SharpCap Forums

Posted: **Sun Aug 02, 2026 8:31 pm**

Hello!

I would like to create an All-Sky time-lapse recording using a fisheye lens—without a tracking mount, just a stationary camera pointed at the zenith. However, I would still like some degree of automation, preferably via a sequencer.
I envision a setup where each frame is exposed for, say, 16 seconds within a loop—either for a set number of frames or until a specific astronomical event occurs, such as sunrise.
I could certainly put together a sequence that captures individual frames, which I would then assemble into a movie later. However, I am looking for a solution that generates the corresponding AVI file directly. Is something like that possible?

Best regards!
StarFlea

Posted: **Mon Aug 03, 2026 1:11 pm**

Hi,

I do something very similar for an all sky camera, using just the sequencer and a saved capture profile which has all the settings I want in it. My sequence is

Code: Select all

SEQUENCE
    LOOP 100 TIMES
        WAIT UNTIL EVENT CivilDusk
        CAMERA OPEN ALTAIRGP224C
        TARGETNAME AllSky
        LOAD PROFILE "AllSky RAW8 to WMV"
        DELAY 10
        CAPTURE START
        WAIT UNTIL NEXT EVENT CivilDawn
        CAPTURE STOP
        CAMERA CLOSE
    END LOOP
END SEQUENCE

The loaded profile sets the camera up in auto exposure and auto gain mode with the auto exposure max duration set to 30s. In my case the capture format is WMV, but AVI would work too - a single capture is started and runs all night to produce a single video file.

The outer loop 100 times is really unnecessary in my case, since I have the computer on a smart plug set to turn on at sunset and off at dawn. SharpCap is set to autostart and auto-run the sequence at startup. However, if you want to leave the computer on 24/7, the loop will run 100 days in theory (not sure how robust that would be though!)

cheers,

Robin

Posted: **Mon Aug 03, 2026 3:38 pm**

Ah, I see—so my sequence wasn't that far off after all. Thanks a lot!

But there's one more thing I need to know for the profile file: Did you set the exposure to 30 seconds, or the frame rate limit?

Posted: **Tue Aug 04, 2026 1:20 pm**

Hi,

Altair cameras have an auto-exposure that can be set to go up to 30s, so I set the maximum on that autoexposure *and* a frame rate limit of 1 every 30s to prevent lots of frames when the sky is brighter and the exposures are shorter.

cheers,

Robin

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