"Cartes Du Ciel" (CdC): Setting Star Catalogs And Limiting Magnitudes

While there are some quite irksome UI particularies in Cartes Du Ciel, I find the software somewhat useful (considering it is free!) and haven't found an free alternative (and I don't expect to find anything better).

One thing I had to change is the amount of stars visible: It was far too few, and I could not related the view through my scope with the display by CdC. I was looking for the "tail" in the Pleiades, but wasn't able to find it. For these faint stars to become visible, one hast to change some settings:

Setup > Chart, coordinates > Object filter > Deep sky filter

Set "Limiting magnitude" to 13 for "Field of vision number" 1 to 4 – the rest should be fine. I don't know if 13 is the best choice, but for me it works OK (and it should show somewhat more than I can see with my scope).

Setup > Catalog > CdC stars

Make sure these two are selected:

• "Extended Hipparcos" (min 0 to max 10, cat/xhip)
• "Tycho 2" (min 0 to max 5, cat/tycho2)

The last one has apparently replaced the "Hubble Guide Star Catalog".

With these changes, one should see more stars, and get a view that resembles more the view through the scope.