Plate Solving with BYE

[hdoraisamy]

Hi there

I tried plate-solving with Astro Tortilla and the Trial version of BYE a few weeks back, but I never quite got it to work despite following the instructions posted in the How-to section. I have since purchased the paid version of BYE Classic (and am aware I need to upgrade to the premium version to integrate with AT)

My question is more around - is there a video that could walk me through how I would set up BYE Premium with Astro Tortilla and then demonstrate how this works out in the field? If so, I would be very much interested. I do not mind upgrading to Premium if I could get this to work.

Unfortunately, I do not quite recall what the error was when I used the trial version.

Thank you so much

 

[astroman133]

Integration of BYE with AstroTortilla is all on the AstroTortilla side. All BYE is doing is providing AT with an image to solve when requested via BYE's integration API.

So, if BYE is providing an image to AT that AT is unable to solve that is all on the AT side. You should be looking for tutorials for AT or Astrometry.NET.

The important things with AT are to be sure that the following parameters are set appropriately for your situation:

1) --sigma value (Custom options) 

The default sigma of 1 is not usually the correct value. I would try bumping the value up to 150-200. Tuning this value allows Astrometry to not reject background noise in the image as stars.

2) Scale values ( minimum, maximum, and units)

This value gives AT an idea of the resolution (how much sky is in an image). I would suggest setting Scale minimum to 0 and Scale units to degwidth.

Set Scale maximum to no more than 2.5 times the width of the image, in degrees. If you don't know how to calculate this, find an online FOV calculator.

3) Set Search radius to 180 if you are using AT to solve an image where it is not connected to your telescope. If you are connected to a telescope and AT can read where the scope is pointing, set the Search radius to say 10 degrees. This says that the actual center of the image is within 10 degrees of where the telescope is pointed.

When you take your image, don't make the image too long. It will be most easily solved if only very bright stars are visible. Less than 10 seconds exposure at a moderate ISO should be sufficient.

Rather than spending precious dark sky time tuning AT to solve images, I would suggest playing with AT indoors during the day with one or more short JPG images that you have taken at night to see if you can get it to solve them. Don't forget to set the Search radius to 180 degrees so that Astrometry searches the entire sky for a match, since you do not have a scope connected to provide a hint.

I hope this is helpful.

[hdoraisamy]

20 minutes ago, astroman133 said:

Integration of BYE with AstroTortilla is all on the AstroTortilla side. All BYE is doing is providing AT with an image to solve when requested via BYE's integration API.

So, if BYE is providing an image to AT that AT is unable to solve that is all on the AT side. You should be looking for tutorials for AT or Astrometry.NET.

The important things with AT are to be sure that the following parameters are set appropriately for your situation:

1) --sigma value (Custom options) 

The default sigma of 1 is not usually the correct value. I would try bumping the value up to 150-200. Tuning this value allows Astrometry to not reject background noise in the image as stars.

2) Scale values ( minimum, maximum, and units)

This value gives AT an idea of the resolution (how much sky is in an image). I would suggest setting Scale minimum to 0 and Scale units to degwidth.

Set Scale maximum to no more than 2.5 times the width of the image, in degrees. If you don't know how to calculate this, find an online FOV calculator.

3) Set Search radius to 180 if you are using AT to solve an image where it is not connected to your telescope. If you are connected to a telescope and AT can read where the scope is pointing, set the Search radius to say 10 degrees. This says that the actual center of the image is within 10 degrees of where the telescope is pointed.

When you take your image, don't make the image too long. It will be most easily solved if only very bright stars are visible. Less than 10 seconds exposure at a moderate ISO should be sufficient.

Rather than spending precious dark sky time tuning AT to solve images, I would suggest playing with AT indoors during the day with one or more short JPG images that you have taken at night to see if you can get it to solve them. Don't forget to set the Search radius to 180 degrees so that Astrometry searches the entire sky for a match, since you do not have a scope connected to provide a hint.

I hope this is helpful.

Thank you so much - I will try this and see if I can get it to work indoors. I usually find myself plate solving by uploading my images to astronomy.net out in the field which can take more than 10 min on a busy day. If I can get this process to work, it would be awesome.