SharpCap Forums

Hi

I am trying to use ShaprCap to control QHY174GPS on an iOptron Cube Pro. I am having two issues and would appreciate some help.

- I am able to connect and control the telescope from SharpCap but I am not able to get the RA and DEC into the FITS header. I am not sure how that is done.
- The camera I am using as a GPS module and SharpCap has an option to get the GPS signal for the date and time in the FITS header. However, I get BadTimeStamp message at the top of the GPS window. I tried unplugging and resetting but with little luck.

Thank you
Vishnu

Hi Vishnu,

the 'BadTimestamp' is the cause of all your problems - basically that means that SharpCap is refusing to believe the GPS data because the time/date coming from the GPS is more than 24 hours out from your PC clock. This helps filter out bad GPS data which would otherwise get used in the output. You need to get a GPS status of 'Locked' before the Lat/Long get written to the output files.

Note that the GPS data is not passed on correctly from the camera in 16 bit mode, so you must select 8 bit mode to use the GPS functionality.

hope this helps,

Robin

Thanks Robin. I will try the 8-bit mode and see if that helps. Is there anyway I can reset the GPS in 16-bit mode to get the GPS lock.

Thanks again
Vishnu

GPS in 16 bit mode would require updates to the SDK and/or camera Firmware from QHY, sorry.

Robin

Robin,
Would it be possible for SharpCap to grab the position information when you use the "Sync PC clock" function and then apply it to the FITS header of any subsequent images until the camera gets disconnected ?
That way you could run the camera in 8-bit mode until the GPS information is good, sync the PC clock and get the position and then turn off the GPS, change to 12/16 bit and still have valid information in the header.

Steve.

Good idea just to remember it from good frames regardless I think... After all, mobile observing is not that popular yet

cheers,

Robin