Even though I started this topic based on the 183MC-Pro, I'm having what I think is a similar issue with the 2600MC-Pro so I will continue here. I'm up in Darwin, CA for some dark site EAA and the past two nights have been a struggle. There are two main issues, the first being the fetching frame error where the live stack ceases stacking and the second being a failure of darks.
I have logs that will hopefully show what was going on regarding the ceasing of stacking frames. I had this happen three times during the past two nights and I tried the "reconnect camera" which did not work. When I noticed that stacking new frames had ceased I would pause the stack and then try to reconnect the camera. The camera would continue to act like it was taking exposures but no new frames would be stacked. And after reconnecting and attempting to pause and reset it seemed like SharpCap stopped responding and I had to force quit one time. I have a few screen grabs if you would like them.
Moving on to the issue with darks it took me quite a while to figure out that the root of the problem was using a dark under preprocessing. I've been taking darks the exact same way for two years now and have never had a problem like this before. The effect of the problem is black clipping. I know to increase my Brightness/Offset when at a dark site, this I've learned from past experience. But this time the live stack histogram was significantly clipped even when using a Brightness of 70 with the 2600MC-Pro. I use a Brightness of 25 at home.
To figure out the cause I made one change at a time under preprocessing until it was clear the dark was the problem. I tried with and without all of the following:
- flat, dark, linear gradient reduction and satellite removal
As long as I did not apply a dark the histogram was not black clipped. As soon as I applied a dark the histogram was clipped. I have all of the darks in question and can provide them if necessary. I'll attach two log files for now and a screen grab of the clipped histogram.
- M67_2600fail1_05072024s.jpg (289.95 KiB) Viewed 197 times
I'm continuing to review the saved as seen PNG live stack image histograms in Photoshop to see if I can provide more input. I've also not yet reviewed any of the 32-bit FITS stacks but will do so. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.
Mike