SharpCap Forums

Just found out about Sharcap and I have used it with the brain function to optimise imaging. I used the brain function and got the outcome of a gain of 121 and an exposure of 42s using my 7" STF f/10 Mak-Cass with an ASI1600 camera. I accepted the recommendations, took 15x1 minute dark frames, 15 flat field images and then ran livestack, with the save image and reset every 5 mins. After 1 hour I had 12x5 mins images. After alignment, the image of NGC3628 looked really good. Is this the best way to get a balance between optimised images and not having to deal with 60x1 min images and all the computer overheads?

Small issue: if I ticked the save every 5 mins box and imaged with 1-minute exposures the program only saved the image after 6 mins. If I set exposures to 1min 1 sec it saved every 5mins 5secs. I suspect it only saves when the total time is greater than 5 mins but not exactly 5 mins. Could be wrong.

Nice program and of course it opens imaging up to a much large group of amateur astronomers. What's not to like??

Hi,

You are quite right that the reset limit is probably only triggering if the time exceeds the limit, rather than being equal to or exceeding the limit.

The choice of how to run your imaging session is really a matter of personal preference. Some people would allow a single live stack to run an hour or more, whereas others use the same sort of technique you are describing. It's perfectly possible to re-stack a large number of raw frames from the live stacking process (100 or more) in various stacking software, although the procedure may take some time.

Glad to hear that you're enjoying SharpCap anyway!

Cheers, Robin

George

Have a look at viewtopic.php?f=16&t=561 which should validate your thinking. Look at any of the Gallery forum posts by @mAnKiNd. I would consider Minos as the master of using Live Stack in Sharpcap.

Dave