ASTAP Not Plate Solving - NINA Rel 1.11 Nightly Build 046
Stacking program, astrometric (plate) solver, fits file viewer
Brought to you by:
han59
Menu
▾
▴
Several nights ago I was imaging M81 / M82 and ASTAP would not plate solve. When I selected plate solve through NINA 'nothing happened'. After several minutes I stopped NINA plate solving. Everything was working up until the last ASTAP patch. My setup is as follows.
I uninstalled and reinstalled ASTAP and the star DB and will try again tonight. Question – Is there a ‘trace’ setting in ASTAP that I can enable? Or does ASTAP generate logs? I am not sure if this is an ASTAP or NINA bug.
Hello Jim,
As a test I downloaded version 0.9.498 and tested it at my setup. It all worked as desired.
Can you try to solve an existing file with Nina? (I'm not so familiar with Nina but most program can do that)
There is no long term trace file. For any file to solve there is an .ini and .wcs file written with some info. That should be still at a Nina directory. but I assume Nina writes a temporary file somewhere in c:\users
Han
Hi Han;
NINA doesn't have the ability to load in an image file so I can't redo plate solving. Here's the plate solver log file that NINA generates.
I just looked at the contents of the wcs file. NINA didn't display any information after I clicked Plate Solve. Nothing happened after several minutes so I killed the plate solve.
The .wcs file was generated at:
But this could be the previous solve. Offset was HUGE, 73.5 degrees. It is very likely your mount was NOT accepting the sync command. That should be visible in the Nina log.
How do you guarantee the mount is roughly in the correct position? Some people park it. For myself I push my HEQ5 mount such that it is pointing to the celestial pole, apply the to two mechanical locks and then switch on the mount power. then it is roughly aligned.
Something is wrong here. I told my mount (Losmandy GM811G Gemini-2) to go to M81 and I was within ~30 arc seconds. I was running ASCOM / PHD2 and connected to PHD2 / Gemini-2 through ASCOM. I had major cloud cover and couldn't pick a good guide star so I just used one next to M81. PHD2 did complain about my guide star selection. I tried to plate solve and nothing happened. Let me retest this tonight. I will let you know what I find.
Its the correct plate solve. Feb 18. Here's the FITS file.
Sorry. Too large to attach.
The FITS header RA/DEC looks OK.
You could start ASTAP directly, load the FITS file in ASTAP and press solve button.
But it is better to look in the Nina log to see what's happening.
I did. I loaded one of the FITS Lights into ASTAP, pressed SOLVE and this is what I got.
SIMPLE = T / C# FITS
BITPIX = 16 /
NAXIS = 2 / Dimensionality
NAXIS1 = 6248 /
NAXIS2 = 4176 /
BZERO = 32768 /
EXTEND = T / Extensions are permitted
IMAGETYP= 'LIGHT' / Type of exposure
EXPOSURE= 120.0 / [s] Exposure duration
EXPTIME = 120.0 / [s] Exposure duration
DATE-LOC= '2021-02-18T22:00:16.829' / Time of observation (local)
DATE-OBS= '2021-02-19T05:00:16.829' / Time of observation (UTC)
XBINNING= 1 / X axis binning factor
YBINNING= 1 / Y axis binning factor
GAIN = 100 / Sensor gain
OFFSET = 50 / Sensor gain offset
EGAIN = 0.242862924933434 / [e-/ADU] Electrons per A/D unit
XPIXSZ = 3.76 / [um] Pixel X axis size
YPIXSZ = 3.76 / [um] Pixel Y axis size
INSTRUME= 'ZWO ASI2600MC Pro' / Imaging instrument name
SET-TEMP= -10.0 / [degC] CCD temperature setpoint
CCD-TEMP= -9.8 / [degC] CCD temperature
BAYERPAT= 'RGGB' / Sensor Bayer pattern
XBAYROFF= 0 / Bayer pattern X axis offset
YBAYROFF= 0 / Bayer pattern Y axis offset
USBLIMIT= 40 / Camera-specific USB setting
TELESCOP= 'SW 100mm APO' / Name of telescope
FOCALLEN= 550.0 / [mm] Focal length
FOCRATIO= 5.5 / Focal ratio
RA = 6.20413864568465 / [deg] RA of telescope
DEC = 0.000056666666699 / [deg] Declination of telescope
CENTALT = -29.4742777929511 / [deg] Altitude of telescope
CENTAZ = 45.580696423327 / [deg] Azimuth of telescope
SITEELEV= 568.0 / [m] Observation site elevation
SITELAT = 51.0786666666667 / [deg] Observation site latitude
SITELONG= -0.2945 / [deg] Observation site longitude
FWHEEL = 'Manual Filterwheel' / Filter Wheel name
FILTER = 'IDAS LPS-P2' / Active filter name
OBJECT = 'M 81' / Name of the object of interest
OBJCTRA = '09 55 33' / [H M S] RA of imaged object
OBJCTDEC= '+69 04 02' / [D M S] Declination of imaged object
OBJCTROT= 0.0 / [deg] planned rotation of imaged object
FOCNAME = 'Pegasus Astro Focu' / Focusing equipment name
FOCPOS = 90370 / [step] Focuser position
FOCUSPOS= 90370 / [step] Focuser position
FOCUSSZ = 1.0 / [um] Focuser step size
FOCTEMP = 57.2 / [degC] Focuser temperature
FOCUSTEM= 57.2 / [degC] Focuser temperature
ROTNAME = 'Manual Rotator' / Rotator equipment name
ROTATOR = 0.0 / [deg] Mechanical rotator angle
ROTATANG= 0.0 / [deg] Mechanical rotator angle
ROTSTPSZ= 0.0 / [deg] Rotator step size
ROWORDER= 'TOP-DOWN' / FITS Image Orientation
EQUINOX = 2000.0 / Equinox of celestial coordinate system
SWCREATE= 'N.I.N.A. 1.11.0.10' / Software that created this file
PLTSOLVD= F / No plate solution found.
END
I just loaded other FITS 'Lights' in (M42 and M45 areas) and ASTAP solved the images.
Not solved could mean two two things.
1) The search did went not far enough. You could set the search radius at 180 degrees in ASTAP, use Ctrl+A, tab Alignment, Adjust " Search area radius" and try again.
2) Or the image quality is not good. You could upload the image to https://ufile.io/ and give me the link, so I can have a look.
Here's the URL of a 'Light' sub.
https://ufile.io/fujdhqfr
Two things here.
I was using a LP filter. You can't adjust 'sub' plate solving time based on filter use. One size fits all... I am using 8 seconds.
I am concerned about the reported error position / search radius problem. I will check things out tonight.
Thanks for helping Han
Forgot to say my search radius is 30.
Hello Jim,
At the moment I have also problems with solving using the command line. Maybe not related but it works with the G17 database but not with the H17 database. But in the debugger or using the GUI it works.
I have to investigate further. But strange enough it works if I install or force the G17.
Tomorrow.
Thanks for the update.
I am having the same problem with ASTAP in NINA. Cannot get a solve in either plate solving 'live', or a FITs file. If I fire up the ASTAP UI, it also fails - but if I simply click 'Solve' again, it succeeds. This is with G18 and H17 databases.
Hi Dave - Don't take this the wrong way but I am glad others are seeing this issue. It was discussed on the NINA Discord forum also. What NINA release are you using?
I tried plate solving around M41 and got error tonight.
Some NINA Plate Solving logs.
I will try to find a solution today. I was highly puzzled yesterday. For me it works in Win10 but not in Win7 at my observatory. So I have to find the cause and also find out if we have a common problem or different problems.
Dave, can you explain this in more detail. Did pressing twice work?
I have found a bug. It was related to the star database cache and occurred only for star poor areas. Update will follow.
Try ASTAP 0.9.500 just uploaded.
Sorry, for my FOV with a height of 0.12° no improvement, even with H18. Still no plate solving, even when I put in 'M57' -. search radius 2°.
Regards Achim
Last edit: achim2205 2021-02-22
Achim,
0.12° will be very difficult. You probably have to expose long 60 seconds or more. I did some tests, and the database guarantees enough stars down to a FOV=0.25° but below there are star poor areas in the sky. How many star does your image contain and what exposure time do you use?
Last edit: han.k 2021-02-22
Just downloaded the 0.9.500 update, fired up the UI first, and it solved the same image that was failing on the first try (one 'Solve' click). Also works when doing a file platesolve in NINA (NINA Version 1.11.0.1039).
Thanks, Han! Jim, give it a try. Sorry, Achim - have you tried solving in the ASTAP UI?