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Post by metro on Mar 27, 2019 1:48:19 GMT
Did'nt someone do a vid on Sharpcap here? I'm looking for starting hints on settings and doing darks flats and bias's. I have been getting images but I am just using the auto setting and playing with exposure time and frames per second. I could use hints on FPS as well.
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Post by Dragon Man on Mar 28, 2019 14:00:44 GMT
Metro, check all the posts made by member 'howie1'. He did several different sharpcap videos and posted them in here. But I don't remember any about Darks or Flats.
Just go to the 'search' tab up top, then enter 'sharpcap' as the 'what to search', and howie1 as the 'who to search'.
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Post by howie1 on Mar 30, 2019 8:35:31 GMT
Here you go Metro ... click on the following link to my channel. I did not have a SC one so I used the very rainy afternoon here to make this. Hope it helps you ...
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Post by metro on Mar 30, 2019 21:07:51 GMT
Thank you Howie!!! Also, in that Revolution Advanced Imager Kit theres an IR cut filter. Should I use that? If so do I put it infront of the focal reducer or after. Love the rain in the background of your vid, we all want clear skies but I also love a rainy day sometimes. Are you in Australia? Here's a shot I got of the Orion nebula the other night with a meteor shooting through, you can see I need improvement in my settings but I think it's kinda cool.
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Post by howie1 on Mar 31, 2019 23:20:30 GMT
Glad to help metro. Re using IR filter, Ken just posted up some help for Paul on that. I've cut and pasted his words in this thread to help you out on that ....
"... for viewing or imaging Galaxies, having no filters at all is best, but that causes bloated stars. Out of the 2 filters, IR cut and UV/IR cut, use only the IR cut filter. It does reduce some wanted IR light from Galaxies but it is far better than the UV/IR filter that cuts almost all the UV and IR. Galaxies emit a lot of UV and we want it on our camera sensors.
Many times I will remove all filters from my ED80 so Galaxies look far better, but when I get fed up seeing bloated stars I put an IR cut filter on it. For all other objects I leave the UV/IR filter on it."
Re putting the filter before or after the reducer ... I'm not sure what the Revolution reducer looks like, but my GSO brand reducers have a thread on the end which accepts filters. So with my ZWO I go camera then reducer then filter.
Yes I'm an Aussie living in Brisbane on the East coast. Agree nice to hear rain especially we are either in drought or flooding rains over here. When it's clear it is beautiful. Lots of beaches and hinterland ranges with forests. But also we're quite a big Movie making capital with many of the big Disney and other franchises like the Pirates of Caribbean and Marvel Thor etc being made here. Plus several theme parks n stuff so very, very light polluted where I live. So I travel about an hour and twenty or so West to escape the LP. Well, when I say escape, I mean at that site the East is still terrible but overhead and West it is pretty dark being rated bortle 4 skies. But it works a treat for my preferences in VA/ EAA.
Cheers
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Post by Dragon Man on Apr 1, 2019 10:46:11 GMT
Metro, attach your filter on the end of the Focal Reducer. Same as attaching one to the end of a nosepiece
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Post by metro on Apr 2, 2019 9:54:42 GMT
Well it looks like I have a newer version of Sharpcap cause my camera settings are totally different. I don't have Debayering below the format tab, and I don't have red and blue in the White Balance. I have coulour enable (guessing that may be something like debayering) Gamma, Saturation, Hue, Contrast, and Brightness. I tried playing with all that looking at the Histogram but it was tough. I don't expect you to make another vid unless you're really bored, actually you might not even have my version. I'll dig in to the user manual. Also thinking about upgrading to Pro, is that worth it for a beginer?
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Post by metro on Apr 4, 2019 8:27:21 GMT
Well I have been doing some research and I bought Sharpcap Pro license and the settings stayed the same. More research looks to be telling me the different settings are due to me having a different camera?
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Post by howie1 on Apr 4, 2019 9:50:13 GMT
Metro ... as per my video, if you have a color camera and you see color in the preview image ... then you don't have to set Debayer. You only have to switch it from OFF to ON if your color camera displays monochrome.
I have downloaded the latest version to try out with my ASI224 color.
The developer has changed things ... for the worse (IMO)!
The histogram on the preview image no longer has red blue channel adjustment. So it can only be used to set gain and exposure ... ie to watch the curve move off the left axis. That is a real shame! So now the only way to color balance is to start stacking as the stacking histogram does have red, blue and now even green sliders ... BUT unfortunately they only work if you buy the Pro version!
Metro, the debayer option now only "appears" if you select RAW16 format or RAW8 format. It doesn't show up under RGB32 format. However, for me, while Debayer shows up when you select RAW16 or RAW8 in the new version, it doesnt matter if I select ON or OFF ... it only displays monochrome for my color camera. Maybe its a bug??
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Post by metro on Apr 4, 2019 10:19:59 GMT
Well, I guess I'll have to figure things out with exposure and gain then do some live stacking and try to tweak it. I bought the pro version. I have a new found respect for you guys that produce these incredible shots.
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Post by metro on Apr 10, 2019 5:08:48 GMT
Well, I've been fumbling through Sharpcap and DSS and tonight it's cloudy so I downloaded GIMP and started playing with post capture processing and I'm pleasantly surprised with my results. I feel I've been getting a bit better every week, I work nights Thur-Sun and have time to study so I try to learn a bit then get out under the stars if it's clear M-W. here's a few shots, obviously I need to work at it but that's the beauty of this hobby, always learning. Many thanks to everyone who has helped Dragon Man, Howie, Dave, Elpajare. Celestron Nexstar 8SE, Revolution Advanced Imager Kit 224, Sharpcap, DSS, GIMP M57 2 seconds X 29 18 Darks M101 8 seconds X 45 15 darks
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Post by Dragon Man on Apr 10, 2019 11:10:50 GMT
Well done Metro. M101 looks fantastic. Yeah, take your time learning all this stuff. There's no hurry. Space isn't going anywhere
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