Dithering settings

[kevin.mcde]

I've been having some issues with some of my images and the folks at Startools told me it was a classic case of not dithering. So, I just upgraded to SharpCap Pro. I hooked everything up in the house and it seems to be communicating with PHD2 so that is good. I understand that an image will not be taken during dithering and I'm fine with that. I use an ASI1600MC-cool and usually don't go over 3 minutes anyway.

I have a couple of questions on this.
1. What do I put for the automatic dither options? I do not fully understand these options.
2. I need to ensure the live stack images are kept. Where is the option to ensure this occurs?

I looked through the forum but didn't see an answer although I'm sure it has been asked.

Also, if someone could kindly coordinate my days off with clear/calm skies that would be great as well.

Thanks in advance.
Kevin

[admin]

Hi,

I think the only dithering settings that you need to adjust to begin with are the interval (how long between each successive dither) and the maximum dinner step which controls how big each dither operation be in terms of pixels on the guiding camera. The controls on the right-hand side are all to do with how long PhD will wait for the dithering operation to settle before allowing SharpCap to continue imaging. You may need to increase the maximum settle time if you find that the current setting is not long enough and that imaging is recommencing before the mount has settled.

If you want to save the frames direct from the camera (for later processing) then change the 'Raw Frames' drop-down on the left-hand side to 'save except when paused/dithering' – this setting will save every frame that comes from the camera except during the dinner operations. The saved frames have no dark or flat corrections applied.

The stacked images saved and make sure the 'auto save on clear/close' checkbox is ticked.


Hope this helps, Robin