Sharpcap and Stellarium

Discussion of using SharpCap for Deep Sky Imaging
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Tiago Ferreira
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Sharpcap and Stellarium

#1

Post by Tiago Ferreira »

Hello,

My dobsonian is all manual so i don't want to connect software with a mount.
What i need to know is if it's possible to plate solve with sharpcap and watch the position on stellarium. Just sharpcap talking with stellarium, nothing more. Is it?
Thanks
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Re: Sharpcap and Stellarium

#2

Post by admin »

Hi,

yes, I think you should be able to do this...

1) Install the ASCOM platform if you haven't already.
2) Set up SharpCap to talk to the ASCOM simulated telescope mount 'Telescope Simulator for .NET'
2a) Set the plate solve action in the SharpCap settings to 'Sync Mount Only'
3) Similarly set up stellarium to also talk to this simulated telescope mount. I know this can be done, but I haven't done it myself
4) Make sure that both SharpCap and Stellarium are connected to the virtual mount
5) Using stellarium (or the arrow keys in SharpCap) set the mount position to roughly where you are looking with your dob (within a few degrees)
6) Trigger 'Plate solve and resync' in SharpCap - this will run the plate solve and then sync the mount position to the plate solve results - the co-ordinates in SharpCap and the mount pointing position in Stellarium should both update to match the area you are looking at.

As you move around the sky, if you move less than about 15 degrees at a time then you can just repeat step 6. If you move further in one go then use steps 5 and 6.

Hope this helps,

Robin
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oopfan
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Re: Sharpcap and Stellarium

#3

Post by oopfan »

I do exactly what Robin describes using my manual 50-year old mount, except that I use C2A not Stellarium, but that shouldn't matter.

Brian
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Tiago Ferreira
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Re: Sharpcap and Stellarium

#4

Post by Tiago Ferreira »

admin wrote: Sat Jan 08, 2022 2:14 pm Hi,

yes, I think you should be able to do this...

1) Install the ASCOM platform if you haven't already.
2) Set up SharpCap to talk to the ASCOM simulated telescope mount 'Telescope Simulator for .NET'
2a) Set the plate solve action in the SharpCap settings to 'Sync Mount Only'
3) Similarly set up stellarium to also talk to this simulated telescope mount. I know this can be done, but I haven't done it myself
4) Make sure that both SharpCap and Stellarium are connected to the virtual mount
5) Using stellarium (or the arrow keys in SharpCap) set the mount position to roughly where you are looking with your dob (within a few degrees)
6) Trigger 'Plate solve and resync' in SharpCap - this will run the plate solve and then sync the mount position to the plate solve results - the co-ordinates in SharpCap and the mount pointing position in Stellarium should both update to match the area you are looking at.

As you move around the sky, if you move less than about 15 degrees at a time then you can just repeat step 6. If you move further in one go then use steps 5 and 6.

Hope this helps,

Robin
Robin,

I did what you said but it doesn't plate solve i don't know why, no matter the changes in gain or exposure. If i do Plate solve only it solve.
Also clicking the arrow keys in sharpcap gave an error "the RPC server is unavailable" but in stellarium i can move them and in ascom they move also in stellarium. It seams sharpcap not talking.
The image is clean. In the settings i've selected this:
sharpcap plate solve.jpg
sharpcap plate solve.jpg (368.48 KiB) Viewed 4837 times
Youtube channel: https://youtube.com/@DobsonianPower

12" f/5 Dobsonian GSO
8" f/6 Dobsonian GSO
6" f/5 Dobsonian Go-To Virtuoso Gti
Dwarf II Smart Telescope
Geoptik Eartha Eq Platform
ZWO ASI224MC + ZWO ASI294MC
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Re: Sharpcap and Stellarium

#5

Post by admin »

Hi,

let's start with the plate solving problem - I can see in the background of your screenshot that 4300 stars were found in the image - that almost certainly means that the 'sigma' setting in the plate solving settings is too low, meaning that noise in the image is being detected as stars, this will usually cause plate solving failures. Try turning up the sigma setting until the number of stars is in the 100 to 300 range.

Another thing to watch out for is to make sure that the co-ordinates shown in the mount in SharpCap are within 15 degrees (or 1 hour RA) of the place where the scope is pointing. When you use plate solve and sync, it limites the search to within 15 degrees of the mount co-ordinates (which is much faster), but if the error is more than that then it will fail.

Finally, the RPC error is odd - that usually means that there is a problem communicating with another process. If you look in task manager you will see that there is an 'ASCOM Telescope Simulator Server' process that runs when you use the simulator - both SharpCap and Stellarium should talk to that. One possibility would be if you run one program (ie Stellarium) as 'Admin' then you could get problems as Windows blocks some communications between non-admin and 'Admin' programs. If you still see this error, please grab a screenshot showing it and the SharpCap log which should contain more details.

thanks,

Robin
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Tiago Ferreira
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Re: Sharpcap and Stellarium

#6

Post by Tiago Ferreira »

admin wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:57 pm Hi,

let's start with the plate solving problem - I can see in the background of your screenshot that 4300 stars were found in the image - that almost certainly means that the 'sigma' setting in the plate solving settings is too low, meaning that noise in the image is being detected as stars, this will usually cause plate solving failures. Try turning up the sigma setting until the number of stars is in the 100 to 300 range.

Another thing to watch out for is to make sure that the co-ordinates shown in the mount in SharpCap are within 15 degrees (or 1 hour RA) of the place where the scope is pointing. When you use plate solve and sync, it limites the search to within 15 degrees of the mount co-ordinates (which is much faster), but if the error is more than that then it will fail.

Finally, the RPC error is odd - that usually means that there is a problem communicating with another process. If you look in task manager you will see that there is an 'ASCOM Telescope Simulator Server' process that runs when you use the simulator - both SharpCap and Stellarium should talk to that. One possibility would be if you run one program (ie Stellarium) as 'Admin' then you could get problems as Windows blocks some communications between non-admin and 'Admin' programs. If you still see this error, please grab a screenshot showing it and the SharpCap log which should contain more details.

thanks,

Robin
Got it Robin! I'm very happy with it. It's tricky to figure it all but now it's working fine and it's powerful.
Now i will think in a way to share this with the others in my channel the easiest way i can.
Thanks again for your help.

Tiago
Youtube channel: https://youtube.com/@DobsonianPower

12" f/5 Dobsonian GSO
8" f/6 Dobsonian GSO
6" f/5 Dobsonian Go-To Virtuoso Gti
Dwarf II Smart Telescope
Geoptik Eartha Eq Platform
ZWO ASI224MC + ZWO ASI294MC
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Tiago Ferreira
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Re: Sharpcap and Stellarium

#7

Post by Tiago Ferreira »

Robin please tell me if the guys with the free version of sharpcap can use this feature. I will record a video about it and want to give people that info but i have the PRO version. Thanks!
Youtube channel: https://youtube.com/@DobsonianPower

12" f/5 Dobsonian GSO
8" f/6 Dobsonian GSO
6" f/5 Dobsonian Go-To Virtuoso Gti
Dwarf II Smart Telescope
Geoptik Eartha Eq Platform
ZWO ASI224MC + ZWO ASI294MC
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Re: Sharpcap and Stellarium

#8

Post by admin »

Hi,

plate solving and mount control are both available in the free version. If you want, you can run SharpCap from the command line like this

Code: Select all

"C:\Program Files (x86)\SharpCap 4.0\SharpCap.exe" /nolic
When the /nolic command line parameter is added, SharpCap will temporarily ignore your license and run in 'SharpCap Free' mode.

cheers,

Robin
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Tiago Ferreira
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Re: Sharpcap and Stellarium

#9

Post by Tiago Ferreira »

Well, after a while enjoying this wonderful feature, here is a video about how to install and connect Sharpcap with ASCOM and Stellarium.
Just have to do this once. This was a game changer for me with my Dobsonians over an Eq Platform.
Thanks again Robin for the help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA-ykUrxmlY
Youtube channel: https://youtube.com/@DobsonianPower

12" f/5 Dobsonian GSO
8" f/6 Dobsonian GSO
6" f/5 Dobsonian Go-To Virtuoso Gti
Dwarf II Smart Telescope
Geoptik Eartha Eq Platform
ZWO ASI224MC + ZWO ASI294MC
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Re: Sharpcap and Stellarium

#10

Post by admin »

Nice video :)

Just so you know, the confirmation (press OK) for plate solving appears if the distance between the current mount position and the solved position is more than 5 degrees. If it is less than 5 degrees then it doesn't ask for confirmation.

I wonder if you could also find a use for Deep Sky Image Annotation in your videos? viewtopic.php?t=4977

cheers,

Robin
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