A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

Discussions, Bug Reports and Issues related to Beta versions of SharpCap
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#71

Post by admin »

Thanks for the suggestion!

Robin
zerolatitude
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#72

Post by zerolatitude »

DocHighCo wrote: Wed Nov 18, 2020 8:25 pm Dear Robin,

thanks for the very quick reply. What I imagine is to start a livestacking sequence (5-6 Minutes), save the substack, exit live stacking, platesolve and re-center the target, restart livestacking and repeat the loop in order to achieve long total exposures with substacks and stay on target. The frequent platesolving and re-centering could even replace guiding and dithering. Guiding is not really necessary for short exposures and the re-centering of the target is probably sufficiently unprecise to have a dithering effect. One could do even without a guide-camera and an expensive mount. This should even work with an Alt/Az-mount
Then of course it would be useful to be able to change target during the night and modify the camera settings etc.
As an example I took the Iris nebula with livestacking and sub-frames over 7.6 hours:
Image
These are 2280 12-second-frames in 76 sub-stacks. It is much easier to postprocess 76 sub-stacks than 2280 single frames.
I hope it is not completely stupid what I suggest.

Best Regards

Heiko
Hi, how did you handle the calibration frames? Included while livestacking or later while stacking the stacks (thus effectively treating each livestack as a standalone sub) ?

Thanks
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#73

Post by unitary_gauge »

Is it possible to do multispectral live stacking with the sequencer i.e. using a monochrome camera with LRGB or narrowband filters and assigning each filter a color channel and live stacking all the frames together? If not, is there planned support for this in the future?

Starlight live had this feature; I think it would be a hit in Sharpcap since debayering algorithms fast enough for live stacking introduce a lot of chrominance noise.
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#74

Post by admin »

Hi,

currently it's not possible, but it's certainly something that has been requested before - it's in the list of possible new features, but no idea on when it might happen yet.

sorry,

Robin
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Tiago Ferreira
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#75

Post by Tiago Ferreira »

i use auto stretch after a bit of stacking. i think a lot and i can't figure how autostretch feature on sequencer can be useful to me other than place it as the last order of the sequence but like that it will start the stack with immediately auto stretch. that is not recommended right? we should wait 1 or 2 frames to pop first in order to properly use the auto stretch no? and if i put a waiting time then the sequence be working over the 1st frame which is not comfortable.
Am i missing something useful and not taking profit of it?

Also i believe the sequencer doesn't have auto stretch for the color, right?

The reset of the zoom would be very helpful specially to people like me that work without mouse (and wheel). I don't know if there is a button to reset zoom though.
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#76

Post by admin »

Hi,

you are correct to wait for a few frames before applying the auto-stretch - the algorithm needs some image data to be able to work out the optimum degree of stretching to apply. Remember that the stretch of the live stacking data only affects the view on screen and the saved files when certain options are chosen for saving. The underlying data in the stack is not affected by the stretch, so it doesn't matter at what point during the stack you apply the stretch.

You're right that there is currently no way to run the automatic colour balance from the sequencer – well actually, you would currently have to combine the sequencing with the Python scripting together to happen. In python, this should work

Code: Select all

SharpCap.LiveStacking.Actions.DoAutoWhiteBalance() // or DoAutoWhiteBalanceFromStars()
Adjusting the zoom currently is impossible, even via the scripting workaround, but it's something that I have on my to-do list.

Cheers, Robin
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#77

Post by Ddaniel84 »

A suggestion Robin
As the sequencer is not so easy as it seems to be, a good idea should be to give some typical examples corresponding to frequent A to Z scenarii .. theu would be good bases for adaptations.
Best. Dominique
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Tiago Ferreira
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#78

Post by Tiago Ferreira »

admin wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 12:36 pm Hi,

you are correct to wait for a few frames before applying the auto-stretch - the algorithm needs some image data to be able to work out the optimum degree of stretching to apply. Remember that the stretch of the live stacking data only affects the view on screen and the saved files when certain options are chosen for saving. The underlying data in the stack is not affected by the stretch, so it doesn't matter at what point during the stack you apply the stretch.

You're right that there is currently no way to run the automatic colour balance from the sequencer – well actually, you would currently have to combine the sequencing with the Python scripting together to happen. In python, this should work

Code: Select all

SharpCap.LiveStacking.Actions.DoAutoWhiteBalance() // or DoAutoWhiteBalanceFromStars()
Adjusting the zoom currently is impossible, even via the scripting workaround, but it's something that I have on my to-do list.

Cheers, Robin
Thanks again Robin.
But i only use the "save as seen" feature so i suppose in my case it matters the screen. I will keep doing it manually after some frames. Doesn't matter.
And so, i suppose the same problem applies to the script you wrote, if i also have to wait some frames to the color stretch so i got to do it manually too. Or is it different with color balance and i can use it right away on open live stack?

Is there any way to order "on open sharpcap" then "run sequence X" and make happy lazy guys like me?
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#79

Post by Tiago Ferreira »

Does the "Reset Live stack" also reset the color balance? Does it works like the "Clear" button? Thanks
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Re: A brief introduction to the SharpCap Sequencer

#80

Post by admin »

Hi,

Reset live stack is the 'Clear' button - it will not change the colour balance or stretch settings.

There isn't currently a way to directly run a sequence on startup, but you can run a python script on startup and the python script can contain something like

Code: Select all

SharpCap.Sequencer.RunSequenceFile('path\to\sequence.scs')
cheers,

Robin
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