Wife's Astroberry Pi is missing some of the index files I have on my Pi. For example index-4201* (8.8GB). I copied mine to her Pi, but I'm wondering if this works or what because when I check that in astrometry, it tries to start a download.

The files are in /home/astroberry/.local/share/kstars/astrometry. Can I install/register?

EDIT - this should be working - I don't understand what's preventing it from autoindexing or rerunning the config file. It is supposed to be looking at both /use/share/astrometry and /home/astroberry/.local/share/kstars/astrometry.

Hmm...

Astrometry.net default location for index files is /usr/share/astrometry. KStars looks both places, depending upon configuration parameters. Try moving the files to /usr/share/astrometry. I have moved mine from machine to machine many times without issue.

Also...I have noted that KStars barks about some missing files that are not really missing, but are named differently than what KStars expects. This happens when you download the files via "apt install astrometry-data-2mass" rather than downloading them directly from www.astrometry.net. It doesn't malfunction with the different names, but it does cause a bark every time you run KStars.

Can't hurt to also check on the permissions and ownership.

Just curious, what happens if you run solve-field from the command line in a terminal? such as:

solve-field -z 2 --overwrite some-night-sky-image-with-stars.fits

Perhaps some errors might pop up you didn't expect...or perhaps it will solve.

Hopefully will get the chance to check this tonight. Will post an update!

So, I found an old .cr2 file taken with her 80mm refractor and, after converting it to .jpg, ran the command line. This was the output:

Reading input file 1 of 1: "/home/astroberry/Light/solve_test.jpg"...
Extracting sources...
Downsampling by 2...
simplexy: found 1257 sources.
Solving...
Reading file "/home/astroberry/Light/solve_test.axy"...
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4219.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4218.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4217.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4216.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4215.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4214.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4213.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4212.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4211.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4210.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4209.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4208.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4207-11.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4207-10.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4207-09.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4207-08.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4207-07.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4207-06.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4207-05.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4207-04.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4207-03.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4207-02.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4207-01.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4207-00.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4206-11.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4206-10.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4206-09.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4206-08.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4206-07.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4206-06.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4206-05.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4206-04.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4206-03.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4206-02.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4206-01.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4206-00.fits, field objects 1-10).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4219.fits, field objects 11-20).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4218.fits, field objects 11-20).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4217.fits, field objects 11-20).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4216.fits, field objects 11-20).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4215.fits, field objects 11-20).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4214.fits, field objects 11-20).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4213.fits, field objects 11-20).
Field 1 did not solve (index index-4212.fits, field objects 11-20).
log-odds ratio 157.581 (2.73177e+68), 20 match, 0 conflict, 50 distractors, 24 index.
RA,Dec = (148.897,69.0896), pixel scale 4.44828 arcsec/pix.
Hit/miss: Hit/miss: +-++++-++++-+---++-+----++-+-+

---

+

---

+

---

+(best)

---

Field 1: solved with index index-4211.fits.
Field 1 solved: writing to file /home/astroberry/Light/solve_test.solved to indicate this.
Field: /home/astroberry/Light/solve_test.jpg
Field center: (RA,Dec) = (148.894787, 69.088732) deg.
Field center: (RA H:M:S, Dec D:M:S) = (09:55:34.749, +69:05:19.436).
Field size: 2.78573 x 1.86033 degrees
Field rotation angle: up is 89.2952 degrees E of N
Field parity: neg
Creating new FITS file "/home/astroberry/Light/solve_test.new"...
Creating index object overlay plot...
Creating annotation plot...

I thought maybe the solving problem happened when she was using her other scope, a Mak127, but I just ran a pic from that one and it also solved (with index-4209.fits), so maybe the issue has nothing to do with index files and something else is going on.

Suggestions?

It looks like your index files and the solver work OK. I gave you a command line with -z 2 that sets the downsampling at 2. Since that worked for your images, you may want to consider changing the configuration to make sure downsample is set to 2. Alternatively, you could look at the current downsample setting and try that at the command line to see if it still solves. I like a downsample size that gives me somewhere between 100-300 stars in most images. Your image at a downsample of 2 is showing 1257 stars. That slows things a bit. Note that the bin setting for the image also impacts the result of downsample. I typically do my alignment images at a bin of 1x1, or 2x2 at most if there is a lot of light pollution or moon. This means that the downsample setting must be set to allow a reasonable number of stars for the bin setting. A bin of 4x4 with a downsample of 6 might yield no stars at all and fail every time. A bin of 1x1 with a downsample of 1 might yield too many stars and slow the solve.

Once you determine that it can solve (indexes OK) and downsample is OK, the the next thing to check is image clarity. If the settings are right, then the next most important thing is a good image with good focus. Bad images with banana stars just don't solve well.

You might want to also increase the timeout a bit if your first solve is a blind solve and your system doesn't have an accurate pointing on power-up. Remember that both the time/date and geographic location must be accurate for plate solving to be of any value. Your first solve is often a blind solve if your scope does not have accurate information until the first Sync. A blind solve takes a long time and may abort if the timeout is too low.

Hi Jon,

The down sampling is set to '2', but I see 'Auto' is also checked.

I *think* I may have found a misconfiguration - the field size solves to 2.78573 x 1.86033 degrees. However, Ekos is set for 51.08' x 40.86'. This should be 161.14' x 111.62 (multiplying degrees by 60 to get arcminutes), yes? Does that seem likely?

My setup (Nikon D5100 and f/6 80mm scope) uses CCD FOV of 168.71' x 111.74'.

Thanks!

Yep, it is good for all that stuff to match and make sense. I typically use the value from a command line solve from an image. The output from solve-field has a lot of good information. When it is right, it is a joy to behold. When just one thing is off, it creates bald men from those with hair. I also tend to increase the scope of the search to about 50 from 30.

One "oops" to check...the default setting is use the Online service (that is guaranteed to timeout). Make sure little selection at the bottom of the alignment panel is set to Offline, not Remote or Online.

Another thing you can try is to get past the blind solve manually:
1. Make sure your computer system date is accurate.
2. Go to INDI CONTROL PANEL and select the tab for your mount. Then select the Site tab. Verify that the TIME, DATE and LAT/LON settings are correct.
3. Point at a known object and center it in your scope manually.
4. Go to the INDI CONTROL PANEL Main tab, press the SYNC button and set the exact RA/DEC of the object.
5. Go to KStars and verify that the telescope crosshair is on your target, then perform a very short GOTO in KStars to a nearby object.
6. Go to EKOS Alignment and press Capture & Solve with the Slew to Target radio button selected.

A short hop from a verified location should yield a reasonably fast solve and trigger the iterative solve/slew/verify/track loop. If that all works, you just need to tidy up the values so the initial blind solve works. Sometimes it isn't the solver's fault, rather a timeout due to too long a search because the computer date is wrong or the current position on startup doesn't make sense to the solver, causing it to search the entire sky.

A small update.

Success! Turned out didn't need to add the "missing" file(s). She needed the proper FOV set. We couldn't figure out why the numbers we put in got overwritten, but once we figured that out (solver options), solving was very quick.