SharpCap Forums

Hi Robin,

last evening I selected for the first time "Capture folder" (in step 3 Capture Dark Frame) when I captured my darks and flats.
I find the files as expected, but I noticed that the file name of the darks changed:
from (eg)
MasterDark_10_frames_14.3C_2025-04-25T19_56_09.fits
to
MasterDark_21_56_24.fits
omitting the day and temperature information. Is this a bug or can it be changed somewhere
(I did not see it, but this does not mean anything ) ?

Without the day information it is hard to see, which dark is loaded. While the flat file has no day information, the day information
is shown in the prepocessing tab (but not for the dark frame).

Thanks for looking and your great work !!

Cheers,
Michael

Hi Michael,

I just looked at the code and this filename is created based on the settings for creating a single output file as specified in the SharpCap filename settings page. That means that the options that are usually used for generating the names of video files (AVI, SER) are used, which is perhaps not what you would expect. SharpCap takes the filename that is generated using those settings and sticks 'MasterDark' (or 'MasterFlat' when generating flats) onto the beginning of the filename part. The folder name that the master dark goes into is based on the camera settings.

This hasn't changed recently, so I wonder if you have changed the way your filename settings are set up, which has in turn affected this?

cheers,

Robin

Hi Robin,

thanks for your explanation. I checked my notebook (used at the telescope) and see that the settings for the filename for a single file is indeed:
{Date:S}\{TargetName}\{Time}
But I have never changed that, so the filename must be composed differently, when selecting "Dark Library" (as I always used until last night):
MasterDark_10_frames_14.3C_2025-04-25T19_56_09.fits has temperature and the date in it. Odd

Cheers,
Mike

Hi Mike,

sorry, my mistake here - I missed reading all of the relevant code when putting together the answer above. What I detailed above is what you get if you have chosen the option to 'Save to Capture Folder'. If you have chosen to use the dark library instead then you get the number of frames and the temperature into the filename. I guess that those two have simply evolved differently over time as there have been requests for tweaks to one or the other side of the file name creation.

cheers,

Robin

Hi Robin,

nothing to be sorry about. Thanks for the information!

Do you plan to change the behaviour or to add settings for darks and flats for both modes?

For me I'm fine with the current status (only thought that I did sth. wrong or sth. changes).

Cheers,
Mike

Hi Mike,

glad we got to the bottom of the reason why... I don't think I will add any more elements to the filename when using the 'save to capture folder' option, as that filename can be customized anyway in the filename settings to include gain, exposure, temperature, etc.

cheers,

Robin

Hi Robin,

thanks, I'm fine with that!

Cheers,
Mike