I am so frustrated. If it's not one thing it's another; everytime I solve one issue, something else pops up.
Last night, after finally solving a focusing issue, I was not able to initiate- "plate solve failed, unable to get rotator offset, please try again". I went over my settings, tried different extraction thresholds (1.5,2,1.25,1,3), tried different catalogs, tried a new profile... nothing worked.
I am using TheSky/CCDSoft and was trying to image M78, which I realize has alot of nebulosity, but I was trying to initialize well away from the target in a field with plenty of stars. I can easily do a manual imagelink.
I don't know what else to try- I'm sure I've overlooked something but I've gone over and over and over my settings and the help files.
Just two nights ago my platesolves were fine, but focusing was not reliable, now that focusing seems to work, I can't platesolve anywhere in the sky (I tried many locations.

Here are my logs...
Thank you
Scott Mortenson

ccdap20070123_202329.zip (12 KB, 22 downloads) Log-Profile-TargetList

Scott,

Please zip up one of the failed plate solve files, for example C:\Documents and Settings\scott\Desktop\SBIG10-06\CCDAutoPilot_SyncImages\SyncImage_M78_202600.fit, and send it to support (at) hiddenloft (dot) com so I can see what is going on.

I have found CCDSoft/TheSky plate solving to be touchy, especially in areas of high nebulosity, probably like M78. Normally a setting of 3 - 4 works but I'd like to see a failed image.

Thanks,

Hi John,
Here's a syncimage...
I thought the same about high nebulosity, but was not able to get a solve in nebulosity free areas either.
Scott

SyncImage_M78_202600.zip (350 KB, 28 downloads)

Sorry-
I attached image to last post... I will send to your hiddenloft address.
Scott

No problem, Scott. I got it. The image solved fine using the Get From FITS button in CCDAutoPilot as well as directly in CCDSoft. The attached zip file has the settings used. Check to see if they are different from yours.

SESetup.jpg - Source Extraction setup (CCDSoft)
DE.jpg - Display Explorer settings (TheSky6)
PlateScale.jpg - CCDAP

PlateSolveSettings.zip (71 KB, 45 downloads)

Hi John,
My settings were exactly the same except platescale= 1.79 (which is what was determined for my system), and I had only 2 catalogs chosen in The Sky (GSC and Hipparcos/Tycho), which had worked well previously.
When it wasn't working, I tried changing some settings in the SESetup (tried several detection thresholds, and tried putting in correct values for detector gain and Size of pixel).

Hi John,
I just upgraded to 3.31.0 and changed to exactly your settings, connected The Sky and CCDSoft, and tried a 'from fits' on the same syncimage and I get "plate solve failed, check image scale".

And when I try insert WCS with CCDSoft, I get "Undescribed error. Error code= -2147221005 (800401f3)", yet I can get a solve manually using the imagelink wizard.

Hi Scott,

I downloaded your file and was able to get the plate solve to work, but I had to use 3.53 as the plate scale. Was your image binned 2x2?

Hi Frank, and John-
Firstly- I solved it! Now I have to figure out why my CCDSoft settings are getting changed, it was set for The Sky V5, and I had to keep changing the extraction threshold from 10 back to 1.5- but had not thought about checking The Sky version setting. I thought I was going crazy (I still may be). I'm convinced I have gremlins determined to keep me from any kind of imaging success.
I still am not successful trying to insert WCS in CCDSoft ("plate solve failed, could not find pattern, check plate scale"), but "from fits" in CCDAP did finally work- so I should be good to go .
Frank-
Yes my platesolve images are binned 2x2, but this brings up a question; I know the CCDAP setting is for unbinned plate scale, but should my settings in CCDSoft, and TheSky be set to 3.53 as/p when my platesolve images are always binned? I seem to have had at least some periods of success in the past with everything set to my unbinned plate scale of 1.79 as/p.
Thank you both for the help.
Scott

Hi Scott,

I don't think setting the plate scale in CCDSoft will make any significant difference when running CCDAP3. I say that because I routinely image with my FSQ and my RCOS. My FSQ plate scale is over 6 times that of the RCOS and I don't change the Insert WCS/Autoastronomy and the plate solves work fine for both.

One thing to keep in mind when using the "From Fits" option : You should get less plate solve failures if the fits file you are working from has been calibrated, or at a minimum, dark subtracted. CCDSoft seems to work more reliably (at least for me) when I don't ask it to deal with a whole lot of hot pixels. So if I use that option, I will dark subtract or run the raw image through a hot pixel reduction before trying to use it.

One other thing I might suggest you try, when I looked at your fits image, the values of most of the stars had quite low ADU numbers. You might try increasing your exposure time to pick up a few more stars and that might help the plate solves.