Hi
I’m very new to astrophotography. From comments on Stargazers Lounge, people are definitely recommending SGPro. And I’m starting to see why. I love it.
Following tutorials and the First Week with SGPro PDF, I have managed to take a very quick sequence of focussed, guided images.
However, I have quite a newbie question:- I have the Celestron AVX mount. Once polar aligned, I used to do a GoTo say M42 and the mount would track the object indefinitely.
Is a “Solve and Sync” in SGPro the same thing? Eg will SGPro tell the mount to track the object it has solved?
It will stop once it completes the number of frames specified for the object(s) then it will park the mount.
If it is not imaging, it is parked or tracking is off as safety measure. Folks are unhappy when mount track into the pier or something else.
You can always add a few more frames to sequence and continue ( even the next day).
I assume that you are talking about the beginning of a sequence, not the end.
No. “Solve and Sync” will take an image wherever the mount is pointed, run a plate solve, and then sync the mount to that position. All solve and sync does is tell the mount where it is pointed. If the mount is not already tracking then I don’t believe that it will start tracking after a solve and sync, but I’m not sure how the AVX behaves.
Different mounts behave differently. A G11 will start tracking when the mount it slewed to a star or object. A Mach1 will unpark as soon as the computer connects to the mount and start tracking immediately.
What I do is power on the mount, slew to a star or object away from the pole which starts the mount tracking, then solve and sync to tell the mount exactly where it is pointing. There’s no need to center a star at all; solve and sync will get the exact position and then tell the mount exactly where it is pointed.
Ive never used a computer to interact with the mount before… always just done a Goto from the hand controller. Slewing to an object works from within Cartes du Ciel, but i only got 5 minutes last night before the clouds came in, so I couldn’t tell if the mount was tracking. I’m hoping it does…
So hopefully this is the process tonight (the weather is clear as a bell)…
If you were tracking before the solve and sync, then you will be still tracking after it. Unless you specifically stop the mount’s tracking, it will continue to track.
The steps you have are a bit off. Create your sequence for M42 with the known coordinates for M42 for example from Cartes du Ciel. Then use those coordinates to slew and center with SGP. Your scope will then be pointed at M42. You can use Cartes du Ciel to slew but it is an extra step - SGP can do it for you. So use Cartes du Ciel to determine the coordinates for M42 and create a sequence based on that. Then do everything in SGP.
Someone else who has more knowledge of how the AVX behaves will need to
chime in, but I’m guessing you don’t need to do a 2 star alignment or
pointing model at all. When I had a G11 I never bothered with any kind of
alignment or model (as long as the mount was accurately polar aligned).
Auto-center will plate solve and move the mount to your target coordinates
without the need for a model. Also, #3 in your steps does not require
“auto center”. If you have just solved and synced on your target, and also
checked the option in the successful plate solve pop up window to “use
these coordinates for target M42”, then there is no additional need to auto
center. To be clear, “solve and sync” and “auto-center” or two different
things.
So here’s what I think should work for you:
Polar align the mount
2.Slew to your target using CdC (M42?) and using the mount controls or
slew controls in CdC frame the object how you want it.
3.Solve and sync (what are you solve and sync settings? Exposure length
etc?)
4.In the successful solve pop-up dialogue, make sure to check “use these
coordinates for target M42” or whatever your target name is. This will
populate your target coordinates and save them so you do not need to enter
this info again. On subsequent nights, all you need to do is another solve
and sync to align your mount, but you do not need to check “use these
coordinates for target…” as you already have that info populated in the
target settings.
5.Run sequence
This also assumes you have properly set up guiding.
HTH,
joel
Thanks Joel. My plate solve settings are: binning 4x4, exposure 1s. I just accepted the default values from the tutorial. I’ve had a few successful solves, but i have zero idea if they are correct? Or whether different values would increase solution rate?
Thanks
Joe
There’s a Quick Align with some versions of the HC firmware, off hand I don’t know if this is in HC version 4.21 which is the latest for NexRemote. This does an “align” using the index marks as the reference. Once you have that you have enough to be able to get an approximate position and use Solve and Sync in SGP to get an accurate local alignment.
Yeah thanks Chris. I discovered the quick align earlier. Now happily sat imaging M42. Plate solving and focusing all successful. Now to capture 2.5 hours of data.
Glad to hear you got things working Joe. As a side note, there simply is no better way to frame targets than by using the Framing and Mosaic Wizard add-on. It costs a little extra, but it is so easy to create targets and mosaics. I never use anything else.
Using both will invoke the slew prior to the sync, which is generally recommended. Without the slew it will sync at your present location and then slew.