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Help! Plate Solving with ASTAP always fails.


Rgaul

Question

My configuration:
1) Canon M50, shooting RAW (.CR3)
2) BYE version 3.2.2 Premium Edition
3) ASTAP version 0.9.531 dated 2021-5-2
4) Telescope control: Celestron CPWI v2.4.0 (Beta)
5) Target coordinates via Cartes du Ciel v4.2.1

In this configuration plate solving via BYE and ASTAP always fails.   BYE goes through all the right motions, moving the scope, taking a picture and launching ASTAP but always announces that Plate Solving has failed.  At fist I suspected that the conditions that ASTAP requires for plate solving were not satisfied, but looking around in the BackyardTEMP\Download folders, I can find the ASTAP output files which indicate that plate solving was successfull.  At one time, I had this all working.  However, I have updated BYE, ASTAP and CPWI since that time (note that new ASTAP versions become available almost everyday).  Somewhere along the way, I have lost the formula.

I am hoping that someone can have a look at the logPLATESOLVE_ra(12.40017)_dec(15.70465)_20210504-22h29m21s681ms.CR3.ini and give me some advise that I can use to get this all working again.

logfile-[20210504-22h27m06s027]-[3508]-2021-05-04.txt PLATESOLVE_ra(12.40017)_dec(15.70465)_20210504-22h29m21s681ms.CR3.wcs

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Okay, so this means ASTAP has changed or is using different ways of adding their extension to the result file... sometimes replace the image extension with .ini (image.ini) and in other case adding it to the existing extension (image.cr3.ini)

In either case, BYE 3.2.3RC1 looks for both and should now work regardless of which method/version of ASTAP uses.

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I can confirm that ASTAP supports CR3 files (select libraw in ASTAP to enable that).   If I manually load one of my CR3 lights into the ASTAP viewer it solves correctly.   Also note that the ASTAP output that gets placed in the BackyardTEMP/Download folder says that the solving was successful.

These are the observations that I have already made that have led me to suspect that there is some kind of BYE issue.

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This is what ASTAP is giving back to BYE:

PLTSOLVD=T
CRPIX1= 3.0125000000000000E+003
CRPIX2= 2.0105000000000000E+003
CRVAL1= 1.8569651976209556E+002
CRVAL2= 1.5818513246707907E+001
CDELT1= 1.6592080617549928E-004
CDELT2= 1.6595729895882351E-004
CROTA1= 1.7629852740698354E+002
CROTA2= 1.7630639623611029E+002
CD1_1=-1.6557615815531606E-004
CD1_2= 1.0713864046610999E-005
CD2_1=-1.0688768519027859E-005
CD2_2=-1.6561110528856169E-004
CMDLINE="C:\Program Files\astap\astap.exe" -f "C:\Users\Bob\Pictures\BackyardTEMP\Download\PLATESOLVE_ra(12.40017)_dec(15.70465)_20210504-22h29m21s681ms.CR3" -s 500 -r 180 -ra 12.381987 -spd 105.821704
 

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2 hours ago, Rgaul said:

I can confirm that ASTAP supports CR3 files (select libraw in ASTAP to enable that).   If I manually load one of my CR3 lights into the ASTAP viewer it solves correctly.   Also note that the ASTAP output that gets placed in the BackyardTEMP/Download folder says that the solving was successful.

These are the observations that I have already made that have led me to suspect that there is some kind of BYE issue.

ummm... this is interesting. I'll look at the provided ASTAP .wcs file against what BYE looks for to confirm a pass or a fail.

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Rgaul,

I was having that same problem early on.  Found out I hadn't followed directions and downloaded the right star database files.  Once I eventually did that (accidentally while trying something else no doubt), it worked each and every time and so much faster than AstroTortilla used to do.  You'd think the error would tell you that your missing the databases, but it only tells you it fails.

Aaron

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Tried the new download last night.   Same problem as before: ASTAP says Solved, but BYE doesn't think so.   I am thinking this experiment was only intended to collect more data, so I have attached the same files as before.   I did only one plate solve attempt then shut down BYE to keep the log short.

looking at the log, I wonder about this line:

2021-05-06 21:34:08,585 [9] ERROR - PlateSolve FAILED: PLATESOLVE_ra(11.35601)_dec(12.87592)_20210506-21h33m59s519ms.ini

The extension of the filename that I see in the Download folder is: ".CR3.ini"

 

logfile-[20210506-21h32m27s543]-[10356]-2021-05-06.txt PLATESOLVE_ra(11.35601)_dec(12.87592)_20210506-21h33m59s519ms.CR3.ini PLATESOLVE_ra(11.35601)_dec(12.87592)_20210506-21h33m59s519ms.CR3.wcs

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I got the .CR3 file.  Not what I need, unfortunately.

I need the one that fails in BYE. I need one with the RA and DEC in the filename where BYE reports a fail but ASTAP actually solves it.

I know these files do get deleted as they are transient...  however, try to monitor the BYE download folder and make a copy while it is momentarily there.  Send me that copy.

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I got lucky with an unexpected mostly clear night, so I had another try at providing the files that you need.  I sent you an email with a zip file that contains the log file as well as all of the files that show up in the Downloads folder including the CR3 file that I snagged before BYE deleted it.
 
Same results as before.   ASTAP says it was solved, but BYE doesn't think so.
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When I look at the logs, my own guess is that there is a difference of opinion about the file name suffixes that are expected. For example, ASTAP returned "PLATESOLVE_ra(13.72005)dec(28.26949)20210512-22h28m46s626ms.CR3.ini" but BYE appears to be looking for "PLATESOLVE_ra(13.72005)dec(28.26949)20210512-22h28m46s626ms.ini".

I shared this observation with the ASTAP developer.   This is what he had to say about it...

 

"That is interesting clue. It explains what is happening.  The LibRaw utility has alway been converting from .CR3 to .CR3.pgm and ASTAP was then converting .CR3.pgm to .fits. The intermediate .CR3.pgm was then removed.  Recently I made a mod in the LibRaw code to convert directly to FITS and kept the way Libraw is processing the extension. This direct conversion in one step only to speed-up the conversion. But it makes sense if the input is aaa.cr3 to create as result file aaa.wcs and not aaa.CR3.wcs. The same for the .ini file."

A new version of ASTAP is now available that I will try at the next opportunity: version 0.9.554 from this link: http://www.hnsky.org/astap_setup.exe.  Here is the release note:  "2021-06-20 ASTAP ß0.9.554 For command line and using LibRaw, now creating consistent file extensions for .log and.wcs log files. So .CR3 is resulting in .ini and .wcs files and not in .CR3.ini and .CR3.wcs log files."

-Bob

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