Can SC Reticle imaging digital Finder be Adjusted to......

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GaryS
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Can SC Reticle imaging digital Finder be Adjusted to......

#1

Post by GaryS »

.....align the digital finder with the OTA EAA viewing camera?

Hi,
I'm going to be mounting an ASI 290, equipped with a 12mm F1.2 CS lens, to my OTA to act as a wide FOV digital finder (and to track approaching or passing clouds). If the dovetail bracket that holds the finder/ camera has no adjust-ability, is there a way to adjust the SC reticle to align the finder camera with the OTA camera doing the viewing?

thanks for your help!
Gary
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Re: Can SC Reticle imaging digital Finder be Adjusted to......

#2

Post by admin »

Hi,

You could adjust the reticule position once to align with the centre of view of your main telescope, but unfortunately the position isn't saved when you close and reopen SharpCap, so you would have to do that for each imaging session.

All is not quite lost though – you could put the ZWO cameras into a lower resolution mode (perhaps 800x800), then move around the ROI selection until the centre of the image that you see coincides with the centre of view in your main telescope. Then save the capture profile with those settings for the resolution and ROI position and set it as default so it will load each time you open the ZWO 290 camera. With the camera setup like that the default centred position of the reticule should align with the main telescope every time.

Cheers, Robin
GaryS
Posts: 175
Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2019 5:18 pm
Location: Boston, USA/Jackson Hole, USA

Re: Can SC Reticle imaging digital Finder be Adjusted to......

#3

Post by GaryS »

Hi Robin and thank you.

Two methods to try is great.
Can you tell me how to move and align the reticle in the first method?

In the second method, I gather that I center the 290’s SC reticle once and it stays in the preset. Is there a way to then regain the full resolution of the 290 after aligning the reticle to the main OTA?

Is this topic covered somewhere in the manual? Couldn’t find it associated with the menu/reticle info.
Regards
Gary
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Re: Can SC Reticle imaging digital Finder be Adjusted to......

#4

Post by admin »

Hi,

The reticule position can be easily adjusted by clicking anywhere in the image which will re-centre the reticule to the point that you have clicked on.

The point of the second idea was to leave the resolution and the position of the ROI set such that the centre of the image would match the centre of your main telescope – if you put the camera back to full resolution then you would lose that alignment.

Cheers, Robin
GaryS
Posts: 175
Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2019 5:18 pm
Location: Boston, USA/Jackson Hole, USA

Re: Can SC Reticle imaging digital Finder be Adjusted to......

#5

Post by GaryS »

Thank you Robin. I will try both approaches.
Gary
GaryS
Posts: 175
Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2019 5:18 pm
Location: Boston, USA/Jackson Hole, USA

Re: Can SC Reticle imaging digital Finder be Adjusted to......

#6

Post by GaryS »

Robin,
In moving around the reticle I also found that I could rotate it and resize the concentric circles by right-clicking. Could you tell me what, if any, is the significance of the concentric circles? Is there a way to adjust them to be a specific angular FOV? I see that they can be adjusted in angle.

Also, it might be helpful to others if this info on the reticle manipulation was included in the SC manual. I’m finding it to be very nice to have a digital Finder such as the ASI290 mini mono fitted with an inexpensive CS 8 or 10mm cctv lens that 1) helps if I have an imperfect slew ( a rare event) and need to center the object for the SC screen and 2) provides a more immersive, wide field constellation view and 3) allows me to track oncoming or passing clouds while observing. For these 3 reasons, I suspect more folks might discover the advantages of running a second instance of SC displaying a wide field ‘Finder view’.

Thank you for making all this possible!
Gary
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Re: Can SC Reticle imaging digital Finder be Adjusted to......

#7

Post by admin »

Hi Gary,

The documentation on the reticule overlays is here – https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/3.2/#Reticule%20Overlays

There is no particular significance to the sizes of the circles that are displayed – they are just a range of diameters based on the size selected by dragging with the right mouse button – the idea is that with a range of different circle sizes if you needed to get to different image circles to be concentric (for example for collimation) it should be possible to arrange for reticule circles to be roughly the same sizes as the two target circles with appropriate adjustments.

Cheers, Robin
GaryS
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Re: Can SC Reticle imaging digital Finder be Adjusted to......

#8

Post by GaryS »

Thank you Sir.
If the link goes to he SC manual, my apologies for not having found it before asking.
Best
Gary
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