SharpCap Forums

I'd like to say SharpCap has become the go to for live EAA on NSN ( Night Skies Network) . It helps produce the very best images while live streaming a broadcast. Robin has done wonders with it. Each Time we turn around he has added a new fantastic feature.

While not a knock on SharpCap and or Robin there is one tiny tool that maybe can be a lot better than it is at this time. The focusing tool. It isn't just me but some others as well who find that tool just doesn't work for us. We have each tried to use it and it doesn't work for any of us.

It is not only slow it doesn't do the job and is kind of cumbersome to find your way around and use. Maybe in the near future some emphasis could be placed on this one tool and improved upon.

ScopesNC wrote: ↑Sat May 04, 2024 7:48 pm ...
It is not only slow it doesn't do the job and is kind of cumbersome to find your way around and use. Maybe in the near future some emphasis could be placed on this one tool and improved upon.

I would have agreed fully with this until the aha moment I had last night... I used to click the + or - buttons repeatedly or adjust the amount each does and then clicking the + or - buttons repeatedly again... Last night I switched light train so instead of a ton of clicks I highlighted the position numbers and typed in a number a ton higher and sat back and there it was ready for a couple of minor clicks to get to where I could go with auto focus.

I am not saying it is perfect but it was a huge improvement on the clicking only option I used to do.

YMMV

ScopesNC wrote: ↑Sat May 04, 2024 7:48 pm I'd like to say SharpCap has become the go to for live EAA on NSN ( Night Skies Network) . It helps produce the very best images while live streaming a broadcast. Robin has done wonders with it. Each Time we turn around he has added a new fantastic feature.

While not a knock on SharpCap and or Robin there is one tiny tool that maybe can be a lot better than it is at this time. The focusing tool. It isn't just me but some others as well who find that tool just doesn't work for us. We have each tried to use it and it doesn't work for any of us.

It is not only slow it doesn't do the job and is kind of cumbersome to find your way around and use. Maybe in the near future some emphasis could be placed on this one tool and improved upon.

It would probably be more helpful if you were more explicit about what the problems you're having are. "It doesn't work" is not very helpful.

For me, autofocus works great. It took a bit of fiddling to understand how it worked, what the settings needed to be, a little working with Robin, but now it's bulletproof.

That you had to work on it that much and get Roins input means it is not a simple tool.
There is to much involved in trying to get it working and understanding it.

This is a post in Cloudy Nights regarding the SC auto-focus tool that I found quite helpful.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/9074 ... p=13207205

Thank you that is a helpfull link for sure.

Hi,

yes, it would be helpful to understand what you tried to do that didn't work out...

The SharpCap tool works best by starting somewhat out of focus on one side, and then moving through best focus to out-of-focus on the other side. This should produce a curve in the graph that SharpCap can detect and find the point of best focus. I think some people start 'in focus' which is not the right way to do it.

There is also an initial setup to do in SharpCap - you need to setup how many steps to run in a focus scan, and how far the focuser should move at each step. This gives a total distance scanned (the two numbers multiplied together), which needs to cover enough range to go from 'a bit out of focus' through best focus to a bit out of focus the other side. This value isn't something that can be pre-set in SharpCap as it depends on the auto focuser hardware, the focuser mechanism of your telescope and the optics too - it could range from a few hunderd to over 10000.

cheers,

Robin

ScopesNC wrote: ↑Sun May 05, 2024 5:15 am That you had to work on it that much and get Roins input means it is not a simple tool.
There is to much involved in trying to get it working and understanding it.

Some things that appear deceptively simple are inherently quite complicated. It's the old saying. Make things as simple as possible. But no simpler.