Plate Solving with Telescope GoTo hand controller

[FDNF]

Hello Menno,

Thank You for that information, that helps a lot!

I am using a cheap Planetary camera for viewing right now.
The Svbony 305:
Pixel size : 2.9
sensor size : 6mm x 3mm

When I figured out my FOV, it is really small compared to what yours is on the ASI071MC Pro.

I am still waiting for clear sky here, to try out my guide scope/camera setup and see how that goes.

I will keep you posted

Cheers

Curtis

[Menno555]

Hi Curtis

The combination of your scope and camera indeed gives a very small FOV. The combi is great for moon and planet captures but for deep sky and plate solving it's a big challenge.
In the screenshot below I compared your FOV (red outline) with the FOV with my ASI385MC (yellow). With my camera it's possible to do plate solving but really only is areas where there are enough (brighter) stars. In a lot of areas I can't plate solve simply because there are not enough stars. So you can imagine that with your camera it's even harder.
But it's not impossible, it's just hard and sometimes frustrating You can first do polar alignment with your hand controller and then point your scope randomly somewhere but away from Polaris and enable tracking. And then just watch your screen while manually slewing your scope with 1 second exposures until you see 3 or more bright stars. Then set your exposure to 6 seconds and try the plate solve.

Also: make sure in SharpCap the Colour Space is set to RAW16. When I first did try my ASI385MC for deepsky and platesolving, it failed each time. This was because the Colour Space was still on RGB and only 3 stars were detected. But with colour space on RAW16 it detected more then enough to plate solve in the same FOV.

Menno

compa.jpg (60.02 KiB) Viewed 2450 times

[FDNF]

Hi Menno

Thanks very much for taking the time to post that information image, I really appreciate it.
Also the setting information as well!

Hopefully this weekend it will clear up

Curtis

[FDNF]

Okay, so a lot has happened in the last 2+ weeks. I broke down and bought a New camera.

I went with the ZWO asi294mc Pro.

It arrived last week, but of course its been cloudy, and or raining here on the West coast of Canada.

Tonight is crystal clear, but extremely windy with the Sub Arctic temperatures now here.

So I setup my mount in my living room, and opened a window to try out my new equipment.

Got the camera up and running, added my Antares F6.3 reducer and went plate solving.

Well, its working like a charm!!

Thanks Robin, and Menno for all the information that was past along, it help me make up my mind to move to a better quality camera!

I put my Svbony 305 on my guide scope and that is working Great too!, able to plate solve with that setup as well.

Cheers

Curtis

[Menno555]

Good to hear Curtis.
I had that same camera too and it's indeed a good one.

Menno

[pastorgalactico]

Hello;

I'm successfully using my Uranus C camera to plate solve from SharpCap.

However, I have to manually press the button on the crosshair in SharpCap.
It's a 16" altazimuth telescope with GoTo, and I'd like to know if plate solve can be done automatically from SharpCap. That is, to perform a GoTo operation, take an image upon reaching the target, analyze it, and automatically correct the position to center the object.
Is this possible from SharpCap? If so, how do I configure SharpCap for this? Thanks.

[admin]

Hi,

yes, you can do this, but it requires you to select the target and begin the GOTO from within SharpCap, using SharpCap's own catalog of sky objects.

Use the 'Goto Catalog Target/Co-ordinates' tool from the tools menu, select the target you want (you have a short catalog of solar system, Messier, Caldwell objects or the full catalog of about 20000 targets). Make sure that the check box to 'Refine position using plate solve...' is ticked and let SharpCap get on with the process. More info : https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.1/#!2!Got ... -ordinates

cheers,

Robin

[pastorgalactico]

Hello;

Thanks for replying.

So I can't use my planetarium Guide 9.1 to initiate the goto?
Do I absolutely have to do it from within SharpCap itself?
Regards

[admin]

Hi,

yes, if you want the following plate solve to be automatic. If you do it from within SharpCap then everything is automatic, if you do it from a planetarium then you will need to press the button in SharpCap.

cheers,

Robin