Wed, 07/24/2024 - 15:46
Hello all,
Is anybody else having problems plate solving with AIJ? Finally had a relatively clear night last night and got some photometry of T CcB but fails with plate solving. Strange as I took the same images and could plate solve with nova.astrometry.net. Also, it won't plate solve images that were previously quickly solved. Strange we are running into these problems just as T CrB is set to explode.
Clear skies,
Steve
I'm not sure if it will help you, but yes, I have always had problems plate solving with AIJ. In fact, I only ever got it to work once on one image, and I have been using AIJ for a couple of years or so. I don't know why it has never worked for me, but presumably has to do with settings that are not appropriate.
What I do instead is to enter the name of the target manually in the Data Processor (DP) Coordinate Converter interface, hit enter, and the coordinates are almost immediately retrieved from SIMBAD. Then, in the Data Processor interface, in the FITS Header Updates panel, I uncheck Plate Solve and select Coordinate Converter manual entry for the Target Coordinate Source and the Observation Location Source.
The consequence of the above is that you must align your images prior to photometry, then select your target, check and comp stars manually (by clicking in the first image) prior to running photometry. Because the coordinates of the target are known, target airmass is output correctly.
The above is not ideal for observers who are used to performing photometry on plate solved images with WCS data, but it works.
Roy