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ASTAP Plate Solving Fails in NINA

Acquisition Plate Solving Deep Sky LBN475 Troubleshooting
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Jerry Gerber avatar
Jerry Gerber avatar
Last night, and tonight, Nina's advanced sequencer reports that Solve & Sync failed.  

But in both sessions, everything is proceeding as expected--focus, tracking, star shape and size, HFR all look good.  

I can't see a problem as NINA found the coordinates I entered and is tracking unguided very well.  I'm using the 10MicronGM1000 mount and have never used autoguiding and Solve & Sync very rarely does not succeed.

Anyone know why this is happening?  Might it be that I'm imaging LBN 475 and the plate-solving database is unable to compare with where the scope s pointing?

Thanks,
Jerry
https://www.youtube.com/@astromusicvideo
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
Not really, unless you had a NB filter selected. I'm assuming you use ASTAP as blind plate solver with the right star density DB in use. Do you?
Jerry Gerber avatar
Jerry Gerber avatar
andrea tasselli:
Not really, unless you had a NB filter selected. I'm assuming you use ASTAP as blind plate solver with the right star density DB in use. Do you?

I was using an Ha narrowband filter. That may be the problem.
I'm not sure what you mean by "blind" plate solver. I installed ASTAP with the accompanying database. 

I've plate solved successfully numerous times with NB filters, not sure what's different about this time..
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
How many attempts have you set up in the advanced sequencer before giving up (or in general) and how long the exposure length? I know for a fact that I can't get a good fix in areas of the sky when use the 5nm filter despite shooting for 10s and @f/2.8.
Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
Jerry, I've had problems when shooting NB as well. Using a longer exposure time for plate solving was the answer.
Well Written Concise
Bruce Donzanti avatar
Bruce Donzanti avatar
Using both a 3nm and 5nm Ha filter, I can get ASTAP to platesolve in NINA when using at least 20sec exposures (Bortle 7), assuming you have decent focus and a decent number of stars in the field.  All the more reason to stick with a L filter if you can to save some time with 5-10s exposures and not needing a prolific star field.
Helpful Concise
Médéric Hébert avatar
Médéric Hébert avatar
Different equipement, location and so on, but I also got a plate solving fail recently. Is your sky affected by smoke from wildfires?
My sky quality meter usually place me at bortle 5, but lately it says I'm in bortle 7 and I do see fewer stars during slew and center.
Jerry Gerber avatar
Jerry Gerber avatar
Thank you for responding everyone!

I'll try increasing exposure time and/or increase the number of retries when NINA does plate solving this evening.
Well Written
Jerry Gerber avatar
Jerry Gerber avatar
No smoke or fires in the area and sky is Bortle 1.
Peter Boreland avatar
Peter Boreland avatar
For what it is worth I ditched ASTAP for Planewave 3 Plate Solve. Never fails, take fewer fainter stars, they can be somewhat out of focus, and solves in a fraction of a second. Great for long focal lengths of off milkyway axis imaging. No issues with 3nm filters.
Helpful Concise
Robin Bosshard avatar
Robin Bosshard avatar
I ran into similar problems when I first used my Optolong L-Ultimate Filter (3nm). Longer exposure times helped. Binning the images (factor 2) lets me reduce them slightly again. Still, I wish NINA had an option for separate plate solve exposure times per filter like it has for focusing...
@Peter Boreland I'll check out Planewave 3 Plate Solve, sounds good!
Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
I use it and it works well, it's my primary.
Jerry Gerber avatar
Jerry Gerber avatar
One other question:  As I stated in the OP, though Solve & Sync failed, the scope slewed to the proper coordinates and imaging has begun, images look good, stars are round and tight, HRF is good, tracking is good.

So why is everything seemingly working well and tracking is excellent if plate solving failed? Is it because my mount has encoders on both axis and I ran a 100 star model?

 I increased the plate solving exposure to 10sec as suggested with the Ha filter.  I imagine if I plate solved with the Luminance filter it would succeed.  I guess I could change filters after I plate solve to Ha and autofocus again, but it seems that is wasting time when I rarely have plate solving fail....
Engaging
HarryMosher avatar
HarryMosher avatar
Hi Jerry,

Did you enter the correct focal length in NINA? IIRC, I believe the Camera parameters have to be correct in the 'Framing' tab. Width/height of the image, pixel size and focal length!
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Jerry Gerber avatar
Jerry Gerber avatar
In framing, sensor width, height, pixel size and focal length are all correct.
Jerry Gerber avatar
Jerry Gerber avatar
When I momentarily pause the sequence and do a manual plate solve it works perfectly and says the plate solve was successful…

???
Dale Bush avatar
Dale Bush avatar
I was having a similar issue last week with a luminous filter and a Astro-Physics  Mach 2.  I consulted a friend, and he noticed that I didn't have "current image" selected. I doubt that you would miss something that obvious, but I thought I should mention it.
Well Written Respectful Concise
Jerry Gerber avatar
Jerry Gerber avatar
Dale Bush:
I was having a similar issue last week with a luminous filter and a Astro-Physics  Mach 2.  I consulted a friend, and he noticed that I didn't have "current image" selected. I doubt that you would miss something that obvious, but I thought I should mention it.


What do you mean by "current image"? Where in NINA do I choose that?
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andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
Jerry Gerber:
So why is everything seemingly working well and tracking is excellent if plate solving failed? Is it because my mount has encoders on both axis and I ran a 100 star model?


*Good PA.
Dale Bush avatar
Dale Bush avatar
Jerry Gerber:
Dale Bush:
I was having a similar issue last week with a luminous filter and a Astro-Physics  Mach 2.  I consulted a friend, and he noticed that I didn't have "current image" selected. I doubt that you would miss something that obvious, but I thought I should mention it.


What do you mean by "current image"? Where in NINA do I choose that?

*** Type your reply here         I wasn't thinking properly when I replied to your topic. I was thinking of the image solving tool in Pixinsight. Sorry for giving you false hope.
Feeling stupid,
Dale
Jim Lindelien avatar
Jim Lindelien avatar
Hi Jerry,

Downloading ASTAP's D50 database reduced this problem substantially for me but did not completely eliminate it, and some sessions still go to the https://astrometry.net/ blind solver.

CS Jim
Jerry Gerber avatar
Jerry Gerber avatar
Yeah, I downloaded the D80 star database.