tharper

Hi tharper,
 
To add an image to your post, click the More Reply Options button below, and follow the instructions on the page that is linked.
 
What regards your question, well, you can “sort of” work at a hundred percent zoom with a custom rotation center. If you have a mouse and a trackpad (or a mouse with a scroll wheel), you can activate the rotation cursor by clicking the rotation handle of the layer’s bounding box and then, while the mouse button is still depressed, use the pinch gesture on the trackpad (or the scroll wheel of your mouse) to zoom in. But that is very cumbersome.
 
So here’s another technique, essentially due to evtonic03 and Gear maker (see following posts), and this technique does not make use of translating rotation points:
Locate the star, you want to use as the rotation center for your layer. Choose the Ellipse Tool from the tool bar, hold down Shift and Command, click on the canvas position of this star and drag out a circle around it, such that the whole layer, that you want to rotate, is enclosed within that circle. Set the created circle transparent and group your layer with the circle. Now select this group, go to the Transform Panel, set the Transform Panel rotation center to the mid point there, and use the slider to rotate your group around the chosen star. The big advantage is, that you can use the slider of the Transform Panel at any zoom level. That should work … see my video below …  :)
Kind regards, Alex