All Sky Plate Solver

[Astroscot2]

Hello,

I have a question for those using ASPS,  ive downloded the software and it successfully plate solves pretty much all of my

images,  ive searched the internet for any tutorials and read though all the discussions I can find, however could someone

confirm if there is a function where you load up a previous nights sub and return the mount to the same position.

From what i can see you take an image , solve, sync mount, the mount knows its current position,  how do you get the mount to goto another position to continue an image run? does this function require third party software?  This process may be obvious once i start using the software but I suspect I need other software. 

 

My set up is a 10" newt, mesu 200, starlight ccd,  AA5 & CDC

[alacant]

Hi. FWIW here is ASPS running in APT. You simply load the image from the previous night, solve, copy the coodinates to the 'Centre FOV at position' section and then hit 'GoTo'. Do you have, say planetarium software or a handset which will allow you to enter and goto given coordinates?

It maybe not quite as simple as that though because APT homes in to with a few pixels of the target by taking snaps, solving and moving over (usually one or two) iterations. You could always get close manually and do the same of course. HTH.

[Astroscot2]

Hello, thank you for your reply,  im using planetarium software CDC so I assume there will be an option for entering GOTO coords , I had hoped that ASPS would have a similar function to APT where I load an image, solves and GOTO but it seems not.

I normally frame manually but this is time consuming -really looking for a quicker approach.

 

thanks

Mark

 

[Merlin66]

ASPS and CDC will do the same.....

[Astroscot2]

Thanks Merlin,  can you elaborate on the process?

 

thanks

Mark

[Merlin66]

As you already mentioned...plate solve and sync.

Under General Tab - tick the " on successful click and plate solve execute sync mount".

You can enter any valid RA/Dec as a GOTO target in EQMod/CdC. Right click in the EQMod Mount Position box and enter the coordinates.

 

 

[Astroscot2]

Many thanks Merlin.

[Starflyer]

Hi Mark,

Have you looked at Sequence Generator Pro, it manages multi night imaging exceptionally well, as well as a host of other things.

It's changed imaging for me, I'm currently 40 hours, over about 15 nights, into a project. I start it, connect all my equipment, select and start my sequence, it slews, solves, focuses, starts the guiding and starts taking subs.

Cheers

Ian

[Astroscot2]

Hello Ian,  yes Ive considered SGP as an option and watched Harry's tutorials so I may go done this line in the (near) future.  I have used Astro Art for some time and comfortable with its ease of use and features with the exception of plate solving.

Last night I spent a few hours using my set up with ASPS, The blind solve worked great on any images I took which I expected,  however I could not for the life of me figure out why the coordinates in ASPS, Sitech and CDC did not agree at any point and this was confusing.  I believed the workflow would be as follows

Take a random image of the sky, plate solve, sync mount (now mount and camera position agree where they are pointing)

What I could not see is where doing a sync mount  updates the plate solve coordinates to the mount controller and the planetarium software, the mount controller coordinates were always very slightly different and CDC did not update at all.

When I manually entered the plate solve fits into the position tab in CDC , the camera FOV position box would adjust correctly, however on the next slew to say alpha Andromeda the star would still be off center.

I went back and forth trying various combinations by only using the Fits info on the plate solved image and declining ASAP to Sync the mount and asking CDC to Sync on the Fits info which it domes not seem to do.

So after much head scratching and frustration I closed the observatory.

I just don't see how I Sync the plate solved image with the mount controller and planetarium software?

There has got to be an easy way of doing this.

Mark.

 

[Merlin66]

My (limited) experience with ASPS has been with ASCOM/EQMod/CdC and the NEQ6pro mount.

It sounds like your mount controller (you're using the MESU?) is not communicating across the programs.

 

[Astroscot2]

Hello Merlin,

When I plate solve and image in ASPS and transfer the fits RA & DEC info into CDC position box, the camera FOV in CDC does not agree with the solved image, Ive checked the FOV and rotation info all correct, either ASPS is not solving the image correctly or I'm missing part of the process.

I don't have enough clear nights to play around with this so its back to manually positioning the scope, may give SGP a trial.

Mark

[Starflyer]

Hi Mark,

Do give SGP a go, I know it's something else to learn and I was very much against that myself, IMHO the learning is worth it in this case.

It took me a fair bit of reading beforehand, but most of the setup can be done during daylight hours, and most stuff worked as I'd initially set it up from the manual etc.

This is a good document to get you started.  Don't bother with PinPoint for solving PS2 is amazingly quick if you give it the right hints, and the blind failover is very quick for an all sky solver.

Go for the most recent stable version for your trial - v2.6.0.23.  They release frequent beta versions as they add new features and these can take a while to stabilise.  The forum is a wealth of information and if you do have a problem then posting up your log will usually get a fast response telling you what went wrong or what setting you have wrong.

 

Cheers,

Ian

[Merlin66]

Hmmm

Mark,

Let me try ASPS with a sample image and CdC (with and without EQMod) in "simulation" mode. It may be possible to find the issue without wasting star time.

 

[Merlin66]

Mark,

Setting a "position" in CdC moves the cursor to the new position

Setting (right click) a GOTO position in EQMod (simulator) moves the scope to the nominated position.

 

[Merlin66]

OK

Based on CdC, telescope "EQMod Simulator", EQmod running and ASPS using a previous image (- a similar scenario to setting the mount to a previous night's imaging run to collect more data)

The telescope was slewed close to the target area.....

ASPS set to use and solve the image, "click and plate solve" set to sync mount ....

ASPS successfully solved the image, and re-centred the mount to the correct co-ordinates....

NOTE: both CdC and EQMod were set to J2000 epoch.

All the co-ordinates, CdC, EQMod, ASPS match.

Hope this helps,

 

[Astroscot2]

Hello Merlin,  I going to give ASPS another turn tonight, I don't use EQMOD, I assume ASPS should Sync my mount and therefore CDC should Sync automatically ?   Have you clicked on the Keypad tab, there seems to be function for New Target to be entered.

 

Ian - thanks for the link on SGP,  Have red though the documentation and again watched some tutorials, looks quite straight forward to use. I recon I will be downloading the trial if I fail to get ASPS working.

 

Mark

[Merlin66]

If your mount is shown as "connected" in ASPS then it should be able to sync your mount.

In CdC you may have to right click in the map, "telescope/ track telescope" to get the chart to match the scope.

In my ASPS the "keypad" tab is greyed out......

[Astroscot2]

I managed to get it all working last night however I found the slew telescope to target not accurate enough,  quite a long winded process to match the previous evening FOV. 

 

Mark

[Merlin66]

Mark,

Sounds promising...

I had to position the telescope close - a few degrees to the target, before solving and slewing.