Trying kstars 2.9.8 I get this message when I try the simulator... so it working fine:

2019-03-10T13:32:19 Solution coordinates: RA (07h 28m 38s) DEC ( 89° 59' 58") Telescope Coordinates: RA (23h 49m 53s) DEC ( 90° 00' 00")
2019-03-10T13:32:19 WCS information updated. Images captured from this point forward shall have valid WCS.
2019-03-10T13:32:19 Solver completed in 7 seconds.
2019-03-10T13:32:12 Starting solver...
2019-03-10T13:32:12 Index files index-4201 to index-4203 are missing. Astrometry.net would not be able to adequately solve plates until you install the missing index files. Download the index files from www.astrometry.net

But 3.1.1 gives this with verbose message:

2019-03-10T13:56:26 Solver failed. Try again.
2019-03-10T13:56:26 Reading input file 1 of 1: "/private/var/folders/yl/bfkbt3td0dj65n21dzg9tvrm0000gp/T/fitsCKuQdw.fits"...
2019-03-10T13:56:25 /Applications/kstars 2.app/Contents/MacOS/astrometry/bin/solve-field -O --no-plots --no-verify --resort -L 23.9333 -H 33.0658 -u aw -3 3.49692 -4 90 -5 30 --config /Applications/kstars 2.app/Contents/MacOS/astrometry/bin/astrometry.cfg -W /private/var/folders/yl/bfkbt3td0dj65n21dzg9tvrm0000gp/T/solution.wcs /private/var/folders/yl/bfkbt3td0dj65n21dzg9tvrm0000gp/T/fitsCKuQdw.fits
2019-03-10T13:56:25 Starting solver...
2019-03-10T13:56:25 export PYTHONPATH=/Applications/kstars 2.app/Contents/MacOS/python/bin/site-packages
2019-03-10T13:56:25 export PATH=/Applications/kstars 2.app/Contents/MacOS/netpbm/bin:/Applications/kstars 2.app/Contents/MacOS/python/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
2019-03-10T13:56:25 Index files index-4201 to index-4203 are missing. Astrometry.net would not be able to adequately solve plates until you install the missing index files. Download the index files from www.astrometry.net
2019-03-10T13:56:25 Image received.
2019-03-10T13:56:22 Capturing image...


Astrometry files are here:
/Users/greg/Library/Application Support/Astrometry
I know there is a space in the location but it normally work.

Changed the index file path to : /Users/greg/Documents/Astrometry
but still didn't work.

See attached files

You installed KStyars 3.1.1 in a directory with a space in it: “kstars 2.app”. Change the space to an underscore and it should work.


HTH, Wouter

The space in the index file location doesn't matter. Astrometry can deal with that. A space in the path to the KStars app though is a big problem.

At first I thought, "spaces"... really? then I noticed there was a space in the application name since I have two copies of the app. I changed it to Kstars2 and its working now. Sheesh!

Thanks!

Yes, spaces are really important here because astrometry.net is a command line program. It is a separate program/package from KStars but one we are bundling for your convenience. You cannot have spaces in the middle of a parameter that you are passing at the command line. At the command line that is treated as a separate parameter.

astrometry.net, python, and netpbm are all inside the app bundle to make plate solving work. If you put a space anywhere in the file path to these programs, you run the risk of them not working when they try to call on each other from the command line.