PlateSolving Setup

I have attached my logfiles for whatever they are worth, showing my efforts at platesolving. III think I may not have the workig procedures correct or something like that. I firmly believe the appliaction is set up correctly with the necessary data files etc… but somethingdoesnt work when I ask the system to plate solve.

Here is more or less the way I do things . I go to framing and mosaic and get my object. Lets say its M27. I process it through Framing and Mosaic until I am left with just one new sequence in the sequencer section. And its now called M27. I check that it will center its target when startup occurs.

Than to help things I slew over to the target M27. Than I start up my M27 sequence. Its doesn’t slew anywhere at its already of its target but it tries to platesolve . But fails after a long search.

What have I done wrong? I thought SGPro would take the image it picked up in Framing & Mosaic and would try to compare them with what it was seeing in the sky? I even had it slew to M27 but it didn’t come that close to the target. So that is why I tried to help the system by actually slewing to the target myself.

I even went over to the solve and sync area in the control panel and that didn’t work either. .

I need someone to tell me what I am doing wrong. Platesolving is looking at the target in the sky and can’t platesolve it against a file it just downloaded in Framing&Mosaic.

sg_logfile_20180617213246.txt (19.5 KB)
sg_logfile_20180617213746.txt (19.5 KB)
sg_logfile_20180618002630.txt (19.5 KB)
sg_logfile_20180618200454.txt (19.7 KB)
sg_logfile_20180618194638.txt (19.4 KB)
sg_logfile_20180617213857.txt (94.8 KB)
sg_logfile_20180617230304.txt (365.7 KB)

Your scale in arcseconds/pixel might be incorrect. I’d suggest taking an image and submitting it to Astrometry.net and have it solve your image. Once solved you’ll see the correct scale on the right. Go to the SGP control panel’s camera tab and check it vs what you see there.

I ran a reccent TIFF file through that address and here is what I got back. It tells me numbers but not sure how theyapply to me. Here is what my config files tell be as to my setting for the camera:

4144 x 2822
4.63 Um pix
23.2 diag

And here is what I just back from the test you mentioned above. I sure want to get this right.My figures are from ZWO ASI 294 specs.


Source extraction image (fullsize)
Log file tail [-]
(full)

B = 0 0 6.5355e-08
0 1.0792e-07
4.3841e-08
AP = -6.8938e-05 1.8561e-08 -8.8688e-08
1.9717e-09 7.5643e-08
-1.2504e-07
BP = -1.4498e-06 3.9481e-08 -6.538e-08
4.6587e-08 -1.0792e-07
-4.3824e-08
sqrt(det(CD))=1.08154 [arcsec]
Found tag-along columns from field: FLUX BACKGROUND
Field 1: solved with index index-4108.fits.
Field 1: tried 4428 quads, matched 31069 codes.
Spent 8.372 s user, 0.184 s system, 8.556 s total, 9.35397 s wall time.
Writing 39 rows (of 4265 field and 39 index objects) to correspondence file.
cx<=dx constraints: 0
meanx constraints: 20332
RA,Dec constraints: 0
AB scale constraints: 0
Spent 9.36255 seconds on this field.


Of course me going to astrometry.net to check the layout now gives an error message about them being full.

FWIW one of the platesolving options in SGP is to use astrometry.net or the local implementation ANSVR.

OK, I finally got in and did a solve. Do make sure you go to the RESULTS page after you see Success. The link there is the line just above the Job number (“Go to results page”)

The important things below:

Calibration
Center (RA, Dec): (201.336, 62.314)
Center (RA, hms): 13h 25m 20.553s
Center (Dec, dms): +62° 18’ 49.063"
Size: 4.28 x 2.85 deg
Radius: 2.570 deg
Pixel scale: 5.92 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is 64.8 degrees E of N

The scale to enter in SGP is where it says "Pixel scale " so I would enter 5.92 for my images.

I just did what you did,. i went to the results page.And here is what they say. Now what do I enter in my config setup ?


Job Status
Job 2623670:
Success
Calibration
Center (RA, Dec): (299.920, 22.709)
Center (RA, hms): 19h 59m 40.712s
Center (Dec, dms): +22° 42’ 32.904"
Size: 74.6 x 50.8 arcmin
Radius: 0.752 deg
Pixel scale: 1.08 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is 42.3 degrees E of N
WCS file: wcs.fits
New FITS image: new-image.fits
Reference stars nearby (RA,Dec table): rdls.fits
Stars detected in your images (x,y table): axy.fits
Correspondences between image and reference stars (table): corr.fits
KMZ (Google Sky): image.kmz
World Wide Telescope: view in WorldWideTelescope

What about the other figures. The RA and Dec figures. Do you also enter those? Or leave things in your configuration what the camera specs show?

In SGP go to View/Show Control Panel (or press Ctrl E) Click on the Camera tab and look for Scale under Settings and Specs. The entry for Scale (1x1)should be set to be 1.08 "/pixel. (Note: this can also be set in the Tools/Equipment Profile Manager) Don’t forget to save or you may need to enter it again.

If your current value is much different than 1.08 this is quite probably the problem.

The RA, Dec, and orientation can be used as hints when you right click on a loaded image and select plate solve but aren’t really needed.

A scale close to the real value (1.08 for your image) is essential. I’m not sure where SGP uses it but the pixel height & width should probably be entered using your real camera info,. The read out noise isn’t too important (hover your mouse over the field). Plate solving will determine the angle.

Hey!!. I did what you said and it works!!

I went out last night and found that if I used the number (s) you spoke of, things just fell in line and platesolving worked like a charm. Wow.

Now my goal here is to do more. I want to sync to a star/object when doing a star alignment. I have no hand controller. So I have to manually move the scope around to put it on target.

Could I do the same thing by using frame and mosaic? From which I would do a platesolve/ sync method and than I would be star aligned?