Ryohei56

Hi Ags. I did wonder if Venus was suitable, it's just that there was nothing else visible at the time (haze, not fully dark etc). I'll try again next clear night, and your suggestion of using a laptop with Sharpcap is definitely worth taking up. As my telescope work is mostly around imaging - with imaging cam and laptop - getting a sharp image on the screen is key.

I also have to try your gloriously hi-tech solution for fine focusing. Pure genius......

On this occasion, it was a 25mm eyepiece, and only Venus was visible at the time. To be honest, I tend to use an imaging camera much more often than I do eyepieces - on a recent outing I did get Venus, but getting a decent focus wasn't really happening.

I was out last night observing Venus. If I defocused, I could see a concentric donut, but maybe that's not a good guide seeing as Venus is a planet (not a point source like a star). Will try again tonight, with Polaris.

Hi. As far as I know it hasn't been collimated (certainly not by me). That could well be the issue. I'll need to do some research in that case, as I'm unsure how to proceed.

Thanks for the help.

Hi. I have a Celestron Nexstar 6SE, not brand new but pretty close. It's never been wonderful at focusing, but I lack the skill (and confidence) to put that right.

Essentially, the 'sweet spot' is almost non-existent - you go from slightly blurry back to slightly blurry without much sign of sharpness in between.

I'm guessing this might be a collimation issue, but I could be wrong. I'd be grateful for any suggestions you guys can come up with.

All is now good. I was advised to locate and install a USB driver, which I got from TIS. Installed it, rebooted, and the Neximage was up & running properly.

 Not sure. I'm on the road just now but I can check tonight.

Funny thing - I now have iCap, Sharpcap and Firecapture loaded, and none work. They all crash, all recognise there's a camera there but can't start it. I sent a log report on Firecapture to its German author & he's given me an idea which I'll try today. Incidentally the log mentioned a file it couldn't find, and that same file got a mention in the Sharpcap crash report.

Should it really be this hard to set up?

No, I hadn't even thought of trying other software - but I will now! I mostly do lunar imaging, though I am aiming to try planetary imaging soon. Is there much difference between the two capture programs you mentioned?

Thanks for such a swift response

Alan

Hi there.

 I finally decided to replace my old Orion Starshoot with a nice new Neximage 5, and at the same time got a laptop sporting Windows 10.

The camera came with iCap software, version 2.2, and installation proceeded without incident. I got to the point where iCap was recognising the camera, but when I clicked on 'OK' iCap stopped almost immediately, at which point an error message came up announcing that iCap had closed and Windows was (allegedly) looking for a solution. I repeated the 'launch' exercise several times, always with the same result.

It's really frustrating, as I just can't get on with imaging at all. Does anyone have an idea what I could try to get my Neximage up & running properly?

Thanks

Alan Stewart