First image for 2 years....help!

[WayBig]

Wow, I couldn't believe when I turned the handset on yesterday and say the date that it's been almost 2 years since I've tried imaging. I'm sure I've forgotten more than I knew!

Also, I'm trying now with a new ASI120MC rather than my old SPC so have a whole host of new questions...please help drag me up the learning curve.

So attached are 2 images, the first jpg is 200 frames taken using sharpcap on 8th which isnt bad for a "first" image, and the 2nd is a single bmp taken today using firecapture

I process through Pipp and stack in Registaxx.

Can anyone help me with any of these questions:

1) The firecapture images have pixel gridlines all over them (it looks much worse when opened in registaxx), I didnt get this in sharpcap, why is this?

2) Pipp claims that the firecapture images are black and white, and that the sharpcap ones are colour - the 120MC is a colour camera, what do I need to do to get colour images through firecapture?

3) Firecapture on startup tells me I can reduce USB traffic using the cog wheel. Where is this cog wheel, I cant find it anywhere in firecapture. I think I need to reduce this traffic because I think it's killing my netbook. Is there a similar Sharpcap setting?

4) I stacked the firecapture gridline bmps and in wavelet processing the slightest tweak led to a huge overexposure in the middle of the image....any ideas why?

5) Finally with Sharpcap I had options to set the frame rate to 30fps,  1 and 2 fps - is there a way of getting any options in between 30 and 2?

That's all for now. Lots of head scratching.

It's a shame that tonight's data is junk because seeing wasn't terrible, there was a really nice view of the GRS and my scope was actually tracking really well for once! 

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer

000.bmp

[knobby]

In fire capture you need to select debayer to capture in colour, 200 frames is probably not enough... Go for about 2 minutes worth

[WayBig]

Thanks, I'll look for that option. I cut the capture off after 200 frames because it was killing my netbook [see question 3 :-) ]

[WayBig]

The debayer check box also cures the grid line effect, and I've found the usb traffic option now aswell.

Though I think my netbook is underpowered for the ASI as it is still very difficult to use firecapture. Sharp cap performs a lot better so I'll go back to using that. Even with that I can only get about 3fps at full res, and about 12 fps when I reduce the resolution to around 640 to 800.....there's always something to upgrade isn't there :-)

[JamesF]

For speed I'd imagine your best bet is not to debayer the frames and write them as raw video files.  Debayering can be done later in either PIPP or AS!2.  On an old machine not having to process the frames for colour will probably help a fair bit.  Getting the frame size down as far as possible will help, too.

James