using a ASI585 with 4.1

[Tomatobro]

Using my ASI585MC for the first time I encountered an issue where the Sharpcap image screen suddenly divided into two sections. The image was full size but a deep blue in colour (stars could be seen) with a smaller overlay in the top left corner which was white (also with stars) . This overlay occupied about a third of the screen.

This occurred while doing a live stack. I was unable to recover the screen while stacking. As I was at the end of the session I let it run to the end.

I had quite a bit of trouble trying to get a decent image of the galaxy on the screen and spent quite some time fiddling with the various settings and this issue occurred while playing with the histogram settings.

I was controlling the observatory via Remote Desktop at the time.

Trev

[admin]

Hi Trev,

if you were saving the individual raw frames from the camera while live stacking, it would be worth looking at those to see if any of them show a similar effect. If they do then the data coming from the camera is glitching before it gets to SharpCap. In that case, the things to check would be

* Check you have the latest version of SharpCap 4.1 to get all the latest updates from ZWO that may fix any issues
* Try to avoid over-long USB cables and hubs (test with shorter cable runs if possible)
* Turn down the 'Turbo USB' control to improve camera stability.

if the individual images look reasonable, watch out to see if at any point the stars jump in the image - that can happen if the mount moves or slips unexpectedly. Live stacking will tend to compensate for that sort of thing, but once it has happened, part of the image will no longer receive new information and will tend to go dark.

cheers,

Robin

[Tomatobro]

Thanks for the advice.
Another session last night did not have a repeat of the problem but its still a real challenge to get a viewable image on the screen. Using the lower right hand side histogram lightning bolt produces a profound yellow picture which cannot be adjusted out.

If I use live stacks histogram I can (with a lot of fiddling with the adjustments) get something like a viewable picture. I have tried all of the matrix settings and they give either red, green or blue screens and with it off Sharpcap will not stack (warning message) so I use the "on" setting.

This ASI585 works great with my portable rig which has an ASIAIR plus controller and live stacks without issues and produces a well balance image on the tablet. When fitted to the scope in the observatory and controlled via a NUC i5 windows 10 pro is when I have the problems of image control.
I will today take a look at the saved FITS files to see what it captured and report back

Trev

[Fir Chlis]

Hi Trev

I don't know if I can be of any help, as I may be running a similar setup.

I have an ASI585MC (standard, not the newer Pro) with a Skywatcher Explorer 200PDS on an HEQ5 Pro mount. I have a 10yo laptop running Windows 10 sat under the scope, camera via the ZWO USB cable (2m?) and a 5m EQDIR cable to the mount. I'm running ASCOM 6.6SP2, EQASCOM 200w, SharpCap 4.1. I normally install the latest bugfix version, so the last time I ran about 3 weeks ago I think it was v12025. I run a powerline adapter to run my home WiFi to the scope, and connect from a laptop in the house via VNC.

Since getting my camera in late January, I've never seen any of the issues that you've described, so do let me know if there's anything I can check for you on my setup.

Cheers

Geoff

[admin]

Hi Trev,

a good test to make sure you have the right bayer pattern set is to shine a red light into the telescope (or onto the camera sensor). Try all the patterns and the one that gives a red (reddish) image is the right one. I think the auto option is likely to be fine, but worth checking. Once you have this sorted, no need to play with it.

Modern cameras can be highly sensitive in the green, which can give a green/yellow background due to light pollution (even if the pollution looks largely orange or white to the naked eye). Try using one of the background subtraction modes (blended offset) to remove the bulk of the light pollution from the images when stacking to see if that helps make the colour balancing easier.

cheers,

Robin

[Tomatobro]

I have looked at the FITS files and they have the expected green cast so it looks like they are being saved ok.

I tested the camera on a different laptop during daylight on a distant tree and the image was perfect so when it stops raining I am going to the observatory and put a fish eye lens in the camera and test it with the NUC and cabling just to see if I get the issue.

will report back

Trev

[Tomatobro]

Today I put a finder scope onto the camera and did a daylight test with it pointing to a distant tree. This was to test the Dome NUC software and the cabling etc.
On start up I had the yellow screen but was able to move the centre curser on the right hand side stretch icon more to the right and got a good colour image of the tree.
Next clear night will have another play with the settings to see where I am going wrong. The FITS files are showing RGGB as the bayer format.

Trev