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 .

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