Camera Rotators

[Calamity_Jane]

I am the proud owner of a Pegasus Falcon camera rotator. This is quite a useful little device even though I have an equatorial mount.

I've just discovered that I can drive it from SharpCap. That's quite a boon, since Pegasus' own driver is a nightmare to use. It takes ages to start and keeps offering updates I don't need.

Jane

[admin]

Hi Jane,

yes, the Pegasus is a great piece of kit (I have one). Not only can you control it manually in SharpCap, but you can also drive it via the sequencer. The 'Goto Image' tool can also use a rotator to match the orientation of the camera to the orientation of a previously saved image.

Happy to hear feedback on other rotator related features that might be handy in SharpCap - for instance I think there is an existing suggestion on here somewhere requesting a button that will rotate the image so that up is North...

cheers,

Robin

[MunichAtNight]

.... Happy to hear feedback on other rotator related features that might be handy in SharpCap - for instance I think there is an existing suggestion on here somewhere requesting a button that will rotate the image so that up is North... cheers, Robin

I suggested this a while ago! I am very pleased that you still remember my suggestion and that you now have a Falcon Rotator yourself. It would be fantastic if at some point in the future it were possible to orient the object to the north at the push of a button.

If I may add another suggestion? I don't have the option to activate the AltAZ "De-Rotate Field" function" in the Sharpcap Control area, when using an AltAZ operating mount! Especially if you could then switch this on and off with the sequencer.

sharcap-rotator-01a.jpg (46.3 KiB) Viewed 7215 times

rotator-07-B.jpg (469.35 KiB) Viewed 7215 times

Servus - MunichAtNight - Ewald

[admin]

Hi,

oddly, enabling the alt-az compensation function of a rotator isn't something that is possible via the ASCOM rotator specification. There's no way to ask the driver to turn that function on or off, and there's no way to ask the rotator to rotate at a specific speed, so you can't have SharpCap doing the calculations and running things. Individual rotator devices might offer ways around this by custom actions or commands available via ASCOM, but I tend to avoid using those if possible as it is a slippery slope to having to deal with the details of every device that you might encounter. So... the only way to turn on/off the alt/az rotation is going to be via the manufacturer supplied app (Pegasus Unity, Wanderer Empire, etc).

cheers,

Robin

[TigerClaw35]

Does sharpcap also support wanderer Astro rotator mini V2?

I am not sure if it has to be ? For example with Dobsonian it should also work only to use sharpcap for planetary imaging for example and the rotator with another software were I can set rotation steps depending on position of the object.

[admin]

Hi,

yes, SharpCap will support any rotator that has an ASCOM driver and let you perform manual rotations with it. However, to perform derotation linked to an AltAz mount's movement (or even a fixed speed of rotation) - that would have to come from the software that comes with the rotator itself, since the ASCOM standard doesn't provide a way to request movement at a particular rate. So, you would have to check out the Wanderer Astro software to see what functions it offers you.

thanks,

Robin

[TigerClaw35]

Normally it should also work Independent from sharpcap. Not need to be integrated. The separate software tool from wanderer Astro ha stellarium syn and also without o could set my location data and it should work. And it has Ascom driver.

Pegasus Astro ist very nice but one guy told me the wanderer Astro is more stable without backlash or something like this.

Best regards,
Raul