I have a major problem trying to use PlateSolve 2 with the latest production release of SGP (rel 3.0.3 169). When using the PlaneWave “stand alone” plate solve app interface on an image it takes about 3s to solve it. When trying to solve the same image with “Plate solve” from within SGP and with exactly the same catalogs, it will never resolve. The same is true for various images and images captured by different cameras.
I have noticed that the most recent plate solve app downloadable from PlaneWave says “PlateSolve v 2.28”, while when the same window appears from within SGP it says “PlateSolve v 2.29”. Is there a compatibility issue with rel 2.29 that causes the problem? Or have I missed something in the settings of SGP? All suggestions appreciated!
PS2 2.29 is a special version that Planewave made for SGPro… nothing different except for their banner at the bottom.
It’s hard to say, but the most lilkely reason, you are not having luck in SGPro is that the hints in the image are missing or inaccurate. If you want to post the image on dropbox, I can take a look.
Thanks for your rapid reply. The problem is persistent for all light frames I try to solve via SGP. I use the same format hints both for the stand alone PlaneWave app and from within SGP. The app works flawlessly within a few seconds but from within SGP it just never finds a solution, not even after 10 minutes.
I am not sure on how I share a picture with you on Dropbox, so I put one on my own web server instead. You should hopefully be able to download it from here: http://www.hal1.se/Rolfs_web/Temporary_displays/NGC 869_884_120sec_1x1_lum_frame1.fit
Or, if you give me an email address I can send it, it is only 11 Mb.
Ok… We do have lots of users having success with this version of PlateSolve2. I’m sure we can resolve with settings. Please email to support@mainsequencesoftware.com
Thanks for your support. I was able to resolve the problem myself by changing the “Scale” parameter in the plate solve dialog box. I was uncertain on what to put there since the stand alone app from PlaneWave does not require this input. When entering my arcsec/pixel value of 1.32 as scale, the solve was done immediately.
A suggestion for future releases is to keep the scale value stored in the GUI so that it is not necessary to re-enter it each time a plate solve is done.
Once again thanks for attending to my question and my problem is resolved.
You already can. Go to Control Panel, Camera Tab, enter your image scale.
Also, you need to set up an equipment profile that will store all of your settings in a template file, so that when you create a new sequence based on that profile all those settings are then imported into the new sequence.
I made a mistake and upgraded SGP, LOL. So my plate solving also has quit working. I did notice the incorrect value in the scale field, but I went through all of my equipment profiles, and that value is nowhere to be found in any of the camera tabs. The problem is that even if I correct the scale to what it really is, most of the time the plate solve does not work. This is on version 3.1.0.452. Now on another computer, I have version 3.0.3.169. That seems to pick up the correct scale from the camera tab, but it still doesn’t plate solve.
One other thing, I notice that when I read an image into SGP, and then close it, the modification date/time is being changed. I don’t think this is correct behavior.
