No plate solving

Using SharpCap's Polar Alignment feature
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theoatc
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:23 am

No plate solving

#1

Post by theoatc »

Hello. Recently bought the pro version, to take advantage of the polar alignment tool feature. My guide scope is a ts optics 60 mm, focal length 300 mm. My guide camera is a zwo asi 120 Mc. So far, after two attempts, I couldn't plate solve, even if gain and digital gain was adjusted. I am sure that I am within 5 degrees limit. Exp time attempted was 4-8 sec. Do you think is set up issue? Maybe a focal reducer would help?
Thanks for your time. Brilliiant software,by the way.
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admin
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Re: No plate solving

#2

Post by admin »

As I mentioned on facebook, the best thing to do with this sort of problem is to capture both

* a screenshot of the program (showing the values of the various camera controls *and* the star detection settings page of the polar alignment)
* at least one saved image from the camera (press the 'snapshot' button while polar aligning).

send both of these to me and I will look into what is going wrong.

A good quick test to try yourself is to upload your saved image from the camera to the online plate solver at http://nova.astrometry.net/upload. If this tells you that you are further than 5 degrees from the pole then you have your reason. If nova.astrometry.net fails to plate solve your image then it's unlikely that SharpCap will be able to either (most likely because neither is finding enough stars).



thanks,

Robin
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