Polar alignment and pointing issues with my PME

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Greg, I tried zooming in but did not get the labels. I have no idea, what is wrong here.

[gregbradley]

The display explorer needs to have the stellar database checked on for the labels to display.

Could it be an issue with Vista? I found it sabotaged most of my astro software and I do not use it. Windows 7 seems more sorted and user friendly.

I'd have to check what happens with my setup but why would the image scale be different from image to image when you are using the same scope/camera combo?

The main 2 inputs were the arc/secpixel for the camera/scope and the north angle which your first post shows as 273 degrees. After that it all worked for me. I just checked with ccdcalc and your arc/sec is as you say - 1.39 arc secs/pixel.

It may seem arbitrary but why don't you try it using your RC rather than the TSA?

Perhaps ask Marcus he seemed to know a lot about it.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks once again Greg.

It could well be vista but I have heard from a few others that say using this combination just never plate solves well. Meaning the software has its limitation. In an effort to find a way past all this I bought pinpoint tonight and installed AAG Tpoint mapper with Pinpoint. I can also use it in CCDsoft too. From what I have read so far I don't think I need to do a plate solve straight up. Once you open everything up I think you only need to hit the run button and it does the rest. Please correct me if I am wrong guys.

The odd thing there Greg is those figures are from the same image and each time I got a different results. That means something is wrong there.

I tried the little RC before and I could not get it to plate solve at all. I might have some luck now with pin point. The good thing is I can still use CCDsoft.

I have received a lot of great advice from both you and Marcus. I am just sorry this does not seem to work this way. It really seems odd that three programs which talk to each other really well can seem to fail to do the real task at hand. I will let you know how this goes with Pinpoint.

I once again thank everyone for their support.

[gregbradley]

You're welcome Paul. Marcus helped me a lot with this too.

Hi Tech equipment has a certain frailty about it. I have been amazed to have used my gear one night. Turn it off. Turn it on the next night and something isn't working and I have to find out why. I guess its part of this game being tolerant of the fact that your gear isn't always going to work everytime and be prepared to hunt down the cause. Some may even enjoy that aspect of it.

What is odd is that it was working some of the time. When mine wasn't working it failed 100% of the time and when it worked it worked virtually everytime. Could that mean a further looseness in the mechanics?

Greg.

[bert (Brett)]

You keep having problems with plate solving and the answer is automapper. You do not need maxim for tpoint automapper. Just pinpoint. It will fix your problem. Spend the $120. Once you use it you will realize why everybody has been banging on about it.

Brett

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Well I give up.

Just to let you know. I used one image several times in a row today and tried to get a plate solve. It would do it if:

The view in the sky was near to the stated image scale. It will not plate solve if the view is not near the employed image scale. That is just weird.

By way of example, if I used the USNO catalogue the calculated scale each time would reduce and plate solve more stars. See images. If I used the UCAC2 catalogue the reverse would happen. That is; the scale would continue to increase and the view would take in more skies and plate solve less stars.

I really don't know what to do now. I cannot get this software to work for me and I don't want to buy more software so I can run AAGautomapper. I would need to buy maxim and pinpoint. I have read and read the manuals and I cannot seem to get this right. This is no doubt why I get so many errors in the plate solves. I am tempted to ask Software Bisque for my money back and forget the whole thing. So fed up with this software.

What do I do now???

I know the USNO stars are there as I did not have the fainter star option bright enough. Got that sorted.

[Paul Haese]

Brett I did that last night. I bought it and I can use CCDsoft with the program. Any tips on pinpoint use? After I have done all the setting in tpointmapper do I just simply hit the run buttom? What do I do about syn with the sky?

Greg, not sure, gliches are just hard work. Nights ought to be spent collecting data. I would just open up the mount and just check. It is all pretty easy to check all the nuts and bolts. When you get inside these things the units are pretty simple and elogantly designed.

[bert (Brett)]

Make sure you have the right scaling in the settings tab, check that pinpoint is installed and the path to the guide catalog is set properly in am.

On one of the settings in automapper tabs, you must set that you are using the program for 'tpoint mapper mode'.

Make sure that the sky six is open and a new tpoint model is opened from the edit/ insert new object dropdown.

Other than that it is pretty much set and forget. It will blow your mind.

Having a PME and not using automapper/tpoint is like having a ferrari and not paying for fuel IMHO.

Brett

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Hang on, I think your both mixing up different software (at times). Theres Automapper and AAG Tpoint mapper.

Ive only used AAG Tpointmapper and it works a treat, others have used Automapper and it works, so maybe software isnt the problem?.

[Doomsayer]

I think Brett meant AAG TpointMapper.
guy

[bert (Brett)]

Originally Posted by Doomsayer

I think Brett meant AAG TpointMapper.
guy

What Guy said. My bad.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

...

The main 2 inputs were the arc/secpixel for the camera/scope and the north angle which your first post shows as 273 degrees. After that it all worked for me. I just checked with ccdcalc and your arc/sec is as you say - 1.39 arc secs/pixel.

Don't forget to adjust image scale if you're binning. 2x2 = 2.78 arcsec/pixel! Try it in CCDSoft with Insert WCS first.

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Brett I did that last night. I bought it and I can use CCDsoft with the program. Any tips on pinpoint use? After I have done all the setting in tpointmapper do I just simply hit the run buttom? What do I do about syn with the sky?

.

Couple of little things. You dont have to sync. I set the mag to 20, if less then there might not be enough stars to plate solve on (seem to remember 10 didnt work). I assume you made the circular dot pointing map to suit the view the scope can see. Be sure to delete the old Tpoint model before you start a new one (in Sky). I tried some star catalogs (can remember which ones) the GSC works.

[Paul Haese]

I used pinpoint in maximDL last night and today and the same image plate solves to the same angle and with the same stars each time.

Fred, Brett confirmed the same thing that sync is not necessary. Sounds great to me. Whatever works is going to make me happy. I don't care which at present. I am using GSC1.1. I picked that up last year. Pretty comprehensive by the look. Interestingly USNOA2 had trouble plate solving; it kept going back and finding more stars, but GSC seems to work well with pinpoint. I have no idea why??

Marcus I tried that but still got inconsistent plate solves.

Next step go and give this a shot. Clear skies though would be good too.

Many thanks to all who have contribute so far and helped both here and privately. With any luck I will have this licked and onto some more imaging of those faint fuzzies. And; testing the new GSO RC12.

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Next step go and give this a shot.

What?.

oh, and dont forget to "connect telescope" in DL

[Paul Haese]

Originally Posted by Bassnut

What?.

oh, and dont forget to "connect telescope" in DL

I meant I have to go down to the observatory next week and give the whole system a run and see how it all works. I was plate solving with some images I did last week.

Thanks for the tip Fred. I probably would have forgotten that.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Don't forget to adjust image scale if you're binning. 2x2 = 2.78 arcsec/pixel! Try it in CCDSoft with Insert WCS first.

As I recall Marcus it you only have to enter the unbinned image scale and it calculates it itself if you use a different binning in the latest version of Automapper 11.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

As I recall Marcus it you only have to enter the unbinned image scale and it calculates it itself if you use a different binning in the latest version of Automapper 11.

Greg.

That was my thinking too Greg, but I tried what Marcus suggested and that still had nill effect. I think it is just a case where some get the CCDsoft, automapper II and the sky to work.

[gregbradley]

Yes its all very odd. Can't help but think Vista is in the background here messing with you.

I found Vista to be a real wreck of a platform and nothing worked well with it. Everything was a fight.

Best platform is still XP. Wins 7 seems OK.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

You could be right Greg. However I would need to adapt a lot of my planetary stuff to win 7 if I updated. Not sure how that would go. I have heard differing reports. For the time being though I think I am onto so a winner. Time will tell though.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

As I recall Marcus it you only have to enter the unbinned image scale and it calculates it itself if you use a different binning in the latest version of Automapper 11.

Greg.

My experience has been if I don't set it in CCDSoft (ie during an initial Insert WCS) it won't work properly. I still set it in Automapper anyway - a better to be safe than sorry mindset.

Like you Greg I'm suspicious of Vista (and wouldn't touch it with a barge pole) but the symptoms don't really sound like an OS incompatibility. FYI, I'm in the process of migrating to a new Win7 64 bit lappy with TheSkyX. Everything seems to be integrating and working as it should. TSX has it's own built in mapping functionality but I haven't tested it yet.