Hi,
I just started out with astrophotography. Would appreciate all the help I can get to understand plate solving. I’ve installed plate solve 2 and its libraries. And marked their path.
In framing and mosaic wizard where do the images get fetched from? When I enter an object name are the reference images retrieved from the data base or do I need to have my own library?
All the help will be appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
Ravi.
Hi Ravi,
Its part of the process when you configure a sequence with equipment profile. e.g. one of my recent sequences had M101 as a target. So for the target setting I had:
The flow is, when the sequence starts, I’ve instructed the mount to slew to the target (Location (J2000)), and to centre on that target. This then instructs the camera to take a quick picture which is then ‘passed’ to PlateSolve2 (configured in Control Panel \ Equipment Profile) which will compare the image with its databases and issue correction details to the mount, which when finished moving, another image is taken \ moves mount until any errors are less than what you’ve set (usually 50 pixels).
It is also possible to run PlateSolve directly from C:\Users\Your User Name\AppData\Local\SequenceGenerator\PlateSolve2 and upload a previously taken image.
Hope that helps
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Ravi,
Just to be clear, PlateSolve2 is included with the SGP installation, so you do not need to “install” PS2. You DO need to download the libraries and point PS2 to those libraries. It’s unclear to me whether you are asking for help getting PS2 to work, or if you are asking for help understanding what plate solving does in general.
Regarding the F&M wizard, the images are fetched from an online database (therefore you need to be online when using the F&M wizard). You do not need to have your own library. However, whenever you fetch an image from the online database it gets stored in your cache so it is available to you from the dropdown menu any time, even if you are offline:
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Thank you Joel for telling me how to create a cache library to use offline. I also would like to know what plate solving does in general. Can it be used to slew the telescope to a specific region or do we have to use a different pointing software like Stellerium to achieve that?
Thank you.
Ravi.
Here’s how plate solving works.
-An image is taken by the camera.
-Software measures the angles between the stars and can pinpoint the sky location with a high degree of accuracy.
-At that point two things can happen. 1. The mount will be synced to that position in the sky (Solve and Sync). In other words, the mount will then know exactly where it is pointed in the sky. Or 2. the software will compare the plate solve solution with the intended target coordinates and issue a slew to get the mount pointed precisely on the target coordinates.
All of this takes place completely within SGP (if you’re using PlateSolve2, Astrometry.net or ANSVR). This does not require the use of a planetarium program like Stellarium. However using a planetarium makes it much easier to slew to several different points in the sky. But if you are just using plate solving to get to your target then planetarium software is not necessary.
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Thank you Joel. That clear up most of my doubts. As you say plate solving helps the mount determine its location exactly… Does that mean after getting the scope polar aligned there is no need to do a 3 star align anymore? Does plate solving take care of that part?
Ravi.
If all you’re doing is imaging then yes, with plate solving there is no
need to build an alignment model.
Thank you Joel.