APT Plate Solving Not Working

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

Hello All

 I can't seem to get the plate solver working. 

Any ideas.  Here are my settings. 

[LightBucket]

I left the parameters at default and had no issues, are you running the solver from within APT, and have the indexes installed and APT pointing correctly to them, also has it ever worked for you...??

[LightBucket]

One more thing, does the blind solve work, you will need the other ASPS installed for that, but I think it tells you that in the tutorials...

[david_taurus83]

I struggled at first until I realised I had the camera focal length set at 50mm within APT. Changed to 1000mm for my F5 200p and it all works fine now with default settings. Both PlateSolve and Blind solve. As above, make sure the folder paths are correct also. I put them in the APT images folder.

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

14 minutes ago, LightBucket said:

I left the parameters at default and had no issues, are you running the solver from within APT, and have the indexes installed and APT pointing correctly to them, also has it ever worked for you...??

Yes it has worked but suddenly stopped. I have installed all the catalogues but nothing just keeps searching. I just don't know what to do with the thing. Maybe reinstall everything. Pain!

[mikeyj1]

Did you do anything just before it stopped?  upgrade something? change a setting?  

i find the easiest is to move to an object (eg M3), select the object from the objects catalogue in APT, then it fills in the RA/DEC.  then use 'solve' and it finds the actual location within 5-6 secs.  of course it needs to know the FoV, so enter the camera, and focal length in the settings before solving also.

the other thing you can/should do is post on the APT forum...ivo will answer very quickly i am sure!

Mike

[Davey-T]

I've got the same problem with Pinpoint and Maxim at the moment, used to work now stopped.

Is your clock set for daylight saving, do you have that in Italy ?

Try slewing to something unmistakeable like Vega and check the RA/Dec is correct.

Dave

[stash_old]

Check your APT settings for some reason ,but especially afer an APT upgrade,the APT settings get corrupted. Plus check your APT Object calculator (under tools) is set for your camera and has the correct F/L as although it doesn't say it I suspect it APT uses these parameters to pass to PS2.

Have you tried running PS2 manually with an image(jpg) - you can do this even in the daylight - there are some test images on the APT forum site. My attached

pictures shows just that done 5 mins ago (10.45am UK)

 

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

Hello All

Ive resolved the problem. If I change the focal length to roughly half my actual focal length it works! If I set it at 7500mm then it doesn't so I have to set it between 2000 - 3000 to work. At least it's working. What I think it is on mine is field rotation which could be affecting it? So those who can't get it working try that.

Gerry

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

Spoke too soon not working again. 

Under the settings for point craft settings can someone show how they have their folders set up 

thanks 

[coatesg]

1 hour ago, Gerry Casa Christiana said:

Hello All

Ive resolved the problem. If I change the focal length to roughly half my actual focal length it works! If I set it at 7500mm then it doesn't so I have to set it between 2000 - 3000 to work. At least it's working. What I think it is on mine is field rotation which could be affecting it? So those who can't get it working try that.

Gerry

7500mm...?!? That's a very long FL... (even 2-3m is long - what scope/camera are you using...?) 

The image you have on screen (and the coords) indicate you're imaging M52 and the Bubble Neb - the field looks like it's about a degree wide based on that being M52 top left and the pattern of 3 stars in the bottom corner. The Plate solve initial parameters are 10'x7' which is at least a factor of 6 too small I would guess - you definitely need to check your focal length as set in APT!!

FWIW, I use SGP with Platesolve and it generally works very well indeed, but it does need decent starting parameters to avoid spending ages producing a solution.

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

2 hours ago, coatesg said:

7500mm...?!? That's a very long FL... (even 2-3m is long - what scope/camera are you using...?) 

The image you have on screen (and the coords) indicate you're imaging M52 and the Bubble Neb - the field looks like it's about a degree wide based on that being M52 top left and the pattern of 3 stars in the bottom corner. The Plate solve initial parameters are 10'x7' which is at least a factor of 6 too small I would guess - you definitely need to check your focal length as set in APT!!

FWIW, I use SGP with Platesolve and it generally works very well indeed, but it does need decent starting parameters to avoid spending ages producing a solution.

Its a skywatcher 150pds so 750cm long or 7500mm as it specifies in mm in apt. It does say mm I think?

 

[coatesg]

2 minutes ago, Gerry Casa Christiana said:

Its a skywatcher 150pds so 750cm long or 7500mm as it specifies in mm in apt. It does say mm I think?

 

So it should be 750mm FL, not 7500mm!

That's probably a lot of the issue you're having in getting it to solve.

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

11 minutes ago, coatesg said:

So it should be 750mm FL, not 7500mm!

That's probably a lot of the issue you're having in getting it to solve.

My bad! Strange though it says 10 arcseconds even after I change it?

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

So why is this happening?

set to 750 and my camera. 

 

[Davey-T]

16 minutes ago, Gerry Casa Christiana said:

So why is this happening?

set to 750 and my camera. 

 

? you need to enter your pixel size and sensor size.

Dave

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

10 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

? you need to enter your pixel size and sensor size.

Dave

But doesn’t it do that automatically for Canon? it won’t let you add it for Canon so I’ll have to set it up as if I have a CCD

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

Doesn’t work like that either 

[feilimb]

This website is very useful for calculating FOV for telescope and camera combinations:

https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

Feeding in the Skywatcher 150, and Canon 550D to the above the following is generated, note the Field of View highlighted by the arrow:

The field of view of 1.7 x 1.13 degrees is approx 70' x 68' (arc-minutes) which does not match the screenshot you attached above for APT (the screenshot of APT seems to show 15x8 arc-minutes). Is it possible to enter those FOV values into APT?

[tooth_dr]

1 hour ago, Gerry Casa Christiana said:

So why is this happening?

set to 750 and my camera. 

 

What IS happening here?  What do you think is wrong?  The circle is for the object ie NGC7635 ie 15x8.  This is correct

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

11 minutes ago, feilimb said:

This website is very useful for calculating FOV for telescope and camera combinations:

https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

Feeding in the Skywatcher 150, and Canon 550D to the above the following is generated, note the Field of View highlighted by the arrow:

The field of view of 1.7 x 1.13 degrees is approx 70' x 68' (arc-minutes) which does not match the screenshot you attached above for APT (the screenshot of APT seems to show 15x8 arc-minutes). Is it possible to enter those FOV values into APT?

I don’t have a clue why it’s doing that. Yes I have already done what you said but I have to shift click the solve button each time when I do it and then it solves the object. Why it’s saying 15x8 is beyond me!

[feilimb]

I have never used APT => does the "Recalc" button over to the right of the focal length label allow you to regenerate the correct FOV?

[tooth_dr]

15 minutes ago, feilimb said:

I have never used APT => does the "Recalc" button over to the right of the focal length label allow you to regenerate the correct FOV?

Yes, afaik it changes the representative size of the object

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

5 minutes ago, feilimb said:

I have never used APT => does the "Recalc" button over to the right of the focal length label allow you to regenerate the correct FOV?

When I recalc with the correct FOV it won’t work only when I shift click solve. It works at least!

[Gerry Casa Christiana]

1 minute ago, tooth_dr said:

Is that FOV not ok for DLSR 750mm for the bubble neb?

15x8 doesn’t work that’s for sure