Enter Coordinates


The Enter Coordinates dialog is used by the Astrometric Calibration tool to input the right ascension and declination of a marked reference point.

Properties of the Enter Coordinates command

Right Ascension, Declination

Specifies a (right ascension declination) coordinate pair with the coordinates separated by a semicolon as shown in the picture. Each coordinate pair is added to a history list which you can fetch using the arrow button. See Specifying Right Ascension and Declination, below.

Weight

Specifies the weight assigned to the point for use in computing the plate solution. The default weight is 1.

Removes a coordinate pair from the list.

Opens a text file containing a list of coordinate pairs to populate the coordinate list. The text file contains one row for each coordinate pair exactly as it will appear in the drop list.

Predicted Position

If the image already has a coordinate calibration, this field shows the coordinates predicted using the previous calibration.

Using the Dialog

This dialog opens automatically after you click on a point that has not been previously marked. The only information must specify is the right ascension and declination of the point, but you can also change the weight of the point if you want it to have more or less influence than the other calibration points. The two buttons on the right side allow you to accept or discard the point being marked:

Specifying Right Ascension and Declination

The Right Ascension, Declination field is very tolerance of different formats for hours, degrees, minutes, and seconds. However, you must use only 1 semicolon to separate the right ascension and declination entries. Mira supports a number of different formats for RA and Dec, as shown in the table below. The entries shown in the same row do not have to be used together; for example, you might enter the coordinate in mixed formats, like this:3h46m45.808s, 63.357592

Examples of RA and Dec Formats

Right Ascension

Declination

3 46 45.808

63 21 27.32

3 46.7634666

63 21.45553

3.77939111

63.3575922

3 46 45

63 21

Delimiters

 

 " ' : / h m s

 " ' : / d m s

Related Topics

Astrometric Calibration, Change Point Data