The algorithms that can determine pointing without an initial guess generally use triangles of stars in the field, because the angles in a triangle are the unchanged by rotation and scale. (I believe uses software "under the sheets," while WCSFixer uses IRAF.) If you already have an approximate WCS solution, there are several other tools that will help refine the solution. DAOphot and FOCAS (now incorporated into IRAF?) are other options. The learning curve is steep, but not insurmountable for someone computer savvy with some time. For example, the IRAF data reduction environment has a few different options. If you can, any of the several professional data reduction toolchains have the tools that can be used to generate WCS metadata. The simplest conceptually is to find the field were you think you are in SkyView or Google Sky and see if you can match up objects. If you already have an idea where you are pointing, there are more options. If you have good WCS values, tools such as DS9 will let you find the coordinates of objects in a FITS image interactively. The FITS website has a FITS viewer page that also has a list of tools that can convert formats, although converting from FITS to something else is more commonly supported.Ī note on terminology: WCS stands for "World Coordinate System", the standard used for metadata in FITS files that lets software transform between pixel coordinates and sky coordinates. These tools only work with FITS files, so your first step would be converting whatever format you have into a FITS file. There also used to be the Pittsbugh WCS correction service, but it seems to be defunct now. If you don't already have an estimate of where you are pointing, the only other option I know of is WCSFixer.
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