Banding when using Livestack

[sandconp]

I haven’t done live stacking for a few years so I thought I would try it again. I imaged the star Vega and I noticed some kind of banding going on during the live stack and when I processed the stacked image in PixInsight.

I believe that my gain was set at around 300.

Also I noticed that Sharpcap does not save the gain and exposure when I quit the program and go back in.

I am attaching a photo that shows the banding along with my camera settings.

IMG_0466.small.jpg (208.16 KiB) Viewed 326 times

[admin]

Hi,

some horizontal banding is quite normal when using CMOS cameras, but that seems relatively strong (given that you have not stretched a great deal) and also oddly regular.

I think the first thing I would try is to change from RGB24 to RAW16 mode when doing this sort of long exposure (and RAW8 for video). That may help. Another thing to look at is the 12V power supply to the camera - I've seen situations where unstable output on the 12V PSU can cause banding, so if you have an alternative PSU (or can just try with no 12V power and no cooling as a test). You will most likely see the banding in dark frames if you stretch the levels using SharpCap's display stretch tool, so you can test without waiting for clear skies.

As to saving and restoring the settings automatically - that's an option that you can turn on in the 'General' page of the SharpCap settings.

cheers,

Robin