Imaging Planets with Feature Tracking

[robert w]

Hello,
I am relatively to planetary imaging with SharpCap. I noticed the application provides a Feature Tracking capability. Does anyone have any experience using the feature when imaging the moon or planets? I would like to know how well it works. The users guide indicates you need to add your mount driver to the hardware setup section which is straight forward. I’m also assuming you need to attach a mini-usb cable from the laptop to the hand-controller in order to send the commands to the mount. Is this correct? Any info you can share would be appreciated.

Clear Skies

[admin]

Hi,

yes, you are correct that you will need some sort of connection between the PC and the mount (the exact cable config depends on the brand and model of mount). Once you have that working, you should be able to connect from within SharpCap and move the mount usign the arrow controls in SharpCap.

The calibration of feature tracking can be a bit hit-and-miss initially - depending on your mount, how it responds to movement commands, how much backlash it has and other factors, you may need to try different calibration speeds to find one that works nicely. Once you have found settings that work, you can usually keep using them with a good degree of reliability in the future.

cheers,

Robin

[robert w]

Robin,
Thank you for the info.

fyi - I have an Celestron AD VX mount

Bob