter the RA/Dec into the Framing Assistant in NINA and tweak the framing from there.
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