Ray Gralak

Hi Han, You wrote: Since I'm not a registrated developer who pays a yearly fee to Microsoft you have to accept/bypass the warning you get when you install. It is Microsoft technology, but you don't pay a fee to Microsoft. To prevent an install warning you would need to purchase an Authenticode Code Signing Certificate from one of the many providers, like Comodo or Digicert. Then you use the code-signing certificate to "sign" your Windows installers which adds a signature to the installer file that...

Ray, can APPM use native drivers for the ZWO cameras or only ASCOM? It seems to be ASCOM which may be an issue. I have no issues with the ZWO cameras in Sharpcap. That is native ZWO drivers though. Native ZWO drivers are not supported in APPM at this time. AsIi mentioned before, you should try using NINA as it supports ZWO native imaging and is free. If you want, after you finish an APPM mapping run you can close NINA and open another application like Sharpcap.

2) FOV. Since option "Use FITS header for RA, DEC and image scale" is unchecked I assume the value in Point mapper X arc-sec/pixel (unbinned)= 0.97 will this be used for sending the correct FOV to ASTAP. Correct? Yes, but what's missing is the size of the image, which APPM gets from the FITS header. However, if it can't get the dimensions it cannot calculate FOV, and that's what seemed like happened. 1) RA, DEC. The RA, DEC values are not in the FITS header. Using option "Use last plate solves offset...

I don't fully understand how to RA, DEC are transferred from the mount position. But if so then I would uncheck the option "Use last plate solve offset for next plate solve" The mount position is normally superior compared with the last position. The FOV=-1 should never happen and is still a mystery to me.. As I explained previously, APPM tries to read the image dimensions (X by Y pixels) and binning (e.g. 1, 2, 3, etc.) from the FITS header. It uses the image dimensions, binning, and user-supplied...

I'm not sure that is what you mean by the checkbox to update the image scale after a successful plate solve. It's called "Refine image scale from next solved image" And I've noticed that the longer APPM says "Imaging" When APPMreports "Imaging", it is indicating that camera is actively exposing a picture of the sky through your scope. If this completes quickly it could be a sign that the camera did not successfully take a picture of the sky. In that case it could be a camera hardware or driver i...

Han, FOV is calculated from these things: 1) the X/Y dimensions and binning of the image. 2) The unbinned image scale initially set by the user. There is a checkbox option in APPM to update the image scale after a successful plate solve. -Ray

RA is 1.611109 hours DEC is 130.000055-90=40 degrees (south pole distance is used to avoid negative values. FOV is -1 ??? This is wrong. The FOV is negative so very wrong! If I remember well it was 1.68 degrees height in portrait mode. Bug?? This should be corrected somehow. APPM reads the X and Y dimensions from the FITS header. If the image dimensions cannot be read, then the default FOV will be -1, so it seems like the FITS file might have been invalid. -Ray

If unchecked, APPM will provide RA, Dec, and FOV via the ASTAP command line. It is available for the cases where the RA, Dec, and image scale are not provided in the FITS header. Also, have you considered using NINA for the camera in APPM? The ASCOM camera API is much slower than native camera control (e.g., NINA) can provide for most cameras. If NINA is connected to your mount it should fill in the FITS header with the information that ASTAP needs. -Ray