Plate Solving Process Question

Sequence Generator Plate Solving
1

Hi everyone,

I am new to SGP and plate solving, and I had a couple of questions that I wanted to verify as I try out SGP and plate solving for the first time. As an FYI, my current setup is a 71mm APO on an iOptron ZEQ25 with a QHY10 camera.

  1. After my polar alignment is complete with the Polemaster, do I need to do a rough one-star alignment to get the mount over to the general area of where the alignment star should be before I begin the plate solve?

  2. Or after the completion of the polar alignment from the mount home parked position, can I use the framing and mosaic wizard to get an alignment star, draw a square around the star to center it, and then hit the “center now” button under the target setting menu? If this option is possible, will SGP be able to plate solve even if the mount slews to the alignment star and the slew puts the alignment star 15 to 20 degrees away from where it should be?

  3. Once the plate solve is complete, how do I sync my mount with the completed plate solve, or is the sync done automatically?

Thanks in advance,

Jimmy

2

In answer to your questions:

  1. No you don’t need to do any star alignments

  2. After you’ve finished polar alignment, return mount to parked position, i.e. weights down & ota pointing towards NCP. Connect mount, cameras, filter wheels, focusers etc. to SGPro, PHD2, CDC\Stellarium, then within SGPro create a target and set it to “Slew and then CENTER on location” after you’ve un-parked the mount, click “Run Sequence”. The mount should then slew to target & all being well, the SGPro will capture an image which is used by PlateSolve2 and nudge the mount to the correct location.

  3. Don’t use sync points, as they can be counter productive & some times cause plate solving to fail, if the mount ‘thinks’ it should be pointing to a slightly different position than where the plate solve want it to go…

Julian

3

Thank you, Julian for the help! I really appreciate it. I will go and give it a try once the weather clears.

Jimmy