SharpCap Forums

First year of this new endeavor has been extremely successful, and frustrating. Sometimes the stars line up perfectly and the results are fantastic. Other times it feels like complete failure, for instance tracking errors, cloudy nights, or atmospheric turbulence. Then the initial gear $$$ of course additional add ons camera attachments dec counterbalance, filters etc... Sharpcap has made my experience rewarding, especially the tools it offers ie smart histogram and focus tools the following image was acquired as follows
Sharpcap pro 3.2 focus tool fwhm
Smart histogram
Livestack
Gear zwo294 osc pro
Skywatcher evostar 80ed
Celestron AVX mount
7 star PA with mount polar scope extra 50$, worth it!
Lights 36 x 86s
Darks 36
Dark flats 3.2s gain and offset, temperature same as lights and darks
Cooled-10c bortle 6 one side of the sky 7.5 the other side strong gradient
Thank for this software it has opened a new passion for us
Ronald and Kim

Hi Ronald and Kim,

I am just about a year and a half in with Sharpcap and what you wrote made me smile. Same here -- it is amazing just how many ways of fouling things up that there are to diagnose and discover. I've had all star doubled due to the pier extension on the tripod not being high enough so the scope snagged against the legs, dew on the secondary mirror, loss of guiding because of dew on the guide scope lens, not taking the right sort of flats (subtracting bias when it wasn't needed), grappling with how to balance a Newtonian etc. etc. However very satisfying when it does all come out right and also makes me appreciate just how much hard-won expertise - and yes indeed, expense too - has gone into some of the near perfect images that you can find oin Astrobin etc.

That is a nicely composed shot of M31 etc with the blue, red star-forming regions evident in the outer arms which has come out well for just an hour or so exposure.

Tim

Nice image of Andromeda, same here been using SharpCap for probably just over four years and it is probably the best decision I ever made and also the cheapest in terms of astrophotography. Even now though I still have nights were everything just goes wrong think it is is the nature of the hobby and you are always learning new things to do or more often thing you really did not want to do and I think it is helped by the other members of this forum and Robin always being helpful and encouraging even in the failures.

Cheers
Nick