Impossible to see stars

Using SharpCap's Polar Alignment feature
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elingeniero
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2023 4:43 pm

Impossible to see stars

#1

Post by elingeniero »

Good afternoon. Yesterday I tried to align with Sharpap using an OAG but it was impossible. The problem is that there were not enough stars in sharpcap, but there were in phd or NINA. I raised the gain and exposure time but nothing, not even with the main camera. During the day you can see the images. I haven't touched anything, what's wrong?
Thank you
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admin
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Re: Impossible to see stars

#2

Post by admin »

Hi,

how far did you go with the exposure time? For seeing stars a good starting point is 2s exposure, medium to high gain. Using an OAG you might need longer exposures as the amount of light reaching the sensor can be low due to the size of the prism.

cheers,

Robin
elingeniero
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2023 4:43 pm

Re: Impossible to see stars

#3

Post by elingeniero »

I went up to almost 4". The strange thing is that in phd, they looked perfectly at 1".
To give you more information. I use (this is the second time I've done it) an oag zwo, with a TS80 tube (384mm - f4.8).
All the best
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admin
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Re: Impossible to see stars

#4

Post by admin »

Hi,

ok, the next thing to check is that you have not adjusted some other setting in SharpCap that is causing the issue. If you hold down the <CTRL> key while opening the camera, Sharpcap will not re-load previous settings, meaning that everything will go back to default. You can then set 4 second exposure and high gain and see if that helps.

cheers,

Robin
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