SharpCap Forums

Hello, finally the skies cleared up and I was able to try out v38 of the script on actual hardware and sky. All in all I thought it was quite successful. https://forum.astronomie.de/media/flammennebel-mono.44038/full I ran into three issues, though. 1) I noticed I forgot to implement a button to poi...

Hello Jean-Francois, thank you for taking the time. If the mount does not want to move, I suspect it may believe it's coming too close to the zenith. I check with: if (DEC_START_DEG + 5.) > Lat: (this includes 5° safety margin) You're right with the files, it's a bit error prone. I'm hesitant to rem...

Hello Robin, I stumbled upon a small bug with the 3.3.7190. On a newly installed windows I was passing the command SharpCap.Mounts.SelectedMount.SolveAndSync() to SharpCap which ended in an unexpected crash. Turns out I had forgotten to choose ASTAP as plate solver in the settings. Crashing because ...

Hello Robin,
I can't figure out how to pass the RA and Dec position to this conversion function.
I was thinking two floats and a separator in between like (15.123;20.456) but that is not it.
Maybe you can help me understand in what form I need to supply the values.

Kind regards,
Norman

Hello Jean-Francois, Robin,

thank you for the implementation of the SiderealTime property in the latest 3.3 Beta.
I've modified the script to use this now instead of going through the ASCOM telescope simulator.
It's working on my end so please give it a try if you like.

Kind regards,
Norman

Hello Mahesh, you might want to try out a script I have written for Sharpcap. I use it to polar align, as I cannot see Polaris (or that region of the sky) due to a house wall. Basically it shoots pictures at different RA positions with a constant DEC. I typically go with DEC = 0° or up to 15°, which...

Thank you Robin, that will be helpful. I just noted that the SharpCap.Mount.SelectedMount.Name route would not work, as ASCOM would like the ProgID and not the name. Jean-Francois, I was playing with the refraction on actual images and trying to see if I could use an optimizer to find a temperature ...

Hello Jean-Francois, thank you for the log files. I see the error you are describing. Somehow the Sidereal Time is set to 0.000 for the EQ8 with SynScan and EQMOD, which I don't quite understand. To make the pointing calculations I need the Sidereal Time, which is a function of the date, time and lo...

Hello Jean-Francois, concerning the refraction I see two possibilities. One could be to query the mount if it accounts for refraction and plan the GoTo accordingly. This seems technically feasible, as there is an ASCOM property "DoesRefraction" and through SharpCap one could figure out whi...

Hello Jean-Francois, yes I forgot to reset the default_sleep to 15s that I had in there originally. For testing I reduce it, otherwise it takes too long. ASTAP is looking at the height of the images. FOV = CCD_chip_height * (3438 arcmin) / focal_length So in my case with AS120MM and 240mm guide scop...