Plate.AllSkyUseImage Property

Plate.AllSkyUseImage (read-write, Boolean)

True to send the actual image for all-sky solving instead of the XY detection list

Syntax

Plate.AllSkyUseImage [= Boolean]

The property syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
Value (Boolean)	True to send the actual image for all-sky solving instead of the XY detection list

Remarks

Normally, PinPoint scans the attached image and performs source (star) detection itself (using its Plate.FindImageStars() methos) then sends a list of X-Y locations of the detected stars to Astrometry.net for solving. This uses virtually no network bandwidth and virtually always results in a successful solution. However, if the image is particularly noisy, or has lots of saturated/spiked stars or other "distractors", it may be better (though slower) to send the actual FITS image across the net to Astrometry.net. If this property is true, the image will be sent instead of the X-Y list, and the local scan of the image will be deferred until the initial solution comes back from the all-sky service.

Note that you have a choice of detection/centroiding methods from PinPoint's API. See the Plate.CentroidAlgorithm property documentation. Included is the well-known SExtractor detector via Plate.UseSExtractor property. This give you a lot of flexibility in source detection locally. Only if you have other reasons for your images to be sent to Astrometry.net (and kept there subject to their licensing) do you need to do so.