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AstroTortilla Tutorial Updated

28/12/2015

4 Comments

 
Due to popularity, I thought it would be a good idea to update the AstroTortilla tutorial. The settings recommendations have been altered slightly, to be less accurate to your actual field of view. For example, entering 0.525 and 0.655 degrees into Scale minimum and Scale maximum may be pretty exact, but I have found it better to just enter 0.5 and 0.7 degrees (in terms of plate solving successes). The screenshots have been updated accordingly. ​
Moreover, a new section 5 has been written, titled "Things to Try when Plate Solving Fails to Centre the Target or Fails Completely". A bit of a long title but to-the-point. The inspiration has been the various reports from people that despite my tutorial, they still suffer from the dreaded "Field 1 did not solve" or "Re-centering" getting stuck problems. There are number of suggestions in this new section, including downloading the 4100 series of astrometric index files as a last resort (which are more suitable for wide-field setups). 

If you are having any problems with AstroTortilla, or have in the past, it may be worth reading this new section. Enjoy!
4 Comments
Dave
26/1/2016 18:15:35

I've been pulling what little hair I have left out of my head for the past 3 days but am still unable to get the example apod4.jpg to load.. The box displays the --downsample 2 --overwrite, but then gives the message No solution in (various) 7.2 sec.
I cannot find the updated tutorial mentioned on this page. Please advise.
Thanks very much
David

Reply
Kayron link
27/1/2016 20:21:38

Hi David,

It sounds to me like you've manually been giving AstroTortilla a post-processed image to plate solve. Please note that I've had less than stellar success in the past in plate solving post-processed (or even just stacked but still linear and not post-processed!) images, no matter how clean they were. This was both, with AstroTortilla and with uploading it straight into Astrometry.net.

My recommendation is to use raw exposures, ideally captured over 10 to 20 seconds and if in Monochrome, with the Luminance filter. You can also bin 2x2 if using a CCD camera (no downsampling required at this point as binning downsamples in its own right).

My guess is, you are testing to see if your AstroTortilla settings will work for you before you go out there and give it all a go, live. My recommendation there is to just go out there and give it a go. You will most likely encounter success after success if you have followed my tutorial and just use a real raw exposure for plate solving, live. Try it out, do not worry! :)

The updated tutorial is under the "Imaging" section of the "Tutorials" page. Direct link here:

http://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-setting-up-and-using-astrotortilla-for-plate-solving.html

Enjoy, and I hope it goes well!

Best Regards,
Kayron

Reply
Chris
4/10/2016 16:03:57

Hi Kayron: I'm having the same issue - "No solution in (between 15-18) seconds." I'm not giving it a post-processed image - I have a color CMOS, so I was even trying debayered RAW8 images. Still, nothing but the same error message. I increased to 20 second exposures, increased to 45° - what is the next step? Like, if I'm getting that error message, what would be the next step in troubleshooting? I was able to upload images to astronomy.net last night and get them to solve, but Astrotortilla was a no-go. Any advice would be immensely appreciated.

Reply
Phil
17/8/2018 08:19:04

Hi Kayron

I've been getting an error message of late that I'm not sure how to fix. The message is "Resources are not available just now, please try later" I use my laptop off line and have used AT with great success in the past but the last time I went out this was the message. Could you advise on a fix please or if I've "knocked a setting off"
Thanks in advance

Phil Kibble

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