Hi George,
I am a similar Astap issue in PushTO in another thread on here - Astap fails quickly with error code 2 (now we understand that means 'not enough stars found'). Odd that re-setting the Astap settings fixed it - I have never found a setting in Astap for star detection sensitivity, but it almost sounds like there is one.
I have found in the last day some differences between the writing of the file for plate solving in PushTo as compared to normal plate solve, so I have a fix for that. I'm also working on some improvements to use the calculated field-of-view from the first successful plate solve to speed up the subsequent plate solve operations in a single pushto session.
cheers,
Robin
PushTo direction
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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.
Re: PushTo direction
Sounds great Robin,
Astap gets the fov area from the tif header if I’m seeing it right. If I set fov in astap program and solve a tif the correct fov auto populate. I just make sure sc is st for tif output. I’ve tried many different settings in astap to increase star count but with very little success. Last night when using astap if I went any thing over 300 for gain I would get an immediate fail. If I turned gain down to 299 no problem. ???
When I started having issues with astap I saved a couple of stacks in live stack. I received a banner error message stating problem saving file usually disc is full. My disc has lots of room and the files did save. I found the high speed switch on the camera panel off. Maybe trouble passing data through usb3? Probably turned off when updating to the latest beta version
Astap gets the fov area from the tif header if I’m seeing it right. If I set fov in astap program and solve a tif the correct fov auto populate. I just make sure sc is st for tif output. I’ve tried many different settings in astap to increase star count but with very little success. Last night when using astap if I went any thing over 300 for gain I would get an immediate fail. If I turned gain down to 299 no problem. ???
When I started having issues with astap I saved a couple of stacks in live stack. I received a banner error message stating problem saving file usually disc is full. My disc has lots of room and the files did save. I found the high speed switch on the camera panel off. Maybe trouble passing data through usb3? Probably turned off when updating to the latest beta version
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Re: PushTo direction
Hi,
the high speed switch in the camera controls is only relevant in 8 bit modes and when doing video captures (lunar/planetary/etc) - if you are in 16 bit mode then it is ignored by the camera I believe.
The warning about failing to save with a disk that isn't full is often a symptom of filename settings being incorrect in SharpCap - in older versions of SharpCap 4 it was possible to set up the manual filename templates in ways that would lead to files being overwritten if you saved twice or captured a stack on the same target twice in one day or similar. In recent 4.0 versions, you will see warnings about this in the filenames page of the settings.
I am still puzzled by the way that Astap seems to respond oddly with either the rapid failure (not enough stars) or working with very small changes to the image. That shouldn't depend on any header information that it reads from the saved file, as even if there is location and field of view in the headers, it should still search for stars in the image to refine the position.
cheers,
Robin
the high speed switch in the camera controls is only relevant in 8 bit modes and when doing video captures (lunar/planetary/etc) - if you are in 16 bit mode then it is ignored by the camera I believe.
The warning about failing to save with a disk that isn't full is often a symptom of filename settings being incorrect in SharpCap - in older versions of SharpCap 4 it was possible to set up the manual filename templates in ways that would lead to files being overwritten if you saved twice or captured a stack on the same target twice in one day or similar. In recent 4.0 versions, you will see warnings about this in the filenames page of the settings.
I am still puzzled by the way that Astap seems to respond oddly with either the rapid failure (not enough stars) or working with very small changes to the image. That shouldn't depend on any header information that it reads from the saved file, as even if there is location and field of view in the headers, it should still search for stars in the image to refine the position.
cheers,
Robin
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Tiago Ferreira
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Re: PushTo direction
I don't know if it helps but astap was not working with my goto mount and from the moment i checked on SP settings "send in 8 bit format..." it started working without problems.
BTW I've been now successfully using this feature. No problems.
BTW I've been now successfully using this feature. No problems.
Youtube channel: https://youtube.com/@DobsonianPower
16" f/4.4 Skywatcher Go-To Dobsonian
12" f/5 Dobsonian GSO
8" f/6 Dobsonian GSO
6" f/5 Dobsonian Go-To Virtuoso Gti
Dwarf III Smart Telescope
16" f/4.4 Skywatcher Go-To Dobsonian
12" f/5 Dobsonian GSO
8" f/6 Dobsonian GSO
6" f/5 Dobsonian Go-To Virtuoso Gti
Dwarf III Smart Telescope
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Re: PushTo direction
Hi,
the check of the '8 bit mode' option would force the code to re-scale the image to 8 bit and re-save it in FITS (even with the current code which has different treatment in PushTo), so that could be expected to have an effect as it changes what is sent to Astap.
8 bit mode is good in some cases (especially as it can stop noise being detected as stars) but in other cases the loss of detail can prevent faint stars from being detected.
I'm still hunting the cause of this one...
cheers,
Robin
the check of the '8 bit mode' option would force the code to re-scale the image to 8 bit and re-save it in FITS (even with the current code which has different treatment in PushTo), so that could be expected to have an effect as it changes what is sent to Astap.
8 bit mode is good in some cases (especially as it can stop noise being detected as stars) but in other cases the loss of detail can prevent faint stars from being detected.
I'm still hunting the cause of this one...
cheers,
Robin
Re: PushTo direction
Hi robin
Had a small window to work with push to last night. I had the immediate fail when using astap with higher gain. I switched to ansvr and solving works. I did noticed the same exposure and gain settings give much fewer stars with astap than ansvr. Maybe a clue? Another thing in astap when I use the solver as a stand alone I use the pixel size as 7.2 I’m using a2.4 3x3 binned. This works. Is sc giving the binned pixel size to astap? Just a thought,
George
Had a small window to work with push to last night. I had the immediate fail when using astap with higher gain. I switched to ansvr and solving works. I did noticed the same exposure and gain settings give much fewer stars with astap than ansvr. Maybe a clue? Another thing in astap when I use the solver as a stand alone I use the pixel size as 7.2 I’m using a2.4 3x3 binned. This works. Is sc giving the binned pixel size to astap? Just a thought,
George
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Re: PushTo direction
Hi George,
I think I have this one sorted now - it's a combination of using high gain which gives a high background brightness (anything above about 10% of histogram might cause the issue) along with a camera in 12 or 14 bit mode, when working with Astap. The FITs save for Astap incorrectly re-bitshifts the image, brightening it by a factor of 4 (14 bit) or 16 (12 bit). I have a fix written and tested ready for the next update
The pixel size shouldn't be a problem - SharpCap sends the entire sensor area to Astap (what Astap really wants is the height of the image in degrees). Anyway, it should take account of binning when working this out, as I went through the code and tidied that up about 6 to 8 weeks ago.
cheers,
Robin
I think I have this one sorted now - it's a combination of using high gain which gives a high background brightness (anything above about 10% of histogram might cause the issue) along with a camera in 12 or 14 bit mode, when working with Astap. The FITs save for Astap incorrectly re-bitshifts the image, brightening it by a factor of 4 (14 bit) or 16 (12 bit). I have a fix written and tested ready for the next update
The pixel size shouldn't be a problem - SharpCap sends the entire sensor area to Astap (what Astap really wants is the height of the image in degrees). Anyway, it should take account of binning when working this out, as I went through the code and tidied that up about 6 to 8 weeks ago.
cheers,
Robin
Re: PushTo direction
Robin,
Your reason for the issue with astap makes a lot of sense. That explains the cut off of fail message with the reduction of gain.
Have you put any more thought to allow access to camera controls with push to window open?
For people like me who don’t use any type of goto mount. A button in push to window setting virtual mount to coordinates of target before solve begins would be very helpful.
I’m really getting used to using push to. I leave caps on finder most nights! This is going to be very popular for dob owners on a equatorial platform.
I really appreciate your hard work
George
Your reason for the issue with astap makes a lot of sense. That explains the cut off of fail message with the reduction of gain.
Have you put any more thought to allow access to camera controls with push to window open?
For people like me who don’t use any type of goto mount. A button in push to window setting virtual mount to coordinates of target before solve begins would be very helpful.
I’m really getting used to using push to. I leave caps on finder most nights! This is going to be very popular for dob owners on a equatorial platform.
I really appreciate your hard work
George
Last edited by Gfischer on Wed Aug 02, 2023 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: PushTo direction
Hi George,
I think I did enable access to some of the camera controls in the latest version when PushTo is active - you can change exposure/gain etc, but not things that would change the field of view and possibly mess up the plate solving info.
Also, I needed a new build today for another reason, so I thought I might just share a download link here
https://d.sharpcap.co.uk/download.html? ... 0&arch=x64
That version has the Astap fix in it and should (hopefully) behave in PushTo plate solving !
cheers,
Robin
I think I did enable access to some of the camera controls in the latest version when PushTo is active - you can change exposure/gain etc, but not things that would change the field of view and possibly mess up the plate solving info.
Also, I needed a new build today for another reason, so I thought I might just share a download link here
https://d.sharpcap.co.uk/download.html? ... 0&arch=x64
That version has the Astap fix in it and should (hopefully) behave in PushTo plate solving !
cheers,
Robin
Re: PushTo direction
Robin,
I downloaded and installed link. Astap works a lot better. Ability to adjust camera while using push to greatly appreciated.
There is still some difference between astap and asnvr. When getting near horizon with Phoenix light pollution astap can’t solve due to to few stars. I switch to ansvr and over 100 stars seen. Ansvr then solves frame. The two different solvers don’t see the frames the same.
Astap works great in darker skies and I still have the ansvr solver when needed.
George
I downloaded and installed link. Astap works a lot better. Ability to adjust camera while using push to greatly appreciated.
There is still some difference between astap and asnvr. When getting near horizon with Phoenix light pollution astap can’t solve due to to few stars. I switch to ansvr and over 100 stars seen. Ansvr then solves frame. The two different solvers don’t see the frames the same.
Astap works great in darker skies and I still have the ansvr solver when needed.
George