Plate solve fails on ASI2600MC SharpCap 4

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nexusjeep
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Plate solve fails on ASI2600MC SharpCap 4

#1

Post by nexusjeep »

Hi Robin,
Due to various issues I have not used my astro setup for a while but last night had a chance to recalibrate and set everything up ready for the darker nights, I downloaded the latest version 4 64 bit and installed it and then started everything up slewed to a location and hit plate solve on the mount interface in SharpCap it then captured the image but failed to solve. I then increased the duration several times but always had a failure to solve, I then remembered that there was a setting for 8 bit for plate solving so went looking for this and discovered it was active by default so removed the tick and then set the exposure back to the original 4s and it plate solved perfectly this is with my ASI2600MC camera.

cheers
Nick
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Menno555
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Re: Plate solve fails on ASI2600MC SharpCap 4

#2

Post by Menno555 »

Oh, maybe that's why I too had sudden problems with plate solving? (Zwo ASI071MC Pro)
I installed the latest 4.0.8173.0 few days back and last night first use ... and plate solving failed here too. Even with 16 seconds it failed with the error "Not enough stars to plate solve". I had to bring down the Noise Threshold to 5 (normally at 50) before plate solving worked at 16 seconds.
Just checked and here too the 8 bit option was active by default. Can not test now but maybe that's also the cause.

Menno
nexusjeep
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Re: Plate solve fails on ASI2600MC SharpCap 4

#3

Post by nexusjeep »

Hi Menno sounds very similar as my noise threshold was left at 50 as I never changed it and I got up to 30s seconds of exposure with no joy but after removing the tick it solved at 50% and 4s probably could have gone faster as I polar align at 1s 500 gain.

Cheers
Nick
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Re: Plate solve fails on ASI2600MC SharpCap 4

#4

Post by admin »

Hi folks,

thanks for the feedback - the 8 bit plate solve option was in response to some cases where the plate solving engine would find the noise in the image as stars and cause the opposite problem (too many stars, most of them wrong). On the other hand, converting to 8 bit will potentially throw away information about fainter stars, which might be the problem you are seeing.

If you can snapshot and send me an image or two that work with the 8 bit option unticked and don't work with it ticked then I will see if there is anything I can improve.

cheers,

Robin
nexusjeep
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Re: Plate solve fails on ASI2600MC SharpCap 4

#5

Post by nexusjeep »

Hi Robin,
Will do but looking at the forecast it will be a while before I get a clear night Menno might get there first :D but unticking it solves the issue for me anyway will it stay unticked or will new installs re tick the box?

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Nick
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Re: Plate solve fails on ASI2600MC SharpCap 4

#6

Post by admin »

Hi Nick,

it won't re-tick itself, but having an option where lots of people have to change it from the default is something I'd like to avoid... Ideally no option at all (everything should just work). If there is an option I'd prefer it to only need adjusting by a few people.

cheers,

Robin
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Menno555
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Re: Plate solve fails on ASI2600MC SharpCap 4

#7

Post by Menno555 »

Hi Robin

Here the same when it comes to the weather. But will send also some examples with and without 8bit ticked.
About the plate solving failing with lots of noise: that happend to me too with my uncooled Zwo ASI385MC and its very small FOV.
But that's easily and very fast solved by making a master-dark within SharpCap and apply that to the capture used for plate solving. The making of the master just has to be 2 or 3 captures and those are just captures of a few seconds.

Menno
NeilG
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Re: Plate solve fails on ASI2600MC SharpCap 4

#8

Post by NeilG »

Might just be me, but I can't find the tick box for 8 bit plate solving - where is it. Just wanted to check what mine is set o before I restart imaging this autumn after and observatory rebuild.
thank sin advance
Neil
Scopes: Celestron C11, 102SLT , Ascension 127mm Apo, Opticstar 152mm Mak, Ascension 80mm Apo
Mounts: EQ8, EQ5 Pro, Nexstar SLT
Imaging: ASI1600MM-Cool, ASI533MC-Pro, ASI290MM, ASI224MC, Quark, QHY5L-II-M,
Opticstar 82 eyepieces, lots of other stuff
nexusjeep
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Re: Plate solve fails on ASI2600MC SharpCap 4

#9

Post by nexusjeep »

it's under file --> SharpCap Settings on the Plate Solve tab just above the Astrotortilla bit.

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Nick
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Re: Plate solve fails on ASI2600MC SharpCap 4

#10

Post by admin »

Hi,

if you don't see the tick box where Nick says then you probably have a version of SharpCap from before I added that option (in which case the image goes to the plate solving engine at the bit depth your camera is running at - either 8 or 16).

cheers,

Robin
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