<p>Yes.
The method is called plate-solving or <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrometric_solving" rel="noreferrer">astrometric solving</a>. There are websites which offer that service as well as tools which work locally on your computer:
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_astrometric_solvers" rel="noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_astrometric_solvers</a></p>
<p>Quite a few of the astrophotographers in my local observatory use the online version of <a href="https://nova.astrometry.net/" rel="noreferrer">astrometry.net</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-27T06:53:41.247Z
Thank you @planetmaker. This was a very interesting read, I've never heard of this before. I will have a look at some of the software mentioned in the list!
Sacha Viquerat
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-27T02:01:18.563Z
2024-11-27T08:57:01.520Z
2024-11-27T08:57:01.520Z
planetmaker
<p>On Earth, it is straightforward to georeference images onto a map surface using control points. Is there a similar approach for photos of the night sky showing stars?</p>
<p>I’ll take a long exposure shot of the night sky and want to use the stars as control points to overlay the image on Stellarium to identify all the objects in the picture. Is that feasible (I know the relevant camera parameters and my geolocation)?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-26T22:10:38.693Z
See https://nova.astrometry.net/
James K
<photography><software><image-processing><star-maps>
How can I reference sky photos to a star map?
Sacha Viquerat
# How can I reference sky photos to a star map?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-11-26)

On Earth, it is straightforward to georeference images onto a map surface using control points. Is there a similar approach for photos of the night sky showing stars?

I’ll take a long exposure shot of the night sky and want to use the stars as control points to overlay the image on Stellarium to identify all the objects in the picture. Is that feasible (I know the relevant camera parameters and my geolocation)?

**Tags:** photography, software, image-processing, star-maps

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: See https://nova.astrometry.net/  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2024-11-27. Score: 10 | Accepted answer

Yes.
The method is called plate-solving or [astrometric solving](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrometric_solving). There are websites which offer that service as well as tools which work locally on your computer:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_astrometric_solvers>

Quite a few of the astrophotographers in my local observatory use the online version of [astrometry.net](https://nova.astrometry.net/)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thank you @username_2. This was a very interesting read, I've never heard of this before. I will have a look at some of the software mentioned in the list!  

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