Hi - Just looking to try out ASTAP. I looked in the SGP help files under platesolve but did not find a reference to it.
Do I have to install software? I already have the star catalogue file.
thanks
Paul
Yes, you’ll need ASTAP and the catalog both of which can be found here:
Then, in SGP, select ASTAP as the solver and you should basically be good to go (assuming you’re coming from another solver and have the camera settings all populated)
Jared
1 Like
Thanks Jared, I’ll give it a go.
best
Paul
I have found it to be faster and better than either PS 2 or Pinpoint…
+1 My experiences as well.
Yep! Definitely faster.
Better and faster and vastly more reliable
The only issues were with it inconsistently and rarely complaining image was too small
,and on my older Surface Pro 3 the dialog top left that appears when there is a problem is non-scrollable and some of the message text is hidden.
99.99% of the time it just works.
Solution: Open the Main App
File
Settings
Return to Default Settings ** and Exit
Close App
Try solve again in SGP
Apart from that, install the appropriate catalogs for your device and it solves in seconds.
Of course it does not Blind Solve so you gotta be in the zone
For that I use a Astrometry.NET local solver that has the appropriate catalogs loaded from my field of view.
The PlateSolve2 persistent dialog issue was wasting too much time and sadly Elbrus never did anything but crash on me so ASTAP was a fantastic solution.
Good luck
** I never had to touch the settings in ASTAP so that may be a bug somewhere.
Thanks very much for the replies on this.
Paul
Yes, very fast and accurate. I’ve had some failures when star count < 50ish. To be fair, the documentation state this could be a problem. Reverting to PS-2 and it was able to solve when ASTAP fails - but the trade-off is worth it. For fail-over I use a local cache of Astronomy .NET and it always works.
Before, plate solving could take a minute or more (especially when using a rotater); now its finishes before I noticed that it even started.