Came across the forum by accident and went 'oooh!'

[Stub Mandrel]

2 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Binning support on demand (so high pixel count sensors can be utilized better) - you can opt to view at x4, x2 or x1 binning with panning feature for high res (this is probably most interesting on sensors like 178, 1600 or 183)

Sharpcap has binning. Panning with crop is useful for speeding up capture of planetary data.

You can zoom to 1:1 and pan as well.

[Thalestris24]

5 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

By the looks of it DSS can't do calibration either (which is shame), and it stacks by detecting saved images in folder, so it's not capture based solution.

Flats should be fairly easy add to Sharpcap - same thing as with darks, only division instead of subtraction. Flats, Flat darks and Darks should be really part of the package.

I can think of couple more features that "full featured" EAA should have.

- Binning support on demand (so high pixel count sensors can be utilized better) - you can opt to view at x4, x2 or x1 binning with panning feature for high res (this is probably most interesting on sensors like 178, 1600 or 183)

- Plate solve with annotations - so you can get more info on objects you are observing

- Multiple capture sources - like using two scope setup side by side - one OSC and one Mono for added quality of image

Always good to have a wishlist! Yeah, dss-live is limited. I imagine incorporating all the calibration frames needed would be difficult but say, just a master dark and flat would be possible. I guess it depends on whether there's the demand for it?

Louise

[stash_old]

If you use DSLR at all - Don't use DSS-Live try Astrotoaster which is a front end to DSS (better than DSS-Live IMHO) and produces fast EAA level images (yes there is a learning curve). Accepts a number if image types (CR2,FITS,JPG,TIF) but ,as it uses DSS back end, you do need good Multi CPU/SSD set up. Image below produced by Astrotoaster and although that is a screen print of the image after 10 x 60secs ( I normally use 30secs images) I was seeing the image after 2 images and yes it has Dark Frames added automatically during the near "real time" processing. No PS or any other processing involved.

Others are totally correct true EAA requires faster scopes(by design or by adding Hyperstar) to get down to sub 10sec imaging IMHO but EAA does not require EQ mounts ,polar alignment by default.

In the end it depends what YOU want and are happy with. As the song goes " I did it my way" ?

 

[Howie_Oz]

Ditto on everything stash_old says! 

I've had Samsung SCB2000, various Mallincams, various ZWO's and IMO nothing beats the simplicity and very sharp almost AP results using DSLR on f/5 and lower OTA's.

Link to flickr album below ... 3 partial nights viewing using 9 x 60 sec frames ... all screengrabs showing the image on screen in-field at time scope is slewed onto targets and like stash says ... you see the image right from the first frame and then watch it better over the subsequent shots.

Usually I set toaster to single shot processing and take single iso12600 frames of around 5 seconds in order to find/frame the object nicely. Then when its framed nicely I set toaster to stack and set the dslr to shoot 9 x iso800 or iso1600 30 to 60 sec exposures. I adjust a few toaster color adjustments and expand gradients after the first shot comes in. Then I sit back for 10 minutes and watch it get better and better with each passing image. 

https://flic.kr/s/aHsm9Ld4SC

[Terrierist]

Thanks for the replies and advice folks, @stash_old I don't know if my laptop will be fast enough for Astro Toaster, only one way to find out - if and when the beeping clouds shift!

 

@Howie_Oz wow, great set of images, if I can achieve half that quality, I'll be made up.