SharpCap Forums

Am quite new to this and have tried to follow the instructions/tutorials.

Having major issues with hot pixels. I tried using darks, but alas, it's not helped as much as i thought it would.
as you can see - i've a way to go to get the hang of this, so any help/advice is welcome.
images below: Dark and two captures from last night.

Allsky Equipment:
Zwo ASI120MC, Allskydome, 12v dew heater ring. Sharpcap Pro 3.2.6232.0

Sharpcap Settings:
[ZWO ASI120MC-S]
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Output Format=PNG files (*.png)
Binning=1
Capture Area=1280x960
Colour Space=RGB24
Temperature=2957
High Speed Mode=Off
Overclock=0
Turbo USB=86(Auto)
Flip=Both
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=98
Exposure=8.70083
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=87(Auto)
White Bal (R)=57(Auto)
Brightness=19
Auto Exp Max Gain=53
Auto Exp Max Exp M S=43017
Auto Exp Target Brightness=123
Mono Bin=Off
Banding Threshold=35
Banding Suppression=0
Apply Flat=None
Subtract Dark=C:\Users\USER\Desktop\SharpCap Captures\darks\ZWO ASI120MC-S\RGB24@1280x960\8.7s\gain_98\dark_5_frames_2957.0C_2020-08-14T21_14_59.png
#Black Point
Display Black Point=0
#MidTone Point
Display MidTone Point=0.5
#White Point
Display White Point=1
TimeStamp=2020-08-14T21:16:04.7451971Z
SharpCapVersion=3.2.6232.0


Dark and 2x Captures:

Hi,

probably not the answer that you wanted to hear, but the 120 MC camera is not particularly well suited to this sort of role because of the hot pixel problem. It will likely perform better once the weather turns colder however as the hot pixels are strongly linked to the temperature of the sensor (you can connect Peltier to it and massively improve the hot pixel problem, but in an all sky camera mounting you have to ask the question of where would the go if you did that?).

The more modern Sony sensors in cameras like the 290 or the 224 seem to cope much better when used for the longer exposures that an all sky camera requires.

Cheers, Robin

Hi Robin

thanks for the reply.
my thoughts exactly re: Peltier - there's very little room inside the enclosure - Peltier maybe, but no room for heatsink and fan.

no i just need to source a reasonably-priced 290 or 224

Have a look at https://www.instructables.com/id/Peltie ... ro-Camera/

Dave

Hi Dave

thanks for the link - it pretty much confirms ms suspicions:

> my all-sky enclosure just doesn't have the room for the extra gear. peltier, maybe, but definitely not the heatsink and fan
> even if there were room, the current 12v line supports the dew heater and maybe could be shared with a peltier, but i don't think it would support a fan as well?

i think i'm likely headed down Robin's suggestion of a better camera - at least i can recover some funds by selling the 120mc