Plate Solving error message

[Mike Forster]

I cannot bring plate solving to running.

I use a Canon EOS DSLR, a 274mm telescope and the MGEN-3 for guiding. And in addition the Hutech IDAS LPS-D2 filter.

Therefore I was thinking my plate solving gain was too low, but i tried a gain of 1600, 3200 and 8000 without success (exposure time 5s). As software I used ASTAP (and its G17 star catalog)

I have got two error messages at all:

1. “Telescope is not tracking. Sync is not available when tracking” I dont now what the problem is, as tracking was on (on the hand controller) as well as guiding has been running through MGEN-3.

   Is it possible I have to use PHD2 ?

2. “Please change the mode dial to bulb mode” Here I have set up “Native” in camera settings menu. (Enable bit scaling is “off”). However I dont have a camera lens but a telescope, therefore bulb mode is redundant (?)

• What could I do/try ro resolve the problem?
• Would it maybe help to increase the “Star Sensitivity” to “high” and the “Noise Reduction” to “Median” (in Options/Imaging menu), or do this settings have no impact on plate solving?
• And a general question: Should the teleskop roughly point on the sequence target for a successful plate solving or doesn´t it matter where on the sky i perform the plate solving?

Thank you!

[Stefan B]

Nina sends the images to the external solver. Star Sensitivity and Noise Reduction is only applied for internal star detection that is not related. Try out the latest beta if the problem persists double check your focal length and pixel size settings. Make sure that the image contains enough stars and is not swamped with noise.