SharpCap Forums

I have been struggling with plate-solving for some time. Recently I’ve discovered that plate-solving works fine using my 60mm guideI scope and 174mm camera every time. That said, I have not had the same (or any) success with my Meade 115mm APO and 294MC pro camera. Obviously the FOV is dramatically different but other than that I can’t understand why, after successfully plate solving with the guide scope and getting my target within the imaging scope’s FOV, it still will not plate solve. I believe that I have downloaded to proper Astrotortilla files and all hardware (EQ6R mount) is communicating. I would appreciate any thoughts / recommendations.

Hi

Just in case: did you specify a focal length in the Plate Solving settings?
If so, when you use different kinds of focal lengths, it's best to set that option to Do not use

Menno

Hi,

also keep an eye on the number of stars that get detected by the plate solving application - that might well vary widely for different sensor/scope combinations. Ideally you want 25 to 200 or so - too few *or* too many can cause problems. You can control this to some extent by varying the sigma setting in the SharpCap plate solving settings (turn up to get less stars, down to find more).

cheers,

Robin

Thank you @Menno555 but that menu option / radio selection doesn’t exist on my SharpCap version 3.2.6480.0

Thanks Robin I’ll pay close(r) attention to the number of stars.

Robin any chance the size of posted images could be increased in the future?

Hi,

I set a limit on image size mainly to keep the amount of data I have to backup manageable - if you want to share larger files the best way is to upload them to somewhere like dropbox, google drive, etc and then post a sharing link in the forums.

thanks,

Robin

Hi Robin,

Since my last post above I’ve changed remote computers and installed SC v4.0.8395, 64 bit. I tried installing Astrotortilla ANS Ansvr but both downloads stopped at the indexes. I know this isn’t a SC issue, but I would like to know if there is a workflow documented for only installing the necessary indexes so SC will see them. I don’t plate solve outside of SharpCap.

Thank you.

Hi,

did you get as far as working through the 'Index installation wizard' for ASPS?
I just tried installing the latest ASPS and this took a while to pop up, but worked when it did (and SharpCap was happy with the ASPS installation once the index installation was complete). Note that ASPS installtion needs an internet connection both for installing the index files and for installing the actual plate solving engine (which runs invisibily in the background after you run ASPS for the first time after install).

Hope this helps,

Robin

Robin thank you! Yes that helped