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AstroAlign: Managed Plate-Solving Service

A human-in-the-loop astrometry service where users upload FITS files or JPEGs from their telescope, and a trained technician (or automated pipeline with human QA) returns precise RA/DEC coordinates for detected objects within 24 hours. Technicians use open-source plate solvers (Astrometry.net, Scamp) + manual verification to ensure accuracy, handling edge cases (low-SNR images, unusual telescope configurations, crowded fields) that automated tools fail on.

SERVICE

13 weeks • 70% confidence

Value Proposition

Eliminates the need to hire or train an astrometrist; removes the 2-4 hour per-image learning curve for users; guarantees accuracy even on difficult images; scales from 1 to 1,000 images/month without hiring staff. Beats DIY because it's faster than learning; beats pure automation because it handles the 15% of images that fail automated solving.

Target Audience

Observatories, university astronomy departments, serious astrophotography clubs, and citizen-science projects conducting follow-up observations or transient alerts

Key Features

  • Batch upload interface (drag-drop, FTP, or API)
  • Automated pre-processing (image normalization, source detection)
  • Fallback to human verification for failed/ambiguous solves
  • And more, with full implementation detail...

Tech Stack

Astrometry.net (open-source plate solver) Scamp (astrometric calibration) AWS EC2 + S3 PostgreSQL
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Original Problem

Astronomers struggle to accurately convert telescope image pixel coordinates to celestial coordinates (RA/DEC) without specialized expertise

Astrophotographers and astronomers need to map pixel positions in their digitized telescope images to precise celestial coordinates (Right Ascension/Declination), but lack accessible tools or clear methodologies to do this accurately. Current solutions require deep technical knowledge of astrometry, plate solving, and coordinate transformation mathematics, making it a bottleneck for researchers, hobbyists, and observatories trying to catalog observations or conduct scientific analysis.

Score: 18.4% • 1 demand signal