New to Astrophotography

Discussions of using SharpCap for Planetary Imaging
Post Reply
skycaster
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2020 3:25 pm

New to Astrophotography

#1

Post by skycaster »

I just purchased an ES 127 MAK w/CG4 EQ Mount. I never got into astronomy just for astrophotography, i kind of drooled over the look of this scope. and the portability of it, so i went with a mak. Some might say its terrible for astrophotography but i get great views of planets so far, so well start with planets. I have a QHY QHY5III290C camera on its way, i tried with a modded spc900 and all i got was a black screen, so im really hoping this new camera works out great.

if your reading this and say well hey, he got a black screen he must be doing something wrong with sharp cap, well i honestly played with all the settings with no luck so im just thinking the spc900 had a bad sensor, works in daytime, but at night... nothing.

I have a lot of money invested here, new scope, new mount, new camera... some may say this is a budget setup, but its really deep in my pocket. So i am asking for some help with sharpcap to have a great night when my camera arrives.

If you have a similar camera any tips for getting an image up on the screen and in detail, id greatly appreciate it. I will of course share my luck here with some images later stacked, thanks

clear skies :D
User avatar
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 13122
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:52 pm
Location: Vale of the White Horse, UK
Contact:

Re: New to Astrophotography

#2

Post by admin »

Hi,

Hope that you get some clear skies when your camera arrives :-) my usual advice to beginners would be to start with capturing non-Astro objects – distant trees, chimneys, house roofs etc, then to move onto the moon and then onto smaller and dimmer targets after that.

Briefly going back to the subject of the modified SPC 900, recent versions of SharpCap no longer support sending the signals that were required to cause these modified cameras to capture frames. You would probally need to go back to SharpCap 3.0 or 2.9 to find the support for these cameras still in working condition. Some of the modified cameras had a switch that toggled between long exposure mode and normal WebCam mode – if that was the case then you could put the camera back into WebCam mode and you wouldn't need the special support from SharpCap to see images. At least in theory…

Cheers, Robin
skycaster
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2020 3:25 pm

Re: New to Astrophotography

#3

Post by skycaster »

thanks Robin, for the reply.
ViggenAJ37
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2020 4:35 pm

Re: New to Astrophotography

#4

Post by ViggenAJ37 »

Not to mention that you can practice on very distant objects such as landmarks or mountains even when the sky is overcast, so that you can still break out your camera when the moon and stars aren't visible.

But in my experience, the best practice "target" remains the Moon, it's hard to miss it (when it isn't hidden, that is) and you can quickly come up with great pictures of its craters and topography even as a complete, "fresh off the boat" beginner.
Post Reply