Using Inbuilt Platesolving in ASTAP or APT

[stash_old]

IMO - ASTAP platesolver has now exceeded both Platesolve2 and ASPS. APT already allows the use of ASTAP platesolving(by a cheecky but quite safe mode) instead of PS2 and to be honest I cant see any reason to use either PS2 or ASPS when ASTAP will do blind or near solving.  The speed of  ASTAP platesolving in far superior IMHO (and others) to either.  I get sub 5secs for near on an old AMD A6 64bit 8gb (only 3 cores) desktop and faster on an Intel I5. Blind depends on how far so cannot really quantify. I use DSLR so my experience is limited to DSLR!

Another plus you dont need to do a Windows Install  (but you can) as there is a straight forward download of the "finished" product which just needs copying - 3 files excluding the G16/G17 star database(depending on which you choose).

You can even use it to stack including "Live Stack" via the full blown Window's Application.

And it runs on Windows,Linux etc etc.

And you can save a lot of disc space - I save 1.5GB using ASTAP(inc index's) as opposed to ASPS/PS2/ANSVR etc depending on your FOV

Give it a try I think you will find it worth it !

Well done Han - sorry I ever doubted you 😞

Be interested if any others have used ASTAP for Platesolving  and there findings?

 

Edited October 27, 2019 by stash_old

[stash_old]

log of ASTAP run on I5 - ASTAP and star database on ordinary hard disk - NOT SSD !

 Creating monochromatic x 4 binning image for solving/star alignment.
15:55:58  69 stars selected and 47 tetrahedrons selected in the image. 58 database stars required for the square search field of 0.4°. Search window at 146% based on the number of tetrahedrons. Step size at 100% of image height
15:55:58  Using star database g17
15:55:58  9 of 9 tetrahedrons selected matching within 0.005 tolerance.  Solution x:=-0.146522*x+ -0.343409*y+ 977.898230,  y:=-0.343627*x+ 0.146433*y+ 640.093331
15:55:58  Solution found: 09:55 33.5    +69d04 31     Solved in 0.5 sec. Offset was 0.000 deg.     Used stars up to magnitude: 16.5

 

OK this was a very near Platesolve !
 

[don4l]

I've been using ASTAP on Windows for about 6 months, and I have to agree that it is blisteringly fast.

I like the fact that you can overtype the various info fields.  If your fits headers are wrong, then you can simply put your own numbers in (all my older images have useless info in the headers).

I also like the ability to replace whole chunks of the header.  This allows me to platesolve a reference sub, and paste the header into a processed image which can be displayed in my planetarium software.