FOV Calculator Plug-in

For MSB Astroart 3.0 under Windows^TM XP, 2000, Me, 98.
Copyright 2006 Tom Van den Eede. All rights reserved.

Version 1.10.

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License

This plug-in is copyrighted freeware. This means that this driver can be freely copied, but not sold or used as a separate product. This driver should be used only with Astroart software, by the owner of the Astroart license.
This plug-in and its documentation are provided "AS IS". It's not guaranteed that they will work properly on all PCs. This software and its documentation are provided without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including the fitness for every purpose. In no event shall I be liable to you for any special, consequential, indirect, or similar damages, including any lost profits or lost data arising out of the use or inability to use this. If you don't accept these terms or your jurisdiction does not allow for the statements above, don't install the driver in your system.

INSTALLATION

To install this plug-in copy the file pifov.dll and the file FOVCALC.csv into the Astroart directory.

USAGE

• Click the menu Tools/Plug-ins/FOV Calculator to open the dialog window.
• Select the appropriate Telescope/ Reducer or Barlow / Camera / Binning combination by pressing the left/right buttons or by using the drop down(binnig).
• When using prime focal imaging, just set the eyepiece selector to Prime focus (no EP). When selecting an eyepiece, also select the disctance between the focal plane of the eyepiece and the sensor of your camera. A good approximation is the distance between the end of your focuser (where the eyepiece visibly touches the focuser) and the sensor of your camera.
• Read the FOV and pixel resolution in the lower part of the window .
• Click the DONE button to exit the plugin (current setting will remain until exiting AstroArt)

The file FOVCALC.csv can be edited using a text editor. All lines starting with ‘##’ should remain unchanged. All data lines in between can be changed at will to add or remove configuration entries. At least one telescope and one camera need to be defined n order to startup the plugin. If either of these is missing the plugin will not show in the plugin list.

Telescope description consists of

• Telescope name
• Telescope focal length
• Telescope Objective diameter

Barlow/Reducer description consists of

• Barlow/Reducer name
• Barlow/Reducer magnification factor

Camera description consists of

• Camera Name
• Width in pixels
• Height in pixels
• Pixel width in µm
• Pixel height in µm

Eyepiece description consists of

• Eyepiece name
• Eyepiece focal length

All values are to be comma separated on a single line.

The default file has the following content

##TELESCOPES

##NAME,Focal length,Objective Diameter

Vixen ED102SS,660,102

WO zenithstar80,480,80

##BARLOWS

##NAME,##FACTOR

Televue 2inch 2x,2

TAL 3x,3

##EYEPIECES

##NAME,FOCAL LENGTH

Plösll 10mm,10

Plössl 17mm,17

Plössl 20mm,20

Plössl 25mm,25

Plössl 32mm,32

##CAMERAS

##NAME,##WIDTH,##HEIGTH,##PIXWIDTH,##PIXHEIGHT

ICX285,1360,1024,6.45,6.45

ICX429,752,582,8.6,8.3

ICX259,752,582,6.5,6.25

ICX262,2048,1536,3.45,3.45

ICX098,640,480,5.6,5.6

Future development/Bug reports

This plugin was developed as a one-time initiative to have this calculator at hand at all times. If you have useful improvements or suggestions, please let me know so I can add them

Bugs can be reported to t.vandeneede(_a_t_)pandora.be

HISTORY

2006/04/27: 1.00 Initial release

2006/04/28: 1.10 Added eyepiece projection calculations.

Financial support

Although this software is free to use, you are always welcome to make a donation to my PayPal account (t.vandeneede(_A_T_)pandora.be) (replace (_A_T_) by the @ sign) if you feel this plug-in is very useful to your day to day AstroArt usage.