Beginners help

Somewhere to ask questions about the best way to use SharpCap
Forum rules


If you have a problem or question, please check the FAQ to see if it already has an answer : https://www.sharpcap.co.uk/sharpcap-faqs
George Shepherd
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 7:05 am

Beginners help

#1

Post by George Shepherd »

Complete beginner
so could some one walk me through settings - last night I targeted ALTAIR which I then focused but no matter what settings I tried all I seemed to get was a LOT of dancing red blue dots instead of other less bright stars WHAT am I doing wrong
Kind Regards George
User avatar
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 13177
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:52 pm
Location: Vale of the White Horse, UK
Contact:

Re: Beginners help

#2

Post by admin »

Hi George,

have you found and read the documentation - particularly the sections on camera controls and the histogram will start you in the right direction.

http://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/2.9/

cheers,

Robin
astrnmr
Posts: 44
Joined: Fri Jun 16, 2017 1:11 am

Re: Beginners help

#3

Post by astrnmr »

Lets start from scratch, which telescope and camera are you using? How do you have the camera attached?

1. First thing to do is ensure that you have enough backfocus for the camera and telescope combination you have. If you don't have enough back focus or inward focus, you won't see much of anything but dancing pixels as the camera can't focus.

2. Adjust the gain of the camera and the offset.

3. Adjust exposure time to 1 second and check focus.

4. Double check to see if maybe you forgot to take the lens cap off. I have done that while in a hurry. Stupid as it sounds, it happens to a lot of folks.
George Shepherd
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 7:05 am

Re: Beginners help

#4

Post by George Shepherd »

would be helpful if I could post a picture in here, there is a post an image above and I get this Image but cant paste anything into it Never mind lets continue I have taken a number of reasonably good pictures of M42 but still my main problem is Polar alignment IT sometimes works to a fashion but mostly I get a lot of dancing red yellow squares at the very bottom of my screen and not around the stars as it should be. I did at one point get a fair reading but it clouded over before I could set closer -- and I am still OFF if I choose a star with STARRYNIGHT Your Thoughts most appreciated

George
Last edited by George Shepherd on Tue Nov 28, 2017 7:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
George Shepherd
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 7:05 am

Re: Beginners help

#5

Post by George Shepherd »

seeing I was up at 03:00 this morning (let dog out) took a pic of Betelgeuse which I am quite pleased with and spent the rest of this morning so far reading through forum and deriving some useful information, will try and capture a pic of problem with Polar alignment and post once I have figured out how to do it - seems to say FILE TO LARGE at the moment
User avatar
oopfan
Posts: 1321
Joined: Sat Jul 08, 2017 2:37 pm
Location: New York
Contact:

Re: Beginners help

#6

Post by oopfan »

What is the file extension of the picture file that you are trying to upload? If it is PNG then you need to convert it to JPG. To do this in Windows, launch the Paint program, open the PNG file, then click File | Save As, choose JPG format. The file should now be small enough to upload to the forum.
User avatar
turfpit
Posts: 1779
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 8:13 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Beginners help

#7

Post by turfpit »

George

As suggested above, some information which is going to help get you started (I was where you are now are a year or so ago).
  • telescope model/type
  • mount model/type
  • camera model
  • imaging laptop
  • any accessories being used such as filter, barlow, focal reducer
  • a photo of the eyepiece end of your scope with everything attached that would be when trying to image
  • any image you capture, could even be a daytime image such as a tree or electricity pylon
  • the SharpCap settings file for that image
For the photos, the telescope and accessories lying on a table will do. Take the photos with a phone and email them to yourself choose the smallest image size offered. This should reduce the photos enough to be able to upload them to the forum.

If you are using various accessories it might be better to remove all these - complexity reduction.

Once you have posted the above, we should be able to get you going.

Dave
George Shepherd
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 7:05 am

Re: Beginners help

#8

Post by George Shepherd »

ok will do
George Shepherd
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 7:05 am

Re: Beginners help

#9

Post by George Shepherd »

telescope model/type Meade lx200 autostar
mount model/type Super wedge on original tripod
camera model ASI 1600 MC
imaging laptop HP PAVILION G SERIES WIN7
any accessories being used such as filter, barlow, focal reducer NO

Image
This is Betelgeuse [ZWO ASI1600MC]
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Output Format=AVI files (*.avi)
Binning=1
Capture Area=4656x3520
Colour Space=RGB24
Temperature=11.2
Hardware Binning=Off
High Speed Mode=Off
Turbo USB=80(Auto)
Flip=Vert
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=364
Exposure=1.999998
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=46
White Bal (R)=85
Brightness=20
Gamma=40
Auto Exp Max Gain=300
Auto Exp Max Exp M S=30000
Auto Exp Target Brightness=100
Mono Bin=Off
Apply Flat=None
Subtract Dark=None
Display Brightness=1
Display Contrast=1
Display Gamma=1
TimeStamp=2017-11-28T04:19:59.5758483Z

Image
Pylon Hanger at end of street
ZWO ASI1600MC]
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Output Format=AVI files (*.avi)
Binning=1
Capture Area=4656x3520
Colour Space=RGB24
Temperature=22.5
Hardware Binning=Off
High Speed Mode=Off
Turbo USB=80(Auto)
Flip=Vert
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=400
Exposure=0.000185
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=49
White Bal (R)=85
Brightness=60
Gamma=1
Auto Exp Max Gain=300
Auto Exp Max Exp M S=30000
Auto Exp Target Brightness=100
Mono Bin=Off
Apply Flat=None
Subtract Dark=None
Display Brightness=1
Display Contrast=1
Display Gamma=1
TimeStamp=2017-10-27T10:53:18.4716028Z

with daughters help I think I am beginning to see how you do this So will send this 1 to see if you get it and then attempt the other questions you have asked for
Kind Regards George
George Shepherd
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 7:05 am

Re: Beginners help

#10

Post by George Shepherd »

Image Scope on original Tripod and Super Wedge

Image Scope pointing North

Image Camera and Meade focuser

Image Robo Focus have had this for many years but decided to invest in the meade

Image Wedge

Image M42
[ZWO ASI1600MC]
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Output Format=PNG files (*.png)
Binning=1
Capture Area=4656x3520
Colour Space=RGB24
Temperature=6.1
Hardware Binning=Off
High Speed Mode=Off
Turbo USB=80(Auto)
Flip=Vert
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=114
Exposure=31.999992
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=51
White Bal (R)=55
Brightness=20
Gamma=45
Auto Exp Max Gain=300
Auto Exp Max Exp M S=30000
Auto Exp Target Brightness=100
Mono Bin=Off
Apply Flat=None
Subtract Dark=None
Display Brightness=1
Display Contrast=1
Display Gamma=1
TimeStamp=2017-11-05T05:25:04.4406114Z

George
Post Reply