WCS Information

[Glen Katrina Fountain]

Hello. I recently downloaded pinpoint and am now trying to learn some of its features. The GSC 1.1 has been downloaded, but it's taking me a while to download the ASNO catalog. My question is why can't I plate solve a picture I took a couple of weeks ago? It is a Fits file and the astrometry website solved the same picture in JPEG. When I add the image and click on solve, a scripting error pops up. Also, if I use the same image in the, "Find Asteroids" tab, it tells me it is missing WCS information. Is this something that can only be added when the image is taken, or do I need to input something? If so, where? I know this is probably basic information, but this is all new to me and I'm not sure how to find the answer. Thanks.

[Dick Berg]

Hi Glen, It would help if you would post the text of the scripting error.

In any case, though, to solve an image in Visual PinPoint (and MaxIm) the FITS header must have A DATE-OBS key and value. It would look something like this:

DATE-OBS = '2014-03-25T00:27:29' / [ISO 8601] UTC date/time of exposure start

The FITS header also usually has some approximation of the image center position as well, such as for example:

OBJCTDEC = '+36:27:35' / Nominal DEC of Image Center
OBJCTRA = '16:41:41' / Nominal RA of Image Center

Check to make sure these are in the FITS header of your image, or that they can be added when the image is taken. If they're not there, and if you can add them manually, you should. Then try again.

The WCS information doesn't get added to the FITS header unless the image can be solved.

[Bob Denny]

Thanks, Dick.