SharpCap 3.1 Release Candidate available

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admin
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SharpCap 3.1 Release Candidate available

#1

Post by admin »

Phew! The SharpCap 3.1 beta program is now finished and a release candidate build is now available to download.

It is still listed on the beta downloads page for now - http://www.sharpcap.co.uk/sharpcap/down ... a-versions - I will move it to the main download page if no major bugs appear in the next week or so.

The release candidate build does not have a time limit built into it in the way the beta builds did. It does however require a valid SharpCap Pro license if you wish to continue using the new Pro features added in 3.1 - i.e.

* Smart Histogram
* Seeing Monitor (automatic capture)
* Feature Tracking
* Sigma clipping and colour balance in Live Stacking
* More than 2Gb of memory
* Histogram auto-stretch

New features in 3.1 that do not require a SharpCap Pro license include:

* Sensor Analysis
* Seeing Monitor (not using automatic capture)
* Blind Plate Solving and the ability to configure plate solving options
* More memory (2Gb on 64 bit windows) available for use as frame buffers or for live stacking
* Customizable Filename Templates
* Mini Histogram always visible in the control panel with display stretch
* Improvements to Live Stacking histogram and level stretch
* Finer control over zoom, no flicker while zooming, scroll preview with mouse wheel
* Auto save/restore of camera parameters
* TIFF and JPEG output
* Histogram crosshairs to readout level and count data, also histogram mean and standard deviation shown
* Starlight Xpress camera support

The following have also been improved in SharpCap 3.1

Polar Alignment:
* Refraction Correction
* Ability to enter precise location (or have it found using geolocation if you have a net connection)
* Improvements to the flow to ensure that harder to use the polar alignment wrong (ie make adjustments at the wrong stage)
* Bigger star database out to 7 degrees from the pole instead of 5
* Tracking of center-of-rotation location to help diagnose problems with flexure when rotating
* Less switching between one adjustment star and another

Camera Support
* Updates to SDKs for Altair, QHY, ZWO, PointGrey, Basler
* Support for QHY CCD cameras that do not support video mode (including cooling)
* Consolidated support for Basler cameras (no need to choose LX/non LX mode)
* Wider range of support for PointGrey/Celestron cameras
* Updated ASCOM version for maximum compatibility

Dark Subtraction - improved handling of hot pixels

Finally, the following have been *removed* in SharpCap 3.1

* Windows Vista support - Windows Vista does not support the high strength digital signatures used to sign the installer of SharpCap 3.1 - it will almost certainly fail to install on Windows Vista.
* Support for webcams/grabbers via the 'DirectShow' pipeline (this was the default up to SharpCap 2.9 and an option in 3.0). Keeping it would have made the improvements to scrolling/zooming the display very much harder.
* Support for LX modified webcams (ie SPC900 etc). If you are still using these cameras then please use them with SharpCap 3.0. The support for these devices was deeply tied to the 'DirectShow' camera pipeline and would have had to be rewritten to work without it.

cheers,

Robin
mAnKiNd
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Re: SharpCap 3.1 Release Candidate available

#2

Post by mAnKiNd »

well done buddy :)
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Re: SharpCap 3.1 Release Candidate available

#3

Post by admin »

Thanks Minos :)

Going to gradually announce in different channels over the next few days - hopefully be writing up some info on the new features too.

cheers,

Robin
calan
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Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 7:37 am

Re: SharpCap 3.1 Release Candidate available

#4

Post by calan »

Sweet!

Gotta put some of the new shop and guitar stuff on hold and get back to my scopes now. :)
cuivenion
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Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2017 7:37 pm

Re: SharpCap 3.1 Release Candidate available

#5

Post by cuivenion »

Excellent stuff. Polar aligned with my gpcam last night. All seems top top.
roelb
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Re: SharpCap 3.1 Release Candidate available

#6

Post by roelb »

Info on new features would be very useful.
Thanks for the great job.
Roel
Celestron Nexstar Evolution 8 - Celestron Nexstar 6 SE - StarSense
ZWO ASI533MC-Pro -- ZWO ASI533MM-Pro
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Re: SharpCap 3.1 Release Candidate available

#7

Post by admin »

I have been expanding the detail about the new features on this page

http://www.sharpcap.co.uk/sharpcap/news ... sharpcap31

I'm not done filling everything in yet, but there is quite a bit of info now. It's getting a bit long so I will split it up into separate feature pages at some point.

cheers,

Robin
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