WISRD Research & Engineering Journal

Figure 9. Snap-to-blob aperture is the tool used to highlight a star

2.3 Selecting Target Star and Reference Stars Once the stars are as contrasted as possible against the background the software can begin analyzing the data set. First locate the target star within the image. If the camera's tracking worked and it wasn’t windy the telescope should have stayed locked on the star. If it wasn’t then the star selection process won’t follow the star as it moves, and the software won’t capture the full event. This is because the software will run through all the frames and as the telescope moves the stars will slowly shift out of the selected areas. To begin selecting stars, right click over the target star and select “Add snap-to-blob aperture.” The red circle in Figure 9 . shows where to find this option. After selecting “Add snap-to-blob aperture” a small green box should appear the same as Figure 10 .

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