I’ve started playing with it but have not been able to load a more comprehensive catalog of variable stars than the sample catalog provided with the plugin.
Has anyone had any success with it?
hi Roger - I am starting to look into it.
I used the AAVSO csv file that was in the link on the plug in help page (in NINA). I have also cut down the AAAVSO file to only contain magnitude 15 and brighter, below that my kit gets low SNR. It loads and works okay, just a bit less options to scroll through.
I also tried the manual csv file but that one did not work out well for me, I think that’s because of the epoch times that don’t match my today.
In NINA - The link to the AAVSO target tool is outdated. But… if you use the new AAVSO target tool (targettool.aavso.org) sign in to search for targets that are visible to your location, you can “export to csv” in the top right corner. That CSV file has exactly the right format that the NINA plugin expects. You can load that and voila, your targets show up. I have pinged Nick the developer of the plug in on NINA discord with the right link already.
In the exoplanet plugin options menu - variable stars, I select order by Culmination so it shows the visible stars first. It does show “xx excluded” I think that’s because those are not visible from my location. Once you have the variable star object in the advanced sequencer you can also filter per constellation, that makes it quick to find a target as well for your area.