Ive done some research about plate solving using SGP and what most places say is, to test plate solve, “I would need to open an image in SGP”. Can anyone explain where the image comes from? Since Im just starting out, I have not made images as of yet. Does SGP come with test images?
You can literally use almost any FITS image that you or anyone has captured in the past. FITS images contain metadata in their headers which provide hint data that the solver requires in order to work.
Thanks, I found some photos on the internet. Maybe you can answer this - In the literature Ive seen it talks about using a photo to do a goto based the coordinates from the fit header, why is that any beter/worst than just choosing a star/planet or DSO and slewing to it?
The short answer is “It depends”. You’d use a FITs image as a target if you have a framing that you’re looking to replicate or if a friend gives you a FIT to use as a source. Or if you have an image that you would like to turn into a mosaic. Using a FITs is not the “normal” path to getting reference information but it is one that we support.
The most straightforward way to get reference information is the Framing and Mosaic Wizard where we download an image from the internet and allow you to frame that image. More info here:
Both allow you to accurately slew to a location using plate solving and SGP’s iterative slewing logic. They also both allow you to adjust your framing without the need to loop exposures and nudge the mount. If you’ve setup your camera pixels and sampling (or have just plate solved a camera image in SGP to populate this data) then you can be assured that you’ll get the exact framing you see in the Framing and Mosaic Wizard when you capture an image with your camera.
Jared
If you going to plate solve i would trial pinpont it is very good SGP does not have a test image for plate solve
Martin Williams