Plate Solving by picture

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lkrustev
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Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2020 1:24 pm

Plate Solving by picture

#1

Post by lkrustev »

Hello! I love Sharpcap ... but is there a way to platesolve by a previous session picture? Some days ago I've wathed my friend to platesolve by a picturte super easy with an Asiair plus unit. I am kind of tired to frame the object by hand....

Thank you!
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Menno555
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Re: Plate Solving by picture

#2

Post by Menno555 »

Hi

If you mean a plate solve of a previous picture and then go to those coordinates: that feature is in the latest SharpCap version which you can download at https://www.sharpcap.co.uk/sharpcap/downloads
It's called Goto Image which you can find under the Tools menu.

Menno
lkrustev
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2020 1:24 pm

Re: Plate Solving by picture

#3

Post by lkrustev »

Thanks a lot :)
lkrustev
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2020 1:24 pm

Re: Plate Solving by picture

#4

Post by lkrustev »

Tried it with picture of Elephants Trunk region and did not solved the picture. It is large picture from ASI 2600 sensor. It was well stretched so there is plenty of stars.
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admin
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Re: Plate Solving by picture

#5

Post by admin »

Hi,

the SharpCap log will contain a lot of information to help work this out, including the parameters sent to the plate solving engine and the output that it created while trying to solve the image. Usually this will help show what the issue is.

cheers,

Robin
lkrustev
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Re: Plate Solving by picture

#6

Post by lkrustev »

Ok thanks I will try the next time.
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admin
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Re: Plate Solving by picture

#7

Post by admin »

Hi,

another possibility - send me the image file that you are having difficulty with - I will test myself.

thanks,

Robin
lkrustev
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Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2020 1:24 pm

Re: Plate Solving by picture

#8

Post by lkrustev »

admin wrote: Tue Jul 05, 2022 12:49 pm Hi,

another possibility - send me the image file that you are having difficulty with - I will test myself.

thanks,

Robin
Sure, thanks a lot:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z1B00J ... sp=sharing
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admin
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Re: Plate Solving by picture

#9

Post by admin »

Hi,

thanks for sharing the image.

I struggled to get Astap to plate solve that image at all - in the end, the way I made it work was to adjust the levels of the image to undo a good deal of the stretching that has obviously gone into making that image. Once I had adjusted, the nebulosity was basically gone with only the stars showing - at that point Astap finally managed to solve the image. Interestingly, Astrotortilla managed to solve the image without needing it to be adjusted back to an unstretched version.

So, I think the advice is to try using a less processed version of the image for this feature (or for any plate solving) - I think the stretching that we apply to bring out the nebulosity tends to increase the brightness of the fainter stars too, and that can confuse the plate solving application.

One more thing to note - FITS files will be better than TIFF files. FITS contains the co-ordinates in the headers, which SharpCap then uses as a hint to the plate solving application. If that data is available, SharpCap limits the plate solving application to a radius of 15 degrees from the hint position. If there is no position data then SharpCap has to allow the plate solving application to scan the whole sky, which is a lot slower.

cheers,

Robin
lkrustev
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2020 1:24 pm

Re: Plate Solving by picture

#10

Post by lkrustev »

Thank you my friend! I will keep this in mind next time. Sharpcap is the best! Keep the good work!
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