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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

New Kstars 3.3.7 ASTAP Plate Solving Speed is FAST!!!

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FWIW: I just did a blind plate solve in the new ASTAP in Kstars 3.3.7 on my RPi 4-4GB (running SM OS 1.4.3) and HOLY CRAP is it FAST!!! Solved it in about two seconds.
Last edit: 4 years 4 months ago by Tom Bardenwerper.
4 years 4 months ago #45613

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Many people are having issues with ASTAP, me included, when it does work it works really well, but that is not much of the time, on random sky it solves super quick, but if you slew to a specific object such as a galaxy or Nebula, it does not solve.... so still some work to be done...
4 years 4 months ago #45620

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I had it do a blind solve on a FITS photo of M51 - it had it in a second or two. I'll admit, one test however is not enough data to prove it's reliable...
4 years 4 months ago #45638

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Hi,
I don't want to talk ASTAP down, I used it yesterday night and it's awesome, however I don't think it can really do blind solve, especially when called from kstars/ekos which passes the pole coordinate as a search starting point when images have no pre-set coordinates.
What I'm asking is, are you sure this was really a blind solve? Were those fits captured with ekos? If so, it's possible they had the coordinates written in the FIT header.
4 years 3 months ago #47212

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For some reason we've had a couple of clear nights in a row... odd.

Some nights ASTAP works right away, but only once... then it fails. I'm glad Astro.net (offline) is still a choice. Astro.net offline is pretty quick too taking only 15 seconds.

BTW, what is Blind Solving? Not have a specific item selected?
4 years 3 months ago #47220

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Blind solving is solving without knowing anything about the picture you're working with: no focal lenght, no FOV, no camera details and obviously no known coordinate. It's a slow process, but it's something that astrometry.net can do.
If ASTAP is working sometimes and other it doesn't, check that on your solved pictures the focal lenght is the same as the one you specify in your ekos equipment profile. ASTAP is pretty sensitive to that.
4 years 3 months ago #47223

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An other thing you should check is binning. The height of the image send for solving should be 1000 pixels or more. So reduce binning accordingly.


Checklist for reliable solving:

ASTAP behaves differently then Astrometry.net. As long you adapt the settings for that , it will work fine:

- Resolution, the image height should be 1000 pixels or more. So adapt (decrease) binning.
- Stars shall be pretty round and reasonable in focus.
- FOV (field of view) shall be specified within 5 % accuracy for maximum reliability but detection is possible if FOV is 30 or 40% off. So set telescope focal ratio, sensor/pixel size correctly in INDI.
- A minimum of about 20 to 30 stars should be visible (this could be just above noise level. Exposure time of 1 or 2 seconds can work)
- Image shall not be severely saturated or stretched. RAW images works best.

The FOV is detected from the values in the FITS header. To check the FOV, start ASTAP from the applications menu Education and open an unsolved image in the ASTAP viewer. The image dimensions in degrees will be shown in the ASTAP status bar and are updated as soon you solve the image. If the dimensions change a lot (more then 5%) you better update the focal length and or sensor size settings in INDI.

The image dimensions are indicated in the popup notifier which is show as soon the solver is 2 degrees from the starting point:

Popup notifier indicating 2328x1760 pixels



Han
4 years 3 months ago #47232
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