I just installed PinPoint and was having issues with plate solving. In the Target Settings menu, I have tried using my own FITS file, even tried the astrobin and Flickr plate solved links found in the user manual but when I click “solve” I get this message: Failed to plate solve: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
This message only appears when only astrobin and flickr links.
When I use my own FITS files and click on Solve, I get this message: Failed to plate solve: Solve Failed! The time limit for plate solving has expired.
If anyone can help with this, I’d really appreciate it!
I use PinPoint and I’ll try my best to help. Can I ask a couple of questions?
Which version of SGPro are you using?
Can you confirm that you have the GSC1.1 catalogue fully installed with the correct file path structure? (See the DC3forum page here if you haven’t used it as an aid already, Downloading and Using PinPoint Reference Catalogs (Updated Aug 2022)). Is this set in the equipment profile?
Have you set your image scale in your equipment profile? It needs to be relatively accurate and can be calculated; this website will help and has the formula, Useful Formulae.
SGPro is sometimes complex in its behavior. We won’t be able to provide much assistance without logs. Please attempt to solve, grab the logs and post them to Dropbox or similar.
Do you mean the image I am referencing doesn’t contain RA DEC hints? I was able to blind solve the image using but not when just solving using PinPoint.
Yes, Pinpoint is not a blind solver so you need to provide RA and DEC hints (which your image does not contain or we would find them and auto populate the RA and DEC hint fields). Because of this, you need to populate these fields by hand before clicking solve. Any image taken with SGPro will have these values in them (assuming you have an ASCOM telescope connected when the image was captured). Please see the help file on plate solving for more information (found under “Sequencing” and then “Target Settings”.
I now understand what the issue was. The telescope wasn’t connected to the computer when I took the reference image, therefore it not having any RA and DEC hints. That’s why it fails. I’m glad this was resolved before I went out to discover the issue during a session.
Another question I have is that after I have created a sequence using the Framing and Mosaic Wizard and set up the exposure parameters (time, filter, etc) and click to begin the sequence, will SGP slew the telescope to the target with the coordinates from the wizard? I believe this the auto centering, correct? This is all assuming I have already run the 2+4 star alignment on my scope.