Any ACI120mc user, looking for advice on setting mine up

[oldpink]

I got the camera with my telescope but due to initial problems setting the scope up and bad weather

I've only had the camera attached for a couple of minutes and but didn't get any images (using sharpCap2)

I attached it to a x2 barlow so I doubt I had any real magnification (skywatcher explorer 200p)

also any advice on the settings to use in SharpCap to get the best out of the camera

if I get dry weather in the next few days I planned to take it out and try to set it up in daytime using  a 600ft tall antenna about

10 miles away to get a general setup

then fine tune it once I can use the moon as a target before I move on to the planets

any advice or tips appreciated

[red dwalf]

looking to get one of these cameras so i`ll be following this thread with interest

[Rumbold2010]

Hi, I've recently bought one of these cameras, only had the chance to get it up and running once but was vaguely happy with results considering. I'll be getting it back out as soon as the skies clear so I'll share any findings I make with you. What I'm hoping to do is document " best " ( it's all subjective but I'm hoping for image clarity over image size) settings to give me a nice shot of Jupiter , hopefully I'll be doing the same for Saturn in a couple of months. I've got a program list now too based on advice I've been given.

1) Firecapture

2) PIPP

3) AS!2

4)Registax 5/6

5) Photoshop or similar

What I now need to do is optimise capture settings to the best AVI I can, along with Barlow / Camera setup.

Hope you enjoy your camera, some of the guys on here have put out some really nice images using it :-)

[JamesF]

I got the camera with my telescope but due to initial problems setting the scope up and bad weather

I've only had the camera attached for a couple of minutes and but didn't get any images (using sharpCap2)

I attached it to a x2 barlow so I doubt I had any real magnification (skywatcher explorer 200p)

also any advice on the settings to use in SharpCap to get the best out of the camera

if I get dry weather in the next few days I planned to take it out and try to set it up in daytime using  a 600ft tall antenna about

10 miles away to get a general setup

then fine tune it once I can use the moon as a target before I move on to the planets

any advice or tips appreciated

What were you trying to get images of?  If you're trying for Jupiter you need it very well centred in the field of view otherwise the image won't appear on the sensor at all.  And you will probably also find that the focuser position with the camera is completely different from that with an eyepiece.  It will be much closer in.  If you're too far out of focus you won't see the dim ring of light that indicates you are on target unless you know to look for it.  It can help in that instance to push the gain up fairly high until to get the focus sorted.

James

[oldpink]

looking to do planetary imaging Jupiter, Saturn and some lunar
I think the focusing issue was why I had no image as I wasn't using the goto and tracking via the finderscope

as I said I didn't have time to set it up correctly, or play with any settings in the software

the plan to set it up in daytime was to try and find the best settings and then start with the moon which should be easy enough to find and focus on

I've installed firecapture which keeps crashing on my main PC (Win 7 Ultimate x64)
I also have registax and Potoshop CS6

[knobby]

Hi<br />

If fire capture keeps crashing try sharpcap

[red dwalf]

there is something on the zwo website about using the latest firecapture beta version, think it was 2.3 beta version.

more about it on the 365 astonomy website

[JamesF]

For the ASI120 cameras you do ideally need to download the 2.3 beta and install it, then in the configuration tell it to check for updates and let it download and install the latest update.  You may in fact need to install the first 2.3 beta over the top of your 2.2 installation.  It's a bit of a faff, but it works for me on 64-bit win7.

James

[tekkydave]

I found firecapture very sluggish and slow to respond to user input on my laptop (dual core win7 32-bit). Sharpcap was much better and responded instantly.

[JamesF]

I found firecapture very sluggish and slow to respond to user input on my laptop (dual core win7 32-bit). Sharpcap was much better and responded instantly.

Yes, I don't have a problem with FC on my i5 laptop, but I do wonder if it's not a good choice to write it in Java when people want to run it on lower-end kit.

James

[jambouk]

I'm finding sharpcap2 with the latest update works like a dream with my zwo120mc, and laptop with windows7 (64 whatsits).

As james has said, the main issues, and issues with any similar camera, is getting the image bang on the sensor, and in focus.

I use a flip mirror to help me centre, and if the moon is out i use that as a massive target first to sort out focus, else it's trial and error. I keep meaning to make a note of how many turns of the focus knob i need to make to get the image sharp on the sensor. Luckily with the flip mirror adding more length to the light path, when the image is sharp on the sensor, it isn't too far out of focus in the eye piece on the flip mirror which does make life easier.

It's often said that you don't need good tracking [or polar alignment] for planetary imaging, but if the tracking is poor, it is surprising how quickly jupiter scoots off the sensor, especially if using a barlow too.

Jd

[lensman57]

Hi to all,

I am gonna make these comments in general terms so please bear with me. First of all, you really need to have a laptop or PC specifally for AP with only the operating system, a bare minimum of the necessary drivers and capture software installed and nothing else. If at all possible even the operating system must be free of all the junk that most manufacturers install with or without your knowledge and in most cases either connect to a remote server to report activity or just duplicate the functions that are already installed with windows. I learned this the hardway when my brand spanking win 7 64 laptop refused to work reliably with a lot of the hardware or software that I had installed. I changed to a low spec laptop with only the operating system and have not had many problems since, it does not even connect to the internet unless I enable the WiFi.  The 2nd point is with regards to AP cameras, I may be wrong but it seems to me that a lot of folks purchase a camera as a first camera or an upgrade to an existing one and then expect great results right away. This with regret does not work in AP as it probably would if one bought a better DSLR for terrestrial potography .  It takes time to learn the camera, find the limit of its operating envelope and then  adapt it to your existing equipment and that is just for starters. AP needs a lot of dedication and accepting that most of the time the results will be poor but keep at it and you will be rewarded, just have a look at some of the images that James and others have  posted but also try and find out the planning and the effort that went into the capture. Wish you all clear skies and success.

A.G

[JamesF]

The 2nd point is with regards to AP cameras, I may be wrong but it seems to me that a lot of folks purchase a camera as a first camera or an upgrade to an existing one and then expect great results right away. This with regret does not work in AP as it probably would if one bought a better DSLR for terrestrial potography .  It takes time to learn the camera, find the limit of its operating envelope and then  adapt it to your existing equipment and that is just for starters. AP needs a lot of dedication and accepting that most of the time the results will be poor but keep at it and you will be rewarded, just have a look at some of the images that James and others have  posted but also try and find out the planning and the effort that went into the capture.

This is so true.

It took me a lot of effort, buckets full of frustration, plenty of pig-headedness and dozens of hours of binned data to get from "Well, I can make out what it's meant to be" to "That's ok.  I can work from this" when I started planetary imaging.  Whenever I've changed kit since it has initially been a step backwards until I learned how the new kit behaved differently from the old.  That can be quite depressing when the weather is only good enough to get out once a month.

Moving from my 127 Mak to the C9.25 for instance has been a real pain and I've lost a lot of potential imaging time in a very poor autumn and winter just getting everything to work again.  To the point where I went back to the little Mak one night just to be certain of coming out of the winter with any images at all.  I'm now just about starting to get to grips with it, quite some time after I started.

James

[JamesF]

I'll further add...

For every one image I post there are quite probaly a dozen I don't.  With the exception of the animation I made using the "failed" images, of the last set I posted there were four or perhaps five acceptable ones out of eighty that I processed.  Generally you need to capture a lot of data so that when the seeing comes good you have what you want.  No matter how much effort you put in "on the ground" you still have to wait for the atmosphere to play ball, and if it won't then some nights you walk away with nothing.

In some respects it's a bit like fishing

James