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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Astrometry solver problems - solved

  • Posts: 215
  • Thank you received: 41
I have recently had some persistent solver failure and time out issues with my Astrophotography set up. These have been driving me nuts but hopefully I now have them sorted so I thought that I would share some tips. I have KStars /EKOS/INDI running under Ubuntu 18.04 on an Odroid XU4. I use team viewer for headless operation on a windows laptop. Startup KStars , EKOS and INDI on the odroid then use KStars remotely through the home network on my PC inside. In the field (away from my home network) this setup runs through a WiFi extender as a hot spot. I have had some intermittent astrometry solving issues but generally these have been good for the last few weeks. A few things that I have noticed that have been consistent are a failure to solve any image using the offline solver on the odroid or trying the ANSVR server on windows when using 4X binning with the ASI294. I generally find 1Xbinning works best in the field.
Recently I have tried a load and slew to test out the astrometry as the weather has precluded doing testing outside but nothing would work, the solver either failed straight away or ran through all of the astrometry fits and then timed out (even using 500sec time out settings) or failed. ANSVR also ran though and failed (failure to get job ID). Interestingly, trying to use the on-line astrometry solver timed out on upload which has never occurred before.
Yesterday I had a clear night and managed to try all sorts of permutations to get previously saved FITs files to solve.
Most of my saved files are 60 -240 sec duration . After a lot of trial and error I have found the following settings worked really well and now solves quickly (within 20-30 secs using the offline solver on the odroid which also works well remotely under kStars for Windows.
So, in the astrometry.net solver options I ticked WCS, overlay and jpg upload. In the solver options I unticked no fits, ticked resort and no verify and unticked parity. Unticked use scale, ticked auto update, units aw and recalculate FOV before using the solver, downsample X 10 (I tried 8 times which took much longer and X4 timed out so this was important), I also unchecked use position (this appeared important using load and slew, less so for capture and slew).
I also deleted the astrometry FIT files that were not needed for my FOV especially the really big ones as these seem to increase the chances of timeout and are not needed for the majority of user scenarios.
I was really surprised that I needed to use X10 downsampling and removal of the "scale" and "use position" options seemed counter intuitive that this would make things work.
Since using these settings I have not had a problem. Solving is consistent and fast.
I am using NEQ6 mount (EQMod) with ASI294MCPro and ASI120MM as guider with OAG.
I thought that I would post my settings for anyone out there having similar problems using similar gear to try as some of them that seem important in getting things working for me were the last things that I thought would work.
If anyone can explain the logic of why this works so well I would be really interested. Otherwise it is posted for others having similar solving problems to try with no guarantees that it will work for you.
Clear skies everyone!
Mike
Oh and as always many thanks to Jasem and everyone else involved in this tremendous application. Keep up the good work!
The following user(s) said Thank You: Alfred, maxthebuilder, Ryan
4 years 10 months ago #38566

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  • Posts: 32
  • Thank you received: 6
Thank you for the information. I've been having some issues, this will give me some things to try!
4 years 10 months ago #38578

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