Autoguiding

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'+1' posts are welcome in this area of the forums to indicate your support for a particular feature suggestion. Suggestions that get the most +1's will be seriously considered for inclusion in future versions of SharpCap.
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paulskirk
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Jan 29, 2022 11:09 pm

Autoguiding

#1

Post by paulskirk »

I enjoy using sharpcap and the way features are well thought through from an end user's perspective. Approaches show creativity and innovation - such as Polar Align.
So I'd really like to see Sharpcap's take on autoguiding. Thanks for considering
Paul
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admin
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Re: Autoguiding

#2

Post by admin »

Hi Paul,

to be honest, right now I don't want to attack this one. I've tried a couple of similar things like the feature tracking, and discovered that they are hard to get right - mainly because the way that different makes of mounts respond to guiding/movement commands varies so much. I have a *lot* of respect for the folks who write PHD2 in making it work so reliably for such a wide range of equipment :)

Never fear that if I do think of some clever take on this at a later date, I might well be tempted to do it.

cheers,

Robin
deep_space_dave
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2022 11:09 am

Re: Autoguiding

#3

Post by deep_space_dave »

Hi Robin,

Thanks to my Hyperstar (F2) and live stacking, I no longer use PHD2 or a guide scope. This has simplified my equipment setup! The only issue I run into now is doing longer focal length captures like at F10 where I may need guiding for faint objects. I know that guiding isn't planned in the not to distant future but this platform is revolutionary and it would be nice to finally ditch the guide scope for good. There is already the star alignment feature in live stacking. There is also the option to use ASCOM mount pulse guiding for dithering. Why not have subroutine added to calculate the drift in the star alignment and on the next dither to bump the ASCOM mount, bump it back into to frame by the drift amount? Worst case we have to drop a frame but at least guiding is now possible while live stacking without a guide scope! Maybe if it is easier, have an option to re-plate image and center after X number of frames? That might be easier to implement or at least in the interim. I am finding myself centering my setup around SharpCap lately instead of the NINA or APT sequencers. I love the real time feedback that this application provides being the computer geek that I am (Linux Engineer). Keep up the awesome work! And I hope you have time to image outside of this and your day job ;)

Clear Skies!

Dave
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Re: Autoguiding

#4

Post by admin »

Hi Dave,

thanks for the feedback - I certainly do have plans for some sort of way for the live stacking to be recentered at intervals (plate solving based), which I think will fill the same requirement to a large degree.

cheers,

Robin
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