Astrophotography Program

[petevasey]

Hi, folks,

Some years ago I wrote a program to help me look at different
configurations of telescopes, lenses, cameras etc.  It's been available
on my website since then.  Just to let you know I've now updated it to
include CCD cameras in a user editable data file, and give a bit more
info about fields of view etc.

You can find it on the Software page on my website http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/astroplover/index.html
or download the 117KB Zip file directly from
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/equipnbits/Astrofot.zip

This is what it looks like (113KB)
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/equipnbits/Kit/ASTROFOT.JPG

It isn't self installing, but instructions are in the readme.txt file.
For more info, click on the 'About' button once the program is running.
 Calculations are performed 'on the fly', so whenever a value is
altered the result is seen immediately.

I'm pretty sure I've fully debugged it, but if anyone has a problem,
please let me know!

Hope you find it useful.

Cheers,  Peter.

[NickH]

Nice one...make that a sticky for sure!

 

[Stuart]

Peter, just posting so that when I get home at the weekend I can find this post easier.  Sounds very useful.

[petevasey]

Update - I've now added a telescope/lens database, so if anyone has already downloaded the program, please do it again!  (Sorry!)  If you've already modified the data files you previously downloaded, you only need unzip the executable 'Astrofot.exe', the data file 'optidata.txt' and 'readme.txt'

Cheers,  Peter.

P.S. incidentally the original version is 16 bit, and one guy (not from this group) had trouble running it.  So I've also compiled it in 32 bit, and if anyone has a problem they might prefer to try that version (larger file - zipped 202 KB).  Download it from http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/equipnbits/Astrofot32.zip
 

[keithwr]

Thanks for an excellent program. I'm sure I will find it very useful, both in choosing what equipment config to use according to subject matter and in selecting what equipment / accessories to add to my kit.

I have 2 questions, one about the program, the other thrown up by the program. The first and silly one is I don't understand what is meant by "Enlargement factor (35mm prints)"

The second question is rather more long winded. I've read that the "resolving power" of my 6" achromat is slightly smaller than 1 arcsecond. I've also read that the "seeing" here in the uk is rarely better than 1 arcsecond. According to your program the configuration I used for the moonshot posted in "Introduction" gave 0.8 Arc-Secs/pixel. It seems to me that there is marginal benifit to be gained by using higher magnifications than give 1 or 2 pixels per resolved angle. Am I wrong in this. The reason I suspect I may be is that I have seen moonshots taken with smaller aperture scopes than mine (though maybe of better quality) of small areas of the moon yet looking much sharper and showing much more detail. Is there a "rule of thumb" about pixels per resolved angle to go for?

Keith

[brianday]

Pete
I am getting "page not found"  has it moved?
cheers

[SteveL]

I think Pete's site got moved to: http://www.madpc.co.uk/~peterv/index.html