I just tried a real life polar alignment with the plate solving method using your suggested 'workaround', by setting an arcsecond-per-pixel value, instead of the arcminute width and the PA, and plate solving performed without any problem. I had "Refresh solver failed" errors before but not this time. Furthermore, the errors get updated correctly contrary to before where the errors would not always get updated and often not displayed.

Thanks.

William Optics GTF81 on Avalon M-Zero OBS
ZWO ASI1600MM Pro
ZWO ASI290MM (guide)
ODroid N2 running Ubuntu Mate 20.04 LTS
KStars 3.6.0 Beta

Here too it is working. Seems to me that also "Auto update" can be left checked: if unit is "app", found that changing binning updates Low and High scales with the correct numbers.

Hi, is this issue confirmed or solved? I'm also having the same problem. The plate solve simply fails and the move move start method isn't helping as the triangle is often too large for the image.

Have you tried the suggested solution/settings from the previous messages (previous page)?

Ciao, Udo

Hi Thanks for replying.

I noticed that there had been an update pushed out yesterday which included code changes as described above for the plate solving method. I've updated just now and will retry when the weather clears up.

Thanks!

I had the same issue as the most of you guys. But after I set the gain to the maximum, shortened the exposure time, and set ASTAP as the plate-solver, the alignment went much faster and stable.

Lucian

Could someone help me to find the Stellar Solver settings? I cannot find these in the Configure KStars Dialog.

I am running Kstars 3.6.5 on Stellarmate OS on Raspberry Pi.

The stellarsolver options for polar alignment are the same as the align module's. You can find them in the options button on the lower right of the page.

Hy,
I ran into a similar issue to this one last night when trying to us the polar align with platesolve. Can you confirm if your code change is integrated into 3.6.5? If yes, then I may have a different issue causing me to get the "Solver Failed" message. My experience was this:
1. Start Polar alignment
2. Capture all three images and plate solve successfully.
3. I would start the refresh and it would refresh twice, I would try to move the AZ knob and then get the dreaded "Solver Failed after..." message. What's worse is that there's no recovering from it without stopping and restarting the Polar Alignment process.

If your changes are already in my version, I will start a new thread for this.

Thanks,
Anand

That bugfix made it into 3.5.5 or 3.5.6, so way before what you are using.

Some failed solves in the refresh cycle shouldn't be an issue as long as it can solve some.
It isn't unusual to fail a solve right after turning a knob, as that rocks your mount/scope and the imaging isn't coordinated with that.
Hopefully it solves on the next one.

If you successfully solve the 3 exposures, and then have issues in refresh, it is often just the shorter exposures--try using a longer refresh period, e.g. 2s or 3s, can get you better images and a better chance to solve.

Not sure why you're saying that you have to start over. What makes you start over?

Are you using the "Plate Solve" technique (as opposed to the Move Star one)? If not, try that one.

Feel free to send a full debug log (certainly with "align module checked) if you're still having issues.

Hy

Hy,
I am using the "Plate Solve" Method for the polar alignment. I would have to completely restart because after I see the first "Solver Failed..." message, it does not appear to do anything else. I think I need to do some more testing so that I can give you a better report of the issue. I'm hoping to have some clear skies soon so that I can test it. It is entirely possible that this is user error.

Anand

Just double checking that you clicked on the refresh button to get the process started.

After the initial 3 exposures that calculate the polar alignment error and required correction, you need to set a few parameters like the algorithm, the refresh interval, and then you click on refresh and the refresh cycle starts up.

Hy