PixInsight plugin · beta
SkySolver for PixInsight
Blind plate solving and sky annotation inside PixInsight, running on your own computer. Free, and in beta.
Beta. It works and has been tested with PixInsight 1.9.5, but expect rough edges. Please report problems to [email protected].
It needs star indexes. To solve, the plugin downloads its star indexes once, from its own window, into a folder you choose: Core (210 MB) is required. Fine (589 MB) adds fields of 0.3–1°, and Deep (186 MB) fields of 0.1–0.35° around 2,462 small galaxies, planetary nebulae and globular clusters; both are optional.
What you get
- Script › SkySolver › Plate Solve solves the active image blind: no coordinates, focal length or pixel size. It writes PixInsight's own astrometric solution, so SPCC, AnnotateImage, MosaicByCoordinates and other tools work with it. As a process icon, it solves the images you drop it on.
- Script › SkySolver › Annotate draws the coordinate grid, constellations and deep-sky objects of this site onto any plate-solved image (solved by SkySolver, ImageSolver or a FITS header's WCS), with a live preview and the same styles. It creates a new image, and can save the annotation as SVG and the objects as CSV.
- Script › SkySolver › Diagnostics checks that your PixInsight can run SkySolver.
Requirements
- PixInsight 1.9.4 or later, on any system it runs on.
- About 1 GB of free memory with all star indexes loaded, and 210 MB to 1 GB of disk space for them.
Install
- In PixInsight, open Resources › Updates › Manage Repositories.
- Click Add and enter this address exactly as it is, with
https://and the slash at the end:https://dl.skysolver.app/pixinsight/beta/ - Close the dialog and choose Resources › Updates › Check for Updates. PixInsight warns that the repository is not signed: accept, then apply the update. PixInsight installs it when it exits.
- Start PixInsight again. The scripts are in the Script › SkySolver menu.
Your first solve
- Open an image and run Script › SkySolver › Plate Solve. Its preview shows the image it will solve.
- The first time, the window offers to download the Core star indexes; Fine and Deep have buttons of their own. Downloads can be cancelled and resumed later.
- Press Solve. The solution goes into the image, ready for PixInsight's tools and for Script › SkySolver › Annotate.
Updates
PixInsight looks for new versions in the repository when it starts, and whenever you choose Resources › Updates › Check for Updates.
Privacy
Everything runs inside PixInsight: your images and their stars never leave your computer. The only traffic is the download of the plugin and its star indexes. See privacy.