SharpCap Forums

A wokout for the latest QHY SDK in SharpCap 3.2.6062. See https://www.astrobin.com/416928/?nc=user.

Captured 1 hour after sunrise, winds 8mph. Shows craters Clavius, Blancanus, Klaproth & Scheiner (to the left) - from Virtual Moon Atlas. Moon altitude was 44°.



Equipment: Celestron C8 SCT, Celestron AVX Mount, Celestron 2x Barlow, Altair IR685nm filter, JMI Motor Focuser, QHY5LII-M camera.

Capture: SharpCap 3.2.6062 SER, MONO8, 1024x768, 5000 frames @ 17ms, gain=10, USB Traffic=0, Speed=2, Offset=1. Capture at 43 fps. The captured SER file was 3.8Gb and took just under 2 minutes to acquire.

Processing: Autostakkert!3, 612 Alignment Points, stack best 15%. GIMP for Sharpen (Unsharp Mask), Shadows-Highlights, Contrast,

Dave

[QHY5LII-M]
Output Format=SER file (*.ser)
Binning=1x1
Capture Area=1024x768
Colour Space=MONO8
Pan=128
Tilt=96
Force Still Mode=Off
Enable Live Broadcast=Off
USB Traffic=0
Speed=2
Offset=1
Amp Noise Reduction=On
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=10
Exposure=17.355225922194
Timestamp Frames=Off
Contrast=0
Brightness=0
Gamma=1
Banding Threshold=35
Banding Suppression=0
Apply Flat=None
Subtract Dark=None
#Black Point
Display Black Point=0
#MidTone Point
Display MidTone Point=0.5
#White Point
Display White Point=1
TimeStamp=2019-07-25T05:00:09.0929970Z
SharpCapVersion=3.2.6062.0

This is a screenshot of the capture in progress for the above image, key points/settings are highlighted.


Note that the on-screen image looks dim - this is good (look at the histogram). If it looks 'right' on the screen then it will be too bright at processing time. Focus was achieved at 200% zoom and the FX 'over-exposed' tool was used to get a reasonable exposure setting.

Dave

really really neat photo

Thanks - 'lucky imaging'

That was part of a good session. The sun rose at 05:00 and I started imaging the moon then. I stopped at 07:30, having collected 115Gb of data (some 200,000 frames). The images I posted on my Astrobin account certainly attracted some interest, including posters with plenty of Gold Cups and Top Pick awards. I must be going in the right direction, its around 3 years since I started with this hobby.

Dave

I like that you share the details of your set up and captures . You're turning this forum into a very valuable reference library . Thank you , again .