plate solving

[Aviates]

Good morning - novice astrophotographer here and getting all of the hardware & software to work nicely together. Hopefully will have a few clear nights to do some testing in central Iowa.

Confirming the plate solving location that was shares by Esdert (efsix) - I couldn't for the life of me find the solve-field file, but after a reinstallation and restart, and then looking in the C:\cygwin\bin\ directory, found the solve-field file. Guess I could have done a search (which I thought I'd done) and find the location, but was unsuccessful. As a novice, I acquired a Skyris 236M and NexImage 10 camera (before acquiring a ASI071), and SharpCap is really the only solution. Looking forward to getting this hardware and software working together.

My question - is there a way to test SharpCap - can I important an image and see if SharpCap can solve with the connection to the solve-field connection?

I ran one file through Astrotortilla - wasn't solved. But when I ran the same through All Sky Plate Solver and ASTAP, was able to solve. Is there a way to select file and test plate solving inside of SharpCap without capturing an image?

Compliments to Robin and SharpCap - and likely the reason why I'll buy the Pro version - for a nice interface, stable software, and extraordinarily well documented information. The documentation not only helps me get up the learning curve, but there's a lot I've learned by just l reading the user documentation.

Looking forward to learning more from this forum.

Jim

[admin]

Hi,

The easiest way to test the plate solving is to select the deep sky test camera (near the bottom of the cameras list). By default this shows an image of the Orion nebula. If you choose the plate solving option from the tools menu, this should give you the correct coordinates within a reasonable period of time (tens of seconds to a couple of minutes depending on the speed of your computer and how many indices you installed for your plate solving tool). When you are using plate solving for real imaging will tend to use the button in the mount control area, which limits the search to within 15° of the current pointing of the telescope and is therefore much quicker.

If you are using Celestron cameras then it may be worth you updating to the very latest version of SharpCap (from the downloads page – not available on auto update yet). 365 Astronomy were kind enough to send me a selection of Skyris cameras to test with and I have managed to make several bug fixes and improvements in that very latest version.

Cheers, Robin

[Aviates]

Robin - thank you for response. When all else fails, read the manual. Found the reference to the test camera and image in the manual. Figured out quickly that this would be the place to start the testing.

Plate solving was spot on and quick - less than 25 seconds.

Re-reading the manual to make sure that I challenge myself rather than take the easy way out.

Will download the latest version directly.

The NexStar 10 and Skyris236MM are working nicely - occasional do get an error message, sometimes when I re-scan or change (switch out) the cameras - as I'm doing some red dot, guide scope and main alignment. Resolved the error notice by selecting the camera.

Hopefully will be ready for the first clear sky night and run SharpCap.

I've mounted an Intel NUC (with SharpCap, PHD2, Plate-solving, SkySafari, Cartes de Ciel, PoleMaster and EQMOD) on the side of the SE8 (repurposed the Celestron camera mount and adds about 20 ounces to the mount), on top of an EQ6 mount while using a TP Link Wifi Extender to enable Remote Desktop access. Have been testing the remote access - so far no drop out and stable after more than 12 hours. Will also try a direct connection, using a 75' ethernet cable, to do remote control of the NUC, software, guiding, mount and cameras. After deferring the installation of the Celestron focus, now's the time to get this working together.

Next configuration testing will include the ASI071MC and ASI183MM, including the ZWO filter wheel.

Will then move on to the AVX with a William Optics Zenithstar, with the ZWO focuser too.

However, nothing is a better test than to see some real images in the preview.

Jim

[tmyers]

I was going to start a new thread but after searching and finding this one I think I will just add to it.

I have an Explore Scientific EXOS-2GT with PMC 8 Mount, running CDC which has control of my mount. I have SC Pro and have been using the Polar Alignment Tool with great success.

I saw that I could connect SC to my mount but have not done so as yet.

Does SC replace CDC in controlling my mount or do I still need CDC to do that?

[admin]

Hi,

You would still use CDC or some equivalent program to send commands to the mount to move to targets across the sky as you observe. However you will also be able to control the amount from within SharpCap – make small tweaks to the position using the arrow keys without switching to another application, see the coordinates and allow the plate solve/re-sync process to refine pointing. Most Ascom mount drivers allow more than one application to connect at the same time – if yours does not then you can always use the Ascom POTH hub to work around this problem.



Cheers, Robin

[tmyers]

All I can say is WOW!

Took a bit to get POTH working, and yes I did need it!!

I did some practice solving of M42 that you have preloaded, and it worked.

In real practice I kept selecting Tools/Plate Solve and nothing was happening. Then finally found the bullseye on the Telescope control panel, and it worked great. I have never been able to really focus on imaging as I spent most of my time finding things to image. That will not be a problem from here on out. the last three things I imaged last night were so simple to get too. Selected and then slewed in CDC, switch to SC and get a good image in the camera, then hit the bullseye and watch that faint object drop right in the center of the screen. Fantastic.

I did have some hangups and SC locked upa couple times trying to use Live Stack, but I will get that figured out as well.

Thanks for a great product Robin

[DanK]

Plate solving finally worked in ASTAP when I raised the Gain and Exposure levels. However the mount didn't move. I was under the impression that the mount would move and centre the object.

Dan Kahraman

[Jean-Francois]

Hello,

Concerning Plate Solving ... I found this Sky-Simulator ASCOM program.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/sky-simulator/

It takes the coordinates from the ASCOM simulator "Telescope Simulator for .NET" and generate an image with a star database or download a real image from DSS. It can connect with a simulator focuser ... it could be possible to simulate defocus and pointing errors.

Something could be confusing ... the software has 2 parts ... one ASCOM driver to select in SharpCap and a separate software for setting the parameters.

In SharpCap:
- in Camera Controls: click on "Show..." for setting the camera parameters
- I select a "Maximum ADU" between 255 and 512 ... it allows to have short exposure and sufficient illumination

In separate program:
- set the field of view and other parameters

Sky_Simulator.png (750.43 KiB) Viewed 2337 times

And ... it is possible to perform Plate Solving ... also you can test the solver you select.
Or ... you can test a new sequence for the Sequence Generator, but with much shorter exposure time.

Jean-Francois

[DanK]

Hi Robin:

Back to having problems with plate solve.
Connecting Sharpcap (mount) in EQMod Simulator, slewing to an object in a planetarium program and then clicking on the small circle at the lower left of the mount control doesn't offer a remedy to the persisting problem. It still doesn't plate solve. In fact the drop down option for plate solving atleast will solve but not move the mount.

I have run out of ideas as to getting Sharpcap to plate solve.

I will use Sharpcap for polar alignment of my portable scopes and image acquisition, making darks and flats for my Mallincamsky cameras and calibration masters even for my other cameras (Altair & ZWO).

Dan Kahraman

[admin]

Hi Dan,

I think we're really going to have to see the log files to go any further on this one – the next time try the plates solving using the button in the mount controls, capture the log after it has completed the attempt and send it to me.

Cheers, Robin