[RussellH]

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and I’m here with about 2 hours research on plate solving.

As I was looking at what it would take to control a mount and camera via my iPad, I came across the ASIAir and the Stellarmate WiFi options. Plate Solving looks like a nice way of finding and aligning things, and both kits seem to offer options to do it.

The question is, does it need to be done via your primary camera imaging, or will it work with the autoguider? If I have my Canon camera as the main imaging camera, and it isn’t interfaced with the control boxes, then I may be reliant on the autoguider image.

The ASIAir in a bundle comes with the ASI120MM mini camera (1280 x 960 pixels), and an F0340 scope which is 30mm x 120mm. I note the ASIAir manual says it requires a FoV from 0.4 degrees to 33 degrees to solve.

So, would that setup be sufficient to allow plate solving from the guide camera, assuming that’s even possible in the software (it may only allow input from the main camera, not sure) or would it not provide sufficient image quality?

If I went the Stellarmate route, I’d have to spec up all the bits and pieces individually anyway, so could pick and choose what works, but I’m still unsure what the requirements apart from FoV are. Is higher resolution imaging better for it to match the index files, or is lower resolution actually better since the image would be chunkier, which may mean the algorithm sees more distinct stars patterns to match?

Thanks. Russell.