PinPoint not solving

[Davey-T]

Tother night PinPoint plate solving and Maxim couldn't plate solve images to run Modelmaker on the 10Micron having always worked OK previously.

Just tried to plate solve an image of M33 from a previous session and get an error message "Right ascension or Declination invalid"

So what am I doing wrong ? tried 01.33.50 and +30.39.35,

Ddon't know if it's connected to my problem the other night, just wish things would keep working from one night to the next 

Dave

 

[ampleamp]

Don't know if anything here will help but we had a similar problem last week in that MM which had worked perfectly and easily on every previous occasion, first refused to solve and when it eventually performed a run ended with 0 points and 0 rms. Although we got different error messages, I can't say I have seen this one before, there are only so many settings so we got to testing.

Eventually we worked out a few reasons for our problem. First was the mount needed a manual reminder of GMT since BST ended, so Pinpoint got the wrong info by 1'. Secondly, for whatever reason, Maxim had dropped the optics settings which screwed up the scale. Third, on further testing, MM worked only when there was a valid manual three star alignment model loaded (and I had set MM to "clear the model in the mount"). Finally, I ran a trial on a random sub using 2x2 bin (same as MM) before running MM for real.

Combined, everything created a good model, but not checking settings or running a trial run ended in failure. I have no idea what went wrong as by then I wasn't interested in the why anymore, just the fix. 

Maybe something here will strike a chord, maybe not. My settings are attached - two basic questions - do you manually calculate scale correctly, and I take it you have GSC loaded into the Pinpoint folder?

 

[davew]

I can't remember too well but should there be stops between the numbers ? I can't open Maxim right now.

IE. 1 33 50 rather than 1.33.50 etc.

You could check by running astrometry.net and copying the figures.

Dave

 

[Davey-T]

Thanks guys there should indeed be no full stops between the numbers so one thing fixed, now it wont move along because it can't find the "Large Scale Table" says it should be in the TABLES folder but my TABLES folder is empty.

Remembered to set the time to UT so not that

Don't know if this is anything to do with it not working in ModelMaker just thought I'd try a manual solve to see if that worked and it didn't.

When I first tried ModelMaker it wouldn't plate solve then it started working, don't know why, now it's stopped working again 

Dave

[Ibbo!]

your starting RA and Dec are way out so it will take absolutley ages to solve it.

If you have the mount conected and roughly pointed in the correct area it will give the fits header a place to start solving from.

 

cancel that as I was looking at the wrong post doh

[Thalestris24]

Clock change side-effect?

[Davey-T]

8 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

Clock change side-effect?

Set to UT for winter.

Dave

[ampleamp]

if you want to send me your email by pm i will email you over the TABLES contents; there are just three files, the largest being only 462kb, and they all have 31/07/1992 dates

[Davey-T]

Thanks will do

Dave

[Davey-T]

New error message in Modelmaker now.

I make the image scale 3.20 arc sec / pixel Maxim calculates it to be 3.18 QSI683 5.4 micron pixels on Star 71 f/l 348mm ?

Dave

[ChrisLX200]

My first point would be that just checking the 'delete old model' in MM doesn't always delete the model! To be sure, use the virtual hand controler to manually delete it. Pinpoint doesn't really know why it failed and that error is just an indication that it didn't recognise ANY star patterns within the frame - possibly because it was too far away from where it should be. You could try increasing the search area overlap (max is 80% growth IIRC). Use a blind solve via Astrometry.net to double-check actual plate scale, but it shouldn't be far off if Maxim solved successfully. Try increasing your exposure time to 5 or 6 seconds, your s/n may be lower than you think.

2 hours ago, ampleamp said:

...first refused to solve and when it eventually performed a run ended with 0 points and 0 rms.

That's usually caused by having the points set to align and not refine (been there etc...)

ChrisH

[Davey-T]

Thanks Chris,

Tried altering all the settings I could find to alter, overlap, exposure time etc.

Annoying thing is it was all working fine and then didn't using all the same settings.

Will go and delete the model with hand controller.

Dave

[ChrisLX200]

3 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Thanks Chris,

Tried altering all the settings I could find to alter, overlap, exposure time etc.

Annoying thing is it was all working fine and then didn't using all the same settings.

Will go and delete the model with hand controller.

Dave

I would still bet that it's BST screwed around with the mount setting somehow - I know your mount was left on UT but what about the computer it connects to?  Manually clearing the model should fix it though...

ChrisH

[Davey-T]

Manually cleared model, mount beeped, hand controller and laptop show the same time.

Had hoped to do some imaging tonight but giving up now.

Will do a manual Polar align model of a few points with the hand controller next clear night and see how that works.

Thanks

Dave

[Thalestris24]

1 hour ago, Davey-T said:

Set to UT for winter.

Dave

It was just a thought - I had to manually change my avx handset. I'm never quite sure what to do - d'uh. I set the clock to gmt but I think I then had to switch daylight savings off. Not sure if it would have been ok if I'd left the time alone and dst on. But then the handset would have shown the wrong time compared to the current time. Confusing.... Still, it's working quite happily now. Or would be if the clouds went away....

Louise

[Davey-T]

Got the time set right, I think ? DST off time set to GMT.

Just done a manual 3 star align and checked Polar alignment and it's within a couple of arc seconds and gotos stars pretty well central so don't know why it can't plate solve.

Dave

[Thalestris24]

34 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Got the time set right, I think ? DST off time set to GMT.

Just done a manual 3 star align and checked Polar alignment and it's within a couple of arc seconds and gotos stars pretty well central so don't know why it can't plate solve.

Dave

Hi

I don't think either of those things should affect platesolving. I still use Astrotortilla  It does seem to need roundish stars which are well focussed. I often find I have to adjust exposure times and sigma (noise) levels according to sky conditions. Does Platesolve allow entering a search radius?

Louise

[ampleamp]

Dave, sleep took me but have forwarded you the files if still needed.

One thing Chris said has reminded me that when re-setting the time, I also used the 10Micron Clock Synch programme to give the mount that reminder as to GMT. I then turned it off as there has been some talk about the mount having multiple time sources causing issues. 

[Davey-T]

Moved the GSC catalogue to C:/ copied stuff to TABLES (thanks Alistair) and it now solves images.

Will try to see if the images from the mount will solve if we get some clear sky tonight, fingers crossed.

Thanks all.

Dave

[ampleamp]

good stuff 

[Davey-T]

On 10/11/2016 at 00:48, Davey-T said:

 

Just got enough bits of clear sky to get back to this tonight and still having problems.

If I run Modelmaker it fails to plate solve I get the above message but if I simply plate solve the same image with Pinpoint in Maxim it solves in a couple of seconds.

As far as I know I haven't altered any settings since last time it worked OK.

Dave

Checked the time etc, and if I slew to a star it ends up pretty much centred in the FOV, it's as if the mount isn't reporting the co-ords to Pinpoint.

 

[Davey-T]

So filled in the telescope in Maxim observatory window as Pers driver and connected and ticked "get co-ords from fits" in settings and now it works.

As far as I was aware this wasn't necessary and it worked without it before but hey ho just need the clouds to go away now but not looking hopeful.

Dave