Plate Solving - Unleash the Power of Your Telescope!
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2024
- Have you mastered your GOTO astrophotography mount? Have you set up remote control from a computer? If so, you might be ready to learn about Plate Solving. This incredibly powerful technique is surprising easy to use, and unleashes the true power of your astrophotography equipment. Better still, it usually costs nothing!! This tutorial covers:
- What is Plate Solving?
- What are the benefits of using Plate Solving?
- What hardware is needed?
- What Software is needed and what is the best Plate Solver to use?
- How to download and install the best Plate Solver
- How to set up your image acquisition software for Plate Solving (SG Pro example)
- How to use Plate Solving in your imaging session
You may wish to check out my remote control tutorial if you don't have that set up yet. See • Skywatcher Mount Contr...
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Clear Skies!
Closing Music Credit : Bensound - 'Dreams' 
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The informations on this video are exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a lot!
Great! You are very welcome. Thanks for watching.
Excellent !! Thanks for sharing :)
Ty so much for another great video.
Thanks for walking through the actual sequence with the hardware and software. It's like being there with you. Very helpful.
I'd agree about being there... Doug
Great session Martin, probably the best...it is the only one that has clearly explained plate solving and synchronising the mount. Well done
Many thanks Paul. Glad it was useful for you. Clear skies.
Thanks Martin , your tutorials are very completed and plate solving is a very great progress for the astrophotography.
Thanks Targ! Clear skies.
once again- another superb tutorial. Thanks Martin.
Thank you Dwayne. Appreciate your comments.
Just in the process of getting plate solving working myself ! Brilliant to show the whole process many thanks!
Thanks for the comment Ed. Hope it helps you. Clear Skies!
Fabulous tutorial. I’m taking my first tentative steps into plate-solving and was a little mystified as to what ‘sync’ actually meant and did. You’ve explained it perfectly if I’ve understood correctly i.e. it provides an exact reference point for associated software to know where the scope is actually pointing.
Thanks for commenting. I’m glad you found it useful. Enjoy plate solving…it’s awesome. You will never look back.
Oh how I wish I had found this video when I bought my first scope... or even if I had heard someone mention plate solving.... as it is a silver bullet to one of astronomies most tedious routines... star alignment Gaghhh. It's fiddly to get it set up and learn to trouble shoot but utterly utterly worth it. Why wouldnt we use a computer to 'look up' out scopes pointing coordinates.
Love your videos Martin. I have dyslexia and ADD so despite being bright I learn in a very patchy (my wife says obsessive) way. I'm just canning through your videos and filling little gaps in my knowledge everywhere. Thank you so much
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Hi Dan. Glad you found it, and that you like my videos. Thanks for the great feedback. I am sitting here imaging Melotte15 in Hydrogen alpha right now….10 minute subs….looks awesome!!!!!!
Hi Martin, nice to be back, love you're tutorials , thx
Thanks Rigobert. This one took a while to make…the British weather was not playing fair!!!
Thank you. Your explanation is very detailed, very clear, and very helpful!
Many thanks Pat! Clear Skies.
Thanks Martin, another excellent presentation. I'm not at the level where i require plate solving at the moment, but very interesting and will revisit when i am.
Thanks Warren. Yes, it’s something to learn about at the right point in your ‘journey’ for sure. Glad you liked it…It’s there for when the time comes. Clear Skies!
Brilliant, thanks
Another excellent tutorial! Detailed, relevant but straight to the point…perfect balance! Nice job…😀
Thank you so much for your feedback. Really appreciate it. Clear Skies!
You've sorted out so many of my problems in one video Martin - fantastic and thanks !!
Shame I couldn't see you do the focus bit ! Much appreciated
Hi Richard. Thanks for the great feedback. Much appreciated. I do plan to do a video all about focusing. If you are using a DSLR, then if it has LiveView and can do LiveView zoom then it helps enormously with focusing. If using a telescope, a Bahtinov Mask (make sure you get one the correct size for your telescope tube) is about the best value item you will ever buy! Clear Skies.
No problem Martin
Thank you ! I’m using a bahtinov and dedicated one shot colour
I’m new to all this but enjoying the challenge. I can focus up, plate solve and frame up a target using SG Pro but it seems to be the case that focus needs updating regularly as temperature changes and I can’t do this without going outside and breaking my connection! Also when I think I’ve found focus tge HFR value says I haven’t! Who do I believe - the computer or my own eyes 😂 any help is gratefully appreciated
@@sahrealsound Ah ok. I recently moved away from using a Bahtinov mask in favour of Autofocus, controlled by SG Pro. The move to a ZWO EAF was the change that enabled me to do this. I can now tell it to automatically do an autofocus every so many degrees of temperature change, or every so many subs and/or when filters change etc….
Great tutorial!
Thank you Jan. I am so pleased that you liked it.
There is yet another thing one can do with plate solving and that is polar alignment (e.g. with EKOS, N.I.N.A., iPolar).
Thanks for that. I haven’t tried it but it sounds useful, especially if you can’t see Polaris (in the Northern Hemisphere).
Great video! Never did have any luck getting ASTAP to work for some reason but All Sky Plate Solver has been great so far. You do need some horsepower to run it though and in my on testing it takes anywhere from 5-15 seconds on my 6-core i7 8700k home PC to solve and 10-30 seconds on my astro PC which is an older 4-core mobile i7 processor. As long as it works I don't mind waiting :)
Thanks. ASTAP is the fastest one in my experience (3-5 seconds) but of course that’s only helpful if you can get it to work! Often it’s the image scale that is the culprit. I call ASTAP from within SGPRO having set up SGPRO with the correct image scale. That seems to work fine.
Martin, yet another excellent tutorial. I FINALLY got my computer working with my HEQ5 last night and of course, it's cloudy lol. I can't wait to put this to practical use. Does the initial plate solve basically also let you know your camera's orientation? I use a DSLR.
Thank you. This will unleash the real power of your HEQ5. Yes, plate solving determines both the location and rotational orientation of your camera image. I use the Frame and Focus Wizard in Sequence Generator Pro along with the ASTAP plate solver to plan my shots and then align the telescope and camera, including rotation. Once you get Plate Solving working, you can use Solve and Sync in place of star alignment. Once you get this working, you will never go back to anything else!!!! It’s truly fantastic.
Superb tutorial, thanks a lot! I have a question though, does plate solving accounts the image orientation produced by the scope and camera? The image in the refractor is inverted.
Sorry for slow reply! Yes, plate solving can handle the fact that the image may be inverted.
Excellent video, do the programs work with a mirrorless camera and without wi-fi because I will be taking my eqm-35 pro out in the field.
Hi Glenn. Yes. The programs essentially match a pattern of stars with a database of star positions. So as long as it can read your photo file format and can ‘see’ where the stars are it should work. Also needs to know the ‘image scale’ for a fast solution (explained in the video). Clear Skies.
I have another question Martin.....how long time does it take for you to start a session after the balancing/polaralign etc with this method?
Nice video!
Can you use plate solve with a long focal length telescope, like a classic Cassegrain, when capturing planetary images? Thx.
Hi Ricky. Yes, but there will be fewer stars in the field of view so you might need a longer exposure for the plate solve image and to use a database with fainter stars included. Doesn’t really matter what you are imaging, but with planets you generally only care about centring on the planet, rather than about orientation. Some experimenting will be needed to get the plate solve exposure time right.
@@martinsastrophotography
Thank you.
Plate solving would be a good way to center the planets so its in the fov when you attach a barlow.
Can u do this with a DSLR, tracker, a laptop connected to the camera, but a manual (i.e. not electronic and controllable) mount?
You can plate solve any image, since plate solving is just the determination of the position and orientation of an image on the celestial sphere. With a manual mount you cannot then use the result to automatically correct the pointing to get your intended target framed as you want it. With a GOTO mount and a manual or motorised rotator, you can.
My solved DSOs are usually off centre. I understand the principles behind it. But it's almost as if the coordinates of the registered centre of a given DSO within the star database / sky coordinates is not the visual centre for AP purposes. I'm using ASTAP in NINA and its very fast but I have to manually recentre most objects. I'm using an Ioptron CEM40 and the GOTO is usually one degree off which is acceptable.... Would changing my Epoch make a difference? Also, I noticed that the centre of some objects in Stellarium are also off centre in exactly the same manner. I'm wondering / betting that a very small DSO would be better centred due to it not having a large vague nebulous area around it.
This sounds like the Epoch is wrong in EQMOD settings. See my video on this…
Matching the Epoch - Solving the Slew/Sync error
ruclips.net/video/dtbe4z0MQ9I/видео.html
@@martinsastrophotography cheers. I use ASCOM, and I confess I know very little about EQMOD... this is something I've never touched... Does it matter?
So maybe I missed this but does plate solving simply set up your initial line up and then a guidescope with 2nd camera keeps things aligned as you track the image? OR does the plate solving repeat continually to do the tracking/guiding for you?
Plate solving is not for tracking or for guiding. Plate solving is when you capture a photo with the camera and then match it to a database to see exactly which part of the night sky you are pointing at. It is therefore a very powerful aid to finding and framing your target. Once found and framed, your mount then attempts to track the sky as the Earth rotates. Guiding is then used to correct errors in the tracking by picking one or more stars seen by a second camera and sending correction pulses to the mount.
Thanks!
@@martinsastrophotography
Great tutorial except that you dont have a website so i can calculate image size?
Thanks. I actually do have a website…it’s www.martinsastrophotography.com and there are some useful tools there.
Thanks for the link Martin 🙏 i was googling around and found only some other stuff of you 🤣 now you saved my day. I follow you strictly and pick up some tricks and tips and you are a great "teacher". Thx for all your work and greetings from Sweden ✨✨
@@MaranParanormal That’s so nice to hear. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Hello , can i polar align and plate solve using only my main imaging DSLR camera ?
Plate solving, yes. That is just the process of determining where I the sky your photo was taken by comparing it to a database of bright stars. Polar alignment would be difficult. You would have to use a technique called Drift alignment. What mount do you have?
@@martinsastrophotography i have a beginner mount that i bought thinking it would be sufficient for AP it is a Skywatcher EQ3 Pro GOTO bundled with 130PDS OTA and i have a Nikon 5300D which im planning to connect to my laptop to start my imaging setup with all the needed cables.
@@martinsastrophotography oh and also i was looking at an easy way to polar align
I believe your mount has a built in polar alignment scope. Unscrew the large white cap and remove the small black cover to use this. See my tutorial on Polar Alignment. Forget about plate solving until you are expert at polar alignment, balancing, focusing, image stacking etc… Take one step at a time.
How do you connect to the Mount in Stellarium and also in the SGP software same time?
Whichever of these connects first will cause the EQMOD interface to appear. You can then connect from other applications. I always have SGP, Stellarium and PHD2 connected to the mount at the same time. Works fine. Does that help?
@@martinsastrophotography I never knew that you could have both connected I was doing it wrong all this time trying to connect software directly to serial Port not taking advantage of the ASCOM Drivers. Honestly I have never seen anything or anyone mention that in all the Videos I have been watching. You were the 1st.
@@Dudleydogg Happy to help. That’s what my channel is all about! :-)
@@martinsastrophotography I am having much better luck now just moving the equipment around solving, and centering targets, put the Telrad back in the box. I can see the pinwheel galaxy in my preview images, When ever I do a solve my target is always just a bit right, I cannot get it centered. Is this a Mount issue or something i can fix in SGP?
@@Dudleydogg Good stuff. Take a look at this video… ‘Matching the Epoch - Solving the Slew/Sync error’
I have ASTAP installed, Sharp Cap knows its installed but SGP does not list it am i missing something?
Hi there. In SG Pro click on Tools | Options then select the ‘External Apps’ tab. At the bottom you need to enter (or browse to) the path where ASTAP is installed. On my PC it is C:\Program Files\astap\
@@martinsastrophotography for some reason I had (x86) version of ASTAP I removed that got 64bit version installed rebooted and Now it is available, I can't wait to test this, I also presume you use the main camera for plate solving not the guide? I truly appreciate your video thus far its the best I have watched, and I have watched a LOT trying to get my act together and learning this process. the EQ software does not work for me I have a Meade Mount. but everything else is working.
@@Dudleydogg Well done. Yes, you should use the main imaging camera for plate solving. I hope it goes well. Clear Skies.
What is your web address for Martin's Astrophotography?
martinsastrophotography.com
So I cannot connect to the Mount with SGP and Stellarium I only one a single RS232 port and Meade LX does not support the EQMOD, with that Limitation is it still possible to follow this method? I could disconnect mount from SGP, slew with stellarium or skysafari then reconnect and continue the plate solve? Opinion? thanks
Hmmm. Tricky. You need to find a way to connect the mount to SGP. Stellarium is not really necessary (just a nice to have for a visual check on where the mount is pointing). Solve the connection between mount and SGPRO and the power of plate solving will be available to you. Try Googling how to connect Meade LX to a Windows PC and SGP.
@@martinsastrophotography I got it epiphany LOL, If i connect both programs to the ASCOM Meade Generic everything works. I can slew with both software with out changing anything, and the PHD2 uses the ST4 port so all good there. So not to see if i can plate solve and Sync. will attempt this evening.
@@Dudleydogg Sounds good, but PHD2 should also be able to connect to mount via ASCOM Meade Generic so you can avoid using ST4 interface (many people advise against using ST4).
@@martinsastrophotography I will do that I had no idea, so I have StarryNight, SGP, and PHD2 all connected to the mount now with a Single USB Cable. this is such a game changer i was struggling so much. Polar alignment with a wedge on a Fork with SCT is Pain in the Back !!!
@@Dudleydogg Great stuff. You are all set now!