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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

New Internal Solver for Mac, Windows, and Linux -- Testing/ Experiments needed

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Ron,

I didn't solve this file in ASTAP or with SexySolver and Astrometry either. I did, however, get a reported solve in ~1/2s using SexySolverTester 1.3 on my desktop, which is a pretty fast processor using the Internal SexySolver with the ParallelSmallScale option and the "Fast Solving" option. However the RA & DEC ERR values were large for both options:-(. Rerunning both options with "Use Position" (Scale/Position tab) solved in ~0.6s with ERR values of 0 and the same RA & DEC values as the other solver.

Richard
Last edit: 3 years 10 months ago by Richard Beck.
3 years 10 months ago #54182

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Hi, so I just ran your test image, it solved in about a half second if I selected the "FastSolving" Profile in the Internal SexySolver. It also solved with my Ext Sextractor, Ext Solver method. You are correct that a number of the other solving methods failed. I had it solve with a 4204 index file, and a 4205 index file.



3 years 10 months ago #54183
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The Indicated error in RA and Dec from the values in the file were indeed very large. I think the solution that I found was close to what you had said it should be Ron.

One issue I think you might have here is that not only is your field very small, but there aren't really that many stars. You are correct that the 3,000 something stars is not accurate. Thats why I would use the FastSolving profile. It purposefully sets some parameters to filter out "stars" that aren't stars or aren't useful in solving.
3 years 10 months ago #54184

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I think I need to add a MinSize Star Filter to the Star Filter Settings. Han mentioned this before, but I thought it was handled by Sextractor's minArea setting. Apparently not, since I noticed that in this image, there were still some hot pixels picked up even in the profiles where I thought they should be filtered out. So, I will add MinSize.
3 years 10 months ago #54185

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One other thing that might be messing up the other solvers is the elliptical stars. They might not recognize the sources. The more elliptical they get, the less they will look like stars to the source extractor. Sextractor can identify elliptical sources fairly well and has settings for them. I'm not sure the other solvers can handle them too well.
3 years 10 months ago #54188

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On Rpi it tells me that the total index files is 2.7 G and installed ram is only.85 G (I did not get the 4 G RPi, maybe I will if this is required), Not enough RAM is available for in-parallel processing so it disabled that option. It set the scale to .42 to .52 arcsec/pixel which is in the ballpark. I should un-check InParallel

I ran the Sextractor and it sayd before filtering 414 stars, removing stars with a/b ratio greater than 1.5, keeping just 50 brightest stars - after filtering 50 stars
SexySolver set scale range 0.85 to 1.04 arcmin wide (this seems wrong)
it failed after 1.411 seconds (at least it failed quickly!)

How do you tell it what index files to use?

Where does the log file get written?
3 years 10 months ago #54190

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Here is a screen shot of the solver window. I did get it to solve by giving it the position from my previous solve.
I am a bit lost in all the settings, it will take awhile to figure out how to use this.



Ron
Last edit: 3 years 10 months ago by Ronald Scotti.
3 years 10 months ago #54191
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Your image solved faster for me as blind solve (clear the position tick box) and using the scale. I am impressed with SexySolverTester's blind solving speed.
3 years 10 months ago #54192

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Hi Ron,

So this program is a work in progress. Yes, there are a lot of settings, but that is because this program is meant for testing what different settings will do so that we can see what is useful, what we can remove, what needs to be set to certain values, etc before I am done working on it. When it finally gets integrated into KStars, it should be simplified quite a bit. This program is a testbed, or a playground if you will.

One point of clarification. There are two different types of "inParallel." I know that is confusing, so I will need to clean that up before this gets integrated into KStars/Ekos.

First, there is the astrometry.net meaning of inParallel. That is loading the index files all at the same time and solving all at once, vs not inParallel which is loading the indexes one after the other while solving. If it can be done in parallel, that is definitely desirable, but if you don't have the RAM for it, you can't do it. Most of the profiles have inParallel turned on. But that is ok, because I added a check for the amount of memory available that automatically disables inParallel if you don't have the RAM to do it. You can just leave the setting alone and it should be fine. It is there right now, so that we can compare having it turned on or off.

Second, there is running processes in Parallel, as in multiple threads on multiple computer cores. A Raspberry PI has 4 cores and stands to gain quite a bit by processing in Parallel threads. In my profile editor, this is set with the "MultiAlgo" combo box. So if you want to try it, the "Parallel" solving profiles are already all set up to do this. In fact, I made an "AUTO" mode, which solves in parallel or doesn't solve in parallel as needed. That is what those profiles already use.

Thanks,

Rob
3 years 10 months ago #54193

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Here is perhaps a cleaner fits file:

M108_May2


This did solve in SexySolver in 26 seconds giving it only scale numbers.
I then changed the solver to ASTAP and just re ran the solve, ASTAP failed after 304 seconds.

I did find the log file location in /tmp, I guess I need to turn off VERBOSE!

I also tried Classic Astrometry solver (with default options - except giving it scale). I also failed, but it skipped 408 objects because they were too big?

Ron
Last edit: 3 years 10 months ago by Ronald Scotti.
3 years 10 months ago #54194

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This image is better. Stars are round. ASTAP ignores oval star as galaxies. Still it has a lot hot pixels. To get it solved set in ASTAP a minimum star size of 4" or 3.5" See screen shot. Save the setting by pressing the solve button
Or add a dark(s ) and check "Calibrate prior solving"

The exposure of 6 seconds is fine but if it fails go to 10 seconds exposure or a little longer.

Please remove the G17 to force a selection of the G18.

Han

Last edit: 3 years 10 months ago by han.
3 years 10 months ago #54196
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Han,
You must be using a later version of ASTAP, I don't have all those settings in my SIGMA page. My version dates from 11/2019. How do I just update ASTAP without fully re-installing? You also must be running ASTAP separately and not thru the Tester, as I cannot bring up the Sigma page from the Tester.

All,
I tried the ParallelSolving in SexySolver; three of the 'child' processes either did not solve or was aborted, but child solver #1 did solve successfully in 26 seconds on the latest image.
Ron
3 years 10 months ago #54199

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