SharpCap Forums

I've got a non-cooled 290-based mono camera that I use for PA.

I set the gain at about 2500 out of 10000.
I set the exposure to 2s.

One thing that it is particularly sensitive to is the darkness of the sky.
I find that I need to wait for the Sun to reach at least 12 degrees below the horizon.
If the sky is any lighter then fewer stars are found.

My finder scope is 50mm aperture 162mm focal length.
Its got a helical focuser of which I am not fond.

I agree with Robin that focus is important. Find rough focus on a terrestrial object and then fine tune it on Polaris.
Sometimes I remove the camera to use in the main scope. If you do that you will lose focus when you put it back into the finder scope.
To solve that problem use a "parfocal ring".

Brian

Hey there,

Thank you for your answers. What does Polar Align ready. Plate solving in 1s. Does this I'm doing it right because I see detected stars 21 used 15 but it still can't solve.My exposure is 4 sec with max gain. Focused on a roof top far in the distance perfect using my neximage camera.

Buckrogers wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 3:40 am Hey there,

Thank you for your answers. What does Polar Align ready. Plate solving in 1s. Does this I'm doing it right because I see detected stars 21 used 15 but it still can't solve.My exposure is 4 sec with max gain. Focused on a roof top far in the distance perfect using my neximage camera.

Don't set gain at max....that will cause a bunch of noise that SC might mistake as stars. 21 stars could be real or it could be a false reading due to gain being high.

Also. focusing on a object is not the same as focusing on stars. The focal point will move a little when focusing to infinity. This small difference might also cause your problem.

Play with the settings so that you can see stars clearly focused on your screen and then try to plate solve.

Hi,

Please capture a frame by pressing the snapshot button while you are trying to polar alignment and then post the image here – we can then give much better advice on why it may or may not be working.

Cheers, Robin