Stackig stops - camera, tracking appear fine

[fgreen]

(first time on SharpCap forums, apologies if asking this in wrong place and for any clumsy use of terms) I was using SharpCap v4.1.12066 for EAA with an ASI2600MC camera and an AM5 mount and getting great results for several hours one night last week. However, without changing any setting - except for minor gain and sub length adjustments - all of a sudden when I switched to a new object I was unable to stack anything. It would display the first sub (clean image, no trailing) but every sub after that went to "Frames Ignored." I went to several different objects in different parts of the sky and even back to one of the same objects I had easily live-stacked earlier. But could not get anything to stack. I was too tired at that point to do any investigating (should I have rebooted SharpCap, the PC?). Again, the camera and mount did not appear to be at fault because the initial images of 15 to 60 second duration looked great. Any idea what I was doing wrong? Any help suggestions greatly appreciated. Frank

[admin]

Hi,

the first thing that comes to mind is that you moved the mount to a new target, but didn't tell SharpCap live stacking to clear the stack and start building a new one.

If you forget to clear/reset the stack then SharpCap will see the new images of the new target arrive, try to align them with the existing image that it still thinks it is working on, fail, discard the image, and then repeat.

It's just a matter of using the 'Clear' button in the live stack area to wipe the current stack (saving first, obviously), then it should proceed automatically with the new one.

You can also get this to happen automatically if you use the 'Goto Catalog/Target Co-ordinates' tool in SharpCap to move the mount to the new target - that tool will spot that you are live stacking and save/clear the stack for you before starting the move (even start a new stack after with the tick of one checkbox)

cheers,

Robin

[fgreen]

Hi Robin, thank you so much for responding. I did, as always, clear and then stop live stacking an image before moving to a new target. I also move exposure length down to one second or so when moving to a new target. When I would get to a new target the first exposure of, say 20 to 60 seconds, was terrific, no sign of star trails or any mount or camera issues. But no subsequent subs were stacked, they were all rejected - this after it had worked so well for most of the evening. I should have turned SC off and started again, that might have fixed the problem and by clearing up anything I may have inadvertently messed up.

[admin]

Hi,

OK, well that narrows things down a bit.

I would make sure to reset the stacking after any exposure changes (that will affect the stack, and different stars might be detected, causing issues). If still no good, check the 'Log' tab of live stacking, where it will record in some detail information about why a frame is rejected (cannot align, not enough stars detected, poor FWHM quality, etc). Hopefully that will reveal more about what is going wrong.

cheers,

Robin

[fgreen]

Thank you!