Odd "interference" when solar imaging

[oamaruastro]

Hi all! I am an infrequent user of Sharpcap and when I do use it it is for shooting the sun with a hydrogen-alpha filter on a ZWO ASI174MM camera. I set it up to shoot today and found that I was getting unusual "interference" that has badly affected my results. It's almost as though I were watching TV using a poor connection, since I would get odd distortion coming through periodically when shooting. I replaced the cable with no change in the outcome, and I also switched to using an ASIAIR instead of my laptop/Sharpcap and it did not happen then at all. So it's either Sharpcap itself or possibly my laptop.

Screenshot 2025-04-10 at 2.12.59 PM.png

Any idea how to fix this or what's causing it?

[admin]

Hi,

to me, it looks like the data is being corrupted between the camera and SharpCap, probably as part of the USB transfer. I would try lowering the 'Turbo USB' setting in SharpCap which will reduce the rate of data transfer over USB and can help with both stability and if you encounter issues like this. ASIAir may be using a different level of this setting, meaning it does not show the problem.

Also, if you have any cable extensions or hubs between the camera and the PC, try testing with those removed to see if that makes any difference.

cheers,

Robin

[oamaruastro]

Thanks; I was using a hub, but I used the same hub with the ASIAIR, so I don't think it's the problem. But I'll see if the turbo settings (which I have never touched) has anything to do with it next time I have the scope set up.