the M108 image solved in 9 seconds as is., the Tetrahedrons really find all the stars in this one. The other images seem to be finding far too few stars and the tetrahedrons don't match up with bulk of the stars. I will try adding the dark/flat.
Ron

I found an image which seems a problem for the Sexysolver. The Source-Extractor seems to work well for this image but the solver not. Size is 4x2.7 degrees so nothing special. Maybe my indexes?. It solves with "Int Sep Ext. ASTAP". Download:

ufile.io/kvy3vg88

Inspired by the Source extractor performance, I have rewritten the star detection for ASTAP 0.9.367 (development version). It's now more tolerant to unround star shapes:

www.hnsky.org/astap_setup.exe

It will now also detect small galaxies but since stars are abundant this should be not a problem.

Han

I'm not sure, it could be the indexes. I just tried it and it solved in less than a second. But it did say it solved with index 4111, which you might not have.

I have here the 4200 indexes (2MASSS based) including the 4211. The 4111 is based on the Tycho2.

I tried also the classic Astrometry.net and that one also didn't solve it, so the behavior of the Sexysolver is as the expected.

You would expect with 500+ stars it would find enough reference points. A strange technical glitch.

Then I downloaded more indexes the 4112, 4213, 4214 , 4215 using the prgram "All sky plate solver" and SExysolver was hanging itself in the new *.txt and *dat files. See below. That should be fixed. After removing these files from the index directory, still no successful solve using the Classic and SexySolver. Not so important. I downloaded this image some time ago from nova.astrometry.net

Han

Downloaded the 4100 index fixes solving the previous file.

Then I tried to solve this 20 x13.3 degrees image:

ufile.io/ii1uyok4

SExysolver hangs after some time. See attached log. Classic Astrometry.net didn't solve either but completed after 400 seconds or so. ASTAP 0.9.367 has no problem solving this image.



Han

Here an image where SExysolver fails (in my setup) and ASTAP 0.9.367 succeeds in solving:

ufile.io/u3rjvbay

Han

Later maybe it's the 4100 files. Get again these errors:


FITSIO status = 202: keyword not found in header
C:\CraftRoot\build\_\53d1cff2\sexysolver\astrometry\util\fitsbin.c:462:read_chunk: Couldn't find table "kdtree_data_stars" in file "C:/Users/h/AppData/Local/Astrometry/usr/share/astrometry/data/index-4218.fits"
C:\CraftRoot\build\_\53d1cff2\sexysolver\astrometry\util\fitsbin.c:462:read_chunk: Couldn't find table "kdtree_data_stars" in file "C:/Users/h/AppData/Local/Astrometry/usr/share/astrometry/data/index-4218.fits"
C:\CraftRoot\build\_\53d1cff2\sexysolver\astrometry\libkd\kdtree_internal_fits.c:126:<unknown>: kdtree contains neither bounding boxes nor split+dim data
C:\CraftRoot\build\_\53d1cff2\sexysolver\astrometry\util\fitsbin.c:462:read_chunk: Couldn't find table "kdtree_data_stars" in file "C:/Users/h/AppData/Local/Astrometry/usr/share/astrometry/data/index-4218.fits"
C:\CraftRoot\build\_\53d1cff2\sexysolver\astrometry\util\fitsbin.c:462:read_chunk: Couldn't find table "kdtree_data_stars" in file "C:/Users/h/AppData/Local/Astrometry/usr/share/astrometry/data/index-4218.fits"
C:\CraftRoot\build\_\53d1cff2\sexysolver\astrometry\util\fitsbin.c:462:read_chunk: Couldn't find table "kdtree_data_stars" in file "C:/Users/h/AppData/Local/Astrometry/usr/share/astrometry/data/index-4218.fits"
C:\CraftRoot\build\_\53d1cff2\sexysolver\astrometry\libkd\kdtree_internal_fits.c:126:<unknown>: kdtree contains neither bounding boxes nor split+dim data
C:\CraftRoot\build\_\53d1cff2\sexysolver\astrometry\util\starkd.c:266:my_open: Failed to read kdtree from file "C:/Users/h/AppData/Local/Astrometry/usr/share/astrometry/data/index-4218.fits"
C

Han,

Your example solved with the default settings in 1.559s in a single trial and average of 1.4717s for 10 trials here. It failed in my ASTAP set up. Do you have an updated .deb file?

I have astrometry files from 4200 through 4219 installed from the recommended repo in Jasem's write up on installing astrometry files.

Results from "apt search astrometry | grep installed"

I just uploaded the Linux version of 0.9.367. The Mac version has to wait.

www.hnsky.org/astap_amd64.deb

I spend two days on rewriting the star detection routine. Detection should be better and faster.

Han

Solved in 0.7s using standalone ASTAP after updating. Failed to solve using ASTAP from SexySolverTester.

I forgot to test with standalone ASTAP on the previous attempt.

For the last image I think there is conflicting information about the dimensions. In ASTAP viewer it's indicated 0.72 x0.72 degrees. However the SExysolver command specifies -fov 0.238979 There must be a keyword value in the header wrong.


I have renewed my index files using the ANSVR downloader. Didn't help. Same errors like:

C:\CraftRoot\build\_\53d1cff2\sexysolver\astrometry\util\starkd.c:266:my_open: Failed to read kdtree from file "C:/Users/h/AppData/Local/cygwin_ansvr/usr/share/astrometry/data/index-4218.fits"

I will stop for today. Tomorrow an other day.

I got this TIFF file from the Nina program support group. This TIFF format can't be read by Sexysolver. It must be a limitation of the TIFF reader. The file is readable by other programs. I will try to find out the origin.

ufile.io/wyjnam0q


File was written by Nina. (the tiff files in nina are written by the .net tiff writer)

nighttime-imaging.eu/

I am limited in loading multiple index files (one form of parallel processing) by the 1G of RAM I have in my Rpi 4. I see that I could now boot my Rpi4 from my Sandisk 128 G Extreme USB Flashdrive and it should be faster than from the SD card.
I also found where I can set up a 'swap' file memory on a USB 3 flash drive. I can put a small flashdrive (say 16G) in one of the USB 3 ports of the Rpi4 and have this recognized as the 'swap' file by the system. Would this allow me to run 'parallel' index processing or is that strictly limited to internal RAM? I know internal RAM is accessed faster than the USB 3 flashdrive, but I thought maybe by having the 'parallel' processing capability it might make the solves run faster.

Is this doable and does it require any changes on the part of ASTAP or any of the internal astrometry solvers?

thanks, Just messing around during our week of cloudy nights courtesy of Bertha.
Ron