Camera + Live Stack Interval Save?

[chummee]

I am currently thinking about buying a second identical ZWO camera to shorten my data acquisition time. So I've been trying to think of a way to correctly connect the second camera in a new SharpCap window (by not clicking the one that's already been connected). As I learned from another thread, the serial number shows up in the title bar after connecting camera. I understand Robin has concerns about showing the serial number in the dropdown menu before connecting the camera. But is it possible for the serial number to show up in the new SharpCap window since it already has been connected to the other instance of SharpCap? If not, what's the best way to properly connect two identical cameras that is not trial and error?

I have only recently tried out guiding. My CG-4 mount guides OK but exhibits erratic behavior in the DEC axis after a meridian flip. It goes 12"+ north and then comes back. When I turn off DEC guiding, the mount will slowly drift north. So, I'm going to give up DEC guiding in some positions and am trying to think of a way to counteract the drift. So, I'm going be doing much shorter exposures but don't want to deal with too many subs. I want to have SharpCap, say, take six 10-seconds exposures, stack them, and save the stacked file every 1 minute (i.e., without saving the 10-seconds subs). Then I will use these "intermediate stacks" as the basis of further pre-processing stacks. Will these settings in the livestack interface do the job?--- "save as raw (32 bit) stack; raw frames: save stacks; check save and reset every 1 minute total exposure. And am I correct in thinking that I need to take the dark and flat frame before starting livestack?

Thanks a lot!

[admin]

Hi,

I think the serial numbers should show in the menu, but there are two conditions for this

1) Two or more cameras of the same model are detected
2) The cameras actually have serial numbers (lots of early ZWO cameras did not have a serial number stored in them)

As far as I can see from the code SharpCap will try to fetch the serial number from ZWO cameras - this is possible because the serial number can be read without trying to open the camera (some other brands require the application to open the camera to read the serial, and that is not a good idea if there is any chance that another application already has it open...)

You do need to let SharpCap do the dark/flat correction as part of the live stacking process (and therefore capture darks/flats in advance) - this is because each stacked frame may be offset from the previous due to drift of the mount, so darks/flats cannot be applied after stacking.

Otherwise, the settings you suggest look like a good starting point for getting this to work.

cheers,

Robin