Jump to content

Narrowband

My tutorial for installing, setting up and using AstroTortilla


Gib007

Recommended Posts

Hi Gib007, Thanks for the Tutorial. I have followed all the way and almost there. Only problem I have encountered is when I  click on Capture and Solve I get an error message, Failed to connect to BackyardEOS.  All appears to be working up to this point, running through stellarium, send to target and says its tracking. its just not connecting to BYEOS. This is all running fine and camera is all connected, just AstroTortilla not talking to BYEOS. Appreciate any help on this. Many thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You need the premium version of BYEOS/BYN. Then go to settings and in the "3rd party integration" box tick "enable TCP server" then reboot.

In AT the settings for camera must be BYEOS.

Edited by kalasinman
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There seems to be significant differences as to what settings should be. First time I tried AT with settings from the LV tutorial, it failed. It snapped the pic using BYN, but wouldn't solve. Then the long cloudy period started. In the mean time I discovered I pre-maturely deleted some index files which may have caused the failure to solve.

Attached are screen shots of my settings page and those recommended to me by Geof on the AT forum.

As I first tried

post-37593-0-49997700-1437016376_thumb.j

As I have currently

post-37593-0-07445300-1437016393.jpg

As Geof from the forum has for his (not same scope).

post-37593-0-93242000-1437016892.jpg

My understanding is that having scale refinement at .1 then doing an initial solve, AT will update the entries to the proper settings for the actual capture, and then "save settings" and then ok for the future.

Your thoughts?--Jack

Edited by kalasinman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

Thank you for your comments. Indeed a friend of mine recently upgraded to Nebulosity 4.0 and has the same issue with operating AstroTortilla. What he is doing, and what I would recommend doing, is selecting "File Open dialog" under "Camera". The workflow would be as follows:

1. Select "File Open dialog" as your camera in AstroTortilla.

2. Go to your intended target.

3. Use your software of choice to capture an exposure of whatever it is you're pointing at. Try to use an exposure time of 20 seconds or so, and bin 2x2 if you use a CCD camera that supports binning. If it's a monochrome camera, use your Luminance filter. 

4. Click "Capture and Solve" on AstroTortilla and a window will open asking for an image file. Point it to your captured exposure from step 3. 

5. Wait and enjoy!

Naturally, AstroTortilla always captures a second exposure after the first one, to verify the correctness of the slew. As a result, another file open window will pop up once it has apparently done its job. You can close this window and ignore it if you don't want to verify the plate solve. If you do want to verify the plate solve, keep this window open, go back to your capture software, capture a new exposure and then point the file open window to this new exposure. It will plate solve that and most likely be happy and report "Solved". That's why you can skip on the verification stage - the vast majority of people will never need a second slew to get right on target. 

Edited by Gib007
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, Thank you for your excellent tutorial. I used it religiously to set up both my cameras. It works fine for my 1000d Canon and plate solving works a treat. But for my Starshoot G3, it is unable to solve.

My original post is here

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/248541-unable-to-plate-solve-using-astrotortilla/

I have tried different settings to no avail. This leads me to wonder if I have the required index files.  My scope is a 200p skywatcher (f5) 1000mm FL and the FOV of my CCD camera is 21.97' x 17.01'

What index files would I need? I can then check the data folder to see if they are there. Plate solving is more important for the G3 mainly due to the small FOV, making it difficult to find and center an object. Astrometry.net, however,  solves the images virtually straight away.

Any help would be appreciated.

Surinder

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, Thank you for your excellent tutorial. I used it religiously to set up both my cameras. It works fine for my 1000d Canon and plate solving works a treat. But for my Starshoot G3, it is unable to solve.

My original post is here

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/248541-unable-to-plate-solve-using-astrotortilla/

I have tried different settings to no avail. This leads me to wonder if I have the required index files.  My scope is a 200p skywatcher (f5) 1000mm FL and the FOV of my CCD camera is 21.97' x 17.01'

What index files would I need? I can then check the data folder to see if they are there. Plate solving is more important for the G3 mainly due to the small FOV, making it difficult to find and center an object. Astrometry.net, however,  solves the images virtually straight away.

Any help would be appreciated.

Surinder

Hi Surinder,

I replied to your problem in your thread. I hope it works! :)

Best Regards,

Kayron

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Hello,

Im using Astrotortilla with my Canon 60da and it works like a miracle. Especially useful for polar alignment as the polar star is not visible from my location.

Now I consuder buying a Starlight Ultrastar camera, for autoguiding. Anyone has an experience with this camera alsi for plate solving?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all,

I finally managed to use this fantastic software earlier this week and it was brilliant. The longest it took as 40 seconds to resolve. Comparing that to how I used to try find my objects is a no brainer. A big thank you to the author of the software for such a fantastic tool! The tutorial helped immensely too. I tried resolving some subs I had captured previously before I tried it on the night so everything went perfectly!

Regards

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I'm having to the much dreaded reinstall of everything on to new hardware (much put-off laptop upgrade) and its remarkable what you forgot you did first time around! Even though I'm used to astrophotography software I remember using this guide installing on the last machine because its so useful! Now I'm going through it again and its just as useful lol

Will

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

I know the last post on this thread was 2 years ago but I just had to thank the OP.

I installed AT well over a year ago when I got BYEOS & the few times that I tried to use it, it just kept on failing to solve. As the weather has been pretty rubbish lately I never really got more time to try AT out until last night. 

I got a new OAG that for the life of me I could not get to focus so I thought I'd have another bash with AT in BYEOS, again, fail so I left it. It was fairly late by then & clouds were rolling in.

Today being wet I thought it's a good time to sort AT out once and for all. Over and over I blindly stumbled through with fail after fail until that is I found this thread.

I finally got my first solve but it took 50mins, ouch!

Following all the steps in the tutorial & tweaking settings here and there I finally got the solving down to 25secs, very, very happy.

A massive thank you to Gib007

Now to use it in anger :icon_biggrin:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a brilliant program when it works, it's the settings that make all the difference. I notice that sometimes when i start it up that the settings change for some reason so make sure you save the settings information that works for you then load it up at start up.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

hi, can someone tell if i have got this mixed up from the light vortex setup page.  i'm about to download the index files and want to download the correct ones for my setup and put them in the right place but it says on the setup page that 39 is the narrowest fov and the widest fov is 1.95

surely these should be the other way around

i have a QHY5L-II colour camera and two different telecopes, a skywatcher 200p with a fov of 16.50x13.38 and a skywatcher st80 with a fov of 41.25x30.94 could. someone explain please which files i need to download please

 

field of view.jpg

field of view 200p.jpg

field of view ST80.jpg

Edited by cbbella
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.