Plate solving and goto with AstroTortilla

[themos]

OK, I had a go with AT. If you already have a cygwin installation and have installed astrometry in /usr/local/astrometry ( as is the default ), then you need to edit /etc/profile and put the line

PATH=/usr/local/astrometry/bin:$PATH

in it

[Breakintheclouds]

That's useful, Themos - I think that might have tripped me up if I had already had cygwin installed! Although, my default cygwin+AT install has put the data in /usr/share/astrometry/data - just in case that's relevant for anyone

[Sp@ce_d]

This sounds interesting. I failed miserably trying to get Elbrus to work on Win7.

What's the system overhead like, I use a netbook at the moment for capture?

So, can you use this completely offline / query a local database. if you don't have network access for example?

Hmmm guess I need to go RTFM properly

[RogerTheDodger]

Yes it's totally off-line. As you just use it for goto it shouldn't drain the netbook too much... mind you it depends how many seeks you do

give it a try.

[RogerTheDodger]

Is AstroTortilla creating and managing some kind of pointing model itself that results in the improved goto?, or is it just providing a sync that EQMOD then uses in the usual way to to build its own internal model?

Chris.

Chris, I checked last night and AT does update EQMOD, so initial GoTos do improve.

[Earl]

Does this support a Rotator also?

[RogerTheDodger]

Not currently, but as it calculates field rotation from an image I would think it be worth asking the devs if it could be done.

[Photosbykev]

one to play with when I'm back home with 100Mb broadband, I don't fancy downloading the data sets on a 2Mb link lol

[RogerTheDodger]

If you are using one of your Canons then you probably only need Index-205 to 207, about 800MB.

[Photosbykev]

If you are using one of your Canons then you probably only need Index-205 to 207, about 800MB.

what about a DMK21 on a 1100mm refractor?

[RogerTheDodger]

got a full-size starfield in jpeg from that combination? I'll see what it comes out as...

[Photosbykev]

got a full-size starfield in jpeg from that combination? I'll see what it comes out as...

not to hand but the FoV is approx 0.18 x 0.14 degrees

[RogerTheDodger]

Might need 204 as well then.

[Photosbykev]

Might need 204 as well then.

Thank you Roger

[Photosbykev]

all the index files downloaded ready for extracting and a thought occurred to me. In the user guide the bz2 files are placed in the path C:\cygwin\usr\share\astrometry\data\. Could I place them on an external drive and point the programmes at that new location for the Fits files?

[RogerTheDodger]

I think so, I've been meaning to try sticking them on a ramdisk. I'll boot the laptop and have a look.

[Breakintheclouds]

As you're using cygwin, which is kind of unix, you should be able to go into the astrometry folder, delete the data folder and create a symbolic link called data which points to the folder with the files in:

ln -s /path/to/files data

if nothing else works, that is. This will point the data folder to another location

Sent from my GT-I9100

[RogerTheDodger]

Have a look in cygwin\etc\astrometry\backend.cfg the path to the data files is defined there.

[Photosbykev]

Thank you gents, I've installed all the software and extracted the indexes to the default folder for now. Just downloading a few images from Flicker with Astrometry solutions to test the setup

[pwalsh61]

Just taking a look at this myself. I've downloaded and installed version 0.3 and also installed the 210+ index. As I'm not connected to my scope at the moment and don't have APT (I prefer BackyardEOS) I've selected the ASCOM simulator and chosen "Open file dialog" in the Camera section. However, the chooser under Solver is greyed out, as are all three Actions. When I click on Capture and Solve, a file chooser pops up and I've select a jpeg of M45 (a snapshot taken with BYE). The image appears to solve OK but the actions remain greyed out Am I missing something somewhere?

[themos]

I think you can. You have to make "symbolic links" from C:\cygwin\usr\share\astrometry\data\ to the actual place. I do this, in cygwin terminal, by going to the C:\cygwin\usr\share\astrometry\data\ directory and, assuming your index fits files are in drive F:

cd /usr/share/astrometry/data
ln -s /cygdrive/f/index-219.fits .

and so on , for each file.

[pwalsh61]

D'Oh!

Just changed the time on PC so that EQMOD and Stellarium would think it's late enough for M45 to be visible. Slew to M45 and the Actions aren't greyed out any more. Must RTFM more!

[Breakintheclouds]

Just taking a look at this myself. I've downloaded and installed version 0.3 and also installed the 210+ index. As I'm not connected to my scope at the moment and don't have APT (I prefer BackyardEOS) I've selected the ASCOM simulator and chosen "Open file dialog" in the Camera section. However, the chooser under Solver is greyed out, as are all three Actions. When I click on Capture and Solve, a file chooser pops up and I've select a jpeg of M45 (a snapshot taken with BYE). The image appears to solve OK but the actions remain greyed out Am I missing something somewhere?

I've found the actions are only available when I'm connected to a mount. Is your simulator working fully - is there a green "tracking" showing near the top of AstroTortilla?

Edit: gah! Replied before seeing your second message...

[pwalsh61]

All I need now is a clear sky to try this out!

[Photosbykev]

I'm currently doing the same as pwalsh and using the ascom simulator which is being thrown around the sky by StarryNights Pro and AT sees as tracking but I'm unable to get a plate solve on even a simple file image. Could I pinch one of the images that someone has used to get a plate solve in AT so I can check my setup please