[Imme (Jon)]

I just thought I'd throw my 10 cents worth in on software for imaging.

I've been playing with SGP for weeks trying to get plate solving sorted. Everything else works ok but a key element of my usage and one that is extremely important to me is the plate solve feature. It's obviously a great package and automates everything really well......except in my experience the remote plate solving feature (no network access) is an absolute nightmare to get working. I've read forum after forum and changed every setting I possibly could to get it to work. I've spent 40+ hours just on this one frustrating issue. I'd say I have success with it plate solving less than 5% of the time.....and this often took 300 seconds+ to do......definitely not good enough or able to be relied upon.
Coming up to the end of my 45 day trial I wasn't willing to buy a license based on my experience with it.

A couple of nights ago I loaded up APT. Using the same remote astronomy.net image index's, same camera/scope setup and the ASPS engine I was surprised to find I solved my first image in 13 seconds, every subsequent image I threw at it was solved as well......and all within 30 seconds of requesting a blind solve.

Some say SGP is better package than APT as it has more features......but in my opinion unless all package features work flawlessly then they are a waste of time including.

I'm an APT convert and am now a financial supporter of them based on my recent experience.