Having Trouble Plate Solving with APPM (APCC) and ASTAP

[Chris Marsh]

I'm never able to plate solve. I've got all the correct settings in APPM per what I can tell, just never seems to work. If I try to plate solve directly in ASTAP the image taken through APPM, I can't solve that one either.

Any help would be appreciated...

Thanks,

Chris

[han.k]

Hello Chris,

Normally there are three causes:

1) Field of view valueis wrong
2) Initial position is wrong.
3) Hot pixels

Try first blind solving in ASTAP with the attached settings marked red. This should solve any image in a few minutes max and will tell you the correct FOV. If after solving the FOV is still 0.61 as you showed in your screenshot then the FOV is correct. If not adapt the focal length or sensor size in APPM. ASTAP reads these values from the header so it will only work for new image. You can use the FOV calculater in pixel math 2. (ctrl+A)

Check also the position after solving. You initial search range was 20 degrees.

If it doesn't solve the next possibility to check for too many hot pixels in the image. Attach a FITS image to forum so i can have a look. Next step is to increase "ignore stars smaller then"

Regards, Han

[han.k]

A fourth cause could be too much binning. Keep image dimensions above or equal to 1280x960 pixels.