Plate solving on noisy astrocam image

[Colin Harris]

Hello,

Great software BTW I've been doing a lot of really interesting stuff with comets, asteroids, DSOs etc. It's really amazing stuff. Works great with my DSLR and with already-stacked images from my QHY cam.

However, I can't seem to plate solve raw, calibrated images from my QHY 178. The images are noisy, I understand that so I may be pushing things. They plate solve in nova.astrometry and All Sky ok - no matter what settings I use I can't get it to plate solve in Astap (which then means I can't stack). I've tried everything - esp the FOV settings.

Here's an image/fits from Nova - https://ufile.io/pacjbh36

I'm guessing too much noise, not enough stars and need longer exposure but I thought I'd at least ask the question.

Thanks,
Colin.

[han.k]

Hello Collin,

This image is just too poor in stars. ASTAP detects only 16 stars. The solver will work better if it sees 30 stars or more. Just double the exposure and then it will most likely will work.

Cheers, Han

[Colin Harris]

Thanks Han - thought as much.