I have a Celestron Nextar 8SE scope with SBVONY 305 pro camera. i am looking for the best configuration settings for the planets, lunar and solar capturing. Do users of this forum share their settings in a downloadable file? I assume that since you can import and export your settings to and from SharpCap that users can upload and download those settings on this website. I realize there will probably be some tweaking depending on many equipment and environmental factors, but i cant even seem to get to some good initial settings where i can really capture anything.
anybody else with my same settings, care to share your exported settings?
Save configuration download area
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Re: Save configuration download area
Hi,
We sometimes see people post their settings alongside the images in the gallery, but not always. There is not really much sharing of settings in the way you describe, as there are so many variations in equipment, cameras, etc.
However, it's relatively easy to get a good starting point for lunar/planetary/solar with the SV305Pro
* Contrast 50, Gamma 1.00, Saturation & Sharpness set to zero
* White balance - all 3 - set to 128
Don't change any of the above - these are the defaults that stop any digital processing of the image after it is captured by the camera
* USB Speed 2 (maximum)
* Black Level 0 (will not make much difference for planetary)
* Exposure 25 to 35 ms - this will get you 30 to 40 frames per second, which is usually about right to freeze variations in seeing
* Binning 1, Colour Space RAW8 (no point in RAW16 for high speed imaging)
* Output format SER (most reliable video capture format)
* Debayer Preview 'On'
Lots of the above are the defaults anyway - I have just included them in case you have been adjusting already and lost the defaults. Other controls you can leave at defaults. This leaves you with two controls to play with...
1) Capture Area - you might consider reducing this to make capture files smaller and potentially increase frame rate. It does make getting your target in view harder though
2) Gain - This is how you will adjust the brightness of the target for lunar/solar/planetary. Turn it up or down to get a well exposed image. If you run out of adjustment in the gain control then consider moving to shorter or (rarely) longer exposure times.
To be honest, the same general guidelines apply for any camera for lunar/solar/planetary :
* 8 bit mode (RAW for colour camera, MONO for mono camera)
* avoid any adjustments to colour balance, contrast, gamma, etc
* short exposures of 25 to 35 ms to get about 30 frames per second
* adjust the gain to expose things correctly
* reduce the capture area if you can to reduce file size
Hope this helps,
Robin
We sometimes see people post their settings alongside the images in the gallery, but not always. There is not really much sharing of settings in the way you describe, as there are so many variations in equipment, cameras, etc.
However, it's relatively easy to get a good starting point for lunar/planetary/solar with the SV305Pro
* Contrast 50, Gamma 1.00, Saturation & Sharpness set to zero
* White balance - all 3 - set to 128
Don't change any of the above - these are the defaults that stop any digital processing of the image after it is captured by the camera
* USB Speed 2 (maximum)
* Black Level 0 (will not make much difference for planetary)
* Exposure 25 to 35 ms - this will get you 30 to 40 frames per second, which is usually about right to freeze variations in seeing
* Binning 1, Colour Space RAW8 (no point in RAW16 for high speed imaging)
* Output format SER (most reliable video capture format)
* Debayer Preview 'On'
Lots of the above are the defaults anyway - I have just included them in case you have been adjusting already and lost the defaults. Other controls you can leave at defaults. This leaves you with two controls to play with...
1) Capture Area - you might consider reducing this to make capture files smaller and potentially increase frame rate. It does make getting your target in view harder though
2) Gain - This is how you will adjust the brightness of the target for lunar/solar/planetary. Turn it up or down to get a well exposed image. If you run out of adjustment in the gain control then consider moving to shorter or (rarely) longer exposure times.
To be honest, the same general guidelines apply for any camera for lunar/solar/planetary :
* 8 bit mode (RAW for colour camera, MONO for mono camera)
* avoid any adjustments to colour balance, contrast, gamma, etc
* short exposures of 25 to 35 ms to get about 30 frames per second
* adjust the gain to expose things correctly
* reduce the capture area if you can to reduce file size
Hope this helps,
Robin
Re: Save configuration download area
this is a big help! now if i could just get one clear night i will try this out. Have been very few optimal nights the past month in PA.