Mosaic and Framing actual camera orientation correct preview?

Hi all, I don’t have a camera rotator so I usually rotate it manually.

What I noticed though is that in Mosaic & Frame the orientation is not always correct. I always set orientation to 0 degrees, as I start with my camera straight, and I would expect that when drawing the rectangle I’m seeing the real orientation.

Instead for example yesterday it was 90 degrees off. All slewing/centering worked well as usual (using PlateSolve2), but would be nice if Mosaic&Frame would give me a correct orientation so I can rotate my camera before.

Am I missing something? I use SGP with a normal HEQ5 and Skywatcher Esprit100 triplet with Nikon D750, so should be pretty simple for SGP to show me the object in that moment with the correct rotation that I’ll have?

I saw on forum that there’s a way SGP will tell me how much I need to rotate the camera, but I think more useful is to actually see myself how is at the moment (with no rotation)? Is probably simple but I’m missing something :slight_smile:

If my camera is in line with the scope…then I am pointing at 270° in relation to sky maps & FMW frames…this is what you are experiencing I believe. Set the orientation on the FMW window (Section 3) to the angle you have the camera at (270° in this instance) and what you see (on the downloaded frame) is then what you get in your subs :-).

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What is “Straight”? If you’re referring to having the long edge of the image parallel to the ground when parked pointing north, then you are at 90/270 degrees (typically referred to as “landscape”). Angles are measured off of RA and thus to have the camera angle of 0 degrees you’d need to set the camera to be in “portrait” when pointed at the pole.

Hope that helps,
Jared

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Hello Kinch/Jared, thank you very much!

I knew I was missing something obvious…setting rotation to 270 (camera in landscape mode when pointing north in parked position), I got exactly a precise preview of rotation, allowing me to rotate the camera as needed even before starting the session.

I see for more precise rotation I can use indeed the Manual Rotator, that will be step 2, for now usually rotating it ‘roughly’ is always good enough.

Thanks again for the quick/simple reply :slight_smile:

Just make sure that if you’re doing a mosaic that you’re pretty accurately rotated (within a degree or so). Any error in the rotation for mosaics can greatly affect your ability to stack.

Thanks,
Jared

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a little trick I use , assuming you have an iphone (or similar) , is to download a FREE app that shows angles. Hold the phone against the flat side of your camera . It is pretty damn accurate and can be done in the daylight hours.

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That’s really cool. Thanks Rofus!

you are welcome…but I ain’t Rofus…:laughing:

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