Stellarium <> ASTAP

[MalcolmP]

Can they talk to each other ? ie. can ASTAP send the result of a plate solve to Stell, or can Stell request it ?
My googling so far shows that some big progs (Nina APT etc) can intercede and do this, but I dont need mount control and all the other stuff.
 

Edited August 28, 2023 by MalcolmP

[AstroMuni]

On 28/08/2023 at 03:49, MalcolmP said:

Can they talk to each other ? ie. can ASTAP send the result of a plate solve to Stell, or can Stell request it ?
My googling so far shows that some big progs (Nina APT etc) can intercede and do this, but I dont need mount control and all the other stuff.
 

The main reason we use platesolve is to align our mounts to the exact location that we are interested in capturing. In a nutshell, we find a target in a Skymap program, the coords are sent to the mount to slew to, an image is captured and sent to platesolver which gives a set of coords (which could be slightly differenet to the ones we asked for). This is then fed back to the mount to correct itself. This negotiating role is done by the likes of NINA/Kstars etc.

So just using Stellarium & ASTAP to deal with platesolving isnt making sense (in my head). Perhaps you can explain your challenge in detail. 🙂

Edited August 29, 2023 by AstroMuni

[MalcolmP]

9 hours ago, AstroMuni said:

Perhaps you can explain 

Yes, I dont need it for mount control with my usage of my goto scopes (9 & 12 inch), the long story :- 
My prob => camera on a pan tilt head with telephoto !!   No prob with standard and wide angle but recognizable patterns of stars become few at 135mm and above. So I plate solve, type into Stell, memorize a star or two and go back out to my camera knowing which way and by how much to move to frame my invisible target and then set it going for a few hundred subs (2sec a shot or similar, still working on optimizing that ).
It would speed things up (and help with loss of night vision) if the two progs could negotiate. So far I have not found anything in either Stell or ASTAP that APT etc use that can do this ?

You may wonder why loss of night vision is a prob with a camera ? I have a dark site just outside my front door and am liable to stumble into a leg of the tripod ! especially if the glowing LCD is pointing the wrong way It is a hands-out-stretched game.*

I am part way into learning Javascript and have the outlines of a page that can take care of part of the problem = reformatting the string from ASTAP that I can  paste in one shot into Stell Search instead of doing h m s six times, but I dont want to reinvent a wheel if someone knows how to make them talk together?

Edit *and torches are bad news if I have miss-timed and the thing is still in the middle of its ops ( dont ask how I know  ! ) 
 

Edited August 29, 2023 by MalcolmP

[AstroMuni]

I dont use Stellarium but can certainly think of ways you could do this using Kstars/Ekos.

- Configure Ekos to use the simulators.

- Load your image into the Align module and ask it to Load & Slew

- The simulator FOV will move across the skymap and you will be able to see where exactly you are pointed

If you choose to use this software, INDI server works on Mac/Linux/RPi and that is needed to run the simulators.

I am sure other Windows based software have similar options. Good luck 🙂

EDIT: You will get a view like this in Kstars

Edited August 30, 2023 by AstroMuni

[MalcolmP]

15 hours ago, AstroMuni said:

Kstars/
INDI server works on Mac/Linux/RPi and that is needed to run the simulators
Good luck

A little update to say a big thanks to @AstroMuni for the Kstars  excellent  suggestion.
Really easy to input (copy/paste) a plate solution from the equally excellent ASTAP

Just what I needeed even without going down the Ekos/INDI route*, and it also looks good  for my other humble planetarium needs !

* The simulation method sounds good to follow up another day, 
and I do have a Linux laptop long unused somewhere in the attic, it was a windows one that had a heart-attack and needed Linux to recover the HDrive contents, never did get the windows recovered - but that is another OffTopic story
 

[bottletopburly]

On 28/08/2023 at 03:49, MalcolmP said:

, but I dont need mount control and all the other stuff

You don’t need to be connected to a mount in Apt for it to send platesolving results to your planaterium software , you can just platesolve an image and press show and coordinates will show in whatever planaterium you’ve configured, 

[AstroMuni]

8 hours ago, MalcolmP said:

Really easy to input (copy/paste) a plate solution from the equally excellent ASTAP

Kstars can integrate with ASTAP as well. By default it comes with its own platesolver.

[MalcolmP]

11 minutes ago, AstroMuni said:

Kstars can integrate with ASTAP as well. By default it comes with its own platesolver.

Ohhh that sounds good, I have not seen that bit yet.