Solve and Sync from folder monitor camera

[bunburystargazer]

So as we all know, a DSLR camera give us a very large-high quality sensor for a very cheap price, when you can get a second hand dslr very cheap these days. I know there was talk about getting sharpcap to communicate with a dslr correctly, but AFAIK, it has not yet happened.
There has been some attempts by others to try and get the dslr to work with sharpcap, but there is still many bugs.

As I use sharpcap pro, the latest version, and love how simple it makes things, I would like to try and work out some form of work around, so as I can also take advantage of the dslr with sharpcap.

Is it possible to save the dslr files to a folder, use sharpcap to stack those images from that file as the file receives the images from the dslr, using the folder monitor camera option, and also have sharpcap solve and sync the mount from those files it is stacking? Would sharpcap just see that folder monitor camera as the camera it is using to carry out the solve and sync process. I only ask as I use an Alt/Az mount, which we all know tend to drift a little over time, and when using my player one camera, and doing a long live stack, I just solve and sync every 10 minutes during the stack to keep the scope aligned.

If this worked, and sharpcap just sees the folder monitor camera as any other camera that was directly connected to sharpcap, and delivered the same options as a directly connected astro cam, then we have a way to use a dslr with sharpcap, with all of sharpcaps features.

Thanks in advance.

Brad

[admin]

Hi Brad,

I can totally understand your desire to get the most 'bang' for your money by using a cheaply purchased DSLR. Unfortunately I have no plans to add direct DSLR support to SharpCap in the future. I did consider it at one point, but on consideration, I realised that there are so many different DSLR models which all seem to have their own quirks that it would be impossible to get it working at a consistent high quality level.

That leaves two possible ways to get images from a DSLR into SharpCap

1) The ASCOM.DSLR ASCOM driver. This works nicely for some and causes no end of problems for others. There is a discussion on Cloudy Nights here - https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/7076 ... ntax-sony/ . The last I saw, it was no longer really being updated or improved, but it may be worth a try. Note that there are also some other end-user written ASCOM drivers for some brands (ie Sony I think - worth searching for).

2) Capturing files from the camera as you suggest and reading those into SharpCap using the folder monitor camera. In theory this will work, but it's most likely that the capture software will save in some RAW format like CR2 that SharpCap cannot read. The current workaround to this is to have a script running that will spot the new CR2 files and convert them to a SharpCap readable format (like TIFF) in a second folder, then have SharpCap monitor the second folder. There is a write up by someone who wrote this sort of script here : viewtopic.php?t=2178

Hope this helps,

Robin

[bunburystargazer]

Hi Robin.

First up, thanks for all you do.

I will look into it a little further, and see what might work.
Can I ask what sharpcap uses to solve and sync during a stack, as in-does it use the stars from the frame as it is being taken, or does it use that image once it is complete? To be more clear, say we are taking 10 second frames-does sharpcap plate solve during that 10 seconds as the frame is developing, or does it solve using the completed image at the end of the 10 seconds?

Thanks
Brad

[admin]

Hi,

the rules for which frame is used when plate solving are a bit complex, but basically under some circumstances SharpCap will decide that nothing has changed since the last frame arrived from the camera and will use that to plate solve. If SharpCap thinks something has changed (camera settings, mount position, etc) then it will wait for the current frame to finish and use that when it arrives. Some other things can prevent the previous frame being used, forcing the current frame to complete before plate solving can start.

This is all made even more complex by live stacking being active - then it becomes important to know *why* you are solving... If you are solving to annotate the live stacked image with object names/positions then you need to solve the image shown in the stack. If you are solving in order to sync the mount and recenter the target then you need to solve a raw frame from the camera (which could be offset from the stacked image due to mount drift since the stack started).

cheers,

Robin

[bunburystargazer]

Thanks for your help Robin.
Much appreciated.

[pfossier]

There is a very simple way to have SharpCap capture a video stream from your DSLR and it does not require an ASCOM driver.
If this topic is still open, drop a line and I will explain.

[kaymann]

There is a very simple way to have SharpCap capture a video stream from your DSLR and it does not require an ASCOM driver.
If this topic is still open, drop a line and I will explain.

That is exactly how EOSBackyard works please continue...

Also what is the possibility of SC being able to eventually read CR2 and Nikon raw files? These are very stable and cross camera make to model compatible. Then the folder watch would work beautifully...

[admin]

Hi,

CR2 and other raw format support would probably require either using dcraw as a conversion tool or the underlying 'libraw' library to do the raw conversion to something like TIFF that can already be read. I must admit that I don't do much DSLR stuff any more, so I am out-of-date as to whether the conversion from raw formats to a usable TIFF for astro purposes is a 'one click' conversion or whether you need to tweak raw conversion parameters to get something usable... If it is a 'one click, the defaults are fine' then maybe this could be implemented. However if there is tweaking of the settings needed then this is probably not something I would do (too much complexity for a fairly niche use case).

cheers,

Robin