Got an idea for something that SharpCap should do? Share it here.
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'+1' posts are welcome in this area of the forums to indicate your support for a particular feature suggestion. Suggestions that get the most +1's will be seriously considered for inclusion in future versions of SharpCap.
glad to hear that you are getting good results with the push to feature
The first solve would use the target location as the starting point if the virtual mount wasn't connected, but since it is connected it uses the virtual mount position. I suppose you could use the 'Goto Target' tool first to 'slew' the virtual mount to your target if you want to use the virtual mount and have it start at the target co-ordinates.
The dropdown list of targets (Messier and Caldwell catalogs, plus solar system) is deliberately ordered by altitude (highest targets first) since the targets highest in the sky are typically the best placed for observing at any time (darkest background, etc). If you want to perform a more detailed search you can use the 'More' button to show the full catalog which can be searched, filtered and sorted.
Finally the use of a profile or special settings sounds like an interesting idea - I will note it down for a future improvement.
Hi robin,
I tried not having the virtual mount. Push to wouldn’t open. I was thinking if solver spiral search started at target coordinates it would take less time if scope is pointing in the general direction. The notice line in window says initial solve is centered on mounts coordinates. Could the target coordinates be used to sync mount on initial solve?
When using push to I watch the message strip to see how many stArs are seen. If I need to adjust exposure or gain you cannot access controls
I found the solver works best with between 100 to 200 sources. What if the program took the sources number from solver adjusted gain to get ideal number of sources. Then loop back to start new solve run. Of course if max or min gain was reached solving continues. Included in loop could be check for blurred images due to moving scope
Just a thought
the only conditions that need to be satisfied for the 'PushTo' tool to be enabled are
* Camera open
* Camera in live view mode
* Plate solving tool available
That's definitely all possible without the mount needing to be connected, so you should be able to get it working that way. If you get a greyed out (not active) menu item or any other problem with those conditions satisfied then let me know as it is unintentional. Do make sure you have the latest version of 4.1 just in case there have been changes in that area since older versions.
Without the mount connected, the initial hint position for the plate solving is the target, so all should work fine for a quick plate solve in that case. I have some notes on improvements that can be made to the flow, which I will be digging into further in the future.
robin,
your right i didn't have the newest version of 4.1 . I installed the newest and tried to run push to without ascom mount and received an error. I set the focal length in SC with the button for "use this". Without the virtual mount how would the program know my observing location for the alt az coordinates?
While practicing with push to I thought of a small idea. When choosing a target located under horizon the catalog has small type stating that. How about a warning on the Pushto window stating target below horizon?
I really like this push to I think I will sell my finder scope
Ah, I saw that uploaded bug report earlier and although I couldn't quite work out how it had come about, the error was clear enough that I made a change to the code to fix it.
Now I understand what is going on, I have tweaked my fix very slightly to cover another possible failure case.
Normally I'd say that this will be in next week's update, but I'm going to be away for a week or so on holiday, so all I can say is it will be in the next update (whenever I get a chance to do that!)
I have been using push to assist that came with 4.1.10700.0 as time and observing conditions permitted and found it to be useful.
Last night I installed and tried out 4.1.10872.0. Thanks for adding the connection to a ASCOM mount driver. I was able to chose an object in Stellarium and SharpCap correctly used that location. The description with the check boxes to enable this feature are well worded, concise and I think easy to understand.
Adding the east/west north/south to the movement directions will save my brain some thinking.
I did have a plate solving issue with push-to assist with beta 4.1.10872.0 I'll add to the beta bug reports, if it not reported yet.
Hi robin
I took your advice and use the tool which moves the virtual mount to the target. Then when going to push to tool the first search is centered on the target. This works well. If this could be done by clicking on a radio button in the push to window after selecting target. I like the auto fill of target name for file name as well.
I was using asnvr to solve and had to close and open push to window a lot to change gain or exposure to get the right amount of stars. I switched to astap and downloaded d80 data base. I then set camera to get a large amount of stars. The astap program will ignore stars if to many are seen. Now I rarely have to change camera settings to use solving, other than from imaging settings.
Another good thing about astap is when moving scope and stars are trailed. If solving gets one of these blurred images the solver will usually fail quickly and go to next image
12” full manual dob, eq platform, Asi183mc
thanks for the feedback - particularly the fact that being able to adjust the camera settings (gain, exposure) during the process would be helpful - I will look into that.
B482416B-31A7-444E-9A93-807FC4D9BBAC.jpeg (475.6 KiB) Viewed 5134 times
Thanks Robin,
Strange occurrence last night. Astap quit working for me last night. Would so solve when selecting solve only. When going into push to tool solve would fail immediately. I changed to ansvr and no problem. After working on problem I reset the settings to default in astap then it started working. I didn’t make any changes to astap settings so I’m not sure what happened .
I found this object easily using push to
Thank you
