<blockquote>
  <p>As I do not want to reinvent the wheel, is there any star recognition
  framework that you've heard of? Preferably open source, the language
  is of marginal importance as long as I can get the relevant data in
  and out. I'm thinking of something that I can feed with an image file
  and get back an array with the recognized objects with their x/y
  locations within the image.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I'd take a look at the <a href="http://nova.astrometry.net/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">astrometry</a> service. You can upload a picture to their site and receive an astrometric labeled overlay. They do have an <a href="http://nova.astrometry.net/api_help" rel="nofollow noreferrer">API</a>. I'm not sure if an array output option is builtin, but I have a feeling it's doable within what they're offering. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-18T18:35:48.490Z
Was just about to comment and recommend this. You can output a file of the matched stars which should be transformable into what you want. `Pinpoint` is used a lot in the amateur community to feedback guiding corrections but I don't know how well it works with widefield images from DSLR
astrosnapper
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-18T18:58:03.907Z
@astrosnapper & Alphecca: Thanks for your comments, I will definitely take a look at that! And just for clarification: I want to use two separate cameras, one small and fixed, and the big DSLR that points at a completely other direction (my actual subject). So not the images from the DSLR will be used for the recognition/pinpointing task, but the ones from the smaller and fixed "navigation" camera.
Rob
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-18T18:32:36.847Z
2018-12-18T18:32:36.847Z
Alphecca
<p>Being a daytime software engineer and a sparetime photographer, I was looking for a nice DIY project for the next weeks. I finally decided to build a star tracker with a camera mount, so that I can take deep sky pictures with my DSLR.</p>

<p>While planning and layouting the components for this, I had to decide whether I want to manually adjust the rotation axis of the device so that it aligns with the rotation axis of the earth - or go the nerd way and let the system auto-arrange itself by attaching a suitable fixed USB camera, evaluate the video/images and write some software to move the device with stepper motors and screw drives until the correct orientation is reached.</p>

<p>As I do not want to reinvent the wheel, is there any star recognition framework that you've heard of? Preferrably open source, the language is of marginal importance as long as I can get the relevant data in and out. I'm thinking of something that I can feed with an image file and get back an array with the recognized objects with their x/y locations within the image. I did some research on that but could not find anything promising. What I need is an automatic identification of the brightest stars, so that I can check the current orientation against a reference image and get some vectors for the stepper motors. I hope I got the idea across.</p>

<star><photography><positional-astronomy><software>
Is there any star recognition framework/library available?
Rob
# Is there any star recognition framework/library available?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-12-18)

Being a daytime software engineer and a sparetime photographer, I was looking for a nice DIY project for the next weeks. I finally decided to build a star tracker with a camera mount, so that I can take deep sky pictures with my DSLR.

While planning and layouting the components for this, I had to decide whether I want to manually adjust the rotation axis of the device so that it aligns with the rotation axis of the earth - or go the nerd way and let the system auto-arrange itself by attaching a suitable fixed USB camera, evaluate the video/images and write some software to move the device with stepper motors and screw drives until the correct orientation is reached.

As I do not want to reinvent the wheel, is there any star recognition framework that you've heard of? Preferrably open source, the language is of marginal importance as long as I can get the relevant data in and out. I'm thinking of something that I can feed with an image file and get back an array with the recognized objects with their x/y locations within the image. I did some research on that but could not find anything promising. What I need is an automatic identification of the brightest stars, so that I can check the current orientation against a reference image and get some vectors for the stepper motors. I hope I got the idea across.

**Tags:** star, photography, positional-astronomy, software

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-12-18. Score: 4

> As I do not want to reinvent the wheel, is there any star recognition
> framework that you've heard of? Preferably open source, the language
> is of marginal importance as long as I can get the relevant data in
> and out. I'm thinking of something that I can feed with an image file
> and get back an array with the recognized objects with their x/y
> locations within the image.

I'd take a look at the [astrometry](http://nova.astrometry.net/) service. You can upload a picture to their site and receive an astrometric labeled overlay. They do have an [API](http://nova.astrometry.net/api_help). I'm not sure if an array output option is builtin, but I have a feeling it's doable within what they're offering.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Was just about to comment and recommend this. You can output a file of the matched stars which should be transformable into what you want. `Pinpoint` is used a lot in the amateur community to feedback guiding corrections but I don't know how well it works with widefield images from DSLR  
> **username_0**: @astrosnapper & Alphecca: Thanks for your comments, I will definitely take a look at that! And just for clarification: I want to use two separate cameras, one small and fixed, and the big DSLR that points at a completely other direction (my actual subject). So not the images from the DSLR will be used for the recognition/pinpointing task, but the ones from the smaller and fixed "navigation" camera.  

---

