PI Photometric help

[Anthonyexmouth]

Anyone here give me a hint on why PCC isnt working for me. I installed PI last week and it worked on the first image I processed but now wont work, even on the original image that worked.

 

Not sure if this is related but I installed NoiseXterminator but i keep having to delete the update file and running the updater to get it to show as every time I close down it disappears from the process menu

Heres the output screen

Edited May 22, 2022 by Anthonyexmouth

[Budgie1]

If you used your Evostar 80ED with the 0.85 reducer/flattener, then change the focal length to 510mm, instead of 478mm on the PCC data input.

If it still doesn't plate solve then try a different database server.

[Anthonyexmouth]

2 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

If you used your Evostar 80ED with the 0.85 reducer/flattener, then change the focal length to 510mm, instead of 478mm on the PCC data input.

If it still doesn't plate solve then try a different database server.

I'm using a 0.8 reducer

[Budgie1]

Just now, Anthonyexmouth said:

I'm using a 0.8 reducer

So the focal length is 480mm then, not that 2mm should matter on this.

Try the Canadian or UK database server from the drop-down at the top of the PCC window.

If that doesn't work, could you post the image and I'll try it?

[Budgie1]

One other thing to try;

I notice you have the Observation Date filled in, did you click on the "Acquire from image" button? If so, close the PCC window and then open it again, do the object search and then manually add the focal length & pixel size. Then run it again to see if it plate solves.

This may not have any bearing on it, but I normally just type the details in and leave the ob data at the default.

[Anthonyexmouth]

5 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

One other thing to try;

I notice you have the Observation Date filled in, did you click on the "Acquire from image" button? If so, close the PCC window and then open it again, do the object search and then manually add the focal length & pixel size. Then run it again to see if it plate solves.

This may not have any bearing on it, but I normally just type the details in and leave the ob data at the default.

Well, I just tried on a single sub and it works, but fails on the integrated stack. 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

You may need to tick the "Force plate Solving" check box otherwise it will read the focal length from the fits header not the figures you just ut in to account for the 0.8 reducer

Steve

[Anthonyexmouth]

1 minute ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

You may need to tick the "Force plate Solving" check box otherwise it will read the focal length from the fits header not the figures you just ut in to account for the 0.8 reducer

Steve

I image with APT and plate solve with that, It adds the correct f/l. PCC works with single subs. Seems something happens during WBPP thats stopping it from working. 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

send me the image you are trying to use PCC on and I will give it a go, there is usually a simple reason why it fails but not always obvious

steve

[Anthonyexmouth]

3 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

send me the image you are trying to use PCC on and I will give it a go, there is usually a simple reason why it fails but not always obvious

steve

Here is the stack after WBPP. seems to lose the coordinates. masterLight_BIN_1_EXPOSURE_180_00s_FILTER_NoFilter_RGB_integration_DBE.xisf

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Well its done the platesolving still running through the colour calibration.
I forgot to also say tick the  "Ignore Existing Metadata" if you input the image parameters manually and not just click on aquire from image.

Are the raw data files the same as you added to the google drive earlier this week in another thread ?

Steve

[Anthonyexmouth]

Cool, seems "ignore existing metadata" was the key I had tried forcing plate solving

 

Yeah, I think this was the same as i uploaded in the week, wanted to play with WBPP. following along with different youtube videos with the same data to see how it turns out. 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

I love the WBPP script I think it works brilliantly.
You can even click on the  +Directory and just point to one directory with all data and it loads everything up in the correct places.

Also can  use Cosmetic Calibration and set everything up for the Image Integration process automatically, saves a lot of messing about for exactly same results.
 

Feel free to PM me if any issue or questions, this is one aspect of PI I have pretty much mastered (albeit for mono imaging but not really any different for OSC), some oof the other stuff I am still a novice but getting there 🙂 

Steve

[Anthonyexmouth]

5 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I love the WBPP script I think it works brilliantly.
You can even click on the  +Directory and just point to one directory with all data and it loads everything up in the correct places.

Also can  use Cosmetic Calibration and set everything up for the Image Integration process automatically, saves a lot of messing about for exactly same results.
 

Feel free to PM me if any issue or questions, this is one aspect of PI I have pretty much mastered (albeit for mono imaging but not really any different for OSC), some oof the other stuff I am still a novice but getting there 🙂 

Steve

So is there something I'm missing in WBPP that's erasing the coordinate data from my image. Or can that not be retained? 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

it should be maintained,.
Always has been for me.
I guess somethings may trip it up but not sure what.

Steve

[teoria_del_big_bang]

I still have all those raw files, when you did the WBPP script which image did you select as the reference image in the script ?

Steve

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Looking through all the light raw frames the Fits headers all seem okay from the L_0733to L_0770 with a sensible date and time and also then has somewhere near the expected RA and DEC. coordinates.

But then I have no idea what happened but all the next images from L_0778 to L_0808 which all seem to be taken after midnight on the fits header do not seem to have put any coordinates in for the RA and DEC.

So I guess if you used one of these images between L0778 and L_0808 for the reference image I guess it may not keep the correct coordinates.

Steve

Edited May 22, 2022 by teoria_del_big_bang

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Also just noticed that all these first set I mentioned, so images 733 to 770 have a plausible airmass

But all the later ones have an airmass of 35 which is huge.
In fact I seem to remember that an airmass of 35 atmospheres is pretty much when pointing pretty much at the horizon.

No idea what happened, maybe just getting very close to the horizon, but still shouldn't have 35 for the airmass, but also looking at a lot of those later images the tracking has been poor with some pretty elongated stars.

You may well get a better final image by leaving out these last images 778 to 808

Steve

Edited May 22, 2022 by teoria_del_big_bang

[Anthonyexmouth]

This latest stack was just the best of those subs, i ditched the ones where the sky was getting brighter or clouds went over.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

which one was the reference image, or did you leave it on auto ?

Steve

[Anthonyexmouth]

6 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

which one was the reference image, or did you leave it on auto ?

Steve

Auto. 

 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Sorry, in an earlier reply I said the time was impossible but it wasn't, I just did not have my reading glasses on, looking again it just seems to be all the images taken after about half past midnight that do not have the coordinates in the raw data fits headers.
No idea why.

And looking at the fits header of the integrated image some of the images you did include were after this time and so those images had zeros in the Ra and DEC.

You can see the time on the latest image was 02:29:38 so at least one image had zeros in the Ra and DEC on the raw data, maybe more than one.
Now I do not know how WBPP determines the Ra and DEC of the final integrated image, and more likely it has nothing to do with it because the script itself does not actually integrate the images it just loads them into the ImageIntegration process in the background and runs that so I am guessing it is the ImageIntegration that determines these values in the Fits Header of the integrated image. 
So whether that uses the reference image (which if left on auto could have been one with zeros in the header) or whether it uses some sort of mean, median or Mode of all the images I have no idea but my best guess is it is these zeros in the raw data that is causing the issue.

That would be my thoughts anyway although not certain.

Steve

[Anthonyexmouth]

I wonder if it might have lost it after the flip, if there was one, I was asleep and my plan puts the mount back to the home position. I'll have to be more careful with the reference image.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

That's a possibility, a;though still no idea why it would do that.

Like I say not sure how the integration determines the figures it puts into the header but my best guess is it uses the reference image as it should be aligning all others to that reference image so logically that makes sense so if you manually select the image I think it would be better.
I have a;ways manually selected it and never seen this before.

Steve

[Adam1234]

I was having these error messages with PCC earlier today as well. Tried a different database, tried manually selecting my object from the search function, acquiring metadata from the image, ticked force platesolve, checked the coordinates etc were correct, nothing worked. 

Then I ran the platesolver script, it came up with the same metadata entered into PCC (coordinates, observation date etc) then all of sudden PCC worked, so not entirely sure what that was about