Platesolving fails...why?

[Timothy Maurer]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ruegS1lwd9xPHb1VF0tLMnyHWX2eg3M1/view?usp=sharing

For some unknown reason, plate solving failed on every single image from last night. I tried astap on 2 different computers using the g05 or d50 start DBs but still no luck. Pixel resolution, dimensions and focal length look correct in my fits headers.

Samyang 135, ASI2600MC Pro Duo, NINA 3.3 #45,

Any ideas? Thanks!

[han.k]

Hi Timothy,

Yes that is a little weird. I can solve it in three ways:

1) Database G05, maximum star 100 or 200, solution with 4 or 5 quads.
2) Database D50, maximum star 3000 (not with the G05), solution with 17 quads found
3) Crop the image to 50% , gives a very reliable solution with 95 quads

It is pretty star rich area. I suspect the image distortion plus the many stars confuses the solver. The HFD values are pretty consistent trough the image so the distortion does not influence the star HFD values.

The lens is a "Samyang 135mm f/2". Probably this introduces the distortion.

For the moment I would just set the max. stars to 100. It would be interesting to see if the diaphragm setting makes a difference. Smaller diaphragm opening will reduce optical distortion. Can you investigate?

If solving is required to find your way in the sky, cropping the sensor in Nina will definitely help.

cs, Han

[Timothy Maurer]

I do have it stopped down with a ring to f/2.5. I will try f/4 with the diaphram next time the weather permits. For now, I'll just set NINA to 100 for the max object setting. Thanks for you help!!