Plate solving and goto with AstroTortilla

[Gina]

Just checked this again. With the bookmark for Heart of the Heart existing I solved another image (Orion's Sword widefield) and added that bookmark. It REPLACED the Heart of the Heart bookmark Now to go back to the Heart Nebula image, solve and bookmark that ready for the next time we get a clear night sky. Looks like it should say "Bookmark" rather than "Bookmarks" as it only seem to keep the one I presume this is a bug.

[Sp@ce_d]

I see its up to v5 now.. I'm still running v3 & to be honest I'm a fan of if it's not broke why fix it... but that fix to stop it starting up halfway off the screen appeals to me to start with.... Looks like it installs in a different place by default now & uses the new indexes. Anyone upgraded or running both versions? Any gotchas? Can you run the new version with the original indices?

[Sp@ce_d]

Aha.. I can answer my own question.. realised I have it installed on a test vm with me... so yes to the above just select the AT to install on it's own. The backend stays the same.. Well it solves an image anyway.

[Gina]

Yes, it could be that it's got broken with one of the updates. In other respects it seems fine so far. Just had it connected to the mount and it slewed the scope to the right place as near as I could see with CdC. To avoid clashes, I disconnected AT then ran CdC and connected that to the mount, then checked that the rectangle representing my image frame was on top of the circle of the object position. So at the very least I should be able to grab a quick image with Artemis and solve that and see how near it gets with fresh data. I wonder if the clouds will part for long enough to try that tonight - I think they might. Not enough for imaging though, probably, but you never know, might be able to grab the odd sub. ATM there's cloud and sunny spells but the gaps only last a few minutes. Enough to test AT though.

[Gina]

Some clear sky tonight

Well I got AT sort of working but everything is bad tonight with the strong wind and now the clouds are back

The mount slewed to the approximate position fine. Then I took a 1m exposure in Ha and using the file dialog, solved that and the mount slewed closer to the right place. I then tried to get guiding going but it wouldn't keep guiding which I put down to the very strong wind. We are very exposed here to wind from the NE round to the South.

[Gina]

Where are the index files kept please? I'll try using just the one that solves the image next. (4008 for 314L+ with ED80 and FR).

[Tzetze]

The index files are in cygwin>usr>share>astrometry>data

[Gina]

The index files are in cygwin>usr>share>astrometry>data

Thank you

[Vostok]

Where are the index files kept please? I'll try using just the one that solves the image next. (4008 for 314L+ with ED80 and FR).

You might want to try to set scale_min and scale_max manually in the solver parameter table in the AT window. Setting them excludes unnecessary index files without having to delete/move anything from the mentioned directory.

Lauri,

AstroTortilla team

[Gina]

You might want to try to set scale_min and scale_max manually in the solver parameter table in the AT window. Setting them excludes unnecessary index files without having to delete/move anything from the mentioned directory.

Lauri,

AstroTortilla team

Thank you Lauri That's what I've been doing - it limits use of index files to 2 or 3, which I think is good enough

[kirkster501]

All this testing you are doing Gina - have you been under the stars yet and tried it? Its pretty miraculous and gets the object absolutely bang on center! I am using it with APT and DSLR....

Rgds, Steve

[earth titan]

Just found this and can't wait to get trying it. Sounds very useful.

Typed by me on my fone, using fumms... Excuse eny speling errurs.

[Gina]

I was out there tonight but it's clouded up now. It solved a previous image and then slewed to the coordinates from this image, Then I took some images with Artemis and tried solving and slewing nearer to the right place. It slewed a bit more. Had a bit of finger trouble and then lost the stars in the image so that was that. I'm hoping it might clear again later - forecast is for clear skies. I'm watching the PHD guide camera display hoping to see some stars.

[Gina]

I think I need to change my method. Exposures need to be too long with Ha so I'll use the L filter for positioning. I now have my Arduino controlled stepper motor focussing system working well so refocussing between L and Ha filters is easy enough now. I think AT will work best with a short exposure of a few seconds as long as this gives sufficient S/N ratio on a few dozen stars.

[Gina]

I have plate solved various of my images taken with the ED80, with and without the SW 0.85 FR, and with various focal length lenses. For the two lenses I haven't yet used I've calculated the app. Here is a table of frame sizes and apps.

[Paul Laws]

Gina,

I use 20s exposure for 12nm Ha and 10s for CLS-CCD.

Search radius 45 Sigma 1.

Almost instant reslew.

Regards.

[Gina]

So far we have a clear night and I've been trying AT again. I have my image of the Heart of the Heart from earlier. That solves fine and the scope slews to where it thinks. I take what seems a perfectly good image with lots of stars but AT won't solve it It finds a couple of hundred stars but won't solve. I even tried changing the L and H values to give a wider range but still no joy.

I've given up for tonight as I really don't want to waste such rare imaging time. I've gone back to centring the target in the DSLR finder frame and then fine framing with 314L+ in Artemis. It's not accurate but will have to do. If the clouds stay away I may be able to get all 3 NB data sets in one night. I've already spent an hour getting onto target and would really like to get AT working as it SHOULD get on target in just a few minutes. Trouble is, I just don't know what I'm doing wrong.

[kirkster501]

You have AT connected to the mount and to your camera of course? Have you connected your mount to AT and tested that you can move the mount after a dummy plate solve in daytime? Take a few 5 sec exposures tonight for testing at leisure tomorrow!!!! Do it now before it clouds over and you can experiment when its cloudy. Send us the subs and see if we can solve them too.....

Rgds, Steve

[Gina]

Perhaps I should spell out exactly what I did...

1. Tools > Goto Image and chose previous image
   
2. Image solved
   
3. Ticked the Actions
   
4. Waited for then selected the latest image file for solving
   
5. No solution in x hundred seconds
   

The result of the first slew was way off target (as with CdC).

[Gina]

It was beautifully clear last night for a change so I did a "night shift" letting the imaging system run automatically while I grabbed sleep in batches of a few hours. I occasionally checked indoors using TeamViewer to remotely view the obsy netbook. In the early hours I found that both computers had updated and rebooted closing all applications including TeamViewer So I went out to the obsy and set everything up again (clear skies are currently too rare to be missed!).

I decided to try AT yet again, taking the last sub imaged before the reboot to use as the start and AT duly solved this and slewed the scope into roughly the right direction. I then set up for 10s subs in Artemis and after capturing a couple of decent looking ones set AT off to solve the latest but in spite of finding over 100 targets it wouldn't solve So I went back to manual framing and continued capturing images until dawn.

I must be doing something wrong but I'm dashed if I can see what

[themos]

Can't you look at the log files that AT generates?

[Gina]

Yes, That's where I saw that AT found over a hundred stars - it went right through the lot without solving. I widened both the app range and the FOV. I'll run the sub I used through AT again as a starter image in a minute and upload to astrometry.net too I think. Here's the AT window (as it is now without the mount operating) but I seem to have lost the log.

[themos]

I don't like that Downscaling : 0 bit. Try 1. I find that AT is misbehaving on me as well. I can see from the Log that astrometry.net solves the image (I use the old 200-series index files) but AT just doesn't recognise that the image has been solved!

[Gina]

I don't like that Downscaling : 0 bit. Try 1. I find that AT is misbehaving on me as well. I can see from the Log that astrometry.net solves the image (I use the old 200-series index files) but AT just doesn't recognise that the image has been solved!

Oh I see - thanks for that I'll try Downscaling set to 1 rather than 0.

I think I've found what I did wrong in the early hours this morning. I used bin 4x4 and forgot to set the H to a high enough value - astronometry.net solved it and found app around 10 rather than 2.5. I forgot I'd set the pixel size to 4x normal. However, that doesn't seem to be the problem last night as I was using bin 1x1 with longer exposures.

[russellhq]

Can you post the frames for us to try and solve, see if that sheds any light on things?