AstroMB: Computer Aided Astronomy
AstroMB is a smart astronomical database for scientific research,
especially the study of variable stars and other transient phenomena.
It's a relational database that handles astronomical images and catalogs.
It's smart because it can match images and catalogs, doing astrometry
and photometry, automatically detecting the differences (intruders
and variable objects).
AstroMB is also a sky charting program that can drive a telescope
and communicate with 3rd party programs supporting Microsoft scripting.
AstroMB can work robotically: it can slew a telescope, take images
with CCDSoftV5 or MaximDL, solve their astrometry and photometry, and automatically record in its database the
variables and intruders it detects.
An screen copy with an image of a variable star field dressed with the coordinates
and with apertures for photometry analysis;
a sky map with a simulation of a forcoming Sun eclipse;
a dialog box to select transformations for photometry.
AstroMB runs on any PC with Microsoft Windows (XP, Vista). The
main features of the software package allow you:
to view astronomical images, displayed with celestial and galactic axes;
to handle astronomical catalogs, as disc files and via the Internet;
to match images with astronomical catalogs. To derive the astrometry and
the photometry of an image by comparison with astronomical catalogs;
to identify sources on images from astronomical catalogs. To automatically
detect variables and intruders. To highlight features by digitizing them;
to match different images of the same area of the sky and to blink them;
to manage astronomical images and catalogs from a database. Images can
be quickly retrieved by keywords or by coordinates. The descriptions of
thousands of publicly available images are ready to be installed;
to make sky maps to display horizons, image contours, astronomical objects,
a telescope direction;
to associate files and programs with any image, catalog, astronomical object
and view and run them from your browser;
to drive a telescope, with misalignment and flexure compensation;
to make robotic observations with a third party program to drive a camera
that supports Microsoft scripting;
to be automatically alerted for intruders and variables detected on your images.
