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BYE Pre-release 3.20


AaronSmall

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Guylain,

Playing around with the pre-release with plate solving and RA-DEC.  Can't figure out telescopius interface.  Granted I am not connected to the rig and was just trying it out to see if it would work in preview mode.  

Amazed you got this working so fast.  Great work.  Hadn't realized DSO planner changed names either.  

Aaron

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Telescopius doesn't make it very obvious, this is out of my control.

Basically, you need to be on a Telescopius page URL that starts with "https://telescopius.com/pictures/view/...".

Copy that URL in BYE and press enter (or click the right arrow) and BYE should be able to extract the RA/DEC coordinate

Example:

https://telescopius.com/pictures/view/1001/deep_sky/sculptor-galaxy/by-sebagr

Regards,

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I assume the plate solving doesn't work (currently) without a telescope connected.  I was hoping for a test with some old images.  Be nice to have a way to simply plate solve the current image in the preview pane and extract the RA-Dec from the image.  Would make centering to an prior location (multiple night imaging) easy and convenient.

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2 minutes ago, AaronSmall said:

I assume the plate solving doesn't work (currently) without a telescope connected.  I was hoping for a test with some old images.  Be nice to have a way to simply plate solve the current image in the preview pane and extract the RA-Dec from the image.  Would make centering to an prior location (multiple night imaging) easy and convenient.

Thank you for the feedback.

The current platesolve is only for centering, not existing images.  Baby steps I guess in implementing the feature.

Thank you for playing with it and providing feedback.

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6 hours ago, s3igell said:

Without wanting for this to sound bad: 

Can I ask why you chose to work on Telescopious support rather than the nearly ubiquitous Astrometry.net protocol??

Or are you covering multiple bases as ASTAP is essentially a Localized Astrometry.net server??

I did not.  

There are 2 new features in 3.2 so far.

  1. Acquire target RA/DEC coordinate from an external source.  So far I have implemented these 2
    • Carte du Ciel
    • Telescopius
  2. Plate Solving for the purpose of centering your target. So far I have implemented only one.
    • ASTAP

If you want to center on your target you need to have RA/DEC coordinate first.  Feature #1 above serves that purpose. You can forgo option #1 and enter the coordinate manually.

Once you have your coordinate, then you can accurately center on your target by means of plate solving, that would be feature #2.

Both features are independent from one another but they compliment each other when there are both used.

If I decide to implement Astronomy.Net it would fall in the plate solving category for centering.

ASTAP is localized, and honestly I find it better (and way simpler) to use than Astrometry.net (even in local mode).  ASTAP requires no configuration other than being installed... and it can blind solve reasonably quick as well.

Regards, 

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Have you considered getting the RA/DEC from the connected ASCOM telescope? That could simplify your Feature #1.

For example, the user could ask CdC to slew to an Ra/Dec and then use BYE to center on that location. The location does not need to be the RA/DEC of an object, but an arbitrary point. Like halfway between NGC7331 and Stephan's Quintet that the user just points at on a star chart and says go here. I have done that quite a lot with Sky Tools and AstroTortilla.

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1 hour ago, astroman133 said:

Have you considered getting the RA/DEC from the connected ASCOM telescope? That could simplify your Feature #1.

For example, the user could ask CdC to slew to an Ra/Dec and then use BYE to center on that location. The location does not need to be the RA/DEC of an object, but an arbitrary point. Like halfway between NGC7331 and Stephan's Quintet that the user just points at on a star chart and says go here. I have done that quite a lot with Sky Tools and AstroTortilla.

I have not as of yet.  I'm not sure if CdC's API has that call, I'll look into it, maybe it does.

I like the "Acquire from Telescope", very simple and straight to the point.

I also like Aaron's suggestion to "Acquire from Image" as well... also very simple and straight to the point.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

A++++

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>> I'm not sure if CdC's API has that call, I'll look into it, maybe it does.

I think that you missed my point. Many ASCOM telescope drivers allow multiple simultaneous connections. So if BYE/BYN is connected to a telescope and CdC, or some other planetarium program, is also connected, both will see the position change as the scope slews. This allows BYE/BYN to see the position that CdC slewed to just by reading the telescope's RA/DEC. Your platesolving capability can then use that RA/DEC as the desired location and sync and slew to get right on it.

 

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Was part of the decision to pursue Telescopius and CdC and ASTAP related to the fact that they are actively Developed / Supported??  While Astrotortilla and ANSVR and All-Sky Plate Solver (ASPS) appear to be Abandonware??

As I do most of my AP Imaging from a Dark Sky Site (in a Field next to a Swamp) that has No Internet (Cell Service only when Standing on One Foot holding a 10ft Pole), a Local Plate Solver Engine is a Must for me. 

I run ASPS and ANSVR and Astrotortilla (all sharing common CYGWIN and Catalog Files); the first because it performs Plate Solves best for me; the last because of BYE support.

It will be interesting to see BYE Integration with these new Plate Solver solutions.

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1 hour ago, astroman133 said:

>> I'm not sure if CdC's API has that call, I'll look into it, maybe it does.

I think that you missed my point. Many ASCOM telescope drivers allow multiple simultaneous connections. So if BYE/BYN is connected to a telescope and CdC, or some other planetarium program, is also connected, both will see the position change as the scope slews. This allows BYE/BYN to see the position that CdC slewed to just by reading the telescope's RA/DEC. Your platesolving capability can then use that RA/DEC as the desired location and sync and slew to get right on it.

 

Ah, makes sense now.  

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41 minutes ago, s3igell said:

Was part of the decision to pursue Telescopius and CdC and ASTAP related to the fact that they are actively Developed / Supported??  While Astrotortilla and ANSVR and All-Sky Plate Solver (ASPS) appear to be Abandonware??

As I do most of my AP Imaging from a Dark Sky Site (in a Field next to a Swamp) that has No Internet (Cell Service only when Standing on One Foot holding a 10ft Pole), a Local Plate Solver Engine is a Must for me. 

I run ASPS and ANSVR and Astrotortilla (all sharing common CYGWIN and Catalog Files); the first because it performs Plate Solves best for me; the last because of BYE support.

It will be interesting to see BYE Integration with these new Plate Solver solutions.

The decision to use ASTAP as a first option is because it is installed locally, no Internet required, and requires no configuration.

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Guylain,

I need to make sure you give credit where credit is due.  Rick was the first to ask for centering based on an image.  It was way back in another discussion (I think on the suggestions forum).  I just agree that it would be very helpful for returning to a prior nights image.

I also want to jump on Rick's bandwagon about using the ASCOM driver to give the position.  Telescopius is neat and can be useful but, being internet based, doesn't work when you're out in a field next to a swamp (s3igell).  That also allows you to use other programs (I don't use CdC) for ASCOM control and still help out the PS.

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2 hours ago, AaronSmall said:

Guylain,

I need to make sure you give credit where credit is due.  Rick was the first to ask for centering based on an image.  It was way back in another discussion (I think on the suggestions forum).  I just agree that it would be very helpful for returning to a prior nights image.

I also want to jump on Rick's bandwagon about using the ASCOM driver to give the position.  Telescopius is neat and can be useful but, being internet based, doesn't work when you're out in a field next to a swamp (s3igell).  That also allows you to use other programs (I don't use CdC) for ASCOM control and still help out the PS.

Acquiring RA/DEC from the connected telescope is already done, it will be in the next pre-release, maybe as early as next week.

Regards,

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Guylain,

Was playing around with RC2 and the ASCOM Simulator.  Acquired the following Dec:  03° 59' 60"  Couldn't get RA to hit right on the hour or minute to test it.

Made me chuckle as this reminded me of when I was reviewing a young engineer who had calculated a bearing of 176° 80' 30" for a proposed pipeline and when I told him it was wrong, he couldn't figure it out what was wrong about it.  Nonetheless we always triple checked his work afterwards.

Untitled.jpg

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I think that he is saying that conversion from decimal degrees or hours to sexagesimal (DD° MM' SS" or HH:MM:SS) can be tricky. For example, when the seconds has a decimal value between 59.5 and 60.0 the displayed value can be rounded to 60 if no decimal places are being displayed. However, it should be 0 and the minutes be incremented, which can mean that the hours or degrees may also need to be incremented.

For example a value of 3.996 degrees should be displayed as 4° 0' 0" rather than 3° 59' 60". That is, that the minutes and seconds should always be less than, but never equal to, 60.

I get what he is saying, but the screen shot does show the Dec as 4° 0' 0", so I am a bit confused.

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6 minutes ago, astroman133 said:

I think that he is saying that conversion from decimal degrees or hours to sexagesimal (DD° MM' SS" or HH:MM:SS) can be tricky. For example, when the seconds has a decimal value between 59.5 and 60.0 the displayed value can be rounded to 60 if no decimal places are being displayed. However, it should be 0 and the minutes be incremented, which can mean that the hours or degrees may also need to be incremented.

For example a value of 3.996 degrees should be displayed as 4° 0' 0" rather than 3° 59' 60". That is, that the minutes and seconds should always be less than, but never equal to, 60.

I get what he is saying, but the screen shot does show the Dec as 4° 0' 0", so I am a bit confused.

Yep, got it.  I just fixed it.  The fix will be in the next RC release.

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On 2/1/2020 at 1:31 PM, admin said:

I did not.  

There are 2 new features in 3.2 so far.

  1. Acquire target RA/DEC coordinate from an external source.  So far I have implemented these 2
    • Carte du Ciel
    • Telescopius
  2. Plate Solving for the purpose of centering your target. So far I have implemented only one.
    • ASTAP

If you want to center on your target you need to have RA/DEC coordinate first.  Feature #1 above serves that purpose. You can forgo option #1 and enter the coordinate manually.

Once you have your coordinate, then you can accurately center on your target by means of plate solving, that would be feature #2.

Both features are independent from one another but they compliment each other when there are both used.

If I decide to implement Astronomy.Net it would fall in the plate solving category for centering.

ASTAP is localized, and honestly I find it better (and way simpler) to use than Astrometry.net (even in local mode).  ASTAP requires no configuration other than being installed... and it can blind solve reasonably quick as well.

Regards, 

I was wondering if you plan on adding Celestron PWI (CPWI) to be used to acquire target RA/DEC coordinate as an external source as well? CPWI is a great and very simple program for the cgem user out there. 

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