ASTAP can be used as command line solver only. But for the other functions and analysing you can just start the GUI from menu topic Education. ASTAP is not only a solver but also a fits viewer, stack program, CCD inspector, deep sky annotation program and photometry program.

Two examples:

Hyperleda annotation near M5:


Photometry, automatic measured star magnitudes near M31 in comparison with AASVO chart:

I'm using Kstars 3.3.7 on RPi4 running Stellarmate and tried to use the ASTAP solver but it's not working. I click on the solve button and literally nothing happens. I went to the directory listed in the options to try to start ASTAP and it seems there is nothing there? Do I need to install it separately? I would have thought that if it's part of the Kstars package then it would already be installed with the Kstars install? Having said that I am a Linux newbie so may be missing something obvious.

ASTAP is in fact a separate install. You can get itas a DEB package for the RPI at www.hnsky.org/astap.htm. You will also need to install the star database (G17 or G16, same website) in order to use it as a astrometry solver.

It is a separate program. You have to install two Debian packages. One for the program and one for the G17 star database. You can find them on this webpage:

www.hnsky.org/astap.htm

You can download for the Pi4 the 64 bit version and 32 bit version. At the moment I'm not sure if Stellarmate is 32 bit or 64 bit.
The G17 star database is the same for 32 bit and 64 bit.

Han

I also found that trying to use ASTAP to solve without installing it did nothing, not even the image acquisition. Ideally I'd have expected a message in the status window saying why nothing happened but I'm not that bothered. Obviously not a refelection on Han's program it can hardly be expected to work when it's not been installed.

I'll download and try it when I've sorted out my broadband download limits, I'm currently paying a fortune for 50Gb a month, and a bigger fortune per Gb over that.

Chris

Wondering if the 64bits RPI build for ASTAP can be used with the ODroid N2 (ARM architecture) or if a separate build is required.

Thanks!

Both the ODroid N2 (A73 processor) and Pi4 (A72 processor ) are using ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set. So I expect the ASTAP 64 bit Pi version will run without problems on the ODroid N2 assuming it running Linux and not Android. Try it and tell me.

If your field of view is not very small, you could use the G16 database instead of the G17 to save some space.

Han

No it was to help you with your problem - thats why the Windows were there -! If ASTAP does not exist you would not be able to start ASTAP from the command line.

You can run ASTAP via Kstars or from the command line - the latter gives more options and is useful when trouble shooting.

Normal Astap platesolving workflow is the same in Ekos as per "local" Astrometry.net same buttons to click - you just "tell " Ekos to use ASTAP - which is via Astrometry options - SO LONG AS ASTAP IS INSTALLED.

Sounds like you,as per your quote above , have not installed ASTAP at all just the G17 Star database - see the other parts of this thread. Probably because you are used to Stellarmate where everything is done for you. Astrometry .net (local) is not (or was not) installed by default in normal Kstars/Ekos but not using Stellarmate I wasn't sure if it was now a standard part of the Stellarmate image.

Perhaps ,if you are unsure, you need to wait for Jasem to create a new Stellarmate image with it installed or the ASTAP specific How to/ FAQ/Support/Install info. - as its new to Ekos.

Downloaded and tried ASTAP on Windows and RP14.

It seems impressively fast, on the PC especially.
It seems better with real images than with the INDI simulator, however increasing the simulator image size helps. I wasn't getting solves with 1280x1024 but setting 2560x2048 gave good solves in 4 to 5 seconds.

BTW the default location in Ekos is incorrect, it's installed to opt/astap. The star database goes into the same directory. You need to set this in Ekos. I found the settings window difficult to find, it's behind the button with the pencil icon on the align tab.

Chris

Thanks Han,

As you mentioned, ASTAP 64 bits works with the ODroid N2. I think that the reason it did not previously install is because i distractedly downloaded the 32 bits version yesterday.

Its slower (3 seconds solution) than my i5 laptop (1 second solution) but from a quick test, its twice as fast as my offline astrometry.net solution. I'll take that!

Gilles

I have a Raspbian Buster 64bit OS install on my Raspberry Pi 4 and everything is 64bit which I am happy with.

However, the .deb packages from the ASTAP website that are 64bit do not install using package manager. They all told me they could not be installed. So I grabbed the 32bit which was armhf and it worked fine for the install. I have not tried it live yet.

If there is a way to install the 64bit Aarm64 bit version I would love to know what it is I have to do.

Essentially I downloaded the Rasp buster full from Raspberry pi's website. Did all the updates to it to bring it to latest version. Then I used the install script from AstroPi3's thread. Then updated everything again. Then tried to install ASTAP.

Unfortunately only the 32bit version would install.

I had to use "apt install astap..." to install it on my ODroid N2. "gdebi", which I had never used before, would not install it for some reason. I did the same to install the g17 database.