I am trying to use this script to collimate my telescope, but it is not finding the donut...
Can you help me figure out why?
The telescope is a HAC125, it has the camera at prime focus (no 2nd mirror) and the "shadow" is the camera usb cable/connector.
my guess it is going to be the shadow causing the problem - you could try making a non shadow version of the image in something like Windows Paint, then load that into the SharpCap test camera (drag the saved PNG file into SharpCap) to test to see if that resolves the problem.
Having had a look at the code of the collimation tool, there is a 'Number of Rays' setting that it might be worth changing - either set it higher in the hope that more 'good' rays helps it find the right circle, or set it to the lowest possible then potentially rotate the camera to try to get the lead shadow to fall between the rays so it doesn't get measured (the lowest number seems to be 12, so they will be laid out like the hour markers on a clock face with that setting, so try to get the shadow at '2:30' not '2:00' or '3:00' if that makes sense).
It now includes both size and brightness target bars and improved UI overlay rendering.
Make sure you are within the target zone on both of these.
Then I suggest trying different detection algorithms on the Detection tab
I have a similar hyperstar setup that works with the plugin.
You can also try loading one of the sample static images (you can load via the planetary simulator camera type) to make sure the plugin is working properly.
Yes, your advice do make sense.
Unfortunately, it did not work I tried it yesterday evening but to no avail, the script was not able to detect my dougnut
I have 2 telescopes which have collimation issues and I really need to find a good solution to collimate them...
It works on my system (last 4.2 beta and the last version of the script) with the jpeg image loaded in the Test Camera 2 (high speed).
With the "full" image or here with a smaller area:
Collimation_Test_Vega_image.jpg (384.27 KiB) Viewed 288 times
The number of rays has to be large enough. It works with all 3 algorithm with the "Reset" parameters.
The brightness threshold can be set higher ... so near the maximum intensity of the diffraction ring (inside and outside rings).
First try to use your own vega.jpg image to see if it works for you as well:
In SharpCap's scripting console (Scripting → Console), with the Collimation Aid running:
type:
test_image(r"C:\path\to\vega.jpg") (change C;\path\to\vega.jpg to wherever your vega.jpg file is)
It succeeds → the detector is fine, and the problem is in live frame or saved settings. Continue below.
It fails → config may have drifted from defaults. Run reset_config(), then restart(), then re-run test_image() above.
Next, using the same Console do these commands below. T\Run with the camera live and the star in frame:
debug_on()
# let it run ~30 seconds
debug_off()
Reply back the full debug() output, everything between the ==== lines.
I tried it yesterday evening but to no avail, the script was not able to detect my dougnut