Gaia DR2 catalog

[Andres.Pozo]

The latest update of Pixnsight adds the option of using the catalog Gaia DR2 in the scripts ImageSolver, AnnotateImage, CatalogStarGenerator and AperturePhotometry.

This catalog has extremely good data, including proper motions for many stars. As an example I have generated an animation of the field of Barnard's star from 1968 to 2068. Please pay attention when the loop restarts, lots of stars have movement!!

Andrés.

[Bernie]

Hello Andrés
Thank you for the update!
Attached you will find a part of an image of Abell84 (Takahashi Mewlon, 250mm f10, SBIG STL 11k, around 20h exposure time).
With your script, I have selected from the Gaia DR2 catalog 19mag stars (Gmag). The values ??for RPmag and BPmag are faded in. It is nice to see that the higher the difference between R and Bmag, the redder the star is.
See also: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/iow_20180316

It is also clear that the positions of the stars are very precise. Thanks again for your script ImageSolver - I had to run it (despite 2500mm focal length) with the Distortion Correction.

A few questions:
In the picture you can still see various galaxies that have no PGC number. Do you know more catalogs here?

Would it be possible to show the brightness of the galaxies in the PGC catalog?

Would it also be possible to include in your script the PK catalog with Planetary Nebulae?

Also, as I've read, Gaia has identified a lot of quasars. At best, it would be possible to display them?

Excuse me, these are _just_ wishes.

Thanks again for your work and the great scripts!
Bernie

P.S. The whole picture - without annotation - can be found here:
https://lerbermatt-my.sharepoint.com/:i:/g/personal/bernhard_blank_lerbermatt_ch/Eej_1l3GA5RIl_m9f9nIszYByAeaBHQx8RbCG277CVySPw?e=kJOrV0

[Andres.Pozo]

Hi Bernie,

A few questions:
In the picture you can still see various galaxies that have no PGC number. Do you know more catalogs here?

You can try with the SDSS R9 catalog. It can show stars, galaxies or both.

Would it be possible to show the brightness of the galaxies in the PGC catalog?

I'm using the catalog Hyperleda I (code VII/237/pgc at VizieR). This catalog doesn't have brightness information.

Would it also be possible to include in your script the PK catalog with Planetary Nebulae?

I have found this in VizieR: http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/Cat?IV/24
It does have the PK codes but it does not have brightness nor size information. You can search if there is a better catalog. In any case I don't know when I could add this to the scripts.

Also, as I've read, Gaia has identified a lot of quasars. At best, it would be possible to display them?

In the following link you can see all the fields that the catalog has. Let me know if you would like to be able to use some of them from the scripts. Currently it only loads Source, RPmag, Gmag, BPmag, Plx, RV, Rad, Lum and the J2000 coordinates and proper motion.
http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-3?-source=I/345/gaia2

There are hundreds of catalogs in VizieR. I welcome suggestions about which catalogs include.

Andrés.

[Bernie]

Thanks for this!

[sharkmelley]

Wow - this is really useful!

I couldn't resist having a go on one of my own recent images (scaled up 150%).

Mark