Excellent video - I enjoyed every minute, including the so called "boring" parts like polar alignment or the real life wifi disconnects. No need to insta-glamor, real deal all the way. Really enjoying your down to earth, not overhyped, way of introducing astrophotography to the community. Well done and thanks again!
Wow!! - That's superb to hear mate, I'm really so happy that you've enjoyed the video, warts and all! :-) I just want to say thank you so much for watching the whole thing and taking the time to leave your very encouraging message, I really appreciate your time! :-) All the very best, Luke
I really enjoy all of the commentary you provide. You take the time to explain why you make different adjustments and settings. Very well done! And appreciated.
I use sharp cap with either CDC or Stellarium for my imaging. Have never used live stacking as most of my imaging is done with a mono camera and narrow band filters or with a DSLR. Hower I have just bought a OSC camera and after watching your excellent post will definitely give it a go.
Bloody excellent and honest video! I platesolve via NINA and only use Sharpcap for PA. I am interested in EAA and now you showed me how to do it, thanks. Get some fingerless gloves and a big mug of hot ginger and honey tea.
I absolutely loved this format. I'm a noob to astronomy, just bought my first scope, and seeing what a real night of observation is really like is sooo important! Thank you!
Another fun video. As a ASI 2600 owner, I was surprised to hear you say you use bias frames with the camera. All the documentation Ive seen suggest this camera does not use bias frames. Only Flats , Flat Darks and Darks.
Hey there Tom! It's great to hear from you :-) I have to say the 2600 is the absolute least fussy camera I've ever used, bias instead of flat darks? no problem. no darks at all, just dithering instead? no problem. - it's a pleasure to use I reckon! :-) Thank you very much for watching mate! All the best, Luke
I can only use my telescope at weekend due to work. I bought a celestron astromaster 130 eq with a motor. There were no weights with it so I bought some steel and made over this week and just finished them last night ready for first clear sky in 8 weekends. Got all set up in the garden and the battery was flat for the motor lol. Sods law strikes again. :) Hopefully tonight will be clear. Now I think I need to upgrade from a svbony 105.
I'm really happy you liked it my friend and that's an interesting point you bring up! - it's wonderful fun to be able to see many dso's in one session so I'm glad as many people can access it as possible! :-) Clear skies!
thanks for doing a bit on EAA! even though to those of us who do mainly EAA it's a little funny to use the term for 40-minute and 80-minute stacks... ;) i'm only just started following, but love your style.
Thanks so much for watching Bob! - I appreciate your support my friend :-) I definitely agree with you that it's not the classic definition of EAA, haha! you've got me there! Thanks again for watching mate, Clear skies!
Wow! You're making SharpCap do tricks that I had no idea it could do! Normally I just use the PA tool and Framing Shot functions. I need to explore SharpCap more. Hey... maybe a video you could do? 🙂
Hey Shaun! - Ah that's just awesome to hear mate, I think you're going to have so much fun with all your new gear :-) your setup looks great buy the way, thanks for sharing it on Insta! Clear skies buddy 👍👍
Great video Luke. I enjoy you doing EAA on those poor seeing conditions and windy nights and the way you go about your workflow doing live stack views on multiple objects are brilliant to watch. The detail in the Eskimo nebula is amazing. I could watch this type of imaging for 1-2 hours, great stuff and thanks for sharing it. Clear skies.
Hey Jon! - Brilliant mate, I'm real happy to hear it was a good video style for you to watch! thank you! - I know this kind of thing is probably not everyone's cup of tea but I find it fun and a real nice change of pace from regular astrophotography every once in a while! Thank you so much for watching and giving your support my friend, I appreciate it :-) Clear skies! p.s, the Eskimo was my favourite too I think, it came out great!
Nice one. Excellent for beginners. I recommend Fingerless gloves and I also put the small charcoal hand warmers in them, in my boots and also tuck a couple over my ears and under the beanie… 😂 a 12v blanket is a good addition to outdoor kit as well. Even better is the heated jacket from millwalkee tools
Hey there Karen! - I'll bet you don't end up cold with all that warming gear haha! :-D You've definitely got the right idea though, when you start to get cold it can quickly turn from fun to practically miserable! :-) Thanks so much for watching and commenting! Clear skies
Thanks very much Glenn! - It's a nice change of pace from the usual, always feels good to knock the cobwebs off the scope with a good few targets in one night! :-D I'd love to see how you get on with it if you have a crack mate :-) Thanks for watching and clear skies!
i did live stacking friday night with my new ioptron mount. i used the ioptron polar camera to align and my target was Andromeda, sadly in my excitement i forgot to change file format and they saved as png files, for a first go im really pleased with the result
That's brilliant to hear mate! your first picture came out great in the email you sent, well done! - it sounds like you had fun too, which is the most important thing! Clear skies mate :-)
Another wonderful video Luke. Always enjoy the casual comfort of being out in your backyard as you walk us through the night. When you had the Wifi issue, it emphasized how important problem solving, patience, and perseverance is to this hobby. (I’d love to see a video of all your…”miscues” allowing us to experience your problems-solving approach.) For me, being at the beginning of the AP learning curve, I feel that your videos have provided the right mindset for persisting in this most complex hobby of ours. And why not invite ‘grand dad’ over for a peek once in awhile :-)
Hey there Joe! - So glad to hear you've liked the video mate, I think you've hit the nail on the head again with your mention of patience, problem solving and perseverance - absolutely key components to this whole complex machine! RE: Granddad, I've shown him a good few things so far over on the screen, always enjoys seeing it! :-) Thanks so much for watching, as always mate! Clear skies! Luke
Hi Luke. Here I am reviewing your old videos. They are very instructive, especially for those who are just starting out. Although almost everyone uses NINA now, SharpCap is still quite useful for some tasks. I often use it for live stacking when I want to quickly record distant planets or asteroids. I also used it for high resolution planetary, lunar and solar capture, but now I'm using FireCapture more frequently. Hugs
Hey there Jesus!! :-D I hope you are well my friend, it's cool to see you enjoying some of my older vids! - Thank you! I still really like sharpcap, especially for planetary/lunar/lucky imaging as you mentioned - 100% agree!! admittedly for standard deep-sky imaging it's just not as good as NINA but it's still an amazing piece of software, I've yet to try FireCapture though, glad to hear you are enjoying it! :-D Clear skies buddy! Hugs!
Great tutorial on a general night of observation from a backyard astrophotographer. Yes, it does look cold from here too ... I was getting chills while watching. I have never tried 'live stacking' as for some reason, I just never trusted it, but after watching your video, I must give it a try. Oh yes, you are most correct ... there is never a night when everything works perfectly ... I speak from experience. As a matter of fact, the last few nights, I couldn't get anything to work at all. BTW, some of that cold weather is heading my way .... Brrrr.
Thanks so much Pat! - It's comforting to hear I'm not the only one with regular mess-ups, haha - I guess it's all part & parcel of the game in the end! :-) I think you'd like live-stacking my friend, it's a fun way to get those near-instant results that can be alluring sometimes! - I hope that you give it a go and find that you enjoy yourself! :-) Hopefully the cold weather doesn't stay with you too long! All the best and thank you for watching! Clear skies :-)
Hey Jason! - That's great dude haha :-D I'm so happy to hear it came across that way! It was good fun to just relax and shoot a few dso's with no pressure on getting a "good" image, just have some fun! Thanks for watching mate!
What a different approach Luke! Great video, I liked the more relaxed style mate! You’re right about making mistakes though, we all make them, right now I’m imagining and watching your vid and at the beginning of your vid, you mentioned balancing! Then I had a blue fit, because I remembered I forgot to balance my scope and it’s been running for over an hour! Leaving my cap on the guide scope is a favourite of mine too! Last night I lost over an hour of subs because my EAF played up and they were all out of focus!! So yes, warts ‘n’ all mate!! But that’s why we love it! Brilliant images as always, and your M51 was amazing 👍 FYI, I posted my first ‘proper’ vid last night! on the Jellyfish😀 Clear skies Luke!
Hey there Simon mate! Haha, I'm so glad to hear you liked it! - It's definitely a bit of a looser-formatted vid than usual, it was nice to do something different for a vid though and I'm glad it turned out well! :-) I'm relieved to hear it's not just me who regularly has oh crud moments, haha - it happens to us all I guess mate :-) Going to go watch your vid right now! - Well done you for uploading mate! Clear skies :-D
Excellent again Luke, I just treated myself to a 130 pds ,took some test shots on m81-2 really happy with the result guiding next so thanks for vid, it looked bloomin freezing well done.
That's superb Peter! - the 130pds is a cracking scope mate, congratulations! :-) It was pretty blinkin' chilly, I'll be honest haha - good fun though! Thanks for watching matey, good luck with finding the right guide setup and I think you'll have many a happy night with that 130pds ahead of you :-) Clear skies!
Great vid luke, Im just setting up my 130PDS with sharpcap and was doing the moon last night and other targets in Orion. Had sharpcap pro for over 2 years now but still finding my way round it and like you I enjoy jumping around the sky sort of snap shooting. All the best.
Hey there K K! - that's super to hear mate, it sounds like you had a great fun session there browsing around orion and the moon! :-) that's what it's all about! 👍👍 Thank you for sharing mate, giving your support and watching the vid my friend! Clear skies :-)
Awesome Luke. Nothing wrong with a warts and all video mate. Just been looking to see when you got the EQ8. Can't believe I missed that video. Think it was when I was on moving house. and had no internet. Nail on the head....it doesn't always go to plan. In fact, I started recording earlier and it fogged over before I could polar align. Take care buddy, hope all is well.
Hey Ben! Ah mate, sorry to hear you had a fogged off session, - it's totally fogged out here tonight too, can barely make out the moon! I think the EQ8 did come around that time buddy, haha - it's been a brilliant mount, really enjoy using it! Glad to hear you've enjoyed the vid matey, it's was a nice chill one to make :-) Hope it clears for you soon bud! thank you for watching and thanks again for your support! Clear skies :-)
Awesome Video! I just did this last night with my C6 Hyperstar and the Radian Triad Ultra F3 filter. I was watching Nebulae stack in real time (sometimes over exposed LOL). I probably wont use this to create pre-stacked images but would be a great teaching aid to friends and family. Thanks!
That's awesome to hear David!! - I think you've got a great idea in using it to share the night sky with others too, it's perfect for outreach! :-) Thank you for watching and commenting my friend, hope you have a great weekend!!
When doing PA with SC, I always choose my guidecam and guidescope. Just a tad more responsive. But no reason to have an expensive PA-scope when you have SC. NINA also does a good job, but not as painless as SC. But if you can't see Polaris, NINA is the king.
Hey there!! - I hear you mate, it can definitely be more responsive to use the guidescope, especially if your main scope + camera has a tight field of view! Thanks for watching mate!
Dude! I need to send you some gloves! Loved hanging for your EAA sesh, and the voice appearance of Grandad was great lol Shot wise I especially liked the Eskimo :)
Hey Chris! - I'm going to have to fish out my gloves haha, I've no idea where they've gotten to!! :-D I think the Eskimo was my favourite for the night too, it came out super well! - It was a good little fun session, no pressure, easy, top stuff. I'll have to let my Grandad know he's now big on UA-cam haha! As always mate, thank you for watching! :-)
Hey pal! Lovely video! Still haven't figured out how to platesolve in sharpcap ... :) Hope it connects to stelarium too. Bought the licence for PA. And some livestacking fun with the kids and friends. Fast scope helps, also that's my preferred way to do planetary too :) Firecapture doesn't love my camera too much ... Have fun and stay warm!
Hey there Actudoran! :-) I can confirm sharpcap will talk to stellarium, I gave it a go just to check! (you need to enable the telescope control plug in within stellarium, and tell sharpcap that's the planetarium 👍) On the note of platesolving, you'll need Astap and the h19 catalogue, install both and point sharpcap to the install location 👍 I'll likely do a video on this at some point as it's tricky to understand without seeing it done I think? That sounds like a great purchase by the way, sharpcap EAA would be a brilliant way to spend a nice summer evening in the garden, perfect 👌 Clear skies matey!
Admirable la tenacidad que tienes y lo bien que manejas los programas, en verdad se necesita tener gusto por hacer Astrofotografia ya que no es nada fácil siempre se presentan complicaciones. Saludos
It's something I can look into in the future mate, I appreciate the suggestion! - In the meantime though to help you get started straight away it might be best to check on Sharpcap's web manual, it's a pretty full-fledged production and explains most features very well! :-) Clear skies and good luck my friend!
Interesting to see the “dark side” as well. I am staying clear of it still. I am perfectly fine on the “red side” 😅 I hope to get my second mount up and running soon. My wallet will not like it though… still debating what to do and if I should do it…
Hey Martin! - Thank you mate, I'm glad it was interesting to see :-D Can't wait to see what you get done with your second mount rig my friend, I'm confident that whatever you decide to do with it will be the right choice! Clear skies mate!
Hi Luke Can you step through the looping procedures, im still a little lost regarding the capture process for deep sky imaging, for example if you don't have ASCOM etc!!, just need a step by step for those that don't have a great deal automation.
Gday Luke! - Man it's looking cool there I could see the 2deg on your screen 😬, meanwhile we're up around 30 today. Does Sharpcap have any autofocus option, I'm guessing not? Enjoyed the video mate, the walkthrough and the informal style. It's a lot of fun and something I want to try more when our nights start getting darker sooner. Take it easy pal and say hi to Ron. :-)
Hey matey! I'll be sure to tell Ron you said hello, haha!! :-D Blimey, 30 - that's some proper weather! Hope you are getting a bit of clear skies too though mate? I'm glad you enjoyed the vid mate, I had fun making something a bit loose and chilled, zero pressure, just a bit of fun in the yard on a clear night :-) I'd love to see if you give it a go man, I bet you'd have a lot of fun with it! Thanks for watching Ollie, as always mate. (oh and about sharpcap autofocus, it has it - but it's not very auto I reckon haha, a bit weird to use but it kinda works?)
Fantastic Video Luke. Nice Workflow, man. I Love The Images Of Cats Eye and Eskimo nebula, My Favourites! I only Use Free Version Of sharpcap. Great Images, Clear Skies!
Thanks so much buddy!! I'm glad you liked it, I'd love to see you doing some planetary nebula and stuff mate, that would be cool to see! Clear skies my friend! 👍👍
@@lukomatico For Sure man!! Its Gonna be a Bit Challenging. I did Try The eskimo Nebula. I couldnt Get Much, just a Tiny Green Star. I should Have Increased the Exposure time. But My Mount Doesn't Tend To Handle Longer Exposures😅. But I will Get an EQ mount For Sure, Sometime This Year!
Hey mate! Ah that's cool, I'm glad you've already given it a go! Now you've tried it I'm sure you can figure out another way to try and make the capture next time my friend :-D Good luck Avanteesh! 👍👍
Live stacking is great for just hopping about the sky looking at different things, I have done a couple of livestream the last 2 nights doing just that. I was using ASI Studio live stacking instead, although have used Sharcap in the past as well. Hopefully someone will develop a livestack plug-in for N.I.N.A. which would be great.
Hey Dave! - Ah mate I'm sorry I've missed em, I bet you get some great views out at your location! :-) I've not really given much time so far to the other options out there really, mainly just been happy with Sharpcap pro! :-D A NINA plugin is a great idea, I'm sure a lot of people would enjoy that! Clear skies buddy!
Great video but I really struggle with sharpcap. Your screen says right 00.05 something but it looks like the star you're aiming for is left. I just can't get my head around the spacial awareness of where I need to move my mount. I only have a Skyguider Pro tracker and use a guide camera connected to sharp cap. I'm thinking of getting the ipolar camera instead, it looks more straightforward
Hey there Paul! - I'd say sharpcap PA is worth sticking with if you wanted to give it another go, try to not worry about the visual feedback and instead just focus on the numbers and directions, I reckon 20 minutes before a session one night, just practicing doing polar alignment a few times over and you'd be used to it :-) Clear skies and good luck mate!
I really like this. It got me thinking about using live stacking of really short exposures into longer subs which can be stacked later. On the subject of capturing your laptop screen, have you considered using OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) to do a screen capture. I think you would have a much more clear image of the computer screen and you wouldn't need to have a second camera recording.
Hey there mate! - RE: stacking the stacks, it works really well! you can just treat them as big individual subexposures to be stacked like normal, I've got a video coming soon where I am doing this exact thing actually! :-D (well, I need to edit it first haha) OBS might be something I need to look into, it's a pain setting up a second camera each time for shots like that! - Cheers for the suggestion mate! Hope you are getting some clear skies :-)
Hey Luke, havent started watching the video yet but if you add the timestamps as a list in the description UA-cam automatically creates chapters in your video :)
Hey there mate! I knew I'd forgotten to do something haha!! I'd set the video off uploading and went to bed, then totally forgot to add the timestamps, oops! :-D I'll get that done today, thanks for the reminder my friend! Clear skies! :-)
Do you have a guide camera in this? Also, do you have your laptop outside with the scope? Do you leave it running overnight? (just using ASI Air+ for EAA atm) Great vid - encouraged to try SharCap.
Yes to all the above! 👍👍 I really like the asiair approach to EAA, but sharpcap can be a heck of a lot of fun in my experience! Worth a go for the relatively low setup cost I'd say! Clear skies
Don't need an eq mount for EAA people darks, flats, etc. Never use them as with EAA all your doing is viewing near live, so flats, darks, etc not needed. Only important if your doing astrophotography
All true Dennis! - But it's only fair to say though that EQ-mounts & darks, flats, bias etc will certainly serve to enhance your views in most cases, so if they aren't much trouble then why not use em' and make the most of the rare clear nights! :-) Thanks for watching mate!
Great tutorial Luke, thanks. One question, I just started using SharpCap (paid version) and the gain only goes to 54. Maybe the gain setting is dependent on the camera used (I'm using a QHY183C) . Any thoughts on this?
Hey Kevin! :-) Thanks so much mate, glad you liked the vid! - RE: Gain, you've got it - the slider is tied to the camera/driver suite as you suspected :-)
Hiya Luke . Don't know if you'll see an alert for this comment/question as it is now March 2024 . Question...can you manually drop bad Frames during an EAA Session ? Reasons would be meteor and Satellite trails I imagine . Also , I'm getting the impression I can not use a DSLR for EAA with Sharpcap ? Do I have that wrong ? No rush obviously and thanks for making Videos we can go back to as a Reference . Cheers !
Hey Scott!! Unfortunately you can't manually reject frames during eaa, but you can set your rejection parameters to be quite robust and save you from a lot of errors 👍 Re: DSLR, I'm afraid so! EAA is really the domain of dedicated cams only - there are possible workarounds though, using folder monitor live stacking as one way - (I've got a video on that too) Hope that helps buddy!
@@lukomaticoThanks Luke , much appreciated . I'm going to see if going back to visual astronomy will satisfy me again if not the whole nine yards goes up for sale . Getting too old to keep up with this "hobby" . Groan . LOL./Scott.....
That's not how you polar align. You're supposed to move the azimuth bolts, left or right, not move the tripod legs. I use a compas before dark to get within 10 or 15 degrees, depending on the amount of movement you have in the azimuth screws, to get the mount close to true north. Magnetic North isn't quite the same as true north but if you know your latitude you can get the scope close to true north in altitude and azimuth. Once its dark enough you can use a finder scope, or your guide scope, provided you've aligned them with where your main scope is pointing and get Polaris in the center. That should have you close enough to polar align in less than three minutes or so. I would mention something that a lot of people don't know and that is you have to tighten the bolts on your mount head to tri pier or tripod to finish the polar alignment. Usually once you've got the mount within 1 to 1 1/2 arc minutes of true north, using Sharpcap, tightening the mount head bolts and the right ascension locking bolts will finish the polar alignment. If you do not tighten your mount head down as a last step of polar alignment, a heavy scope will ruin polar alignment as it slews or tracks. The shifting weight will ruin alignment.
That definitely IS how you polar align haha! Moving the legs or moving the azimuth bolts is exactly the same. My method saves a lot of time when setting up on a hard surface, especially given that you can leave the azimuth plate lock bolts tight all the time this way too.
Hey there mate! - You are 100% correct my friend, I should have dithered/increased dither frequency a lot to combat the pattern noise :-) Thanks for watching!
Fascinating video Luke and as always very enjoyable. I've never tried that style of imaging but might give it a go. I think asi air plus has the option to live stack ? My WiFi signal is really poor outside my house which is why I upgraded to the asi air plus so sticking with that for the time being. Great video on sharpcap mate which is an excellent piece of software and I also suspect the polar alignment is more accurate than asi air.
Hey Paul! - Thanks for watching mate, I'm always glad to hear your thoughts on the videos! :-) The Air can indeed live stack, and it does it rather well too! - the only issue I had is that it takes 15 seconds for the air to stack a 2600mc pro exposure, whereas sharpcap is done in 2 seconds and the next frame is already started, which all adds up over the course of a night as you can imagine! RE: polar alignment, you'll likely be glad to hear I've not noticed any accuracy difference really matey! infact, I actually prefer the asiair PA routine as it moves the scope RA for you, rather than messing about with the clutches and then having to put it back to 'home' manually. pretty nice feature! :-) I'll likely be doing another video with the AIR soon, thinking about investigating binning, bin1 vs bin2 etc - should be decent fun! Hope you are keeping well mate! All the best, and again, thanks for watching! Luke
Great video. When I use sharpcap with my asi2600mc, I get dark horizontal lines from all brighter objects in frame.. I have not figured out how tobsolvevthis.. doesn't happen with the asi294mc.. Thank you
Thanks for watching mate! - That's a really odd sounding problem with the 2600 you are having! I wonder if there's some horizontal banding reduction accidentally turned on, or maybe the offset level is too low in the camera settings? just a few random suggestions, I know it's unlikely to be one of those but maybe worth a check if you get the chance! Hope you get it sorted soon buddy! Clear skies :-)
Luke Simon astro mentioned in a video that you sorted him out with a 3d printed bahtinov mask, but cant find where you mention them, what do you use or where to get them, I am using this video to get me setup, so you view count may shoot up. Keep it up quality is great,
Hey Graeme! :-) Great to hear you've found me through Simon! He's a top bloke 👍 Regarding the Bahtinov masks I make them myself and sell them on Ebay, but I only currently make them for the William optics redcat 51 👍 This should be the link for you - or alternatively search redcat bahtinov mask on eBay, should be the top result www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274951234332?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=aSEG7hnWQ2G&sssrc=2051273&ssuid=aSEG7hnWQ2G&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
I’m considering getting this app along with my future asi 178 Mc color , so I wanted to know (as an 11 year old) if I am gonna be able to catch on with the usage of sharpcap and if it’s compatible with the sky max 127 Thanks to respond when you can ^^
great video! I have already learned a lot about EAA from you. A question about dithering. At what interval did you dither here or what interval can you recommend? I use an IMX585 sensor and currently dither every 180sec. regardless of whether I expose for 2, 10 or 15 seconds. Do you think that fits? I dither over 12 pixels. Greetings from Germany! Matthias
Hey there Matthias! So sorry for the late reply, I think rather than dithering on a specific time you should instead dither on a set amount of frames :-) perhaps every 5 frames is a good idea in many cases, unless perhaps using extremely short exposures where you'd lose a lot of time to dithers and settles, maybe every 10 if that was the case 👍 Hope that helps!
Great video Luke, I'm new at EAA. Using CDC, PHD2 and SharpCap Pro. I''m having problems with SharpCap talking to CDC with my mount. I have ASCOM Drivers, My EQmount is iEXOS-100. I 'm able to connect to SharpCap, but when I try to open CDC, it indicates a COM port Error. in your video at timeline 9:33 you clicked on an icon, EQMOD. Where does this software come from?
Hey there mate! - sorry to hear you've been having some connection issues, I do indeed use EQmod, it's available at this location - sourceforge.net/projects/eq-mod/ Hope that helps!
Great video again! I have yet to try SharpCap's polar alignment tool, but think I may switch to it, rather than using my iPolar. Need to give this live stacking a shot too! Have you tried the new deep sky planner (I think it's called) option? I haven't been able to run a plan with it yet, but it seems pretty nice. Couldn't seem to find an auto focus section in it though, when I last looked.
Hey there mate!! Hope you are doing good :-D I've not tried the sequencer out at all yet in truth, I'll have to try it out at some point :-) I definitely think sharpcap's PA is very well refined and worth a go, if it even saves a few minutes it may be worth switching for 👍 Thanks for watching bud, and I hope you give some live-stacking a go, it's great fun! :-) Clear skies!
Hi Luke, Great video. Still using WiFi in your back garden eh?, only a matter of time before you plug that RJ45 in I'm telling you :) ahaha. Re the Sharpcap telescope movement issue. It shouldn't be. I use it all the time. It was indeed set on custom for some reason when I first loaded V4 but all you have to to is go into settings and make sure its set to use last camera setup on restart then use the drop down on telescope controls panel to select sidereal, shut Sharpcap and then re open, from then is should always be sidereal. It seams to be that the general consensus of use for this method of imaging using Sharpcap is hopping around the sky to get quick stacks on many targets during the night using short exposures? . I for one do not use it like that, Its my primary imaging software. For nebula I use 3 min subs/L-extreme (one shot colour cam) and leave it on a target for hours. I then use the Pixinsight blink feature to take out any bad frames then restack using the Sharpcap monitor folder feature with the dark , flat etc. I don't use deep sky stacker, what a faff that is!, using Sharpcap I can see the stack quality in real time as I'm re-stacking it. why wouldn't you want to do that? Then just export the pre aligned 32bit unadjusted raw fits stack single file and start processing. Done! I can assure you this method Its no less effective (in terms of the final result) than using SGP, Nina, APT + DSS etc etc. Give it a go with some long exposures as you would do normally. For those that like to sequence their imaging sessions for more than one target, (in the UK we hardly get a decent few hours of clear night most of the time so...) Sharp cap 4 can now do that as well, and change filters/ re-focus etc etc if that's what floats. Cheers! Dave.
Hey Dave! - Appreciate the comment mate 😀 I've tried sharpcap with long exposures before and it works decently well, but it can never stack with the same quality as DSS/PixInsight/APP due to the fact that when sharpcap runs the stack, it calculates a rolling average on a frame by frame basis. Without pre-analysis of the frames like DSS/Pix/APP do then the frames will not be weighted correctly, a reference image will not be selected properly and also it can't use outlier rejection algorithms with the same efficiency as a program with knowledge of the full stack can! I'm not saying sharpcap is bad at stacking of course! - it's just mathematically it can never do as good of a job as DSS/APP/Pix can do. Cheers!
@@lukomatico That's because you're not using the folder stack after the session where it does have knowledge of all frames before stacking. Also when auditioning the frames in blink I will pick the best frame and rename it 1.... for example it will then use this as a frame one stack reference, also seeing the background/cloud light level and star sharpness in real time by running blink on a cycle over your frames is far more intuitive than relying on DSS to decide weather or not it will or will not use one of your precious frames!
@@FrootyRecords Manually picking a reference image is fine of course, but I'm 99% sure that Sharpcap never pre-registers or weights the images mate, regardless of folder stacking or not - it just stacks them in the order they arrive from the folder! 🙂 Even in the event that it did have the full info like DSS/Pix/APP, it still wouldn't be as effective as proper stacking software due to it's very limited stacking options - only sigma clipping or averaging is available, no advanced algorithms, no options to drizzle, bayer drizzle, resample, better debayering options (vng etc) - that's just the start really! It's really fun to use though for sure! we can agree on that haha 😀 Clear skies mate!
@@lukomatico I see your point Luke and it yes they should be better a stacking with all those other options you mentioned available .So... I will take some previous data and run it through both methods to see what the actual real world difference is. I do remember the last time I used DSS it took ages to process. Sharpcap is extremely fast that's for sure but as you say this may be due to its simplicity. I will see what the results are. At least at the moment, I am very pleased with the images I get from this Sharpcap method. Is there a way I could send you some of them easily so you can see for yourself? Cheers Dave
@@FrootyRecords Hey Dave! - I definitely think that's a good idea to test mate, top plan! I've no doubt your images are coming out great with sharpcap by the way! - I'm sorry if it seemed like I was implying any other way of course buddy 🙂 I too really like to use it, and definitely will continue to do so! If you want to send over some shots mate then by all means, send some over via the email address on my "about" page here on YT, or send me some on Instagram mate! It'd be great to see them 🙂 Clear skies mate!
I find you dont need a B mask at all. Over expose a planet, say Jupiter, focus till the edges are sharp, then drop your exposure, then will find its focused. With a star, same principle but focus will it's the sharpest point, then when you drop your exposures will find its in focus. This system never fails and never needed any mask, and works just as well. Else easier to do focus I the day and if you have an electronic focuser that has a number take note of this, or if your focuser has a scale take note of were it it, or even mark the focuser. Then will find your spot on
I'm glad it works well for you mate! :-) I too used to focus "by eye" early in my astro career, but getting a bahtinov mask definitely did improve the repeatability of things, and removes all guesswork by attaining a true critical focus based on diffraction rather than perception - I do accept both ways can work though! :-) Clear skies mate!
Hey there! - I decided on 450 just from the visual feedback on the screen, plenty of stars showing up for live-stacking to use, could see the target slightly in individual subs - this was all just an experiment really and a bit of fun, it's definitely not my forte or my usual style :-D Thanks for commenting!
@@BurnleyFreefighters Ah mate I'm sorry to hear it :-( exact same situation here, just had a look outside and it's fogging up as I type this! Well, surely better luck next time! 🙂 Have a good one mate
Lost Mr. After you had it reading Excelkent you then moved the telescope waaay to the right. Didn't that just negate everything you just did? Totally confused. As you can tell, EXTREMELY NEW to all of this.
After it was reading excellent I was finished with PA, so the next step was returning the telescope to home by rotating the whole RA axis, I hope that explains what was going on! :-D Sorry for any confusion! All the best & good luck mate!
Superb. Very very informative. Just cannot stop watching.
Thank you my friend! - So happy to hear it :-)
Clear skies!
Excellent video - I enjoyed every minute, including the so called "boring" parts like polar alignment or the real life wifi disconnects. No need to insta-glamor, real deal all the way. Really enjoying your down to earth, not overhyped, way of introducing astrophotography to the community. Well done and thanks again!
Wow!! - That's superb to hear mate, I'm really so happy that you've enjoyed the video, warts and all! :-)
I just want to say thank you so much for watching the whole thing and taking the time to leave your very encouraging message, I really appreciate your time! :-)
All the very best,
Luke
I really enjoy all of the commentary you provide. You take the time to explain why you make different adjustments and settings. Very well done! And appreciated.
I appreciate that a great deal mate, thank you!! :-)
I use sharp cap with either CDC or Stellarium for my imaging. Have never used live stacking as most of my imaging is done with a mono camera and narrow band filters or with a DSLR. Hower I have just bought a OSC camera and after watching your excellent post will definitely give it a go.
That's awesome to hear!! I really hope you have some fun with SC live-stacking :-)
Great! Thanks. I appreciate the details. Please continue this approach and style. I like EAA and the mix with imaging. Well done!!
Thank you so much for the feedback!! :-D I'm very glad to hear you enjoyed the approach 👍👍
All the best and clear skies
Bloody excellent and honest video! I platesolve via NINA and only use Sharpcap for PA. I am interested in EAA and now you showed me how to do it, thanks. Get some fingerless gloves and a big mug of hot ginger and honey tea.
Thank you so much Jody! - I'm so happy to hear you're inspired to try out some EAA! - it can be wonderfully fun :-) Thank you for watching!
I absolutely loved this format. I'm a noob to astronomy, just bought my first scope, and seeing what a real night of observation is really like is sooo important! Thank you!
Thank you so much Luca! - I appreciate your comment my friend :-) I really enjoy doing EAA astronomy using live-stacking, it's so much fun!
Another fun video. As a ASI 2600 owner, I was surprised to hear you say you use bias frames with the camera. All the documentation Ive seen suggest this camera does not use bias frames. Only Flats , Flat Darks and Darks.
Hey there Tom! It's great to hear from you :-)
I have to say the 2600 is the absolute least fussy camera I've ever used, bias instead of flat darks? no problem. no darks at all, just dithering instead? no problem. - it's a pleasure to use I reckon! :-)
Thank you very much for watching mate!
All the best,
Luke
I can only use my telescope at weekend due to work. I bought a celestron astromaster 130 eq with a motor. There were no weights with it so I bought some steel and made over this week and just finished them last night ready for first clear sky in 8 weekends. Got all set up in the garden and the battery was flat for the motor lol. Sods law strikes again. :) Hopefully tonight will be clear. Now I think I need to upgrade from a svbony 105.
Hey Damian!
Oh mate, talk about sod's law eh!
Hopefully your next time out goes nice and smooth bud! Good luck!
Brilliant! Everything you showed is pure gold for me as I'm getting ready to start AP. Very helpful, thank you!
Hey John! - That's just super to hear matey!! Very glad it was some help :-)
Clear skies and good luck!
This was awesome, as a older person with some relative serious vision issues, it is great to see a technique for us to see the DSOs
I'm really happy you liked it my friend and that's an interesting point you bring up! - it's wonderful fun to be able to see many dso's in one session so I'm glad as many people can access it as possible! :-)
Clear skies!
thanks for doing a bit on EAA! even though to those of us who do mainly EAA it's a little funny to use the term for 40-minute and 80-minute stacks... ;) i'm only just started following, but love your style.
Thanks so much for watching Bob! - I appreciate your support my friend :-)
I definitely agree with you that it's not the classic definition of EAA, haha! you've got me there!
Thanks again for watching mate,
Clear skies!
this is astronomical gold
Thank you so much!! :-D
Wow! You're making SharpCap do tricks that I had no idea it could do! Normally I just use the PA tool and Framing Shot functions. I need to explore SharpCap more. Hey... maybe a video you could do? 🙂
Thank you so much mate! That's a cool idea, I should really like to look into that and do more demonstrations :-)
Clear skies!
next thing of shopping list is guidescope and camera...asiair plus on the way...new skywatcher wedge arrived today.. great video as usual Luke
Hey Shaun! - Ah that's just awesome to hear mate, I think you're going to have so much fun with all your new gear :-) your setup looks great buy the way, thanks for sharing it on Insta!
Clear skies buddy 👍👍
Great video Luke. I enjoy you doing EAA on those poor seeing conditions and windy nights and the way you go about your workflow doing live stack views on multiple objects are brilliant to watch. The detail in the Eskimo nebula is amazing. I could watch this type of imaging for 1-2 hours, great stuff and thanks for sharing it. Clear skies.
Hey Jon! - Brilliant mate, I'm real happy to hear it was a good video style for you to watch! thank you! - I know this kind of thing is probably not everyone's cup of tea but I find it fun and a real nice change of pace from regular astrophotography every once in a while!
Thank you so much for watching and giving your support my friend, I appreciate it :-)
Clear skies!
p.s, the Eskimo was my favourite too I think, it came out great!
Nice one. Excellent for beginners. I recommend Fingerless gloves and I also put the small charcoal hand warmers in them, in my boots and also tuck a couple over my ears and under the beanie… 😂 a 12v blanket is a good addition to outdoor kit as well. Even better is the heated jacket from millwalkee tools
Hey there Karen! - I'll bet you don't end up cold with all that warming gear haha! :-D You've definitely got the right idea though, when you start to get cold it can quickly turn from fun to practically miserable! :-)
Thanks so much for watching and commenting! Clear skies
first time i got the feeling and i must say i really appreciate for what you do
thank you again
and
good luck
That's fantastic to hear Mehrdad! Thank you so much for watching and leaving a kind comment my friend :-)
Clear skies!
Very Very informative. Bad night's, that's reassuring I though it was just me. Haha!
Hey Paul! - Thanks for that mate :-D definitely not alone with the bad nights, haha!
Clear skies buddy!
Interesting video Luke as I have never tried this style of imaging. I should give it a go as I have a live subscription to sharpcap
Thanks very much Glenn! - It's a nice change of pace from the usual, always feels good to knock the cobwebs off the scope with a good few targets in one night! :-D
I'd love to see how you get on with it if you have a crack mate :-)
Thanks for watching and clear skies!
I currently have a DSLR but I love Sharpcap Pro for polar alignment. Sometimes get really fast and accurate polar alignment. Easy
Totally agree Bruce! - It can be really fast sometimes!! love the program :-)
Thanks for watching mate!
i did live stacking friday night with my new ioptron mount. i used the ioptron polar camera to align and my target was Andromeda, sadly in my excitement i forgot to change file format and they saved as png files, for a first go im really pleased with the result
That's brilliant to hear mate! your first picture came out great in the email you sent, well done! - it sounds like you had fun too, which is the most important thing!
Clear skies mate :-)
Another wonderful video Luke. Always enjoy the casual comfort of being out in your backyard as you walk us through the night. When you had the Wifi issue, it emphasized how important problem solving, patience, and perseverance is to this hobby. (I’d love to see a video of all your…”miscues” allowing us to experience your problems-solving approach.) For me, being at the beginning of the AP learning curve, I feel that your videos have provided the right mindset for persisting in this most complex hobby of ours. And why not invite ‘grand dad’ over for a peek once in awhile :-)
Hey there Joe! - So glad to hear you've liked the video mate, I think you've hit the nail on the head again with your mention of patience, problem solving and perseverance - absolutely key components to this whole complex machine!
RE: Granddad, I've shown him a good few things so far over on the screen, always enjoys seeing it! :-)
Thanks so much for watching, as always mate!
Clear skies!
Luke
Hi Luke. Here I am reviewing your old videos. They are very instructive, especially for those who are just starting out. Although almost everyone uses NINA now, SharpCap is still quite useful for some tasks. I often use it for live stacking when I want to quickly record distant planets or asteroids. I also used it for high resolution planetary, lunar and solar capture, but now I'm using FireCapture more frequently. Hugs
Hey there Jesus!! :-D I hope you are well my friend, it's cool to see you enjoying some of my older vids! - Thank you!
I still really like sharpcap, especially for planetary/lunar/lucky imaging as you mentioned - 100% agree!! admittedly for standard deep-sky imaging it's just not as good as NINA but it's still an amazing piece of software, I've yet to try FireCapture though, glad to hear you are enjoying it! :-D
Clear skies buddy! Hugs!
Great tutorial on a general night of observation from a backyard astrophotographer. Yes, it does look cold from here too ... I was getting chills while watching. I have never tried 'live stacking' as for some reason, I just never trusted it, but after watching your video, I must give it a try. Oh yes, you are most correct ... there is never a night when everything works perfectly ... I speak from experience. As a matter of fact, the last few nights, I couldn't get anything to work at all. BTW, some of that cold weather is heading my way .... Brrrr.
Thanks so much Pat! - It's comforting to hear I'm not the only one with regular mess-ups, haha - I guess it's all part & parcel of the game in the end! :-)
I think you'd like live-stacking my friend, it's a fun way to get those near-instant results that can be alluring sometimes! - I hope that you give it a go and find that you enjoy yourself! :-)
Hopefully the cold weather doesn't stay with you too long!
All the best and thank you for watching!
Clear skies :-)
oh i meant to say thanks for these tutorials, its helped me so much to learn. keep them coming mate the trouble you go to is really appreciated
I'm really glad you like em' matey! Thank you for that, and also for your support!
All the best,
Luke
Luke, really enjoyed the video. The whole thing. Felt like I was hanging with you but without the cold weather. Loved it!!!
Hey Jason! - That's great dude haha :-D I'm so happy to hear it came across that way!
It was good fun to just relax and shoot a few dso's with no pressure on getting a "good" image, just have some fun!
Thanks for watching mate!
Great video. Everything easy to understand and you provided everything which i needeed to know, thank you.
Glad it was helpful! thank you so much for watching!
What a different approach Luke! Great video, I liked the more relaxed style mate! You’re right about making mistakes though, we all make them, right now I’m imagining and watching your vid and at the beginning of your vid, you mentioned balancing! Then I had a blue fit, because I remembered I forgot to balance my scope and it’s been running for over an hour! Leaving my cap on the guide scope is a favourite of mine too! Last night I lost over an hour of subs because my EAF played up and they were all out of focus!! So yes, warts ‘n’ all mate!! But that’s why we love it! Brilliant images as always, and your M51 was amazing 👍 FYI, I posted my first ‘proper’ vid last night! on the Jellyfish😀
Clear skies Luke!
Hey there Simon mate!
Haha, I'm so glad to hear you liked it! - It's definitely a bit of a looser-formatted vid than usual, it was nice to do something different for a vid though and I'm glad it turned out well! :-)
I'm relieved to hear it's not just me who regularly has oh crud moments, haha - it happens to us all I guess mate :-)
Going to go watch your vid right now! - Well done you for uploading mate!
Clear skies :-D
Excellent again Luke, I just treated myself to a 130 pds ,took some test shots on m81-2 really happy with the result guiding next so thanks for vid, it looked bloomin freezing well done.
That's superb Peter! - the 130pds is a cracking scope mate, congratulations! :-)
It was pretty blinkin' chilly, I'll be honest haha - good fun though!
Thanks for watching matey, good luck with finding the right guide setup and I think you'll have many a happy night with that 130pds ahead of you :-)
Clear skies!
Great video Luke, I am just starting the journey into EAA, and am constantly amazed what can be seen in a relatively short time - keep it up!
Welcome aboard mate!! Glad to hear you're getting started in EAA! :-D Clears skies!
Really nice. I have been learning EAA. Never did any AP. I always wondered what FWHM and dithering were for. Now I have new techniques to learn!
That's superb to hear James!! So glad this video was useful to you my friend, thanks for taking the time to comment!
Clear skies :-)
Great vid luke, Im just setting up my 130PDS with sharpcap and was doing the moon last night and other targets in Orion. Had sharpcap pro for over 2 years now but still finding my way round it and like you I enjoy jumping around the sky sort of snap shooting. All the best.
Hey there K K! - that's super to hear mate, it sounds like you had a great fun session there browsing around orion and the moon! :-) that's what it's all about! 👍👍
Thank you for sharing mate, giving your support and watching the vid my friend!
Clear skies :-)
Awesome Luke.
Nothing wrong with a warts and all video mate.
Just been looking to see when you got the EQ8. Can't believe I missed that video. Think it was when I was on moving house. and had no internet.
Nail on the head....it doesn't always go to plan. In fact, I started recording earlier and it fogged over before I could polar align.
Take care buddy, hope all is well.
Hey Ben!
Ah mate, sorry to hear you had a fogged off session, - it's totally fogged out here tonight too, can barely make out the moon!
I think the EQ8 did come around that time buddy, haha - it's been a brilliant mount, really enjoy using it!
Glad to hear you've enjoyed the vid matey, it's was a nice chill one to make :-)
Hope it clears for you soon bud! thank you for watching and thanks again for your support!
Clear skies :-)
Get some hot hands packs for your pockets! The cold can be a beast!
Now that's a good tip! :-D Thanks so much for watching Thomas! 👍👍
thanks for the video, you’ve been a great help on my journey in learning how to use sharp cap and astrophotography.
It's my pleasure mate, thank you so much for letting me know I've helped by the way! :-) that's really inspiring to hear 👍👍
Clear skies!
Awesome Video! I just did this last night with my C6 Hyperstar and the Radian Triad Ultra F3 filter. I was watching Nebulae stack in real time (sometimes over exposed LOL). I probably wont use this to create pre-stacked images but would be a great teaching aid to friends and family. Thanks!
That's awesome to hear David!! - I think you've got a great idea in using it to share the night sky with others too, it's perfect for outreach! :-)
Thank you for watching and commenting my friend, hope you have a great weekend!!
Great video Luke. I can see this being a real benefit for outreach.
Thanks mate!! It's great we have access to things like this, much easier than sharing an eyepiece with a few other people anyway! :-)
Clear skies!
Fun video Luke! You look cold man, but thanks for sticking it out and sharing the fun with us.
Thank you Joe! - it was pretty chilly man haha, I just don't have the right clothes for it I guess 😅
Thanks for watching mate! :-)
When doing PA with SC, I always choose my guidecam and guidescope. Just a tad more responsive. But no reason to have an expensive PA-scope when you have SC. NINA also does a good job, but not as painless as SC. But if you can't see Polaris, NINA is the king.
Hey there!! - I hear you mate, it can definitely be more responsive to use the guidescope, especially if your main scope + camera has a tight field of view!
Thanks for watching mate!
Love the channel/ did a double take you have almost the same scope and mount as myself , also I'll purchase the Neptune C 11// liked your review
Thanks so much mate! - That's awesome to hear :-) It seems you have great taste in scopes and mounts too! :-D
Clear skies!
Thank you, I really enjoyed this video. As a new person to astrophotography this was very helpful to me.
Nice!! Awesome to hear that Diocrew, so happy that it was some use to you mate :-)
Clear skies!
Very useful to see, thanks for this!
My pleasure! Thanks for watching :-)
Dude! I need to send you some gloves! Loved hanging for your EAA sesh, and the voice appearance of Grandad was great lol Shot wise I especially liked the Eskimo :)
Hey Chris! - I'm going to have to fish out my gloves haha, I've no idea where they've gotten to!! :-D
I think the Eskimo was my favourite for the night too, it came out super well! - It was a good little fun session, no pressure, easy, top stuff.
I'll have to let my Grandad know he's now big on UA-cam haha!
As always mate, thank you for watching! :-)
Thanks for sharing this viewing session with us Luke, been waiting for weeks if not months for a single clear night😅. Keep up the amazing work mate👍
Thank you so much for watching Sebastian! - I appreciate your time my friend, I hope those skies clear for you soon!! 👍👍
Hey pal! Lovely video!
Still haven't figured out how to platesolve in sharpcap ... :)
Hope it connects to stelarium too.
Bought the licence for PA. And some livestacking fun with the kids and friends.
Fast scope helps, also that's my preferred way to do planetary too :)
Firecapture doesn't love my camera too much ...
Have fun and stay warm!
Hey there Actudoran! :-)
I can confirm sharpcap will talk to stellarium, I gave it a go just to check! (you need to enable the telescope control plug in within stellarium, and tell sharpcap that's the planetarium 👍)
On the note of platesolving, you'll need Astap and the h19 catalogue, install both and point sharpcap to the install location 👍 I'll likely do a video on this at some point as it's tricky to understand without seeing it done I think?
That sounds like a great purchase by the way, sharpcap EAA would be a brilliant way to spend a nice summer evening in the garden, perfect 👌
Clear skies matey!
Admirable la tenacidad que tienes y lo bien que manejas los programas, en verdad se necesita tener gusto por hacer Astrofotografia ya que no es nada fácil siempre se presentan complicaciones. Saludos
Thank you for the very kind comment my friend!! Some nights can be a real challenge for sure :-D
Clear skies to you! 👍👍
I've struggled to figure out the Live Stacking feature. Could you possibly do a video on how to use it some time?
It's something I can look into in the future mate, I appreciate the suggestion! - In the meantime though to help you get started straight away it might be best to check on Sharpcap's web manual, it's a pretty full-fledged production and explains most features very well! :-)
Clear skies and good luck my friend!
Interesting to see the “dark side” as well. I am staying clear of it still. I am perfectly fine on the “red side” 😅 I hope to get my second mount up and running soon. My wallet will not like it though… still debating what to do and if I should do it…
Hey Martin! - Thank you mate, I'm glad it was interesting to see :-D
Can't wait to see what you get done with your second mount rig my friend, I'm confident that whatever you decide to do with it will be the right choice!
Clear skies mate!
Hi Luke
Can you step through the looping procedures, im still a little lost regarding the capture process for deep sky imaging, for example if you don't have ASCOM etc!!, just need a step by step for those that don't have a great deal automation.
Very good job.👍👍
Thanks so much Dieter! :-)
Clear skies!
Gday Luke! - Man it's looking cool there I could see the 2deg on your screen 😬, meanwhile we're up around 30 today. Does Sharpcap have any autofocus option, I'm guessing not? Enjoyed the video mate, the walkthrough and the informal style. It's a lot of fun and something I want to try more when our nights start getting darker sooner. Take it easy pal and say hi to Ron. :-)
Hey matey! I'll be sure to tell Ron you said hello, haha!! :-D
Blimey, 30 - that's some proper weather! Hope you are getting a bit of clear skies too though mate?
I'm glad you enjoyed the vid mate, I had fun making something a bit loose and chilled, zero pressure, just a bit of fun in the yard on a clear night :-)
I'd love to see if you give it a go man, I bet you'd have a lot of fun with it!
Thanks for watching Ollie, as always mate.
(oh and about sharpcap autofocus, it has it - but it's not very auto I reckon haha, a bit weird to use but it kinda works?)
Fantastic Video Luke. Nice Workflow, man. I Love The Images Of Cats Eye and Eskimo nebula, My Favourites! I only Use Free Version Of sharpcap. Great Images, Clear Skies!
Thanks so much buddy!! I'm glad you liked it, I'd love to see you doing some planetary nebula and stuff mate, that would be cool to see!
Clear skies my friend! 👍👍
@@lukomatico For Sure man!! Its Gonna be a Bit Challenging. I did Try The eskimo Nebula. I couldnt Get Much, just a Tiny Green Star. I should Have Increased the Exposure time. But My Mount Doesn't Tend To Handle Longer Exposures😅. But I will Get an EQ mount For Sure, Sometime This Year!
Hey mate! Ah that's cool, I'm glad you've already given it a go! Now you've tried it I'm sure you can figure out another way to try and make the capture next time my friend :-D
Good luck Avanteesh! 👍👍
Live stacking is great for just hopping about the sky looking at different things, I have done a couple of livestream the last 2 nights doing just that. I was using ASI Studio live stacking instead, although have used Sharcap in the past as well. Hopefully someone will develop a livestack plug-in for N.I.N.A. which would be great.
Hey Dave! - Ah mate I'm sorry I've missed em, I bet you get some great views out at your location! :-)
I've not really given much time so far to the other options out there really, mainly just been happy with Sharpcap pro! :-D A NINA plugin is a great idea, I'm sure a lot of people would enjoy that!
Clear skies buddy!
Great video but I really struggle with sharpcap. Your screen says right 00.05 something but it looks like the star you're aiming for is left. I just can't get my head around the spacial awareness of where I need to move my mount. I only have a Skyguider Pro tracker and use a guide camera connected to sharp cap. I'm thinking of getting the ipolar camera instead, it looks more straightforward
Hey there Paul! - I'd say sharpcap PA is worth sticking with if you wanted to give it another go, try to not worry about the visual feedback and instead just focus on the numbers and directions, I reckon 20 minutes before a session one night, just practicing doing polar alignment a few times over and you'd be used to it :-)
Clear skies and good luck mate!
Nice introduction to live stacking, and good to see the tech issues too, remote access dropouts are not just my thing then 😂
Hey Jason! Ahh glad to hear it mate, definitely not alone with dropouts haha! :-D
Clear skies!
Good informative video, thanks
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching mate :-)
I really like this. It got me thinking about using live stacking of really short exposures into longer subs which can be stacked later. On the subject of capturing your laptop screen, have you considered using OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) to do a screen capture. I think you would have a much more clear image of the computer screen and you wouldn't need to have a second camera recording.
Hey there mate! - RE: stacking the stacks, it works really well! you can just treat them as big individual subexposures to be stacked like normal, I've got a video coming soon where I am doing this exact thing actually! :-D (well, I need to edit it first haha)
OBS might be something I need to look into, it's a pain setting up a second camera each time for shots like that! - Cheers for the suggestion mate!
Hope you are getting some clear skies :-)
where is the dither check box in Sharpcap? I kept looking on your screen and could not see it. Thank you for the video!
Hey mate! It's under the guiding tab on live-stacking, you can set it to trigger on time or amount of frames 👍 hope that helps!
Hey Luke, havent started watching the video yet but if you add the timestamps as a list in the description UA-cam automatically creates chapters in your video :)
Hey there mate! I knew I'd forgotten to do something haha!! I'd set the video off uploading and went to bed, then totally forgot to add the timestamps, oops! :-D
I'll get that done today, thanks for the reminder my friend!
Clear skies! :-)
It’s just eh ‘SNIFF’, well if you’SNIFF’,just turn the ‘SNIFF’,brrrr it’s cold tonight‘SNIFF’😂😂
Hahah, it was bloody freezing! :-D
@@lukomatico I know the feeling I’m in Scotland lol
thank you that really helps
You're welcome!
Do you have a guide camera in this? Also, do you have your laptop outside with the scope? Do you leave it running overnight? (just using ASI Air+ for EAA atm) Great vid - encouraged to try SharCap.
Yes to all the above! 👍👍 I really like the asiair approach to EAA, but sharpcap can be a heck of a lot of fun in my experience! Worth a go for the relatively low setup cost I'd say!
Clear skies
Don't need an eq mount for EAA people darks, flats, etc. Never use them as with EAA all your doing is viewing near live, so flats, darks, etc not needed. Only important if your doing astrophotography
All true Dennis! - But it's only fair to say though that EQ-mounts & darks, flats, bias etc will certainly serve to enhance your views in most cases, so if they aren't much trouble then why not use em' and make the most of the rare clear nights! :-)
Thanks for watching mate!
Awesome bro
Thanks for watching bro!! :-) hope you are well!
Great tutorial Luke, thanks. One question, I just started using SharpCap (paid version) and the gain only goes to 54. Maybe the gain setting is dependent on the camera used (I'm using a QHY183C) . Any thoughts on this?
Hey Kevin! :-) Thanks so much mate, glad you liked the vid! - RE: Gain, you've got it - the slider is tied to the camera/driver suite as you suspected :-)
just love this 🌚
Thank you mate! :-)
Hiya Luke . Don't know if you'll see an alert for this comment/question as it is now March 2024 . Question...can you manually drop bad Frames during an EAA Session ? Reasons would be meteor and Satellite trails I imagine . Also , I'm getting the impression I can not use a DSLR for EAA with Sharpcap ? Do I have that wrong ? No rush obviously and thanks for making Videos we can go back to as a Reference . Cheers !
Hey Scott!!
Unfortunately you can't manually reject frames during eaa, but you can set your rejection parameters to be quite robust and save you from a lot of errors 👍
Re: DSLR, I'm afraid so! EAA is really the domain of dedicated cams only - there are possible workarounds though, using folder monitor live stacking as one way - (I've got a video on that too)
Hope that helps buddy!
@@lukomaticoThanks Luke , much appreciated . I'm going to see if going back to visual astronomy will satisfy me again if not the whole nine yards goes up for sale . Getting too old to keep up with this "hobby" . Groan . LOL./Scott.....
Cool 👌🔭
Thanks buddy!! :-)
That's not how you polar align. You're supposed to move the azimuth bolts, left or right, not move the tripod legs. I use a compas before dark to get within 10 or 15 degrees, depending on the amount of movement you have in the azimuth screws, to get the mount close to true north. Magnetic North isn't quite the same as true north but if you know your latitude you can get the scope close to true north in altitude and azimuth. Once its dark enough you can use a finder scope, or your guide scope, provided you've aligned them with where your main scope is pointing and get Polaris in the center. That should have you close enough to polar align in less than three minutes or so. I would mention something that a lot of people don't know and that is you have to tighten the bolts on your mount head to tri pier or tripod to finish the polar alignment. Usually once you've got the mount within 1 to 1 1/2 arc minutes of true north, using Sharpcap, tightening the mount head bolts and the right ascension locking bolts will finish the polar alignment. If you do not tighten your mount head down as a last step of polar alignment, a heavy scope will ruin polar alignment as it slews or tracks. The shifting weight will ruin alignment.
That definitely IS how you polar align haha! Moving the legs or moving the azimuth bolts is exactly the same.
My method saves a lot of time when setting up on a hard surface, especially given that you can leave the azimuth plate lock bolts tight all the time this way too.
you should have done this live Luke.
Hey Antony! maybe one day I'll try a live-stream mate, It's not really something I've ever thought about!
Clear skies :-)
@@lukomatico i love watching chuck do his live streams, it helps us noobs learn when mistakes are made. Keep up the awesome content.
There was a lot of walking noise in the flame nebula image. Is this common when doing EAA? Can dither be done?
Hey there mate! - You are 100% correct my friend, I should have dithered/increased dither frequency a lot to combat the pattern noise :-)
Thanks for watching!
Fascinating video Luke and as always very enjoyable. I've never tried that style of imaging but might give it a go. I think asi air plus has the option to live stack ? My WiFi signal is really poor outside my house which is why I upgraded to the asi air plus so sticking with that for the time being. Great video on sharpcap mate which is an excellent piece of software and I also suspect the polar alignment is more accurate than asi air.
Hey Paul! - Thanks for watching mate, I'm always glad to hear your thoughts on the videos! :-)
The Air can indeed live stack, and it does it rather well too! - the only issue I had is that it takes 15 seconds for the air to stack a 2600mc pro exposure, whereas sharpcap is done in 2 seconds and the next frame is already started, which all adds up over the course of a night as you can imagine!
RE: polar alignment, you'll likely be glad to hear I've not noticed any accuracy difference really matey! infact, I actually prefer the asiair PA routine as it moves the scope RA for you, rather than messing about with the clutches and then having to put it back to 'home' manually. pretty nice feature! :-)
I'll likely be doing another video with the AIR soon, thinking about investigating binning, bin1 vs bin2 etc - should be decent fun!
Hope you are keeping well mate!
All the best, and again, thanks for watching!
Luke
Great video. When I use sharpcap with my asi2600mc, I get dark horizontal lines from all brighter objects in frame.. I have not figured out how tobsolvevthis.. doesn't happen with the asi294mc..
Thank you
Thanks for watching mate! - That's a really odd sounding problem with the 2600 you are having! I wonder if there's some horizontal banding reduction accidentally turned on, or maybe the offset level is too low in the camera settings? just a few random suggestions, I know it's unlikely to be one of those but maybe worth a check if you get the chance!
Hope you get it sorted soon buddy!
Clear skies :-)
@@lukomatico it was the "banding" setting. Lol..
Luke Simon astro mentioned in a video that you sorted him out with a 3d printed bahtinov mask, but cant find where you mention them, what do you use or where to get them, I am using this video to get me setup, so you view count may shoot up. Keep it up quality is great,
Hey Graeme! :-)
Great to hear you've found me through Simon! He's a top bloke 👍
Regarding the Bahtinov masks I make them myself and sell them on Ebay, but I only currently make them for the William optics redcat 51 👍
This should be the link for you - or alternatively search redcat bahtinov mask on eBay, should be the top result
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274951234332?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=aSEG7hnWQ2G&sssrc=2051273&ssuid=aSEG7hnWQ2G&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
@@lukomatico oh I have an Celestron C8-N newt
Ah I see!! - the best place to get a mask for that scope may be from one of the usual retailers I reckon, some of the masks are quite multi-fitting 👍
@@lukomatico what do you use for the 300pds, just dont want to buy and then have to buy again when no good
I’m considering getting this app along with my future asi 178 Mc color , so I wanted to know (as an 11 year old) if I am gonna be able to catch on with the usage of sharpcap and if it’s compatible with the sky max 127
Thanks to respond when you can ^^
I think you'll be able to master it, yeah! :-) Plate solving with the Skymax 127 may be difficult, but should still function - Good luck to you mate!
@@lukomatico thank you for your fast response and feet on the ground eyes in the sky !
did we need to adjust the focus as well, while using svbony camera on telescope?
Yes mate, focus will always need adjusting 👍👍
great video! I have already learned a lot about EAA from you.
A question about dithering. At what interval did you dither here or what interval can you recommend? I use an IMX585 sensor and currently dither every 180sec. regardless of whether I expose for 2, 10 or 15 seconds. Do you think that fits?
I dither over 12 pixels.
Greetings from Germany! Matthias
Hey there Matthias! So sorry for the late reply, I think rather than dithering on a specific time you should instead dither on a set amount of frames :-) perhaps every 5 frames is a good idea in many cases, unless perhaps using extremely short exposures where you'd lose a lot of time to dithers and settles, maybe every 10 if that was the case 👍
Hope that helps!
@@lukomatico Thanks for answer and merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you too mate!
Great video Luke,
I'm new at EAA. Using CDC, PHD2 and SharpCap Pro. I''m having problems with SharpCap talking to CDC with my mount.
I have ASCOM Drivers, My EQmount is iEXOS-100. I 'm able to connect to SharpCap, but when I try to open CDC, it indicates a COM port Error. in your video at timeline 9:33 you clicked on an icon, EQMOD. Where does this software come from?
Hey there mate! - sorry to hear you've been having some connection issues, I do indeed use EQmod, it's available at this location - sourceforge.net/projects/eq-mod/
Hope that helps!
@@lukomatico hello Luke. Thanks for responding. Will this EQmod help connectivity between SC and CDC ?
Great video again! I have yet to try SharpCap's polar alignment tool, but think I may switch to it, rather than using my iPolar. Need to give this live stacking a shot too! Have you tried the new deep sky planner (I think it's called) option? I haven't been able to run a plan with it yet, but it seems pretty nice. Couldn't seem to find an auto focus section in it though, when I last looked.
Hey there mate!! Hope you are doing good :-D
I've not tried the sequencer out at all yet in truth, I'll have to try it out at some point :-)
I definitely think sharpcap's PA is very well refined and worth a go, if it even saves a few minutes it may be worth switching for 👍
Thanks for watching bud, and I hope you give some live-stacking a go, it's great fun! :-)
Clear skies!
Hi Luke, Great video. Still using WiFi in your back garden eh?, only a matter of time before you plug that RJ45 in I'm telling you :) ahaha. Re the Sharpcap telescope movement issue. It shouldn't be. I use it all the time. It was indeed set on custom for some reason when I first loaded V4 but all you have to to is go into settings and make sure its set to use last camera setup on restart then use the drop down on telescope controls panel to select sidereal, shut Sharpcap and then re open, from then is should always be sidereal.
It seams to be that the general consensus of use for this method of imaging using Sharpcap is hopping around the sky to get quick stacks on many targets during the night using short exposures? .
I for one do not use it like that, Its my primary imaging software. For nebula I use 3 min subs/L-extreme (one shot colour cam) and leave it on a target for hours. I then use the Pixinsight blink feature to take out any bad frames then restack using the Sharpcap monitor folder feature with the dark , flat etc. I don't use deep sky stacker, what a faff that is!, using Sharpcap I can see the stack quality in real time as I'm re-stacking it. why wouldn't you want to do that?
Then just export the pre aligned 32bit unadjusted raw fits stack single file and start processing. Done!
I can assure you this method Its no less effective (in terms of the final result) than using SGP, Nina, APT + DSS etc etc.
Give it a go with some long exposures as you would do normally.
For those that like to sequence their imaging sessions for more than one target, (in the UK we hardly get a decent few hours of clear night most of the time so...) Sharp cap 4 can now do that as well, and change filters/ re-focus etc etc if that's what floats.
Cheers!
Dave.
Hey Dave! - Appreciate the comment mate 😀
I've tried sharpcap with long exposures before and it works decently well, but it can never stack with the same quality as DSS/PixInsight/APP due to the fact that when sharpcap runs the stack, it calculates a rolling average on a frame by frame basis.
Without pre-analysis of the frames like DSS/Pix/APP do then the frames will not be weighted correctly, a reference image will not be selected properly and also it can't use outlier rejection algorithms with the same efficiency as a program with knowledge of the full stack can!
I'm not saying sharpcap is bad at stacking of course! - it's just mathematically it can never do as good of a job as DSS/APP/Pix can do.
Cheers!
@@lukomatico That's because you're not using the folder stack after the session where it does have knowledge of all frames before stacking. Also when auditioning the frames in blink I will pick the best frame and rename it 1.... for example it will then use this as a frame one stack reference, also seeing the background/cloud light level and star sharpness in real time by running blink on a cycle over your frames is far more intuitive than relying on DSS to decide weather or not it will or will not use one of your precious frames!
@@FrootyRecords Manually picking a reference image is fine of course, but I'm 99% sure that Sharpcap never pre-registers or weights the images mate, regardless of folder stacking or not - it just stacks them in the order they arrive from the folder! 🙂
Even in the event that it did have the full info like DSS/Pix/APP, it still wouldn't be as effective as proper stacking software due to it's very limited stacking options - only sigma clipping or averaging is available, no advanced algorithms, no options to drizzle, bayer drizzle, resample, better debayering options (vng etc) - that's just the start really!
It's really fun to use though for sure! we can agree on that haha 😀
Clear skies mate!
@@lukomatico I see your point Luke and it yes they should be better a stacking with all those other options you mentioned available .So... I will take some previous data and run it through both methods to see what the actual real world difference is. I do remember the last time I used DSS it took ages to process. Sharpcap is extremely fast that's for sure but as you say this may be due to its simplicity. I will see what the results are. At least at the moment, I am very pleased with the images I get from this Sharpcap method. Is there a way I could send you some of them easily so you can see for yourself?
Cheers
Dave
@@FrootyRecords Hey Dave! - I definitely think that's a good idea to test mate, top plan!
I've no doubt your images are coming out great with sharpcap by the way! - I'm sorry if it seemed like I was implying any other way of course buddy 🙂
I too really like to use it, and definitely will continue to do so!
If you want to send over some shots mate then by all means, send some over via the email address on my "about" page here on YT, or send me some on Instagram mate! It'd be great to see them 🙂
Clear skies mate!
The problem with these software shows is they don't start at the beginning.
I'm sorry this one was a bit lacking for you Stanley, cheers for the feedback mate!
All the best for the new year!
@@lukomatico cheers too
I find you dont need a B mask at all. Over expose a planet, say Jupiter, focus till the edges are sharp, then drop your exposure, then will find its focused.
With a star, same principle but focus will it's the sharpest point, then when you drop your exposures will find its in focus.
This system never fails and never needed any mask, and works just as well.
Else easier to do focus I the day and if you have an electronic focuser that has a number take note of this, or if your focuser has a scale take note of were it it, or even mark the focuser.
Then will find your spot on
I'm glad it works well for you mate! :-) I too used to focus "by eye" early in my astro career, but getting a bahtinov mask definitely did improve the repeatability of things, and removes all guesswork by attaining a true critical focus based on diffraction rather than perception - I do accept both ways can work though! :-)
Clear skies mate!
Is sharpcap pro a subscription or one time purchase?
Hey Kevin! - it's a yearly licence fee, well worth the cost if you are interested in it's extra features I think :-) Hope that helps!
How did you decide on a gain of 450?
Hey there! - I decided on 450 just from the visual feedback on the screen, plenty of stars showing up for live-stacking to use, could see the target slightly in individual subs - this was all just an experiment really and a bit of fun, it's definitely not my forte or my usual style :-D
Thanks for commenting!
brilliant
Hey Dave! - Appreciate it matey, glad you enjoyed :-)
Thank you for your support, and hope you are getting some clear skies!!
@@lukomatico thought tonight would be clear set up got 1 shot ..... fog arrggghhh
@@BurnleyFreefighters Ah mate I'm sorry to hear it :-( exact same situation here, just had a look outside and it's fogging up as I type this!
Well, surely better luck next time! 🙂
Have a good one mate
@@lukomatico thinking it might clear in hr or so, so window licking for now haha
@@BurnleyFreefighters haha!! Fingers crossed for you mate! 👍👍
What software do you use to plate solve?
ASTAP is my general 'go-to' program if you'll excuse the pun!
@@lukomatico
Thanks. Is that a Sharpcap add on? I want the plate solving ability with Sharpcap.
You seem to have had significant difficulties here. I wish I could have so few.
your eyes not stay in their sockets ?
They're always popping out! 😅 Cheers for watching!
volume is to low
seem rather talking to yourself
That's the name of the game mate, haha! :-D It'd be a pretty weird video if I just sat there in silence, no?
Lost Mr. After you had it reading Excelkent you then moved the telescope waaay to the right. Didn't that just negate everything you just did?
Totally confused. As you can tell, EXTREMELY NEW to all of this.
After it was reading excellent I was finished with PA, so the next step was returning the telescope to home by rotating the whole RA axis, I hope that explains what was going on! :-D Sorry for any confusion!
All the best & good luck mate!