Mastering NINA: Setting Up Plate Solving

One thing users who adopt NINA find out pretty quickly is that you have options! And sometimes it gets confusing. Plate solving - or choosing a primary and blind plate solver - is one of those "options" where there are a lot of choices. I review my choices and how to install them on my mini PC and set them up in NINA. Let's go!
Content
0:00 Introduction
0:30 Overview of the Plate Solving Tab
1:29 Review of Plate Solvers
5:30 Difference between Primary and Blind Platesolvers
7:21 NINA Documentation for Plate Solving Setup
8:40 Setting up Pixel Size and Focal Length for Plate Solving
11:32 Plate Solver Options
18:13 Installing ASTAP
19:35 Installing and setting up PlateSolver 3.8
25:03 Setting Up NINA for plate solving
27:25 Wrap Up
My Astrophotography Gear
Mount: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro and Celestron branded Losmandy G-11 (Rebuilt and upgraded with spring loaded worms and tucked in motors, thanks Scott!)
Pier: Homemade pier with Starzona Pier Plate
Telescope (wide angle): Apertura 75Q, F/5.4, 405mm FL
Telescope (long): Third Planet Optics (TPO) 10" Newtonian F/4, 1000mm FL
Telescope (A bit longer): Third Planet Optics 6" RC f/9 1370mm FL
Guide Scope: Skywatcher Evoguide 50mm ED, F/4.8, 242mm FL
Guide Camera: Player One Neptune-M (IMX178 sensor, monochrome)
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 290MM Mini
Astro Camera Monochrome: ZWO ASI 2600MM Pro
Astro Camera Color: OGMA AP26CC
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 2" 7 position and ZWO EFW 2" 5 position
Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon Rotator
Focuser: ZWO EAF (on each scope)
Power: Pegasus Pocket Powerbox Advance Gen 2 and Pegasus Pocket Powerbox Micro
Flat Panels: Deep Sky Dad Motorized Flat Panel, Wanderer 190mm motorized Flat Panel, Pegasus Astro Flatmaster 150, and a homemade one for my 10" Newtonian
Software Control PC: Mele Quieter 3 and Mele 3 Overclock C
My Astrophotography Software
Mount control software: Green Swamp Server (controls EQ6r Pro mount)
Mount control software: Gemini 2 (controls G-11 mount)
Pegasus Astro device management software: Pegasus Astro Utility Platform (controls all of my Pegasus Astro devices)
ASCOM 6.6 Platform
Acquisition software: NINA (lastest version)
Guiding software: Phd2 (latest version)
Planetarium software: Stellarium (latest version)
Plate solving software: ASTAP
Plate solving software: Plate Solve 2 and Plate Solve 3 from Planewave

[@txdave2]

Another excellent tutorial, Dave. You are a good teacher.

[@alomgirmiah]

Thank you

[@lydellnunn7214]

Thanks for the clear and concise instructions, Dave!!!

[@mrkutube]

Great video on Platesolve! Thanks for the video.

[@robinbrown3896]

Very good straight forward video with all the correct information on plate solving.
New users will be able to follow your instructions without any issues, as you pointed out everything that was important in setting up the plate solving function in NINA.
Astap/Astap , Platesolve2/Astap and Platesolve3/Platsolve3 are all very good workable combinations.
As for myself, I have used all three combinations over the past with Platesovle3 now been my primary plate and blind solver, and is very fast at solving in NINA.
Keep up these intuitive videos as it helps get newbies up and running fast.

[@ronm6585]

Thank you for sharing.

[@WorkerBee258]

When I click on the link in the nina documentation it points to a page that's no longer there. I went to the planewave site and found part 1 and 2 of platesolve 3. I installed part 1. Part 2 is a bin file. The details you provide in this video don't seem to apply. Any insight? Not sure if I've installed platesolve3 and haven't had a chance to get outside yet to test but it seems to me I haven't completed the install yet, just following your video. thank you.

[@AmatureAstronomer]

I use SharpCap and the SharpCap plate solver. It allows me to continually move the mount and close in on the target.

[@jesuschrist2284]

What is blind plate solving?