i have astrotortilla working beautifully with my finder/guidescope. this is a 200mm focal length finderscope with a meade dsi and nebulosity. solves everything quickly, every time, and i have fine tuned the settings for quickest performance.
but i can't get the longer focal lengths, ie my main scope [meade lx90 10" at f/6.3 or 3.3, not even tried f/10] to solve at all! using dsi with nebulosity, or dslr with APT. have tried the default settings and sat while it waded through every index file. also tried tweaking sigma setting, and others, no luck at all. why won't it solve ?
help!
thanks for reading
colin
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You can start from looking at the logs and the number of objects the plate-solver finds. You should be able to get somewhere around 50-300. Adjusting the exposure duration and sigma affect this number.
Also, when you've changed your setup, make sure the scale limits are not prohibiting a match, reduce the scale low limit just in case to be well below your new FOV and making sure you have the index files down to a suitable level.
A simple way is to save the settings with a different name, and deleting all non-plate-solver and exposure time related settings from the new config file(s). This way you can easily switch between different setups.
-Antti
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yes, i have tried changing sigma and exposure time, aiming at 200-500 source sor so .
on the subject of scale limits, i read that setting the min and max at 1/2 and 2x the fov resp should be ok, do you agree? also to set the search range about 45 rather than 180 unless it is a blind search? or even less than 45 if the alignment is fairly good?
having said that, i also used the default settings which allow for the full range of scale limits . still no luck though.
yes, i have learned to save working settings as a cfg file to be loaded for a particular setup, eg for my finder. but the deafualt, apart from sigma, should allow the full range anyway, and i have index files 4001 to 4019 [focal length 1600mm] which should be ok.
i guess i will keep trying to change sigma and exposure time. sigma on 1 gives maximum sources doesnt it, so the exposure time prob needs adjusting.
best wishes
colin
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Definitely yes, anything less than half a degree has a serious risk with the 4000-series index of falling into a region without enough indexed star shapes.
-Antti
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oh, so for 1600mm focal length [15' or 45 dependin gon camera] i might need index files as small as the 400 ones?
i thought they were way smaller than that?
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Yes, the 4200 indexes are a replacement for the 4000 set. The 4100 set is an alternative index set for wide FOV imaging, not recommended for anything narrower than 3 degrees. The new 0.5.1 installer instructs on the new options.
-Antti
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hi, can anybody help?
i have astrotortilla working beautifully with my finder/guidescope. this is a 200mm focal length finderscope with a meade dsi and nebulosity. solves everything quickly, every time, and i have fine tuned the settings for quickest performance.
but i can't get the longer focal lengths, ie my main scope [meade lx90 10" at f/6.3 or 3.3, not even tried f/10] to solve at all! using dsi with nebulosity, or dslr with APT. have tried the default settings and sat while it waded through every index file. also tried tweaking sigma setting, and others, no luck at all. why won't it solve ?
help!
thanks for reading
colin
You can start from looking at the logs and the number of objects the plate-solver finds. You should be able to get somewhere around 50-300. Adjusting the exposure duration and sigma affect this number.
Also, when you've changed your setup, make sure the scale limits are not prohibiting a match, reduce the scale low limit just in case to be well below your new FOV and making sure you have the index files down to a suitable level.
A simple way is to save the settings with a different name, and deleting all non-plate-solver and exposure time related settings from the new config file(s). This way you can easily switch between different setups.
-Antti
hi antti
yes, i have tried changing sigma and exposure time, aiming at 200-500 source sor so .
on the subject of scale limits, i read that setting the min and max at 1/2 and 2x the fov resp should be ok, do you agree? also to set the search range about 45 rather than 180 unless it is a blind search? or even less than 45 if the alignment is fairly good?
having said that, i also used the default settings which allow for the full range of scale limits . still no luck though.
yes, i have learned to save working settings as a cfg file to be loaded for a particular setup, eg for my finder. but the deafualt, apart from sigma, should allow the full range anyway, and i have index files 4001 to 4019 [focal length 1600mm] which should be ok.
i guess i will keep trying to change sigma and exposure time. sigma on 1 gives maximum sources doesnt it, so the exposure time prob needs adjusting.
best wishes
colin
The 4000-series index files have holes in the sky coverage, you can delete those and use the latest AT installer to get 4200-series index files.
-Antti
yes i doubt if my 1600mm focal length will need those? fov with dsi about 15', with dslr about 45'
Definitely yes, anything less than half a degree has a serious risk with the 4000-series index of falling into a region without enough indexed star shapes.
-Antti
oh, so for 1600mm focal length [15' or 45 dependin gon camera] i might need index files as small as the 400 ones?
i thought they were way smaller than that?
ps just looking to download the new 4200 series. do they replace all the 4000 files yes? ie 4000 to 4019?
and the 4100 are an addition to that?
colin
Yes, the 4200 indexes are a replacement for the 4000 set. The 4100 set is an alternative index set for wide FOV imaging, not recommended for anything narrower than 3 degrees. The new 0.5.1 installer instructs on the new options.
-Antti