Using local astrometry.net as only solver

Just checked the epoch in EQMod and it was set to Unknown. If the sky actually stays clear, I will see if this matters or if I still need to do the Nearest Point pointing method trick.

Mike

Mike i changed mine to nearest star and it works a treat with centering now, but i find that it only works for me if i make sure that i have no initial sync points in eqmod, and then just let sgp do the plate solve, or it ends up a little off center.

whilst with no sync point in eqmod and sgp doing the solve it’s bag on center of the crosshairs every time within literally a a few pixels, so very very pleased with it;s performance.

Rich.

Looks like the Epoch solved my problem too, as long as I clear out the existing points when i start EQMOD if I moved my mount then it seems to work fine for me, without changing to nearest point.

Thanks!
Mike

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Well I guess I’ll add myself to the list of people having the problem with “center now”. Since installing astrometry.net locally, it misses by about 1/3 of a frame every time. It appears from what I have read here that it is usually the JNOW/J2000 settings, but I can’t find that setting option anywhere in the Ascom setup. I am using an AZ-EQ6, and CdC. Can anyone tell me where this setting is hiding? Thanks!

update: I have found the setting under EQASCOM - driver setup. I changed the epoch setting from unknown to J2000, and will try it out as soon as the clouds leave.

update 2: After switching the setting to J2000, the local astrometry.net stopped working. Watching the ansvr log while it is trying to solve shows no activity. The online version still works fine at J2000. Strangely enough, even if I switch the setting back to “epoch unknown”, the local astrometry.net still doesn’t work, even though it worked fine using “epoch unknown” before I switched to the J2000 setting. I don’t know if my “center now” will now be accurate using J2000 and the online astrometry.net. I’ll find out when the sky clears. Any suggestions as to what the problem could be besides the J2000 setting appreciated.

Dean

Very new to SGP, still haven’t managed a full run with it yet, as I can’t get past the plate solve. Seems like I’m seeing a similar error to some other folks…was wondering if there’s any news on getting plate solves to work with an EQ6 via EQMOD. My planetarium software is Sky Safari (iPad). I’ve tried the epoch setting but can’t get rid of the offset, it solves but just won’t put it in the crosshairs. I also tried the “closest point” and other EQMOD options but nothing seems to work.

Thanks,
Don

Hi Don,

I’m in the same boat with my EQ6 and EQMOD. I had the local solver working, but with the offset of about a third of the frame. I changed the epoch from unknown to J2000. The online solver works fine, but now the local one stopped working. It won’t solve at all, though it does seem to try until it times out. I messed around with it for many hours with no luck. I have temporarily given up, having not found any route to solve this problem that I have not tried. i will continue to use my iphone as a modem to use the online astrometry.net for now, and hope someone else can figure it out.

Dean

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Here is a dropbox link to the SG log of a few failed attempts of the local astrometry.net solver. Any help appreciated.

Dean

Hello,

I am using HEQ5 PRO (which i think is similar to your EQ6) and to get it to work i have J2000 on EQMOD and it solves dead on every time by clearing the sync points in the beginning of each session (actually I have set up not to save any points to the file so it cannot load any on PARK/UNPARK ).
If i have points forgotten at all I get the same problem with quite an offset. Which in turn leads to stopped sequences if the allowed error on re centering or plate solve after a meridian flip is bigger than what you defined.

Try to clear the points out and give it a go!

I’m at wits end. Tried setting epoch and clearing points, still end up off the target. Same offset either time. Will try again tonight assume I get some clear skies. Frustrating to not be able to crack this one.

Thanks silios,

I did have the points cleared, but it didn’t seem to help. Strangely enough, this week it mostly worked fine. i don’t know what happened, but I am not complaining! I did notice that it seems to do fine if I tell it to “center target” or “solve”. If I click “blind solve” with an SG image as a reference image it can’t solve it. So it seems very finicky as to how it will solve, working some ways but not others.

Dean

I use eqmod on an azeq6 with sgp. To get centre now accurate I have set the epoch for local astrometrynet plate solve and eqmod to jnow. I don’t bother with defining any eqmod alignment points. It’s not necessary when using plate solve. I also have cdc set with jnow so all the software shows identical coordinates.

Scott

Hi

I used astrotortilla (local install of astronomy.net) before i used SGP. I had the offset problem described in the original post and solved it by switching between j2000 and jnow, using the Astrotortilla interface. I can’t remember which one worked, but it definitely solved (sorry) the problem.

Paul

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Hello,here the same EQ6 without Handbox connect via bluetooth with EQMod …not Centering always off like in picture…with Coordinates from CDC…
where can i change the epoch in EQMOD? or in CDC…

As far as I know you need to change from “append on sync” to “dialogue mode” and clear all points.

People i know using EQMod found the epoc set as “unknown” did not mess up centring.

Same problem here with EQMOD, last release of SGP and Asnvr 0.15, Cartes du ciel.

My settings :

  • EQMOD = Jnow, dialog mode and nearest point, cleared all points
  • Ansvr = Jnow
  • Cartes du ciel = apparent (JNOW)

Fail to get the target in the crosshair…Coordinates in Cdc and SGC don’t match after the plate solve !

With my previous rig (BackyardEOS, Astrotortilla Jnow, Eqmod Epoch unknown), I always got the target perfectly centered…

Any idea ?

For latest SGP release, I believe you need to set ANSVR to J2000 and SGP will convert to JNow if EQMOD returns EPOCH of JNow.

When 2.4.0 or 2.4.1 was released, it specifically suggested to always set ANSVR to J2000 but I do not see this statement anymore in the sticky thread.

Peter

Thanks Peter, I will give it a try !

There was something about this in a thread about the beta and it looks as if EQMOD returns unknown as the epoch and SGP quite reasonably does nothing to change anything.

It could be worth contacting the EQMOD people and seeing if they can report the correct epoch.

Chris

Thanks Chris ! I am going to run some tests with EQMOD, epoch unknown and J2000 settings.

It’s OK now, I was using an old version of EQMOD.

Chris