Hi,
is there any way to force the jpg preview when scope is centering during a sequence?
I’m shooting with a Canon Camera and from the control panel (Plate Solve tab) I can choose the ISO and the Exposure but there’s no way to make it use the jpg preview.
The problem is in plate solving (ANSVR): when taking a single shot from the “frame and focus” panel, and JPG preview is enabled, I can manually start plate solving on the resulting image and it will plate solve correctly in 15 seconds. If I disable the jpg preview it won’t solve unless exposition time is very long (at least 200seconds - i’m testing plate solving with an H alpha filter, it’s kinda of an experiment). The same happen during a sequence, so I guess that the scope centering doesn’t use a jpg preview.
If SPG could plate solve on the resulting jpg image during the automatic scope centering, instead of using the raw image, plate solving would succeed even with short exposures. Can this be accomplished?
I also have an off topic question. Is there any way to make auto focus run only on focus target, when set? I set the focus target on Deneb and I have autofocus enabled in my sequence each 60 minutes. I was expecting that my scope slew to Deneb, try focusing on that star, then slew back to the target position and keep shooting. That didn’t happen, and it tried focusing on the target position. Am I missing something?
Not currently, generally the JPG values are less than adequate for plate solving so it’s interesting that you’re getting better results with the JPG. They are generally somewhat processed by the camera, so maybe you’re benefiting from that processing. Maybe try upping the ISO for the plate solve exposure?
No, those are for manually focusing or manually slewing to the object for focus. SGP uses full frame metrics when running auto focus so there’s really no point to slew off target for autofocus. Even if you did SGP would still use up to 300 stars in the frame so having one bright star is actually more problematic in this case. If you’re using a “clip” style filter though you’ll need to increase your auto focus exposure to deal with this as well.
Hi Jared and thank you for your reply.
Unfortunately I’m already at the maximum allowed ISO, which is 6400. As said in my previous post, It’s a “borderline” situation, and none of that is needed when not shooting in narrowband. SPG, which I’ve been using for about two weeks, allowed me to fully automate my setup, in particular the focusing process during my sequences. I have a SCT and the autofocus feature is great for my mirror flop related problems. I’ve realized that plate solving was possible when I uploaded the jpg of my shot on astrometry.net and it got properly solved, when SPG would fail instead. Same shot, different results! Then I’ve found out that by using ANSVR and the jpg preview even SPG was able to manually plate solve the field. I don’t know the reason, since I can see the stars even when JPG preview is disabled, but in this case plate solving fails, in the other it succed.
you’ll need to increase your auto focus exposure to deal with this as well.
Sadly I think it would be too time consuming using longer expositions in autofocus. I’ll try that, but if the needed time is similar to the one that brings positive results to plate solving as well (about 200s with jpg preview disabled) it would take too long to focus automatically.
so there’s really no point to slew off target for autofocus
Yeah I guess so, but it cannot find enough stars to autofocus whereas with Deneb I was able to run throught the auto focusing process without problems.
As said previously, this was an experiment to automate my narrow band sequences, I have no problems in normal shots and the software works great. Probably the best solution would be to get an automated filter wheel, and use a luminance filter for focusing and plate solving, then switch to narrow band. But well, I do not own that.
Thank you for your time. And really really really great software!
