by Jay » 10 Jan 2018, 02:12
I don't know anything about Gaia dr2, just from what you post. Doesn't look like they will support stars fainter than Mag 17.
The great thing with NOMAD, for me, is it goes down to like Mag 21 which I sometimes need the magnitudes from 17-21 for transneptunian objects like Eris, Sedna and Lempo to name a few. I don't use the automated software like astrometrica, that find the object for you against a back plate.
I like to trawl (look) against the HNSKY fov for that target, compare with my 'photo' and hunt down the target. It can take allot of time, especially if its faint, but in this age where everything is instant, I like it. Its part of the whole fun of astronomy for me ... I use the automated telescope to find, take the pix but I will hunt the object down myself among all the background stellar noise.
It is this reason, a good catalogue with access to faint magnitudes is essential.
I don't know anything about Gaia dr2, just from what you post. Doesn't look like they will support stars fainter than Mag 17.
The great thing with NOMAD, for me, is it goes down to like Mag 21 which I sometimes need the magnitudes from 17-21 for transneptunian objects like Eris, Sedna and Lempo to name a few. I don't use the automated software like astrometrica, that find the object for you against a back plate.
I like to trawl (look) against the HNSKY fov for that target, compare with my 'photo' and hunt down the target. It can take allot of time, especially if its faint, but in this age where everything is instant, I like it. Its part of the whole fun of astronomy for me ... I use the automated telescope to find, take the pix but I will hunt the object down myself among all the background stellar noise.
It is this reason, a good catalogue with access to faint magnitudes is essential.