PixInsight SPCC fails (no astrometric solution)

[@kekkoukedarake110]

I learned somehow your presentation makes things easier to understand maybe because your presentations are very practical or more. I do appreciate your hard work to help us. Thank you!!!

[@astrodug]

I really enjoy your content. I'm relatively new to PixInsight, but have been doing astrophotography for years. Your videos have helped me a lot.

[@jimwaters304]

Thanks for doing this video Shawn. I run into this problem often. I also like your video on SPCC. It was very helpful.

[@davideckes2072]

Sean, Thank you so much. I am looking back and forward to your discussions on CMOS image processing with PixInsight

[@ChristianProulx]

Je ne suis pas le seul francophone ici. Thanks Shawn, light bulb moment for me switching catalogues, may solve some of my problems. Happy Holidays.

[@ToddBossaller]

Thanks Shawn. I believe if you perform DBE on an image that has the astrometric solution and you create a new image, it will not keep the astrometric solution. For DBE to keep it, you have to replace the image. So for anyone that finds its not working, it's possible DBE was run and you created a new image. If so, just run the process Shawn talked about above to add it back.

[@TheMje1963]

Thanks Shawn, I started having this problem after the last PI update and I have narrowed it down to Dynamic Crop killing it, Took me forever to find out how to get the info back. DC didn't use to kill this info in the past that I am aware of.

[@SkyShedPODTeam]

Thanks Man! Using this on cropped images before SPCC. ;) Works!

[@denbergeron]

Nice video Shawn. Thank you

[@derekblezard2416]

Image solver not supported in latest pixinsight version

[@domphoto101]

Thanks this was great, couldn't figure out why some had astrometric info and others didn't after batch processing. Did not know cropping kills the info.

[@paulwhitton957]

Thank you Shawn for this tip. Every time I run WBPP it trips up plate solving. It takes WBPP hours - I leave my pc running - go to it only to find it stuck on plate solving - Is it better to uncheck this option running WBPP until it gets better at plate solving. Then just plate solve the result from WBPP after DBE. After dbe because if you create a new image in dbe it throws away the plate solved result. Also cropping messes up the plate solved result.

[@Oamaruastro]

Thanks for this, but I have a quesiton--is there any way around it when PI fails to plate solve for some reason? I have an eight-panel mosaic in which PI plate solved just half of the panels, meaning I cannot seem to do a mosaic stitch (since the app needs the astrometric solution to do the stitching, logically enough).

[@aydinastrophotography]

That is indeed a great video, thanks for this Shaun

[@Northof40cdn]

Thanks Shaun. I know that I’ll be using this in the future.

[@Northof40cdn]

Shawn

[@frankm81m82]

Did you have to download the GAIA DR3 database from the PixInsight Repository for Image Solver to use that database?

[@astrodad656]

I did. Took about 90 minutes.

[@4auswanderer]

Very nice video, thank you very much :-) Will test it later 🙂

[@crm114.]

Thanks for this. I ran into the same issue. Since WBPP contains an autocrop function to remove stacking artifacts, I just run SPCC in my process scheme before any additional cropping.

[@gkather]

Thanks Shawn! You solved my problem before I even asked for help! Have you ordered your Jedi robes yet?

[@Spaced_Out_Bill]

Thank you! I wonder why the programmers didn't build a plate solver into SPCC?

[@chrismcgrew4692]

Yep, that was a whiff. Or make a plate solve smart enough to survive a crop.

[@thepuffybird]

Thanks for showing this. Helped me.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

You're welcome!

[@amp2amp800]

Really helpful tip thanks!

[@bguthrie]

I have been struggling with any color calibration for some time. There are some good tips in this, but it's worth sharing what made it work for me. Images shot with my Hyperstar +edgeHD require that I flip the image or it won't ImageSolve, and without the ImageSolve SPCC will fail too. I have also noticed that most color calibration methods result in a worse image until after it's stretched again... and there seems to be something connected to Unlinking it before that I haven't quite figured out just yet.

[@stevesolon6710]

Hi Shawn, As always, much appreciate your teachings. I've tried all three catalogues without success; the error message is "Database files not available for the Gaia DR3/SP catalog, or the XPSD server is not properly configured." - a bit confusing. I don't use BatchProcessing.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Off hand not sure. Is the Gaia DR3/sp database installed correctly? 🤔

[@stevesolon6710]

@@VisibledarkAstro Thanks Shawn. I bit the bullet and installed the complete set and installed them correctly. This solved the astrometric dilema, but when applying SPCC, I now the the failure message *** Error: Invalid Gaia DR3/SP XPSD server execution: Couldn't retrieve a valid spectrum wavelength table. This is something new. I certainly appreciate your thoughts.

[@horizonbrave1533]

Thank you! This has been bugging me for a while now since the new update!

[@matthewfletcher]

Thanks!! This solved my test photo stack with my new telescope, I just had to add the focal length of the scope! haha

[@chrismcgrew4692]

I miss the days of PCC where it would pull RA and Dec and pixel size right off your metadata. SPCC should do this, then use it to search your downloaded catalog.

[@davesmith9342]

Even better about PCC was when you could pull the data from any RAW image and apply it to the stacked iimage.

[@windsskat]

@@davesmith9342 Totally agree. Wish they can put this feature back

[@craiglowery4427]

Well timed video Shawn. I'm new with PI and run into this problem a lot. When is a good time to crop your image

[@elbagre71]

Thanks a lot Shawn!

[@gclaytony]

Sean, I've been playing with this a bit due to working in mono/narrowband for some of imaging, since my normal workflow is to separate the star/starless images, perform an NB to RGB pixel math on the stars to create an acceptable set of RGB stars. That destroys the astrometric data that WBPP embeds in the images. Not that big of a deal for NB SHO since it typically doesnt' get color corrected. But, there are other processes that also need the astrometric data and really I just wanted to understand how I could get it back into the image header regardless of need. The problem I had is that even though I gave it the information from my equipment (focal length, pixel size), Image solver could not find a solution/could find no stars. I was able to use the utility to copycoordinates from a master over into the split/recombinded stars/starless image, but when I looked at equipment information the pixel size and image resoution was not correct. When I'd enter what I knew to be the correct info, Image Solver would fail. Anyway, I found the issue that maybe gets mentionsed somewhere, but I don't recall seeing it. WBPP has the option to drizzle the data and for monochrome the recommended default iteration for drizzle is 2x (it is 1x for OSC). What I discovered is the values of pixel size/image resolution are inversley proportional to the number of drizzle interations, which WBPP does record in the image header. However, if you aren't aware of the drizzle effect, attempt so enter the "correct" information will cause ImageSolver to fail. I still haven't found a way to get ImageSolver to succeed on a rotated image, even with 'transformed' data in the header from CopyCoordinate script.

[@JoeBob79569]

Even when I do this I get an error like: "" when I try to run SPCC after plate solving.

[@LogansAstro]

God to know. I just couldn't get it to work at all but will try your suggestions.

[@uktrismus]

Thanks for your efforts Sorted me out

[@Zealor365]

Thanks, I am on my way!

[@arnsteindale5531]

Thanx for this one also :)

[@andreguttesen8982]

ran into the same problem that there was no solution. Instead of downloading the entire Gaia package, I saw a video by Delta Astrophotography where he suggested downloading just some of the packages - downloaded 3 myself - (otherwise it takes a hell of a lot of time and fills up the HDD) actually got got a fix for HIP 24727 that way. Then I have to see if there are other images that need other packages... Otherwise, thanks for good videos that are easy to understand and use in the workflow I have myself.

[@bengterlandsson7921]

Another helpful tip

[@chrismcgrew4692]

It would have been nice to leave PCC as is, even if not supported anymore. It got neutered to make room for SPCC which IHMO isn't a finished product yet.

[@christopheguigot841]

Très bonne vidéo…merci.

[@VisibledarkAstro]

Thank you. Appreciate you watching.

[@klausschlussler102]

Thanks, great help LOCAL XPSD was the solution, love your videos

[@rvoykin]

Keeps happening to me randomly it fails so thanks 🙏🏼

[@hiflyerint8119]

Or make a copy of the image file before you crop, then use script Copy Coordinates..

[@astrodad656]

my observation is...that SPCC doesn't alter the image much.

[@cosmoscarl4332]

I believe you're misspronouncing Barnard 150. Bar- nard not Ber-nard. I'm just saying.

[@nikaxstrophotography]

they broke it yet claim it's better, this is why I never went beyond the trial phase and didn't buy this bloatware