Plate Solving in Beta

[cuivenion]

Hi Robin, I have the latest beta installed and also All Sky Plate Solver. I'm going to try the new plate solving functionality when I get a chance. I'm wondering if there is any settings within All Sky Plate Solver that need to be enabled/disabled in order to run smoothly with Sharpcap?

Does All Sky Plate Solver have to be open and running when being used by Sharpcap? Thanks for any help.

[admin]

Hi,

the only thing that you need to have done in ASPS is install the data files for the appropriate image scales. SharpCap doesn't actually talk to the ASPS front end at all, it bypasses it completely and uses the Astrometry.Net backend that ASPS installs to do its work (AstroTortilla uses Astrometry.Net too).

cheers,

Robin

[cuivenion]

Thanks that's great. Does Sharpcap also issue a sync once the image is solved, and does it it sync also with software connected to EQMOD such as CDC and Stellarium via Stellariumscope? Thanks.

[admin]

SharpCap will sync to the solved location and then re-goto the position the mount thought it was pointing to initially. So, for example

* You tell the mount to goto Rigel
* Rigel isn't centered in view (or is even out of view)
* You tell SharpCap to plate solve
* After the solve finishes, SharpCap syncs the mount
* Then issues a goto for the Ra/Dec the mount thought it was pointing at before the plate solve

At the end of the procedure you should end up with Rigel centered in view.

cheers,

Robin

[cuivenion]

Awesome, can't wait to try it out.

[calan]

Now all we need is a nice, big, object database built into SC to select gotos from... and I can eliminate yet another piece of running software.

[admin]

Now all we need is a nice, big, object database built into SC to select gotos from... and I can eliminate yet another piece of running software.

I'm quite cautious about adding functionality that is well covered in other applications. For instance the planetarium/goto side of things is well handled by the old favourite Cartes-du-Ciel and also the new kid on the block SkytechX. Getting anywhere near the functionality of these two programs inside SharpCap would be an awful lot of work and to be honest I can't see it happening while I have a feature list as long as my arm still waiting for time to implement it!

cheers,

Robin

PS. Do checkout SkytechX if you haven't already - Cartes-du-ciel sadly still looks like an app that hasn't escaped from the 1990s and Windows 95 - Skytech has a much more modern (and responsive) feel to it.

[calan]

Hmm... SkytechX looks interesting. I'll check it out.

Thanks for the tip.

[cuivenion]

Tested the platesolving with my setup and it seems to be working well. I've never used platesolving before so I'm wondering does it useally take more than one solve to center the object? I only did one solve per target and it took me nearer to center but still a ways off.

I use Stellarium with Stellariumscope for my planetarium/goto software.

[admin]

If you are using the latest beta (2.10.3600) then the log should have about the plate solving process, so if you find it needs solving twice again then just grab the log text after the problem has happened and share it.

cheers,

Robin