Issue With All Sky Plate Solver

[Andrew INT]

I am trying to plate solve for the first time but am not having much (any) success yet. Hopefully someone here will be able to show me the errors of my ways. I intend to use ASPS in partnership with Sharpcap Pro, however, at the moment, I cant even get ASPS to solve a single image.

My FOV is 19.3 x 10.9 arcmins and I have download the relevant index 4202, 4203, 4204, 4205 (and 4206).  In the plate solver setting I have my FL (1003mm) and pixel size (2.9um) entered.

When I select a file to solve however,  the 'work in progress' counter just ticks away (I tend to abort it after an hour!!!)

I have uploaded the same image files onto Astrometry net and they have been solved without issue (and also confirm the FOV). I must be doing something wrong!

Cheers,

Andrew

[Messy Hair 101]

I've only platesolved in NINA and APT but there's no way it should take an hour! If it hasn't solved after a minute, something's wrong.

Assuming your settings are all correct, are you also starting in the home position? The "Things to know" section here https://www.sharpcap.co.uk/sharpcap/features/plate-solving suggests you need to be pointing the right way fairly acurately to ensure it works.

Have you tried blind plate solving?

Hopefully someone who knows about Sharpcap solving will come along soon.

[Andrew INT]

At the moment, I'm not connected to the mount or camera - just uploading an old image file and blind plate solving.

[bilbo]

On 25/01/2021 at 11:33, Andrew INT said:

At the moment, I'm not connected to the mount or camera - just uploading an old image file and blind plate solving.

Hi Andrew

Just in the process of setting up my outfit for EAA and as it happens ASPS and Sharpcap are two of my choices.  I've just went the same route as you throwing an "old" image into ASPS.  Seems the key is the FL and pixel size (not scale). These have to be correct for the actual image to be solved. If not it'll sit there all day. These should be entered into Plate Solver Settings which is in the Settings tab

Steve

[Andrew INT]

Hi Steve,

I have focal length (1003mm for my 8" Newtonian) and 2.9 microns for my pixel size saved in the tab. The field of view is  not particularly big (about 19x10 arc mins). My laptop only has an i3 processor, maybe that could be the problem?

Andrew

[alacant]

4 hours ago, Andrew INT said:

My laptop only has an i3 processor

Hi

You don't need a lot of processing power e.g. a 2gb rpi solves fine.

Given that you have the correct index files downloaded, the next most common source of non-solved images is that the local version of astometry.net isn't running. One check is to download the  ansvr installer, disconnect from Internet disable defender/antivirus and ensure it is now live.

HTH

Edited February 8, 2021 by alacant

[Stu Wilson]

I use apt and blind solve pretty much successfully....... however there was an instance a little while back when I put new coma corrector in my old 200p it wouldn't solve anything until I realised what I'd been sold was also a 0.9 reducer......

I put focal length into apt as 900 and hey presto.

Whether this is similar circumstances I don't know?

[bilbo]

8 hours ago, Andrew INT said:

I have focal length (1003mm for my 8" Newtonian) and 2.9 microns for my pixel size saved in the tab. The field of view is  not particularly big (about 19x10 arc mins). My laptop only has an i3 processor, maybe that could be the problem?

Hi Andrew

It should solve as long as the image your'e trying to solve was taken with that 1003mm newt and the 2.9 micron camera and no other optics in the train.

You may still be missing indexes though, I've been playing around a bit, I put in a test image of 55 CYG. According to the log file this was solved with index 4204-15 (FOV 8-11 mins) the actual field of view is almost 1 x 0.5 Degs. For such a small image you may need to download those whopper index's

Also try aborting the solve after varying amounts of time. I've found that ASPS seems to get carried away or is trying to do something else when it has in fact already solved the image. IE after 20 secs of processing the image is solved but the clock keeps running. Press abort and it shows image solved.

My thoughts here are bin ASPS, At least for now.

My other choice for solving was ASTAP.  It took me some time to figure out what info needs putting in where settings wise, but I can say it did work well and very fast on my test images.

I might write up a little comparison test on the two. As far as a standalone test on blind solving goes, ASTAP is far and away the better option.

Steve

 

[Paul M]

I've found ASPS would succeed where ASTAP didn't. Some of that was teething problems on my part. If ASTAP has a start point or approximate fix it is really, really fast. Blink of an eye fast. But it can be fussy about the quality of my images.

For the OP, all I can do is confirm that knowing the angular size of the image is pretty much critical in trouble free plate solving. Ensuring that the required info is being passed to ASPS is important too. 

 

[david_taurus83]

@Andrew INTCan you post the image up here and we'll see what ASPS does with the same settings?

Edited February 8, 2021 by david_taurus83