Additional SQL object catalog

[Alexander Wrede]

Dear,

have created an new SQL file following the database guidelines set in the Contributing description.

In detail added LDN and Barnard objects not existing in the initial database, to have both catalogs in full within NINA.

The new entries are working fine in my local NINA fork and are correctly displayed in the Sky Atlas as well as framing assistent.
Only still have to do some cross-matching for the LDNs with an Barnard designation.

My questions before sharing the additonal SQL file:
1. As the respective catalogs retrieved from VizieR are not giving the constellation, I need a helping hand or advice how to best obtain the constellation for given coordinates. At the moment the constellation entry is filled with NULL but want to have it correct of course.

2. With a little bit of programming I can obtain / bulk download the images for the Sky Atlas for these new objects.
Standard size seems to be 530x298 Pixel as GIF, correct? Idea is to download the picture convering the objects major axis + 0,2deg.
Where the SkyAtlasImage Repository is stored so these new pictures could be added?

Any other suggestions / recommendations in regards to above new enhancement before?

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Kind regards,
Alexander

[Stefan B]

Hi Alexander,

thank you for your work. Regarding the sky atlas images, there is no repository. They have been created a long time ago and haven't been updated since then, so don't worry about it. I need to recreate these from scratch at some point with a better traceable approach.

As for the constellation, you could either check if Simbad provides this info, or use the existing constellation boundaries inside the N.I.N.A. database to check if your coordinates are inside which.

[Alexander Wrede]

Thank you Stefan for replying. Managed to bulk download the constellations for all LDNs via Simbad/VizieR.

As soon as I have the preview pictures available I post them in a zip here, maybe you wouldn’t mind putting them manually to the SkyAtlasImage Repo for future user downloads.

As it’s now getting crowded in some part of the sky with these ~1.800 additional objects, will see to implement an additional button in the framing Assistent to toggle their visual rendering on/off, if okay for you.

kind regards,

Alex

[Stefan B]

Sure I can add these to the existing previews.

As for the toggle, it might be best to revisit this separately and offer an option to select which kind of objects to display instead.

[Alexander Wrede]

Indeed been thinking about it as well to be able to switch different catalogs on/off. Let me see.

[Alexander Wrede]

Hi Stefan,

just sent/pushed the new “12.sql” file - hope did it right - if not, just let me know.

Finally the additional object list got bigger as initially expected.

Added 2.150 objects:

* 1538 LDN objects (Lynds' Catalogue of Dark Nebulae - Lynds 1962) > should now be complete in N.I.N.A.
*  180 Barnard objects (The Barnard Catalogue of Dark Markings in the Sky - Barnard,1927) > should now be complete in N.I.N.A.
*   66 StDr, StDrLu, StDrL, PaStDr, StDrLuLDu objects (25 confirmed planetary nebulae / 21 likely planetary nebulae / 20 possible planetary nebulae)
*  131 vdB objects (Catalogue of Reflection Nebulae - Van den Bergh, 1966) > should now be complete in N.I.N.A.
*  235 Sharpless (Sh2) objects (Catalogue of HII Regions - Sharpless, 1959) > should now be complete in N.I.N.A.
*  164 additonal Arp cross designations for NGC objects added (Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies - Arp, 1966)

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Here the link to download the preview images of all newly added objects: https://hidrive.ionos.com/lnk/RHyzRRjz to be included in the SkyAtlas Image Repo.

Very happy I could make a little contribution to this excellent piece of software!

Kind regards,
Alex

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[Stefan B]

Hey - I don’t see any Pull Request open. Can you please check that you have raised it correctly?

[Alexander Wrede]

now? sorry, never worked with a shared repo before.

[Stefan B]

It’s not a shared repo. You need to create a fork and raise a pull request from your fork to this repository.
Did you follow the steps here? https://nighttime-imaging.eu/docs/master/site/contributing/howtosetupdev/

[Stefan B]

Inside your fork you can go to the pull request tab, click on “Create Pull Request” and then can select the main nina repository as destination

[Alexander Wrede]

Yes followed the steps. Should be okay now, you see it. The whole thing looks quite different in VS2022. Thanks for your support!

[Stefan B]

Awesome work- Thank you for the effort.

In recognition of your contribution, can I put your name into the list of contributors?

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[Stefan B]

Looking at some of the coordinates, it seems to be slightly off for some of these. I might need to run a cross check on them before rolling out the change.

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[Stefan B]

Poking around some samples it looks like mostly sharpless objects that are slightly off

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[Stefan B]

Ok seems to have been a lucky shot that i found these two. other samples are all fine. I have corrected these two. if we find more we can push more updates on the go.

[Alexander Wrede]

Don’t tell me with the coordinates - they tear one‘s hair out as so many different.

used for all objects the latest computed from Simbad/VizieR J2000 as found these the most accurate/latest giving that the original catalogs have the coordinates in 1950 or even 1900 epoche.

it was even worse with the size of the different objects.

Of course, I happily correct discrepancies when reported.

An honour when you put me on the contributors list :-)

Thanks!

[Stefan B]

Perfect. I've added you to the contributor list.

I'll mark this issue as resolved. The update is part of the latest 3.0 beta. Thank you again for putting the list together.