SharpCap Forums

My setup is
Hardware:
Skywatcher EQ3 Pro mount
Skywatcher 130 PDS f/4 telescope
Svbony SV165 guidescope
Svbony 905c guidescope
Sony ILCE-5000 DSLR as my imaging camera

Software:
Stellarium
ASCOM
EQASCOM
PHD2

Having read about SharpCap I have two questions:
1) Am I right in thinking that I can use SharpCap with my Svbony guidescope/camera combination, which would enable me to polar align (which I assume is only performed rarely)?
2) Assuming that I have polar aligned then my next step is to star align, I have a procedure that enables me to use EQASCOM in conjunction with Stellarium.This requires selecting a target star on Stellarium and slewing to it. Then by comparing what the telescope is "seeing" to what is expected EQASCOM can be adjusted until what is expected matches what is seen. EQASCOM is then synced with Stellarium.
Is it possible for SharpCap to plate solve using the Svbony combo to provide the necessary RA/Dec for the centre of the field which I can then use with EQASCOM to drive the mount to the original target? This is repeated multiple times.

Hi,

yes, you can definitely use SharpCap with your SVBony guide camera and guide scope for polar alignment. You would normally need to polar align at the beginning of each session if your setup is portable, but if you have a permanent setup inside an observatory or similar then you would not need to polar align nearly as often.

SharpCap's plate solving tool will also give you the exact co-ordinates that you are looking at for each of the alignment points, so it should help with the star alignment procedure. In fact, by setting the plate solving action in SharpCap's settings to 'Offset the mount position to center the target', SharpCap can plate solve then automatically move so that the target is centered in view for you with one button press, which I think should be all that is needed to complete an alignment point (note that the default action of 'Sync mount and recenter target' will probably mess up the star alignment because the sync will be unexpected by the star alignment calculations).

cheers,

Robin