Mike Lewis
Staff Member
So I recently got turned on to a very useful and powerful website that can be used for astro target planning (among other things...) I set up a free account and then I was able to use it immediately
https://telescopius.com/
and it allows you to enter your location and then show what is visible for the current night (or any night actually.) You can search by target type (Deep Sky, Planetary, etc.) and even then pick specific target classifications within (so for Deep Sky, restrict to dark nebulae, or bright nebulae, or galaxies, or galaxy clusters - too many sub options to list all here. With objects listed it will plot their time visible above the horizon. If you enter your camera and telescope details it will even show your exact framing (especially if you have your rotation info for your camera.
Too many features to list. There is a way to make a donation - I might just have to throw some money at the developer, but again, it is free to use. It also has a way to show images, although I linked mine from Astrobin but then it looked like that gave anyone the ability to download them in full resolution so I am in the process of removing them from Telescopius. But if one has reduced size images or is not concerned about sharing this could be a way to have a site to post on IN ADDITION to FW of course
Anyway, very cool tool. Won't help Jim in real-time when he is standing out under the skies in Joshua Tree but for preplanning it looks very good. I did find a few very obscure type of targets it couldn't find, but otherwise it is great.
ML
https://telescopius.com/
and it allows you to enter your location and then show what is visible for the current night (or any night actually.) You can search by target type (Deep Sky, Planetary, etc.) and even then pick specific target classifications within (so for Deep Sky, restrict to dark nebulae, or bright nebulae, or galaxies, or galaxy clusters - too many sub options to list all here. With objects listed it will plot their time visible above the horizon. If you enter your camera and telescope details it will even show your exact framing (especially if you have your rotation info for your camera.
Too many features to list. There is a way to make a donation - I might just have to throw some money at the developer, but again, it is free to use. It also has a way to show images, although I linked mine from Astrobin but then it looked like that gave anyone the ability to download them in full resolution so I am in the process of removing them from Telescopius. But if one has reduced size images or is not concerned about sharing this could be a way to have a site to post on IN ADDITION to FW of course
Anyway, very cool tool. Won't help Jim in real-time when he is standing out under the skies in Joshua Tree but for preplanning it looks very good. I did find a few very obscure type of targets it couldn't find, but otherwise it is great.
ML
