Drag and drop an image, platesolve it and display it with variable transparency above background

[void4]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. It's frustrating to match external images by eye, since they can be of different scales, show features with different brightnesses compared to Stellarium's built in images (or surveys like SDSS) or be located in an unknown location altogether.

Describe the solution you'd like It would be nice if one could drag and drop any astrophotography images into Stellarium, which it would then plate solve (possibly using third party services/code like astrometry.net) and then overlay it over the existing sky background (ideally with a variable transparency slider).

Describe alternatives you've considered This is probably too complex to be built in to the standard program, but it would be nice if at least such a plugin existed. Only very few Stellaria seem to have this ability. The only one I'm aware of is WorldWideTelescope

Additional context I think this would be a very useful addition and save many people's time.

[github-actions[bot]]

Hello @void4!

Thank you for this suggestion.

[github-actions[bot]]

This is a good task for the community to participate in the contribution into Stellarium. Who wants to help us?

[mleila1312]

Hello,

I would be interested in contributing and working on this suggestion. If I used Astronomy.net, there could be a small issue. This library is under GPL 3.0 license however the license of stellarium is 2.0 or above, would that be a problem?

A solution to this could be to indicate that this particular plug-in is under GPL 3.0+ license, that the entirety of Stellarium (plug-in included) would be under GPL 3.0+, and that Stellarium without the pulg-in is under GPL 2.0+. I have looked for other similar libraries but the ones I found were under GPL 3.0(+) or copyrights.

[gzotti]

Thanks for your interest. Look into @10110111 's recently added Lens Distortion plugin, I think it could be enhanced with automatic plate solving.

Umm, license. Difficult. Why are we GPL2, not 3? (@xalioth , @alex-w ?)

[10110111]

Why are we GPL2, not 3?

I guess one problem with this is that we can't change the license because the copyrights are held by the individual contributors, some of which may be unreachable. This is why contributing to e.g. GNU software requires the contributor to assign copyright to the FSF.

[mleila1312]

I guess one problem with this is that we can't change the license because the copyrights are held by the individual contributors, some of which may be unreachable.

The GPL 3.0+ license is included in the GPL 2.0+ license. As long as it is written in the headers of the code files that they are under GPL 2.0+ license, you can change the license of the project to GPL 3.0+ without asking for authorization from the original contributors as indicated in the second paragraph here on StackExchange. Your code files are under GPL 2.0+, see also headers of .cpp files.

[mleila1312]

And I'll look into this plugin, automatic plate solving could be a good addition to it.

[gzotti]

I just saw the RPM group is Amusement/Graphics (CMakeLists.txt L.971). Stellarium has certainly matured beyond amusement. Why not change to Sciences/Astronomy?

[alex-w]

I just saw the RPM group is Amusement/Graphics (CMakeLists.txt L.971). Stellarium has certainly matured beyond amusement. Why not change to Sciences/Astronomy?

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RPMGroups

https://wiki.mageia.org/en/RPM_groups_policy

So, acceptable

[gzotti]

I had seen https://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/Sciences_Astronomy.html. But I don't know the consequences of just changing the entry. Fedora has apparently (your link) deprecated all groups seven years ago. I have no overview which other distributions use RPM (and which flavours) currently.

[10110111]

FWIW, KStars and Celestia have "Unspecified" group.

[alex-w]

FWIW, KStars and Celestia have "Unspecified" group.

For Fedora, but Sciences/Astronomy for Mageia

[10110111]

For Fedora, but Sciences/Astronomy for Mageia

Sure, but in any case not "Amusement/Graphics".

[alex-w]

https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium/commit/d9090102a827b12335a67c49542a6e027c0fffce