Plate solving

[NunoAg]

Hello.
I have a sky-watcher starquest telescope with a tracking motor and my camera its a ZWO 482 mc.
I´m using sharpcap pro as a software. For platesolving i use ASTAP but can´t solve.
My settings are:

[attachment=0]settings.png[/attachment

When i test plate solving it appears:

Solution : RA=10:33:35,Dec=+89:47:16 (J2000)
Field of View : 1,3301x0,9977 degrees
Time : Thu, 28 Dec 2023 15:48:51 GMT
Orientation : up is 305,5 degrees E of N

But when i try for real can´t plate solve.

What can I do to solve this?

[NunoAg]

And if you need the file Log...

Log_2023-12-16T19_28_30-8972.log

(523.46 KiB) Downloaded 43 times

[admin]

Hi,

the quickest thing to try is using a longer exposure and/or higher gain to try to get more stars found in the image from the camera - I see from the log that in the last test you did only 28 stars were found, ideally you would have 100 to 200. Another good thing to check is that the images you are capturing solve with other software, so save an image to file (same settings you are using for plate solving) and upload it to https://nova.astrometry.net/upload - this is an online plate solving tool, which is usually very reliable. The results from that will help you confirm things like the field of view you are getting. Feel free to upload that saved image here (or share a link to it) and I can investigate further.

cheers,

Robin

[NunoAg]

Hello Robin, thanks for your reply.
I will try to increase the exposure or/and the gain.
The other software that you talk about it’s ASTAP?
The reason to use the sharpcap plate solving and not from Astrometry.net is to use the function “Push to Assistent” from Sharpcap, who is great to a non goto mount.

[admin]

Hi,

yes, Astap is a good plate solving engine to run locally, but actually if you update to the very latest SharpCap version (on our download page), SharpCap now has a built in plate solving enging called 'SharpSolve' that is quick and accurate - see viewtopic.php?t=7122

I often suggest using astrometry.net as a check, since if the image fails to solve there then the problem is with the image. If it works on Astrometry.net then the problem is with the settings for the plate solving engine on your PC.

cheers,

Robin

[NunoAg]

Ok, I will try. I think my sharpcap hasn’t the last version. I need to upgrade it.
Thanks!