SharpCap Forums

Sorry to be a pain...I think I have done all of the above, but the plate solve option is still greyed out in Sharpcap.

Can you please describe where this greyed out "Option" is in SC ?

In the tools menu.

Hi,

for the plate solving tools to become enabled, you need the following

* Plate Solve (Solve Only) - you need to have a camera open
* Plate Solve and Resync - you need to have a camera open *and* have configured SharpCap to talk to a GOTO mount via ASCOM *and* have the mount connected so that the RA/Dec position etc shows in the 'Scope Controls' section of the control panel.

Hopefully that will get you going,

cheers,

Robin

I have installed Astrotortilla with the files for the FOV of my Celestron 8SE. Astrotortilla recognizes my ASCOM mount through CPWI, and Sharpcap can move the mount.
My camera is a ZWO ASI224, but Astrotortilla doesn't seem to recognize it no matter what I chose for Camera. Sharpcap recognizes the camera with no problem.

I have not seen the target/reticle symbol in the Sharpcap motion controls.
I can't get any Fits images, or any images, I have taken to Plate Solve.

When should I begin to see the target/reticle symbol in the Sharpcap motion controls?

Hi,

SharpCap only uses the plate solving engine from Astrotortilla, not the user interface part - there's no need to actually run Astrotortilla once you have installed it (and the data files).

Things to check

1) Plate solving settings page in SharpCap settings - SharpCap should show that it has detected your Astrotortilla in the detection status at the bottom and make sure that the preferred plate solving engine is Astrotortilla rather than Astap - https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.0/#Plate%20Solving%20Tab

2) Make sure SharpCap is set up to talk to your ASCOM mount in the hardware settings - https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.0/#Hardware%20Tab

3) Have the camera open and make sure that the mount is connected - https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.0/#GOTO%20Mount%20Control

At that point, the locate button should become available.

hope this helps,

Robin

here is what Sharpcap shows on the Plate Solving tab when the mount is connected, aligned, and the camera is running.

Manually configured Astrometry : Not configured
AstroTortilla : Not found (binary path missing : C:\cygwin\bin)
All Sky Plate Solver : Not found at C:\Users\yhfri\AppData\Local\Astrometry
Ansvr : Not found at C:\Users\yhfri\AppData\Local\cygwin_ansvr
Cygwin/Astrometry based : Not found (binary path missing : C:\cygwin\bin)
Astap : Not found at c:\Program Files (x86)\Astap\Astap.exe

the cygin folder contains many files, but does not seem to have a bin folder - am I on the right track here?

Yes, assuming that your Astrotortilla installation was fully succesful then there should be a bin subfolder with a file called 'solve-field' in it - that is what SharpCap is looking for.

Now, it may be that Astrotortilla has installed that elsewhere (if you can find it you can use the 'manual location of astrometry based' option). There have also been cases recently where the Astrotortilla installer seems to fail without giving any errors, leading to the sort of situation that you describe with files/folders missing. If you can't find 'solve-field' anywhere on the disk then that is likely what happened. In that case you may want to try AnSvr or ASPS - they basically use the same solving engine with different UI. Since SharpCap bypasses the UI anyway, they are basically interchangeable.

cheers,

Robin