Plate Solving Inquiry

[NiteNite]

I have a question about plate solving software. 2 parts actually. Please bear with me.

1.  
2. 1.  I envision a program where, let's say I want to shoot "Thor's Helmet". I align my mount and then tell stellarium to slew to this site. I envision opening up another program that is connected to my mount via ASCOM and has the slew data that Stellarium received by me (this guy is going to Thor's Helmet) Next, the program (it is already loaded with my FOV and camera info) will then take a picture and solve where it is as and then make adjustments to my position and then do this again and again until I am on target and centered in frame. Does this software exist?
3.  
4. 2.  I want to pick up on a project and add more data to it. I want to upload one of my light frames and have that program plate solve and put my equipment in the same spot so I can continue shooting. Does this software exist?
5.  
6. If they do, will the same software do #1 and #2 above?

 

 

Thanks for bearing with this long post.

[smashing]

APT can have custom objects added with co-ordinates etc allowing plate solving as above if I remember above.

 

[Scooot]

If I understand correctly, Asiair Pro does 1.
Once you’ve polar aligned the mount, it will slew to where you instruct it, and take an image to check its bearings, then centre the target as required.

[dannybgoode]

What you describe is basically what plate solving software does and yes it can either work out where the scope has slewed to and make the necessary adjustments to get the target bang in the centre or match a previous image to mean you can keep adding data. 

For a time I used APT on a laptop however since moving to a Raspberry Pi running Astroberry/Ekos I much prefer that. 

Brilliant to use all round. Doesn't use Stellarium though, it has its own inbuilt planetarium, guiding software, platesolving etc. To hit start, watch the scope go off and find the target, focus if you have autofocuser, start guiding, do all the filter changes, meridian flip and recentre the target etc all automatically is just magic

[david_taurus83]

Both APT and Nina can do both, albeit with different input. Nina has the advantage of a framing wizard where it loads an image of your target and you position your FOV where you want to image, add it as a sequence and away you go.

[scotty38]

I use NINA so agree with the above 👍

[The Lazy Astronomer]

I'm a NINA user also - never tried to see if option 2 is possible, but never really had a need for it. You can use stellarium to set a target for framing (either an object or a specific star) and import into NINA, or use the sky atlas and framing wizards in NINA directly.

Once you're happy, hit slew, then run plate solving and wait for it to centre target in the frame (takes about 2 mins).

Whenever I want to add some more data to a project, l just make sure I set the same object/star as the previous images and the plate solver lines it all up nicely for me (I very rarely remove my camera from the scope, so don't usually have to worry about camera orientation).

Edited March 6, 2021 by The Lazy Astronomer

[rickwayne]

Ekos definitely does #2. I use that all the time. "Load and Slew" button on the Alignment module.

[LandyJon]

Hi, I'm still fairly new to imaging but I've recently gone through setting up and tuning Astrotortilla to plate solve quickly.  Not sure if it does no.2, but Sharpcap rapidly solves and re-centers to Stellariums initial slew to command pretty accurately and I believe a second solve and goto can give more precision.

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

This guide was very thorough and easy to follow for its setup, It seems everyone has their preferences for software, we all find our own and what works with other software we're using, just offering another option to consider.

[NiteNite]

Thanks for the input folks.