Saving as a Video

[Terry]

I recently got a Uranus-C camera which uses SharpCap & made videos of Jupiter & the Moon using my C 11 telescope. After each clip I went to the tab: "Save as" & gave each one a name. When I went to open them after my viewing session, they all came out as individual frames or files. When I did the clips, I was careful to take them off "Still Mode" but they all look like still frames. What am I missing or doing wrong? Can those frames be recombined to make the video I was seeking? I still have each of the video folders with the frames saved in them. With my older ZWO ASI 224 camera, I would save the clips & then use Autostackert3 & Registax6 to process them.
Thanks for any advice.
Terry

[admin]

Hi Terry,

it sounds as though you have inadvertently set the 'Output Format' option in SharpCap to one of the still file formats like PNG before capturing. For planetary imaging the correct format is usually SER, which can be set directly or is set automatically when the Output Format is in 'Auto' mode and the exposure is below 5s. You can read more about the advantages and disadvantages of the various save formats here - https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.1/#Captur ... 0Explained - and about setting the output format here - https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.1/#Output%20Format

To rescue the images that were saved in the wrong format, the best tool to use is probably PIPP (Planetary Imaging Pre Processor). Unfortunately the website for PIPP vanished a year or so back when Google turned off their legacy Google Sites service. There are still links where you can download the software, which can be found in this post : viewtopic.php?p=38025

In PIPP, choose to 'Add Image Files' on the first screen and select all the files from one folder. Then move to the 'Output Options' tab and select SER output, then go to the 'Do Processing' tab and press 'Start Processing'. There's a lot more that you can do in PIPP, but that should get you started.

thanks,

Robin

[Terry]

Thank you!

[Terry]

Robin: concerning the question about how to stack still frames into a video, I have PIPP on my computer but it looks like these days you can only download about forty frames. I have used it in the past but not for some time. After searching, I did find a program that is capable of doing that called 'Blender Inferno' but they want me to pay E25.00. For me, it isn't worth it for one image. If anyone else knows of another program that does it for free, please let me know.

Regarding imaging Jupiter, I did as you instructed me on the weekend (February 12th), setting the capture to SER mode & yes, that worked. I got a video of about 2,500 frames & processed it using Autostacker!3 & Registax 6. I used about 20% of the frames. Given that I was using SharpCap for the first time & that it was close to freezing, I forgot to double check the focus but still, the result isn't bad. I have a C11 & an AVX mount. I took a number of videos but this was the best of them. I did not try using a Barlow for this first time.

I found using SharpCap fascinating. I loved the ROI options but haven't figured out how to enable the capture to get a faster rate of frames. In this video, the rate was 27.5 fps. Any tips would be very welcome!

Terry

[turfpit]

Terry

looks like these days you can only download about forty frames

I split a SER file into 501 FITS files using PIPP, then loaded and combined the 501 individual files into a SER file using PIPP x64 ver 2.5.9. I have never come across a 40 limit - maybe PIPP 32-bit?

Capture.JPG (113.76 KiB) Viewed 292 times

There is no need for you to combine your individual files into a SER file to use Autostakkert. Just highlight all your files and drag and drop them onto the 'Open' button in Autostakkert then Analyse & Stack. I have done this when I have inadvertently ended up with a set of lunar images instead of a SER file (user error).

haven't figured out how to enable the capture to get a faster rate of frames

Your posted image is 1088x1088. To get a faster fps try:

• Make sure you are capturing 8-bit data.

• Reduce the capture area - this will increase the fps as less data is being captured. Of course if you are after moons as well as the planet, this is not feasible.

• Reduce the exposure. To do this, increase the gain to 70/80/90% of maximum. Aim for a histogram as below.

Jupiter-histogram.JPG (15.31 KiB) Viewed 292 times

This might be useful viewtopic.php?t=7344, captured using my C8 with and without Barlow using a ZWO ASI120MC with 640x480 @ 90fps.

Dave