Remote platesolving capabilities?

Sequence Generator Feature Requests
1

Hi,

So I don’t have SGP but I have a good feeling that platesolving is all done on the host computer. My host computer is pretty crappy; it doesn’t have much power or speed so platesolving with something like Astrotortilla takes a really long time to do especially if there are extra corrections that need to be made.

I do, however, have a server that has way more processing power and number crunching abilities. How difficult would it be to create a port for SGP that is only the platesolving engine? It could possibly run on C or C++ so that it’s easy to adapt for Windows and Unix systems and maintain a high level of compatibility. It might go something like this

  1. Start platesolving server on remote, listening for connections/data
  2. Connect to remote using an IP address inside SGP
  3. Send images for platesolving to the remote for processing
  4. Remote receives target image and performs a platesolve, returning serialized data about accuracy
  5. SGP deserializes the data and translates it into mount movements
  6. Repeat until accurate enough for the user

The most difficult part of this would be actually separating the platesolving engine from the rest of the application if it’s not already separated. Otherwise it’s basically just installing new outlets in the wall and adding on an addition to the house that’s in the next lot over.

2

i think this is already possible - just install ansvr on a different machine and then point SGP to that machine’s IP instead of localhost or nova.astrometry.net…

rob

3

I do use SGP and I started with an older computer (dual core). It was inadequate, SGP had a tendency to freeze. I thought it was SGP, but it was the computer. Obviously you are much more computer literate than I, just saying.
Ed

4

Yes, this is already possible with ANSVR. Just have SGP point to the remote instance of ANSVR. However Platesolve 2 and Pinpoint should run just fine on an older machine. My observatory machine is a core 2 duo and plate solves with Pinpoint typically take about 6 seconds.

Thanks,
Jared