Plate solving with Astrotortilla

[astro mick]

Hi.

I first posted this in the software section, but got no replies, so thought i would try here.

I downloaded what i thougt were the correct index,s from the source forge network,but upon loading cannot get the plate solve to work.

I do run Ascom, and my capture software is AstroArt.Did not think that this software was suppoted, so downloaded Nebulosity 4.

I could at times get Astrotortilla to take an image, then it would display SOLVING, but almost immediatel it came back with no  a solution after about 1.5 secs.

So something is not right, not sure where to go from here.

Appreciate any help.

Mick.

 

I did load the Ascom Driver for Nebulosity, but it made no difference.

[Uplooker]

Hi Mick,

Have you read this thread, apologies if you have.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/193470-my-tutorial-for-installing-setting-up-and-using-astrotortilla/

[astro mick]

Hi Ian.

Yes i saw the thread but the Tutorial has been removed.

Mick.

[Uplooker]

Oh, sorry not looked at the thread in a while. However a quick Google turned up this:-

http://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-setting-up-and-using-astrotortilla-for-plate-solving.html

[AllanJ]

Hello Mick, Up till now, Astrotortilla only works with Nebulosity 2/3, so I keep both versions 3 and 4 on my computer, and it works a treat, especially once you set the appropriate scale minimum/maximum and search radius.  However, reading your post I wondered if there is now a Nebulosity 4 friendly fix - and yes, there is a beta driver for Nebulosity 4 as an ASCOM camera. I've installed that, but haven't tested it yet. I found the link to it here:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/archive/index.php/t-137444.html

So I have copied the relevant post from that site, a user named ejd wrote this post:

There is a fundamental change to way to use Astrotortilla with Nebulosity. This arises from the fact that as from Version 4 Nebulosity can act as an ASCOM camera in itself. This is explained on Page 95 of the new manual for Version 4. If you're connected to a camera in Nebulosity (by a Native driver or by an ASCOM driver) you can have other software connect to Nebulosty as if it were an ASCOM camera. So, anything that can talk to an ASCOM camera can talk to Nebulosity in the same way. To do this you'll need to install the Nebulosity ASCOM Camera Driver and the ASCOM platform. So assuming you have the ASCOM platform already installed you need to also install the Nebulosity ASCOM Camera Driver which can be found here:
http://stark-labs.com/depot/beta/Nebulosity ASCOM Driver Setup .exe

The link should take you directly to the ASCOM Driver Setup executable. Once you have downloaded the driver, you can startup Nebulosity and select whatever camera you use as the frame solving camera. Then in ASTROTORTILLA under Camera select from the drop-down box "ASCOM Camera" and under setup you should now find available in the drop-down box an option called "ASCOM Camera Driver for Nebulosity". Now when you use ASTROTORTILLA is automatically goes to Nebulosity and controls capturing the image in the usual way. This process works well for me and obviously negates the need to make changes to ASTROTORTILLA everytime a new version of Nebulosity is released. By the way, although the manual for Version 4 is not available on the downloads page (possibly should be), it is put in your Program Files (x86)/Nebulosity4/ folder when you install version 4. Lots of great information.

I'm also glad I found ejd's post, because now I have the manual for Nebulosity 4.

Incidentally, I use Astrotortilla in conjunction with Cartes du Ciel to home in on my target (sync and re-slew), so it helps to start both of those using "Run as administrator". I always do my first run of Astrotortilla when the scope is parked in my Home position - celestial north - then it is much faster once I slew to  find my target with a small search radius.

Allan

 

[astro mick]

Thankyou again Ian, i will look at that.

Also thanks to Allan for such a detailed write up, that looks very helpful.

I may also have downloaded the wrong index files for my camera, now trying to download what i think is are the correct ones, but is crashing midway through.

I,m trying again.

Cheers.

Mick.

[Uplooker]

Mick,

I found that when I downloaded Astrotortilla it took ages and I mean ages even though I had a pretty fast download speed.

[astro mick]

Yes.

Mine is pretty slow,and so far i,m 3hrs in and still downloading.