Settings for SharpCap

[Altomar718]

Hi All - I have just bought a Scopiumcam from 365 Astronomy and briefly tried it tonight although it is really quite misty. I opened Sharpcap and went to OPTIONS > VIDEO CAPTURE FILTER which I presume are the settings. I tried Jupiter but just got a white circle, which if it was a photograph, would be described as over exposed. I wonder if any of you members could advise me as to settings to 'get me going' please. See attached the Video Capture Filter box. - Thanks - Chris

[Altomar718]

Don't laugh, but this is the image even after going through Registax (see why I need help?) !!!

[andyman]

if they laugh at yours be in hysterics at mine tried jupiter with xbox cam and got exactly the same as you just looks like a cue ball steve davis would be proud

[Steve Ward]

Try dropping the Gamma right down to start , then adjust the Gain up and tweak the Brightness to suit.

It's a matter of playing until you find the optimum settings for the camera.

[Altomar718]

Thanks Steve, but that really is my problem - There is no brightness control, or at least it's not called that !!!

[Steve Ward]

Try the Exposure slider , lower setting should be the same as adjusting the shutter speed .

[Altomar718]

Thanks Steve but there is no exposure slider

[dephelis]

Hi All - I have just bought a Scopiumcam from 365 Astronomy and briefly tried it tonight although it is really quite misty. I opened Sharpcap and went to OPTIONS > VIDEO CAPTURE FILTER which I presume are the settings. I tried Jupiter but just got a white circle, which if it was a photograph, would be described as over exposed. I wonder if any of you members could advise me as to settings to 'get me going' please. See attached the Video Capture Filter box. - Thanks - Chris

The "Time" and "Target" sliders are your exposure settings. It looks like you need to untick the "AE" tick box as I would guess that this stands for "Auto Exposure". That should then allow you to play with the other sliders.

I would reduce the "Gain" slider initially, while you play with the other two sliders.

Also, do not move the "Gamma" slider from 1.00 as suggested by Steve. On your camera, 1.0 is parity which indicates that there is no Gamma correction. Reducing the slider will apply a Gamma correction that artificially darkens the image. This is just as bad for AP as the opposite.

Damien

[Altomar718]

Thanks Damien - good information mate - Thanks ........ any advice on frames per second please? - It says on the website :-

Resolution: 640 x 480 pixels (but, please note, the recorded avi file is not comparable to a normal avi file in size. E.g. a full 1.5h movie of the same resolution can be as big as 500MB - 800MB, whilst a 20 second (30 frames/sec) Scopiumcam recording takes up a similar 500MB storage space, so it will be a much purer, uncompressed source of information for Registax.)

Not too sure the frames per second to use as I have watched Astronomy Shed videos on Youtube and he uses 10fps.

[dephelis]

I used to use 30 most of the time. I only ever used 10 when the seeing was very good.