First public beta test version of SharpCap 4.2 now available

[SanjeevJ]

Ok TY, good to know. I use arc sin in another stacking app - Canisp, and it seems to work fine based on how its implemented there (I am not technical). I did not do a head to head yet, might try that.

For 4.2 beta — tried about 10 different stacks - all roughly 5 to 10 mins from a couple rigs and for my image scale and conditions —

1. Best application seems to be an HDR type - very bright objects especially those with quickly saturating cores. Redeem a bit without blowing out greater areas of the core

2. Second best seems to be starfields including globular clusters.

3. For everything else, it wasnt close. The loss of sharpness and contrast was quite obvious

4. Enhance for me turned colored sections splotchy, its not subtle - even with saturation down low. It seems to pick certain areas and oversaturate them in pieces. Perhaps again useful for brighter objects with washed out colors to begin with but none of my 10 stacks at any saturation level.

5. I must say the adjustment for stars - if it is reduction oriented, is most intriguing and I hope some day it becomes a really powerful independent feature in Sharpcap.

For broadband EAA especially in good conditions, the highest tension is between emission nebulas and extended reflecting dust and with dense starfields. At least for me, starfields tend to dominate easily if given a chance. In AP, we commonly separate stars and then recombine them later. If there was a simple optional slider to reduce star stretch (even make it nearly linear) - that would be fantastic! We could leave it on 1.0 or close to it for objects like M31 or Perseus Double or turn it down for Veil, Iris, Rho - allowing us to see more of the amazing dust.

[SanjeevJ]

Quick question on focus settings screen in the 9/29 beta release:

i wanted to keep the hot pixels box checked and tried saving a couple times , but everytime I open this menu it is unchecked. Not sure if it is being applied or not...

focus settings screen.jpg (591.59 KiB) Viewed 60 times

[admin]

Hi,

thanks for that - the checkbox in the window wasn't loading or saving the actual data properly, so it would always start unticked and nothing you did to change it would be properly applied I will fix for the next update.

cheers,

Robin

[SanjeevJ]

Cool! Autofocus rocks now! Put it thru rigorous tests full auto.

[SanjeevJ]

Low freq gradient removal for another good win! While my B1 skies have very little light pollution, I do not use a dew shield for protection against stray lights or sky glow (to whatever extent possible). With all the color calibration working so well in 4.2 beta i tried out the low freq gradient correction and it is amazing! I put it through a dozen rigorous tests -- from severely stretched Sadr panels to M33 to M45 and it won vs anything else I could try. It kept all the faint extended dust and nebulosity I cared about, and tuned out the low freq gradient. This 4.2 B is a gift that keeps giving, TY!

A star reduction slider control would be incredible if that is possible in some future version of SC Pro. That is really all I think a serious EAA hobbyist needs with the 4.2B to explore all facets of the deep sky.