like ALL platesolving having the correct parameters help.

If you have trouble start ASTAP as stand alone and load the image.

Click the "stack" menu so the Stack window appears.

Choose Alignment tab is not already selected.

Set the correct FOV height - it should set this automatically after a sucessful solve - if not or its not working use Astrometry.net upload to get the correct value or set Auto (but this takes a long time first time)

Use the Down sampling and Max stars to maximise speed but setting a too small a value will cause Platesolving to fail on occasions. suggest default 500 stars and auto for first run - but it will change depending on the image - as with ALL Platesolving

Tick "calibrate prior solving" - this will help with "noisey" images

Obviously "blind solving" will take longer so for testing set the RA,dec of the object so that platesolving is "near" not "blind" - do this via the RA/Dec on the first Window by double clicking the mouse in either Dec or RA area. And yes I didn't know what the signs were - Come on Hans it should be for all not just experts in Greek

As you can see times vary but it can vbe very fast 2.3 secs to 106+ for blind solving - on my example I used m81 via double click object name for M31 and it rook 106secs on images that were not great.

If all else fails post image to Hans he will help after reading the manual - which of course we all read dont we LOL

ASTAP is the only Platesolver,I know of, to work across the board natively on Windows,Linux and MacOS and doesn't require index's to be loaded per FOV.

But I admit it can be "fussy" - but the latest version can do "slow" plateslving (tick box) for most images that it didm't solve before.

Well that’s not really the issue, solving a previous image, try it live on the sky with an image you have just taken....then on mine it fails every time as the OP states above...I have all configured correctly with all correct scope and camera settings in place, But still no good...

@Stash
Well all that is all a bit of a faff...I just want it to work out of the box, like Astrometry does, if not then no good to me...I aint got time to mess about with all those settings.....more lost imaging time....

Hi Stash,

Thanks very much for the detailed reply! I am currently using it in stand alone mode and have already done what you suggest, except my search angle was only 20 degrees. I've changed it to 180 but it didn't help with this particular frame.

The "calibrate prior solving" generates a warning about flat █ █ █ █ █ █ Warning, could not find a suitable flat for ""! De-classify flat filter or add correct flat. █ █ █ █ █ █ . I did try adding a flat manually and doing a simple stack of that plus an image, but that generated an actual error (something to do with Simple empty???).

Over the course of the afternoon, I've been trying with a variety of images and have been surprised at times. A couple of shots from my QHY cam (which is pretty noisy for what I was doing) solved. A couple more didn't. No shots of M16, whether from the QHY, my Nikon, or my wife's Canon, solved.

Unfortunately, it is cloudy now and predicted all through the night. Rain tomorrow. Clear skies supposedly on Saturday night - we'll see.

Never used the flats as part of platesolving so I just ignore the "warning" and use it normally.

I would suggest you send some of the images to Han and see what he makes of it - he is the expert as the author.

Once you have the basic settings correct ASATP works 95% of the time and very very fast. Luckily I use CCDCIEL which enables me to automatically switch to another platesolver during the platesolving phase. This I do in live mode and using the excellent Sequencer that CCDCIEL provides - so its simple ,quick ,effective and 99.99% fool proof - subject to sky quality of course. I hardly ever have to change anything except when I change harwdare, which is only to be expected.

In the end,rightly,you go with the process that you feel happiest with and suits you .

Wow, I must be one of the lucky ones. I installed ASTAP and catalogs, ticked the ASTAP checkbox in Ekos, and it has worked (nearly) flawlessly for me ever since, with just default settings and no fussing about.

I'm sure the experts here will get it all sussed for you.

So, last night I had an opportunity to try ASTAP last night with pretty good results.

First go, with the scope in the park position (pointing north toward pole), I did a "Capture and Solve" with "do nothing" checked. ASTAP solved almost instantly!

Second go - slewed toward Vega and tried again. It solved, tried to move the scope, *FAILED*. I reduced the exposure time until it solved, but now it was stuck in a loop. I upped the exposure and noted star trails. "I don't think it's tracking," I said to my wife keeping me calm. Turned out my RA cable had popped out.

Third go - slewed toward Vega and tried again. Solved, slewed the scope. With Vega in view, it *FAILED*.

I clicked on "Capture and Solve" again - this time it solved, moved the scope, solved again, and now Vega was centered.

I now wanted to check my new knowledge re: PHD2, but first I had to change guide cam (I had swapped things around when using the Windows Stick).

After changing the guide cam from ASI120MM to SSAG, my Pi failed to boot. I tried several times and even with different uSD cards. NADA. @#$%! Turned out I may have lost my new powered USB3 hub - removing that from the link, the Pi came up and all was good, though I had lost quite a lot of time.

Main thing is ASTAP did seem to work nicely. Not sure what caused it to fail that one time - perhaps tonight I'll try again

Reducing the binning helps with ASTAP. With Astrometry.net some users have binning at 4x4 but ASTAP doesn't like/compute that. Best would be to set binning at 0 = automatic. The resolution after binning should 1280x960 or higher.

An other thing which helps is ASTAP version 0.9.370 released a few days ago. The star detection routine is rewritten and it's less critical for roundness of stars.

Han

Glad you getting there

As to the failed solve when in object is in full view - I too get this now and again but I also have had this with Platesolve2 and ASPS on Windows - never got the bottom of the problem but put it down to changing "Sky quality" (improved - so too many stars = timeout or deteriatored sky since previous image) .

I have already stated I use CCDCIEL which allows automatic Platesolving backup (use ASTAP first but if it fails it uses Astrometry version to retry platesolvong on that image) so its not a major problem for me and this process works well for me especially on a Sequencer type run.

But without sending images to someone like Han it would be unfair to say what the problem was (me or the software) and impossible for a developer to solve

I guess thats why ASTAP now has the "slow" solve tick box. This is because, IMO , local Astrometry versions(Linux,Windows orothers OS) solve 99% of the time but are generally a lot slower on the same type of hardware. Whereas ASTAP and the like "cut corners" (sorry could think of a better phrase ) to improve speed - the later comment is not a critisim and I accept the fact "faster" this could be less reliable (even says this in the manual and on screen) - "swings and roundabouts"

Clear skies and reliable platesolving

I may be off-base (I am frequently), but I seem to remember not to plug in a powered usb hub into the Pi before powering the Pi itself first. It attempts to boot using the power from the usb hub which is insufficient.

Han - I did not know 0=automatic!

Stash - this is not the software, I'm sure.

Jerry - thanks for that! I think you nailed it as that is exactly the scenario.

Last night, I had quite a bit of success, but also an annoyance. ASTAP generally solved in seconds, and reslewed the scope to center the object, and I was very happy *except*:

ASTAP more or less centered Vega, but it also failed to solve once Vega came on screen. I told it to try again and this time it solved. But it never put Vega dead-center and instead left it a bit high.

ASTAP would not center M20 at all. Even when I changed the accuracy threshold to 10 arcsec, it placed M20 at the edge of the frame. As such, I was unable to image M20 - a good thing really - I needed to get more M16 data anyway. But it was odd nonetheless.

ASTAP centered M16. I set up for 100 60s shots w/dithering. Somewhere along the line, M16 drifted down in the images. I attempted to recenter but ASTAP said it was within tolerance.

I did NOT try any other platesolving.

Any idea what setting I might have wrong that would cause all this? Likely candidates?

Thanks a bunch and clear skies!

Maybe you have two problem but lets first solve the solving. There are two binnings configurable. First the one of EKOS:

If you camera with something like 3500x2500 pixels or more set this at 2. If the resolution is less set this one at 1.


Set the ASTAP binning at auto=0



Then can you provide me with one of the FITS images used for solving for testing? You can find a FITS file at /tmp There should be one from last night. Upload it to nova.astrometry.net and give me the link or upload it to ufile.io/ and give me the link.

Han