Software to capture a total solar eclipse?

[Michael Kieran]

I'll be traveling to Australia next month to view and hopefully photograph the total solar eclipse. I'll be using a 61mm refractor and either an ASI camera or a Canon Ra. 

I ran some tests with an ASIAIR+ and found that in 63 seconds (the length of totality at my location) it only saved the first 8 or 9 exposures in the sequence I had set up. I am hoping to capture a lot more short exposures so that I can stack them to bring out detail in the corona. 

What software have other people successfully used for this? It can be for Mac, PC, Android, iOS.

Thanks in advance, 

Michael

[Steve Ward]

For that short a length of totality I'd be keeping it simple and use the DSLR and a usb cable into the laptop and use Canon's EOS Utility for capture , or even just ditch the computer and use a simpler still remote shutter release cable , too little time to be faffing about with anything that can go awry , the Sun and Moon won't be pausing for you to sort a software glitch ... 😉

[Elp]

Why not just record it as video? You'll be capturing at 25/30fps or more if your camera does high FPS video.

Edited March 10, 2023 by Elp

[Steve Ward]

7 minutes ago, Elp said:

Why not just record it as video? You'll be capturing at 25/30fps or more if your camera does high FPS video.

The video resolution is very poor compared to full size RAW images.

[Elp]

Depends on the astro camera, and the canon ra can record 4k video at 30fps and 1080 at 60 FPS. 

[Steve Ward]

1 hour ago, Elp said:

 and the canon ra can record 4k video at 30fps and 1080 at 60 FPS. 

But only as a stream of jpegs in .mov format from the livescreen feed , not full resolution RAW files ... big difference.

[michael8554]

Tricky to set up with software, as you'll need to constantly alter the exposure.

Slow to get the faintest details, fast to get the brightest details.

At frequent intervals throughout Totality.

A swivel screen or laptop screen to check framing with LiveView (not on for exposures) will help.

And a simple shutter release, just to fire the shutter once you've manually altered exposure.

Michael

[Elp]

An RPI with astroberry will do it via Firecapture or OAcapture, image sequence or uncompressed video. You dont get the super high speed due to the hardware but I've done many solar and planetary sessions with it capturing hundreds/thousands of images per run. Downsides, the software can crash, and controlling it is a bit cumbersome if you're not using a laptop (ie via web browser on a phone), so might be best just to use a laptop. Stellarmate may be better as it has a mobile app but I don't have experience with Stellarmate. Don't know if it will be compatible with the RA, just for backup I'd run them simultaneously, asi on the scope, canon on its own with an intervalometer. 

Edited March 11, 2023 by Elp

[rrb24]

Also interested in this for the 2024 eclipse in my case.  I've never had a DSLR and would like to use FireCapture or SharpCap to capture AutoRuns of bracketed videos of different exposure lengths.   I have an APC-S CMOS which can fit the sun and corona nicely at decent resolution.   I was thinking of getting the exposure settings from one of the online calculators and run as many automated videos during totality as possible (starting short and going long in mid-totality to capture earth-shine for example).  Although I use FC and SC for all my planetary, solar, lunar imaging, I have never imaged an eclipse - so interested in what other people do.  It can be done though:  http://www.zam.fme.vutbr.cz/~druck/eclipse/Ecl2019ch/Tres_Cruses/TC_347mm/0-info.htm  with an ASI1600MM.

Roberto