Plate Solve and sync

[Andy07810]

Hi, I recently tried plate solving for the first time but the plate solve and sync option isn't highlighted in my tool bar ( i have pro) do I need o set something up in settings? I assume I am doing it correctly by selecting a target in stellarium and the going to tools and plate solve?

[admin]

Hi Andy,

there are a few things that you need to set up in SharpCap before that will become enabled

1) Tell SharpCap what plate solving tool you have set up using the 'Plate Solving Settings' (https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.0/#Plate%20Solving%20Tab , although that documentation is a bit out of date). It sounds like you have already done that

2) Configure SharpCap to talk to your GOTO mount via the ASCOM driver ( https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.0/#Hardware%20Tab)

3) Get SharpCap to connect to the ASCOM mount by ticking the 'Connected' box on the mount control area in the controls on the right.

Once all those are done then the option should become available. If you are seeing that 'Plate Solve Only' is available but not 'Plate Solve and Sync' then it will be the mount connection side you need to sort out.

cheers,

Robin

[Andy07810]

Thank you, plenty therefor me to look at.

[Andy07810]

Hi Andy,

there are a few things that you need to set up in SharpCap before that will become enabled

1) Tell SharpCap what plate solving tool you have set up using the 'Plate Solving Settings' (https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.0/#Plate%20Solving%20Tab , although that documentation is a bit out of date). It sounds like you have already done that
2) Configure SharpCap to talk to your GOTO mount via the ASCOM driver ( https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.0/#Hardware%20Tab)

3) Get SharpCap to connect to the ASCOM mount by ticking the 'Connected' box on the mount control area in the controls on the right.

Once all those are done then the option should become available. If you are seeing that 'Plate Solve Only' is available but not 'Plate Solve and Sync' then it will be the mount connection side you need to sort out.

cheers,

Robin

Struggling to enter anything in the section Detect automatically as per section 2 of your answer.

[admin]

Hi,

if it is set to 'Detect Automatically' and there is something in the box then that's it - SharpCap has found the plate solve and it should work (press the 'Test Selected Plate Solver' button to check that SharpCap is talking to it correctly).

If there is nothing in the box under 'Detect Automatically' then check that the right type of plate solver is chosen at the top (ie Astap vs Astrotortilla, etc). If that is correct and still nothing, then check the 'Enter Manually' button and then you can enter the location manually.

cheers,

Robin

[Andy07810]

Thanks, just realised I have to download Ansvr and astrotortilla etc. I will get there.

[RickBattle]

Robin,

I had the same issue with place solve and resync ghosted out. Now I have it working. Many thanks.

Rick Battle
Vero Beach, Florida.

[GaryCheam]

Hi, I have the same problem as Rick, that the Sharpcap plate solving does not work when using GSS rather than ASCOM which works wonderfully well when using the Sharpcap plate solving database. Last year I posted about a problem with the Sharpcap software losing it's ability to Track after nearing the meridian, so I have changed to GSS as suggested by yourself Robin. So I wondered if and how Rick resolved his issue with the plate solving using GSS.
Regards

Gary

[admin]

Hi Gary,

if the plate solve and resync menu item is greyed out and unavailable then the possible causes are

* You don't have a camera open, or the camera is capturing (this is the sort of fairly obvious 'check the plug' one)
* You haven't set up an ASCOM GOTO mount for SharpCap to control, or it is not connected in SharpCap
* You don't have a plate solving option properly set up - for instance you have selected Astap, but SharpCap cannot find the program or thinks the Astap database is not installed (check plate solver settings page and use the 'Test Selected Plate Solver' button top right

Providing all of the above are OK then the menu item (and the equivalent button in the mount control area) should be available.

Hope this helps,

Robin

[GaryCheam]

Hi Robin, Thank you for your rapid reply, I have switched to Green Swamp Server as ASCOM was thought by yourself in my last post to be a possible cause for my mount losing it's tracking ability in the software (it won't active on any form of Tracking) when the mount gets close to the meridian. So explaining in more detail about my issue, so when I click on the plate solve button the software responds and the blue/green bar appears at the top with a RA/Dec search as per normal when using ASCOM rather than GSS. However everytime the response is that the plate solving has not completed and so has not plate solved and the mount does not Sync to a position. But switching back to ASCOM the SharpCap plate solving database immediately completes the plate solving. So I thought is there something I have not activated in the GSS software, this is the problem Rick had last year, but he did not respond to your reply so I was stuck in fixing the issue.

All the best

Gary