SharpCap Forums

Hi. Your new version 3.0 with integrated platesolving and other features are amazing. Its truly unbelievable how much sharpcap has evolved since I first started using it. The platesolving worked amazingly well when I tried it recently. I was hoping that in the future there could be a checkbox so that I could disable the automated sync thats issued after a successful platesolve. Usually after a platesolve I have to move just a little to center an object, maybe a seperaye button to issue a sync could also be added. Thank you so much for your incredible work.

Hi,

at the moment, the only reason to do the plate solving is to run the sync and re-goto, so I can't quite see what the plate solving would do if you disabled the sync - can you explain what you're trying to achieve?

cheers,

Robin

Conceptually, why does plate solving require an ASCOM connected mount ?
It's power lies in working out where the scope is currently pointing. For non-computer connected mounts, there are other options to move it to the correct position. Just tell me where I'm pointing and I'll take care of the rest.
It would be very useful for star trackers, static shooters, those using stand-alone guiders or shooting unguided.

Steve.

Hi Steve,

it doesn't really require a mount, but without a mount you have to do a blind solve over the whole area of the sky - this can easily take 60s or more. With a mount connected you know roughly where you are pointing, so the solve can be made much quicker (usually 5-15s) because it searches only a restricted area of sky.

If you don't have a mount connected, the only thing you can do with the plate solve results is show them to the user or save them (perhaps to a capture settings file), but I'm not sure how much gain there is in that - after all you could plate solve the captured files manually afterwards and get the same info.

cheers,

Robin

Just showing the result is absolutely useful as the point of plate solving is to find the target.
Even if it takes 60 or 120 seconds, that's still better than being totally blind or solving the following day to find you got 5 hours of the sky next your target. There's no reason why that function should be blocked from non-goto users. Let them decide if it's useful to them.
Could I request that it be made available please ?

Steve.

Well, putting in a menu item to run the platesolve is easy, the question is... what should happen to the results when they are found. Displaying them in the notification bar is another easy one, but you can't do much from there except write them down. Hmm - I could put a 'Copy' or 'Save' button on the notification bar I guess.

Any other ideas?

cheers,

Robin

Displaying the result in the notification bar would be great. That's way better than the alternative - nothing.
Is it possible to link to planetarium software to show the solved position without a physical goto mount in the equation ? I imagine that would be the ideal outcome but it's in the "nice to have" list, rather than a requirement, IMHO.

Steve.

Good timing - I was looking for a nice simple feature to do this evening, so that is done now for version 3.1

cheers,

Robin

Great. Thanks.

Steve.

Well, look at that. Just after you go to the effort to add that in, someone on Cloudy Nights points out that you can use the ASCOM mount simulator to achieve the same result with what you already had.
Thread (using different tools here) - https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/5832 ... try7977901

I still like the idea of being able to solve, showing the result and no enforced sync so it's useful without a physical goto mount or connected to a planetarium program.

Steve.