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Copyright 2012-2016 AstroTortilla team astrotortilla-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
Copyright 2010-2011 Antti Kuntsi
This project is licensed under GPL, see the file LICENSE for details. This software is delivered as-is, with no expressed or implied guarantees of being fit for any purpose.
AstroTortilla
AstroTortilla is a helper application that brings plate solving to your astrophotography workflow.
With plate solving, AstroTortilla can on its own figure out where your telescope is pointed.
This enables you to automatically and quickly do things like
- calibrate your GoTo tracking mount,
- GoTo any target with arcsecond accuracy and
- measure your polar alignment error.
AstroTortilla v0.4 GUI
Localized window resized for easy editing of plate-solver settings.
AstroTortilla is made possible by the Astrometry.net plate solver engine.
What you need
- Computer control of a camera, using
- Maxim DL,
- Nebulosity,
- Astro Photography Tool,
- Backyard EOS 3 or
- Almost any other imaging software
- Computer control of a GoTo tracking mount, using
- ASCOM drivers
The software is designed to be expandable and contributions for supporting more software are welcome.
FAQ
The FAQ contains some answers to the most frequently asked questions.
NEWS
2016-08-14: Version 0.8 test release 1, bug fixes and Nebulosity 4 support.
2014-05-31: Version 0.7 released, containing bug fixes.
2013-09-19: Version 0.6 released, support for BackyardEOS 3 and Nebulosity 3.1 added
2013-07-10: The astrometry.net Cygwin mirror in installer now points to a new server and installing should work again without hacking.
2013-04-20: Issues with log window solved in 0.5.2 release.
2013-04-10: 4100 and 4200 series index files can now be downloaded with the new 0.5.1 installer. You can delete the problematic 4000 series index files manually before upgrading (installer will not do any destructive changes). The index files are typically under C:\Cygwin\usr\share\astrometry\data\ -directory.
2013-04-01: astrometry.net just released 4200 series index files that correct a bug in the 4000 series files. The 4000 series apparently didn't have the whole sky covered evenly. Additionally, a 4100 series generated from the Tycho catalog is available for faster solutions of wide field frames.
Installing AstroTortilla
Both 32bit and 64bit version available
AstroTortilla User manual (PDF) - Getting Started with AstroTortilla (PDF)
AstroTortilla käyttöohje (PDF) (in finnish) - AstroTortilla pikaopas (PDF) (in finnish)
Read what all the settings can do for you.
Known issues
- Index downloader doesn't always get the data estimate right, underestimating to bytes instead of gigabytes.
- If you see "error 15106 User stopped resource enumeration", please report your system information to the discussion forum (HW, OS version, graphics card driver, antivirus). Also try the possible work-around for 15106 version in the /testing/ packages.
- Using the obsolete 4000-series index files may result in slow solve times with default settings, check the FAQ for tips (remedied with 4100-series for wide-angle and the new default 4200-series for general use).
- All configuration values must be in ASCII (including your working directories and username).
Bookmark names can contain any characters v0.3 onwards. - On some occasions doesn't install the VS8 runtime even if it's missing, this is easily identified as "DLL not found" for win32ui in the execution logs when AstroTortilla fails to start. You can get the redistributable installer from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29 if, for some reason, it is not automatically installed.
Support
Check the discussion forum for help.
You can also subscribe to the astrotortilla-announce mailing list for release announcements.
| Revision | Notes |
|---|---|
| v0.1.0 | First test release packaged as an executable |
| v0.1.1 | Binning setting comparison fix in camera implementations |
| v0.1.2 | Nebulosity2 scripting support improved, bugfixes for image capture, Support for drift-shot added, moves mount in RA during exposure (>=30s) |
| v0.1.3 | MaximDL support, Astrometry.net web-interface solver, bug-fixes, Nebulosity 2.4 support |
| v0.2.0 | Refactored the main functionality into separate module |
| v0.2.1 | Major bugfixes in goto correction, localisation added for Finnish, documentation added |
| v0.2.2 | Minor bugfixes in localisation, updates in manuals |
| v0.2.3 | Updates for Python 2.7 compatibility, documentation updates |
| v0.2.4 | Renamed library to astrotortilla, improved Nebulosity integration, Support for explicit filter selection added to MaximDL and Nebulosity, Added Cygwin setup step as an option to installer. |
| v0.2.5 | Added initial support for APT, ASCOM telescope status caching, support for logging into file and a log viewer. |
| v0.2.6 | Sync failure check added, fixed error in re-slewing to target |
| v0.2.7 | Sync error checking corrections, WCS parser error handling added, Cygwin installer updates for SourceForge changes |
| v0.2.8 | Bugfixes for ASCOM Camera, Help About, config file locations. Experimental 64-bit build. |
| v0.2.9 | WCS info bugfixes, MaxImDL corrections, 64bit build stabilized, Support for bookmarks, additional filesystem checks. |
| v0.2.10 | APT support corrections, LXP telescope driver support, Epoch selection, configurable working directory, astrometric plotting can be enabled and results are not deleted. |
| v0.3 | Error corrections |
| v0.3.5 | Error fixes for ASCOM mount access, exposure time corrections, documentation updates, installer update, index installation added |
| v0.4 | Window resizing, position and size persistence added |
| v0.4.1 | UI responsiveness, log window position, scope driver quirks setup |
| v0.4.2 | APT 2.0.1 binning and ASCOM support, cosmetic tweaks, screen capture fixes |
| v0.5 | Bookmark editing window added (edit, delete, new), polar alignment wizard epoch corrections |
| v0.5.1 | APT compatibility issues, window position corrections |
| v0.5.2 | Window handling fixes |
| v0.6 | Backyard EOS v3 support, Nebulosity 3.1 support |
| v0.7 | Error corrections for re-centering and config values |