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Easy way to learn VA / EAA camera software such as SharpCap
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ส.ค. 2024
- There are just five settings which are available in all VA / EAA software, which are the main things you need to learn about. This video will show you these in use, and just how easy it is to start out in VA / EAA. I shall produce a "part 2" as soon as the weather clears up, which will show you the Stacking basics. Cheers
I was having problems using SharpCap until I found your very helpful video, thank you.
As a 30-year amateur, it is wonderful to find a "top-drawer" video like yours. They are one in a million. Simple, to the point, helpful, spot on. 5-STAR! Thanks for the wisdom, Queensland, from Florida USA.
At last, finally found a tutorial that explains much about SharpCap clearly, simply, and thoroughly. Great job Mr. Smith. Thank you for producing this.
Wow. I've been struggling vainly to get decent images ever since I bought my camera. This is by far the best explanation I've yet found. Thank you so much for this video.
Beautifully done. It is like some one switched on a bright light in dark cave.
This video has helped me more than any other video on TH-cam... Thank you.
Glad you found it useful Benson. Hopefully my weather clears so I can do one on the Live Stacking feature (it needs stars to align each frame). Cheers mate.
Mate, you nailed it. I'm beginner to astrophotography and so far there is no video to compare to yours, explaining this so simple and effective way. Good work.
Brilliant video. Just starting with this camera and SharpCap and finally I've found a video that lets me get started. Thank you.
Like so many others, I learned a lot and all of it useful. I appreciate this video ... I’ve watched it twice, now to check out your other videos ... so much more to learn.
A fantastic video! As a beginner I have been really struggling to get everything working, this video has really answered so many questions . Thankyou !!
Carl, you're a natural for explaining things clearly and concisely. I'll bet you're not a teacher because, unfortunately, teachers just aren't as good! Thanks man.
Extremely useful video as I am exploring sharpcap for the first time. Appreciate it so much!
I've been fighting with my ASI 183 mono camera. Thanks for this video. I think the beast has been tamed.
No wonder I can't get my camera working correctly. Thank you for sharing this. I'm going to watch this over and over.
thanks so much i have been watching this video over and over to figure out the techniques of capturing planet videos. its very cold here in the winter and going out to capture images isnt fun when you cant get anything to work. so hopefully tonight this will not be a problem anymore. thanks again for this video it has really helped!
Thank you to everyone for the favourable comments. Very much appreciated. The weather here has been cloudy and raining off an on for well over a month now. As soon as it clears, I'll get out there and produce the video on stacking (and the SharpCap stacking histogram - which is a separate histogram which works on just the stacked image). One more tip which I did not mention in this video, is that while you can find focus and work out the gain...exposure- time...histogram triangle easily in the daytime ..... it also allows you to stay setup as it gets darker and darker. The idea being as it gets darker and darker you adjust the gain and exposure time to keep the distant tree (or neighbourhood homes etc) visible nicely in SharpCap (or whatever software you use). Keeping that distant object/neighbourhood image looking good as it slowly gets more and more dark outside enables you to very quickly master the gain-exposure time adjustments for when you first go out at night to hunt down those faint objects. Cheers
Can you update this video using version 4.0?
I did get a lot out of this but some of the settings you talk about just aren't available.
I like the way you lay the information out. I have been having a horrible time trying to figure out how the histogram works. Photography and astronomy are both new to me so you can imagine astrophotography has been a pretty steep learning curve.....
In using some older equipment because you can get very capable stuff if scratch and dent hand me downs don't bother you.
I have a canon T3i dslr and also a couple Svbony cameras. The 105 and 205.
I was able to get real focus on all of them tonight for the first time using sharpcap and backyard EOS.
VERY happy about that.
I am primarily interested in solar system objects. I really enjoy exploring the moon and I like watching the changes in Jupiter throughout the night and over a few days time watching the spot move and the moons. Would really like to catch a moons shadow on Jupiter. Would also like to figure out how to make an animation....
Enjoy Saturn but would like to get the rings in better focus.
So any tips using sharpcap with my cameras would be great if updated.
Off to check out more of your videos till then.....
Thank you for that very informative and clear tutorial for Sharpcap. It answered all my questions.
Brilliant. I have been using Sharpcap for 6 months and never really understood how to leverage the histogram. Your tips on a focus template was also excellent. Thank you!
very well presented, easy to understand and not baffled by a million things to do . cheers
Having just purchased a QHY 183c camera only to be frustrated with the results I was getting. Now that I've watched your video, I think I understand now what I've been missing. Thanks for the great video.
Liked and subbed! Tried using my camera today totally failed and couldn’t find anything to lay out the basics for a beginner as you did. Thank you so much! I was gonna just go to bed but now I’m gonna go set back up and go step by step how you taught us, thank you so much
Thanks much!!! You answered a lot of last nights questions :-) I did the day stuff and tonight will give it another go
This video is an absolute gem. Thank you for posting, and subscribed for sure.
Yeah. You better apologize for the rain, mate! 🤣 Just kidding: Awesome video! I'm a long time visual astronomer trying to get into EAA to show my students DSO. And I'm still struggling... 😉
Thanks Carl. Hope the rain has stopped and you’re having fun in the sky
thank you very much ,you have helped me understand the settings in sharp cap .i set my camera up in seconds,as to wear i can see the image ,you are a star.all the very best. well pleased .
Great video. This is the first time I see a video that shows how these three parameters (gain, exposure and white balance) interplay and adjust them accordingly.
Most helpful video I've seen excellent thank you Sir!
Really appreciate such a great introduction tutorial video!
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Carl keep up the good work!... just downloaded SharpCap yesterday....this and other videos you have done are extremely informative and helpful...thanks!
Thank you so much I recently bought 224mc it really helped me thanks a lot sir
Great video, new to Sharpcap and you have helped to demystify - thanks
New to this and had no clue what did what, thank you so much for taking the time to break this down to such a simple level for us newbies.
You did a great job. The focuser jig to gauge max rack position will save me more time than I spent watching the video (an excellent suggestion). I'll make mine with the moon as the target. That tool will get thrown into my scope case.
Thank you again Carl, as I said I've just begun my journey into AP but I do enjoy the visual experience of managing to get something special in you eye piece! It's quite a cathartic experience I have to say. I have a celestron 114 lcm telescope and have also purchased a ZWO ASI1200 planetary imaging camera. I'm reading a lot at the moment and also watching instructional videos such as yours in order to pick up the basics. Thank you for pointing me towards your workflow video - I had already started to watch it! I will also take your advice about the batinov mask and medium star focussing. Thanks again for your help, it's much appreciated.
Very good! This is so simple the way you showed it! I have read so much about white balance and still never really understood it. But this simple way of showing it helped me so much! And thank you so much!
Such a great instruction. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for this, helped me so much as I am new to sharpcap. Great video. Take care, clear skies.
This is easily one of the best videos I've watched on this topic. Thank you for sharing.
Many thanks for putting this up, very helpful to me
Excellent video Carl! I just purchased a ZWO 294 camera and a Celestron 9.25" scope. So I'm hoping to start using SC soon! Very well explained and will save me countless hours!! Cheers Mate! I've subscribed and will now look at your other tutorials. Detroit, Michigan
Very useful video! I'm just starting out with a basic eyepiece camera plus SharpCap, so this is a huge help.
very, very helpful for beginners...thank you
Flipping fantastic tutorial. Thank you for spending the time. At least there is one program I can start using now.
The histogram was a first thing to ignore by me as a newbie, so the picture colors were not great. Next time will try to adjust it and will see, if my pictures will improve. Thank you.
Thank you so much for this, it helps me alot to make everything working properley.👍
I would echo all the previous comments about how useful this video is, particularly for beginners. I've been looking for a tutorial to help me with sharpcap and camera settings - amazing,! Thank you Carl. Any chance of producing one on the focus tools !!
Thanks Richard .... it was raining when I made that video. I made a 10 min video in the following link showing it all as a workflow live stacking Eta Carina nebula in my Light Polluted bortle 6-7 front yard. Cheers here's the link th-cam.com/video/YhBrug5pwns/w-d-xo.html
RE focus tools Richard .... I've used focus tools in a variety of astro software and without fail I find trying to chase the curves/numbers displayed by those tools is a real time waster - as 'seeing' conditions (atmospheric wobble, etc) make those tools constantly change. I find either a bahtinov mask, or just using eyeball on a zoomed in medium bright star (adjusting the focuser so the width of the zoomed in med bright star is the smallest) are still both the best way to focus. There are software tools to examine even a bahtinov masks spikes - to check the spikes are perfectly crossing - but again I've wasted time doing that only to find I can adjust that cross using just eyeballs is faster and gets sharp stars. Having said all that, it depends - are you doing VA (just observing with camera) or trying to do pure astrophotography? If you are doing AP then always do whatever gets you the absolute best focus - read up on all tools available for that. But if doing observing/VA then eyeball and manually focus on zoomed in med bright star OR just get bahtinov mask are the quickest and simplest way. Cheers
HI Carl - Many thanks. Such a good breakdown of the process to something more simple and manageable. When I started to use sharp cap with all those sliders, it's like you got your first graphic equalizer! At least with those you could finally get the sound right. I wanted to watch the stacked image live and has been failing miserably. Your video gives me hope.
Great video tutorial! Exactly what I needed for my sct/astrocamera set up! Thanks!
Crystal clear, nice work, thank you Carl!
Excellent video Carl. It really helped explain how it all works. Thank you.
I'm using this as soon as the sky's clear! Thank you
No problem Drew ... but we all keep learning and software keeps progressing so here is a link to a newer version of the Easy way to learn sharpcap which I made just last night. It is not only shorter but also covers live stacking and a few other great new tips ;) I strongly suggest you watch this new version in the link before heading out .... th-cam.com/video/0Fvm_DjOgaY/w-d-xo.html
Cheers
Very helpful. Thanks for the vid!
Wow, I would agree ... this video has helped me more than any other video on TH-cam. Thank You!!! I look forward to the next video on Live Stacking! BTW ... I use the ZWO ASI224 with SharpCap too.
Thank you for an extremely informative video, helped me a great deal
Really good tutorial thank you😊🌷
Very helpful. Thank you!
Needed a extension so took the lens out of an old barlow and use it for my extension
This was very clear, informative, and helpful. Thank you!
Thank you, appreciated the tutorial.
Great video. Thank you
Great video! Thanks a lot!
Excellent video, I am just trying to get myself back into astrophotography, been a bit slack of late, plus the fact we have had a lot of cloudy nights but clear mornings down here in Victoria, but my scope is parked up in the lounge. lol lol. Waiting for your follow up video. Robert Vict'
Absolutely Brilliant Video, greatly appreciated!
SImply the best tutorial I have seen! thanks!
Really useful and well presented video mate. Learnt a great deal from it.
Watched a video by Dr Glover who wrote Sharpcap and he presents-describes everything you have in this video in technical terms and goes into the maths of it all . Understood it , but how to use it in reality mmmmm. Then watched this and bingo it all comes together however the very practical way you show and describe what it's for and how to do it is great. Cannot wait for your stacking video. Thanks.
Thanks for the kind words Brian. Been bad luck on my part as I have not been able to get out to do the stacking video. Every time I've been free and there's been good weather there's been birthdays and other events going on, or flu or trouble with my persistently bad back. Then when it has looked good, and I'm free and everything looks good to go, there's been SES and local farmers near the dark site I like to get to who have been burning off firebreaks. Three times I've done the 200km round trip and to no avail! I haven't even bought any astro gear which could be blamed!
Basically, as long as you have a decently bright enough single image on the screen, where that peak is 10 to 20 percent off the left edge you should be able to click the stacking button. Once clicked you will see the stacking "window" open up and within that a bunch of tabs. Once again THE most important tab is the histogram tab. From my video you will know what you are looking at when you see the histogram showing up. From this point on ONLY adjust using the histogram within that TAB within the Stacking window. Dont use the original histogram used for adjusting the single window as per my video.
With just one image stacked IE when you first start the stacking ... the histogram curves will be jagged .... that's noise (which you will also understand from my video). Dont worry as stacking smooths out those jagged curves ... ie decreases the noise. So just let it stack and adjust the colors using the red green blue sliders on the stacking histogram and brighten with the gamma slider.
So sorry I dont yet have a video for stacking .... but get out there anyway Brian and I'm sure you'll get it.
Oh yes ... always start with the bright objects when learning to stack. Start with globular clusters as they are stars. Use the web or stellarium apps to find the biggest ones and brightest ones. It is MUCH easier to learn the stacking histograms sliders when using stars and globular clusters! When you reckon you have that done and dusted. Then use the web or a stellarium app to find the biggest and brightest nebs, and stack those. It is the nicest easiest step by step way to do it all!
Cheers
Brilliant video! Thank you very much for sharing this.
Excellent video. Just started using sharpcap with a zwo 1224. Your video cleared up a number of issues I was having. Can you zoom in or out on the image? Tried looking at the moon and only got a quarter of it on the monitor, but was able to see the whole moon when I switched over to an eye piece.
Hi Carl,
Great series of videos on the subject informative entertaining and very watchable and to what matters to get results.
Sadly I am not blessed with the clear Skys of Oz which makes any outreach a bit of of a hit and miss affair. Mostly miss!
I don't know much about live stack software but sharp cap has a facility to use a capture file and stack from there. A video on how to mimic live capture from previously acquired data would be a help particularly if trying to hold an outreach audience or my grandchildren which ever has the shortest attention span!
Cheers
John
Hi John. Thank you for your comments. I've done quite a bit of outreach and to be honest children hate any form of live viewing. They much prefer looking through an eyepiece at Saturn or Jupiter, or the Moon and craters etc. To kids, watching an image on a PC/laptop is akin to just googling the objects and not really "real". Adults, on the other hand, tend to grasp the Wow factor of seeing quite amateur equipment actually showing them something which they thought only possible by looking at TV shows about the Hubble Space telescope, or other such TV astronomy shows. So to many adults, they tend to go Wow! You are actually able to get that image using just that small telescope and camera, in that short amount of time! Kids are just Ho Hum, yeah I've seen pictures like that on the web so why is this guy showing me more of the same? Cheers.
Thank you. I learned a lot in 25 minutes!!
Thank you. This helped clear up some of these concepts for me.
Cal how would you do a sensor analysis in Mallincamsky DS10c or DS432m? The DS10c has the same sensor as the ZWO ASI294MC Pro. Can I use the same values as the ZWO ASI294? Sharpcap cannot do a sensor analysis on Mallincamsky cameras.
Very helpful!
Thank you. This explains a lot in detail. It helps!
great teaching video helps a great deal
Interesting. Thanks.
Thank you very much. Great video
Thanks for the video, I just used my ZWO 120MC tonight for the first time and didnt have a clue what i was doing with Sharpcap so im sure your vid will help. I was trying on the moon but it was too zoomed up ans i could only see parts of the moon. How do i reduce the size of the image in my sharpcap screen? my scope is a 10" Meade ACF LX90 with no lens attached just the ZWO up the butt.
I suggest to google for, and join, the CloudyNights forum and within that go to the EAA sub-forum - which is all about "observing" with camera's and short exposure imaging. Post your question up there and not only will you get the answer, but get heaps of help using Sharpcap and every type of question doing such imaging. If I answer here you will only have more questions. That forum is the right place for you to go as there are heaps of people on there with all the answers to your question. Cheers.
marvellous video - thankyou
I just got my new astro camera, i centred it on the moon, focused it in and started taking pics strait away, did i just get lucky? Because i don't know what im doing, but thanks at least i know what the hysta thing does now. 👍
I tried Sharpcap out for the first time last night and my image came out black and white (Altair GPCAM327C). Where did I go qrong?
Thanks... great info. What is love stacking compared to post processed stacking. Is live stacking just for a sneak peek or does it affect the raw frames collected?
In the live stacking window there is a checkbox to Save individual frames. Checking that SharpCap will both still show you the Live Stacking (sneak peak as you call it) but it will also save the original raw frames too. So you can pick those original frames up later to post process in software of your choice.
Thanks so much; this was very helpful...
Hi Carl, I have been playing around with my astro photography equip' to make sure it is all working for our astro party next month. I have been trying SharpCap to get things up and running, I have taken a few video clips (dark) with my cameras to see if the computer recognises them. My problem is, I have taken the clips in F.I.T.S as you recommended in your video but PS CS6 does not reconise that format. I changed the format AVI and there was no issues. So is there any problems with stacking AVI files? I have had my gear for a couple of years but have not done much with it owing to weather conditions and other reasons. Robert Vic'
Hi Robert ... I didn't explain that too well did I.
If you wish to save a still photo of anything you "see" on the SharpCap preview window, then set FITS. It will save literally anything you are seeing in that preview window, be it DSO's or planets.
If you wish to take a really sharp image of planets, THEN you must set output to AVI in order to take the necessary video file ... which you process the NEXT day in Registax or Autostakkert or whatever planetary stacking program is your choice. Google "How to take images of planets using stacking" ... to find out more on that.
However, to take good images of DSO's like nebulae, galaxies and globular clusters then you don't have to think about what to set the output format to at all! Once you get a bright enough color balanced image on the SharpCap preview window (IE histogram peak somewhere in the range of 10 to 20 % of the way across as per my video), THEN just hit the Stacking button. Stacking needs FITS format and it will automatically save all images that it needs in fits format (no matter what value you have set in the output format setting!) and stack them in the SharpCap stacking window which opens up when stacking is happening.
The video of mine is all about getting the Preview frames bright enough to both (1) allow stacking in Sharpcap to find enough stars in every frame to align each and every frame correctly over the top of one and another (to increase the signal to noise ratio in the final stacked frame), and (2) that preview brightness also allows every frame sent to be stacked to contain enough faint photons from the faint DSO (so that the faint colors and wispy details can be teased out of the final stacked and better signal to noise frame).
Whew. bunch of info it that ... just read that a couple of times and you'll "get it".
Cheers
I still don't understand what the camera distance from the scope is about...
Excellent! THANK YOU!!!
Hi Carl,
Thanks for your detailed reply,
I recon I will have to read it a couple of times. I will have to convert the FITS format file, to be able to put it into PS for manipulation. Unfortunately PS does not support FITS formatt. I have been over the net to check that out.
What part of the country are you from? sounds like QLD on the videos but it is hard to make out.
Cheers Robert
If PS won't import fits then save any screen shots as PNG or other formats available from the SharpCap output format dropdown. And yes Robert I'm from QLD. And you?
@@carlsmith992
Down in Vic,
Had my gear out side today to see if all works, the trusty old Cannon 1300D worked a treat, but I have two dedicated astro cameras cmos, 1X ZWO ASI224MC Cooled 1X IMX174 all working nicely inside (with caps on lol) took them out side connected to the scope for the first time to sort out focus etc but either of them would work. (Nothing X Dead) The programs I was using for the session was RisingSky and SharpCap. I intend to connect them up to the comp' again inside to see what happens. Wont be happy if they F#%#*% work. Robert
Thanks so much! Amazing video simple and easy too understand. Best video to understand the principles! Quick question, after capturing your images. What do you do to debayer? What software? I’m new so perhaps I have it wrong but my understanding is that I should Capture -> debayer-> stack with DSS -> process? I also use the ZWO ASI 224 MC
Hello Ergio. You have it wrong. The process is ... use gain and exposure time adjustments to get the histogram peak somewhere between 15 and 25% away from the left hand edge of the histogram graph. When that is done mouse click on "Live Stack" which is on the SharpCap tool bar. This will open up a window in SharpCap which contains a bunch of sliders and another "stacking Histogram" which you use to stack the frames.
IE SharpCap does all the debayering and stacking for you.
TIP: type the following into Google search engine .... "TH-cam SharpCap Stacking" ... there are some great video's already done on stacking. In particular, look for the one created by :Charles Copeland" and also by "Lazy Astronomy".
Thanks Carl, much appreciated
The debayer menu isn't on my Sharpcap where yours is and I can't find it.
It reappeared!
brill Carl - thank you
Have to say, having watched many videos on astrophotography and the few on eaa, this is the most helpful to a complete noob. Visual astronomy is, while exciting, has been an off putting disappointment in the light polluted UK with its poor weather, for me and others I know. Conversely Astrophotography is so difficult a learning curve, re equipment costs and skills and time required , as to be an impossible hobby to get into. Eaa on the other hand is THE way into astronomy, but so obscure and difficult to find information on, took me a year to discover it!, while it being the most inclusive and least demanding way into astronomy and astro imaging, why is is so misrepresented? Ah I know why, cos we would all waste a lot less cash if this were presented as the easy introduction to astronomy. For eaa you don't need a box of £150 eyepieces, a 24inch scope, a 300kg mega mount. The truth is, any cheap setup will work with eaa, you don't need a £200 a year subscription to photoshop or a £2000 cooled camera to brag in your equipment list on the forums, yes money makes everything easier, quicker, but that's not the point? Otherwise we should all just buy a stellina and get on with our lives .... Rant rant rant, sorry.
Thanks Steven. Indeed I have recently put up such a video using very inexpensive equipment all of which were second hand and ridiculously entry level yet it works a treat. Star Adventurer using a 50mm Orion finder-guider scope as the imaging scope with an uncooled ASI224 camera as the main imager all on a cheap camera tripod. Yet when new (about ten years ago) it could track for 2min 30sec unguided, it is now so old and worn out I usually only go 15 to 30 seconds unguided. Yet still gets amazing quick setup EAA. Thanks again for your comments. Here's the link to recent StarAdventurer_50x162mm f3 mini-guidescope camera tripod ASI224 uncooled stack of 4 x 15 second frames, cheers ... th-cam.com/video/YhBrug5pwns/w-d-xo.html
Are you located in Florida?
I just brought the ZOW 224. Thank you! Is the software that comes with it any good at all?
Sorry, I have not used ASICAP. A quick google showed me that it seems orientated towards taking planetary video capture which can then later be processed by planetary software like Autostakkert or Registax. It does not have its own stacking section necessary to do DSO processing. But there is nothing stopping you from using it right now to see stuff ... only you will be limited to unstacked DSO's. For instance, the Moon, open clusters, globular clusters and even bright nebula's you will be able to adjust the gain and exposure times to see color and details. You just won't be able to stack ... which increases the signal to noise ratio (ie gives more detail and contrast in the final image). Cheers
Update .... by strange coincidence the CloudyNights forum which I check daily has just had a post with link to the ZWO site where they say they are working on stacking in their ASICAP software. In the meantime I suggest you download the free versions of SharpCap if you wish to stack DSO's. Here's the link to the ZWO software engineers response ... bbs.astronomy-imaging-camera.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=9971
Carl, any idea when you be doing the Sharpcap “ live stacking” video you mentioned in this one?
Sorry Gary, but it's only possible when various 'things' all come together ... not working, no car events on (another of my hobbies), no hifi events on (yet another hobby), no smoke in the air (they burn fire breaks in Winter in prep for our Aussie hot and dry Spring and Summer), and (sad to say this) me forgetting to take the darn USB cable out. Imaging from home is not possible as streetights, all homes and building are all LED. There's no LP filter for LED as its full spectrum. The old lights were Sodium etc and hence filterable. But only way now is to drive an hour twenty West. Been three times to our fav spot out there in the past month only to find closed for fire break burns during the night and the one time I forgot the USB cable (my bad!). I'll try to stick up a video asap for everyone asap.
@@carlsmith992 HI Carl: When I follow the video instructions on the main menu histogram I have no problem to align the peaks at around 20%. But, I notice additional spaced out single color peaks to the right which are not aligned and I cannot align them. Also, if I ignore those unaligned peaks and shift to the 'live stack histo', there's nothing but chaos on the screen with nothing aligned and the color peaks very different from the prior histo. I have no idea but to start over with the live stack histo. Did I miss something in the video? Wish I could attach screenshots of the 2 histos. I'll add them to my current post in CN EAA Forum, Topic "Help needed with Nebula EAA..."
thanks for any suggestions!
Gary
@@gary5051 As per Roels post ... cannot stack without stars. What stacking does it examines each and every frame as it is produced by the camera ... for stars. It then "overlays" each and every incoming frame on top of the preceeding frames, using those stars to ensure every frame is correctly overlaying the preceeding frames. It is this precise overlaying of the stars which yields (1) a nice sharp picture even though the mount may be suffering slight rotation effects due to it not being polar aligned ... or from being an AltAz mount .... plus (2) it also gets rid of noise in each frame by the overlaying process making the dark background be more homogenously black rather than a grainy (noisy) black, plus (3) any faint color gets also overlaid thus increasing the signal to noise ratio in the final stacked image. The final stacked frame therefore has heaps more SNR (Signal to noise ratio) and this allows you to use the stacking histogram to 'stretch' or tease out heaps more detail. BTW those shots you posted of your recent objects were some of the best "first goes at EAA' I've seen! Good stuff Gary!
Carl Smith
Thank you Carl. I had some good learning last night watching the effects of slider changes, in live stacking, on the tiny display histo to the right. I can’t seem to get the background stars to not be yellow-brown -ish when I align the red/green/blue/ white curves in the display. Also can’t seem to get the peaks above 10% without maxing gain and running exposure to 20-30 seconds - more than me and my mount can handle so far.
When I align curves and peaks in Mainz Histo and switch to live stack, everything is way over exposed. All part of the quest I guess. I hope before too long I can transcend the learning curve and equipment issues enough to do what I’m most interested in - studying and learning about all those fantastic objects out there.
Thank you Carl for all your videos and your responsiveness and help to those of us starting out.
Cheers
Gary
Cheers for the long reply and will get on with it now.
How do you get a Canon DSLR to work in Sharpcap. . I can get it to work on ZWO 120 colour .
What Ascom driver are you using mate.any
Inks greatfully accepted.
I've never used my DSLR's with SharpCap. I've only used them with AstroToaster.
However, I know that the latest version of SharpCap does support Canon DSLR's. Jpegs can be lodged in a nominated folder which SharpCap monitors (just like AstroToaster does). And also just like AstroToaster it then loads the frames in as they arrive / are shot by the DSLR and then it stacks them. However, in order to shoot RAW the new version of SharpCap needs ASCOM loaded, and that is where it is proving to be very flaky. Some have reported it works for some models but not all. Others say it works one night and not the next. It's proved to be so difficult for the developer that on the official SharpCap forum the developer has said he cannot fix it until ASCOM releases new updates which may (or may not) fix it completely.
But, as I prefer the simple and proven approach using EOS Utilities and AstroToaster I haven't had the inclination to even try out the new SharpCap version so I cannot speak from personal experience.
Carl Smith yep that's what I,m finding as well ,tried the Ascom route it doesn't show the camera in it at all.
The only reason I was trying it was to get the 15% peak as described in the video so that I could follow exactly as shown.
However I,ll go with the utilities and Astro toaster as discussed and hopefully will have something to see.
If using WO Megrez 72 f6 would a focal reducer be a good addition to make it faster? Or f6 is good enough?
@@brianwalton3016 Don't forget you can still shoot jpegs and use SharpCap stacking and histogram etc. I still shoot jpegs lots of times. ;) Re using a 72mm scope at f6 .... what mount are you using?
Carl Smith I,m using the Skywatcher EQ3 pro and the Williams Optics Magrez 72 OTA . The mount is fine for me weight wise and another reason for looking at EAA as the low shooting times means I can get away with the smaller mount? I assume.
@@brianwalton3016 Thanks for the reply Brian about the equipment you are starting out with. On reflection, based on the scope and mount you are using, I strongly suggest that you get a good entry level uncooled camera like the ZWO ASI224 and get SharpCap. You will 'see' stuff right from the get-go with that setup. You even have the video (this one we are putting our comments in) to learn how to use the 224 with SharpCap. If you go the DSLR/Toaster route I really feel it isn't a beginners starting point. Whereas the small refractor + ASI224 + SharpCap is a highly recommended (almost a standard 'recipe') for starting out. SharpCap HAS the histogram, and few easy controls as per this video which has started your interest in this hobby. It makes it so easy to 'see' stuff right from the get go. The world of astrotoaster without histogram and totally different 'stretch' processing is a whole different ballgame.
Which is your camera?
ZWO ASI224mc ... an uncooled color camera from ZWO. There are many other brands who sell cameras with the same sensor (from Sony - the IMX224 color). It's claim to fame in the astro world is that it is low noise and has high sensitivity. You can see it pull Eta Carina nebula in the video link down below with even a single 15 second frame being quite spectacular. But obviously stacking 4 frames (which will double the Signal to Noise ratio helps even more, and you'll see this in the video link below). The smallness of the IMX224 chips 4.9 x 3.9mm sensor has both good points and also bad. The bad is being about 5mm it will magnify HEAPS just as if you'd stuck a 5mm eyepiece onto your scope. So as many starting out buy 8" SCT scopes which have 2000mm focal length, putting the ASI224 with that 2000mm focal length yields a very, very highly magnified image which excludes many, many objects plus makes it EXTREMELY difficult to find the target due to the very high magnification. However, the small highly magnifying sensor allows you to use small inexpensive telescopes with low focal lengths to great effect! In fact in the same video link on Eta Carina using this camera, you will see I am using the ASI224mc through a $100 Orion Mini guidescope! The Eta Carina ASI224 guidescope video link is th-cam.com/video/YhBrug5pwns/w-d-xo.html
@@carlsmith992 I gather that this is usually used as a guidescope and must have a small resolution (pixel array). This is what you were using in the video: astronomy-imaging-camera.com/product/asi224mc
@@carlsmith992 ...and you can't do plate solving with such small cameras. The plus is the very large magnification.
I had another question: You want the histo peak around 20% the location of the histo is a function of gain and exposure. How do you determine the "sweet spot" of a sensor for gain setting?
Carl, thank you very much. A very practical guide for beginners. I just need a clear night and I will be giving it a go.