Sequence for centering objects

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nandojoe
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed May 06, 2026 4:15 pm

Sequence for centering objects

#1

Post by nandojoe »

i Robin. Hello everyone. I´m a big fan of Sharpcap and a user of PRO Version. I have a Skywatcher 150 Virtuoso with an Alt/AZ go-to mount and an SV305C camera. I have no problem doing plate solving, I do it fairly easily. Also, my tracking is good enough to keep the object centered for a few minutes, but then it starts to get lost.

Therefore, although I know that SharpCap has a dithering option in Live Stacking, I made a sequence using Chatgpt to keep the object always centered. The sequence causes Sharpcap to take some photos, re-center the object, and then take more photos, as shown below:

SEQUENCE
MOUNT SOLVEANDSYNC
DELAY 3
LIVE STACKING RESET
LIVE STACKING START
LOOP 20 TIMES
LIVE STACK FOR 15 MORE FRAMES THEN PAUSE
DELAY 3
DISPLAY STRETCH AUTO
MOUNT SOLVEANDSYNC
DELAY 3
END LOOP
LIVE STACKING SAVE AllFormats
LIVE STACKING STOP
END SEQUENCE

I also added an autostretch so that Sharpcap improves brightness and performs plate solving faster.
I haven't tested it yet because of the cloudy weather, but do you think I can still improve it in any way?

Thank you very much for your support.
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admin
Site Admin
Posts: 17539
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:52 pm
Location: Vale of the White Horse, UK
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Re: Sequence for centering objects

#2

Post by admin »

Hi,

glad to hear that you are enjoying using SharpCap PRO :)

Unfortunately, ChatGPT and its friends don't seem to be able (yet) to put together really good SharpCap sequences or scripts - they can turn out the individual steps, but they are often not quite the right ones for the job, or in weird orderings.

You might actually be better off using the features to solve this sort of problem that are already built into SharpCap - for instance there is a 'Recenter' option available on the right hand side of the 'Guiding' settings tab of the live stacking area. Enabling that recenter option will make SharpCap automatically use plate solving to bring target back to the center if there is a build up of drift during live stacking. The advantage of using this is that it responds to the rate of drift, since you set a pixel distance threshold that is allowed to build up before the recentering is applied.

cheers,

Robin
nandojoe
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed May 06, 2026 4:15 pm

Re: Sequence for centering objects

#3

Post by nandojoe »

Thank you so much, Robin. So easy...It was right in front of my face!! :D :D :D
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