SharpCap Forums

In listening to Robin Glover's lectures online I want to give sharp cap a second go.
Currently I am using a CMOS camera, ASCOM telescope and focuser, SGP does my plate solving.

If I upgrade to the pro version of sharpcap after I on my target can I pause my sequence as it is about to star open sharpcap and use it to calculate the length of my subframes can I then put those numbers into SGP?

I don't think I have been able to find this answer on the forums.

Very interesting listening to Robin Glover speak about CMOS vs CCD cameras.
Do most uses try to stay at a single gain setting so you have a set of darks you can reuse?

Appreciate the help. Thank you. Joe

Hi,

I think you'll find that if you try and let two different applications talk to the camera at the same time, there will probably trip over each other and cause problems. If you disconnect from the camera in SGP and then you SharpCap and then close SharpCap and then reconnect in SGP you should be fine.

If you have a cooled camera then reusing darks is an option for you and picking a game once and sticking to it is advantageous. If you don't have a cooled cameras then you end up needing to take darks every time to get them at the same temperature as the lights which means that picking a single gain doesn't help nearly as much.

Cheers, Robin

[img][img]Thank you for taking the time to answer me. You have given some excellent recent lectures. I have watched them several time.

I think you advocate (could be wrong) for more shorter exposures. I have been tending towards 2 minute exposure at unity gain. I have a ZWO 1600 color and a 4 inch APO refractor with a flatter and a food EQ mount. I live in a very light polluted city, but with just an Orion ski glow filter, I believe, I have gotten good images. I want to do better.

Have you written any articles on gain, exposure in a dark sky vs city and tons of light pollution. How gain and exposure time should be adjusted.

I process in Pixsinsight and am getting comfortable with the program, but I would not want to have work with many different dark and flats at different gains and I would not want to work with an overwhelming number of lights. Want to try to keep some uniformity and vary fewer variables. Can you recommend a good text to understand these relationships better ? Thank you