SharpCap - free Astro Webcam Capture Software

[yesyes]

I don't think there are settings that work every time. It depends on so many factors.

The main thing is that you do not want the image too bright as that will wash out any detail. Jupiter is very bright, so increase the frame rate to the maximum, which reduces exposure time per frame. This has 2 effects: each frame will be darker and it will also reduce image blur caused by atmospheric turbulence during each exposure.

Then adjust the gain slider so that the image is not too bright and not too noisy. Then tweak the brightness a little. Again, better to have it a bit too dark than too bright...

[Bizibilder]

As an example I use:

Colour/Compression YUY2

640x480 size

10fps unless the seeing is really good when I use 5fps.

Gamma at zero.

Gain at around 50 and use exposure to get the image "right" - a little too dark is better than a little too bright. You can use the brightness control to give a final "tweak" but it should remain around the middle of its slider.

This gives me good Jupiter images with my 180 Mak-Cass. You may need to adjust the exposure with a different scope - BUT keep the gain up (40-50) or you risk "onion rings" when applying wavelets in Registax (assuming you use it).

I take 1000 frames per .avi

Hope this helps and gives you somewhere to start, these settings are not set in stone and a little experimentation is needed.

PS there are some useful threads and video tutorials on the "Astronomy Shed" forum

[yesyes]

A good strategy in the beginning is to record several videos with different settings. Make a note what settings you used for each video and then see which turns out best.

[SniffTheGlove]

As an example I use:

Colour/Compression YUY2

640x480 size

10fps unless the seeing is really good when I use 5fps.

Gamma at zero.

Gain at around 50 and use exposure to get the image "right" - a little too dark is better than a little too bright. You can use the brightness control to give a final "tweak" but it should remain around the middle of its slider.

This gives me good Jupiter images with my 180 Mak-Cass. You may need to adjust the exposure with a different scope - BUT keep the gain up (40-50) or you risk "onion rings" when applying wavelets in Registax (assuming you use it).

I take 1000 frames per .avi

Hope this helps and gives you somewhere to start, these settings are not set in stone and a little experimentation is needed.

PS there are some useful threads and video tutorials on the "Astronomy Shed" forum

I do use (well try to use) Registax but always end up with an image after stacking worse (before wavelets) or end up with multiple stacked images say of jupiter dotted all round the image.

I thought than someone once said that the brightness slider is for screen use only and does not effect the actual recording.

I think instead of trying and getting frustrated with trying to get a good AVI I should do as yesyes says and do several videos and not attempt anything else.

[anthony2577]

Hi Bizibilder,

Agree with your comments about Astroshed.

Dion's video is quite brilliant and Dion himself has certainly been very helpful to me in trying to resolve some problems.

eg: Why I am unable to see all 'Sharpcam's operating/options listed on the righthand side of the window, instead of two small separate boxes in which all are greyed out except brightness and contrast.

Software is good..its just the rotten drivers that came with the 'NexImage' webcam. I am using Windows 7/64bit.

anthony

[yesyes]

Hi Robin,

do you think it would be possible to include a feature in SharpCap where it would provide a new webcam device to other applications and stream the webcam video there? The idea is to be able to use an LX modded webcam in other applications such as Skype or a live stream on a web page.

Also, do you have access to some other handshake lines on the COM port (e.g. CTS)? It would be good to be able to switch between LX and normal mode on a modded SPC900 via software instead of the switch on the webcam. I'm aware that this would require additional circuitry inside the modded webcam, but that shouldn't be a problem.

The idea is to build a 180 degree all-sky camera based on an LX modded SPC900 as discussed here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-astronomer/160629-diy-all-sky-cam.html

I think this would require switching between normal mode during the day and LX mode for the night.

[rwg]

Hi Chris,

in theory, the answer is yes - it's possible to write code to make a virtual webcam appear on the computer (I found some sample code that did it a while back while I was investigating something else), it's also possible to connect the LX capture images as a source for this virtual camera. Off hand, I don't know if there is an extra control line available, but you could always rig the wiring so that the line that is used for Amp off is also used to switch into LX mode from normal mode, so two would be enough.

The down side is that I just don't have any time for this sort of project right now - I'm not even finding much time for SharpCap or even getting outside with the scope these days, since I've just moved house a couple of weeks back and have a whole load of stuff to do I've even got cash saved up ready to by an NEQ6 and to pay for the materials to build an observatory and have no time to do anything about it!

Sorry not to be able to help...

Robin

[x6gas]

Those that know better than me suggest that:

1) 640x480 is better; higher resolution...

2) 5 fps or 10 fps is best (faster frame rates mean than the images will be compressed with a loss of data). Basically, 10 fps if you can get away with it, else 5

3) Set the exposure to one of the first three settings (either far left or the two settings to the right of that) and then adjust the gain to get a resonably exposed image. Gain is often 60-70%.

4) Gamma should be set to zero.

These should be your initial settings and then experiment from there.

[yesyes]

Hi Chris,

in theory, the answer is yes - it's possible to write code to make a virtual webcam appear on the computer (I found some sample code that did it a while back while I was investigating something else), it's also possible to connect the LX capture images as a source for this virtual camera. Off hand, I don't know if there is an extra control line available, but you could always rig the wiring so that the line that is used for Amp off is also used to switch into LX mode from normal mode, so two would be enough.

The down side is that I just don't have any time for this sort of project right now - I'm not even finding much time for SharpCap or even getting outside with the scope these days, since I've just moved house a couple of weeks back and have a whole load of stuff to do I've even got cash saved up ready to by an NEQ6 and to pay for the materials to build an observatory and have no time to do anything about it!

Sorry not to be able to help...

Robin

Thanks for the reply, Robin.

No worries, I understand that we all have other things to do that have higher priorities.. ;-)

Maybe you could put it on the to-do list or when / if you have some time again.. SharpCap has become an indispensable tool for many of us and I want to thank you for putting in so much time to develop it and providing it free.

I did notice one thing last night when I tested an LX modded SPC900. It seems that even if the cam itself is in LX mode but I select the normal non-LX SPC900 from the Camera menu it still works as if it was an unmodified cam. Do you happen to know if this is something specific to SharpCap? If not, then I wonder whether I would even need that switch on the webcam... It certainly looks like that 2nd feature I asked is not required at all...

One more thing. How do you handle the AmpOff? At what times does that get activated and deactivated?

[SniffTheGlove]

Those that know better than me suggest that:

1) 640x480 is better; higher resolution...

2) 5 fps or 10 fps is best (faster frame rates mean than the images will be compressed with a loss of data). Basically, 10 fps if you can get away with it, else 5

3) Set the exposure to one of the first three settings (either far left or the two settings to the right of that) and then adjust the gain to get a resonably exposed image. Gain is often 60-70%.

4) Gamma should be set to zero.

These should be your initial settings and then experiment from there.

Thank you for these settings, it will help me.

[wenjha]

Hi, Robin

sharpcap is a great software, thank you

I am developing a LX Camera(just like QHY5) which have a Directshow driver and I have some questions when using with SharpCap

1.sharpcap will open a camera and priview automaticily when start. but if there are some problem make sharpcap crash. it will crash again and again.

so can I disable sharpcap auto open function?

2.sharpcap seems can't recode video in the real fps. it will use near fps. For example, my camera run in LX mode, and 1 frame in 2s

but if I choose "start capture" in sharpcap, it will recode the image in 30fps. same image will recoded many times.

I hope there are some setting I can set the recode options just like in Registax6 "stack-create Avi"

3.can sharpcap support RGB8 or Y800 codec?my camera support RGB8 codec interface. but when sharpcap open it only show RGB24 in the right side. but it priview and recode fine in RGB8 format.

thanks

[rwg]

1.sharpcap will open a camera and priview automaticily when start. but if there are some problem make sharpcap crash. it will crash again and again.

so can I disable sharpcap auto open function?

Hold down the Control key while starting sharpcap to stop it from auto previewing the last used camera. It is supposed not to do this if it crashed the last time, but obviously there is a bug. I have replied via PM to the more technical questions.

Robin

[tonyowen]

I hope I'm not asking questions already asked and answered somewhere in this thread. If so, I'm sorry

I'm running SharpCap on a win7 desktop and a vista laptop and have updated both to v 1.5.0.304.

On the vista computer I have several saved Capture Profiles (which have automatically transferred themselves from 1.4.213 to 1.5.0.304 version) in the Video Control Panel, but none in the same panel on the win7 system.

Opening SharpCap on the win7 computer I have (in the Video Control Panel 'Exposure' in red characters and the ability to click between auto on and auto off.

However on the vista computer 'Exposure' is the same colour as the other settings and does not offer the option of being set to auto or not auto.

Why is this?

On the Options drop down menus I can Create Camera Setting File but where is this setting held - there is nothing on the Capture Profile drop down menu?

What is the relationship between the setting in the Video Control Panel and the Video Capture Filter in the Options drop down menu?

How can I save settings from the Video Control Filter as a Capture Profile?

With the Focus Score I have sometimes get a red negative value albeit that the preview looks in focus - what is the inference from the different colours and positive and negative values?

If after using (for instance) Image boost or overexposed does No Transform revert the preview to the 'normal' setting?

regards

Tony Owen

[rwg]

Things like whether auto on/off is available is something that is determined by the driver for the camera - SharpCap just queries the driver to ask if there is an auto on/off control and enables the check box if there is one.

The exposure control gets coloured red when SharpCap thinks there is a conflict between the exposure and the frame rate - for instance setting 30fps and an exposure of 1/15s since there isn't enough time in one second for 30 1/15s frames... However this is a bit inexact since webcams don't always report their exposure values accurately. Again, a driver difference between the two machines could account for this differences.

Creating a camera settings file tells Sharpcap to save a little text file next to each capture storing the camera settings being used for that capture - very handy for going back after the fact to try to work out which settings work best. This is not the same as Capture profiles which let you save the current settings of the camera and load them back later.

To save the current camera settings as a capture profile, just click on the 'new' button in the top right under the capture profiles drop down. You will then be asked for a name for the new profile and it will appear in the list to choose from. Use the Load/Save buttons to recall or overwrite an existing capture profile.

Only the controls displayed in the right hand panel are saved in a capture profile - Sharpcap displays the controls it can access directly there. Depending on the webcam driver (once again) some controls may only be available via the video filter dialog - SharpCap cannot read or adjust those values directly, the only way is for the user to show the filter dialog and change them manually.

In the focus score, the colour is a measure of how good the score is compared to the best score obtained recently (in the last minute or so). Unfortunately the focus score isn't particularly helpful - I think it really needs two different ways of calculating the focus, one for stars and the other for planets/mood - I have just never got around to doing this.

Yes, no transform removes any of the transforms like image boost and puts the preview back to normal.

Hope this is helpful

Robin

[TheThing]

Got a bit of a problem.

I have recently acquired a TouCam pro which has had the Astronomiser 1.5 modification, turning it to mono and LX with a cooling fan. There is no LX switch, so I assume it is LX all the time.

It connects with a USB and a serial port to USB convertor.

When I plug it in and start SharpCap, I choose cameras, then TouCam Pro (LX) from the drop down menu.

This brings up a LX Control Settings Box. COM Port is set to Auto USB and there are no other options on the drop down.

The other 3 boxes are set to DTR. Other choices are RTS and None.

No matter what I put in, the box won't go away! I press OK and it disappears momentarily before coming back. Same with cancel and the Red cross to close. The only way to get rid of it is to run the task manager and close SharpCap down completely!

Any help please rwg, sir?

Thank you kindly.

TheThing

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rwg]

My first guess would be that something else (some other program) already has the COM port you have selected open - what happens then is that you click OK, SharpCap tries to open the COM port to control the camera, finds it can't so it shows the box again to let you try to select a configuration that works.

Robin

[TheThing]

Oh, ok. Thank you. Anyone got any ideas how I can find out what else is using the COM or is it just a case of closing everything except SharpCap? I normally have the net open, Outlook running Hotmail and a couple of other programs.

TheThing

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[yesyes]

I don't think anything else has that COM port open but your settings in the LX config dialogue are not correct (so SharpCap can't open that port and asks you again).

You need to find out what COM port number has been assigned to your USB to Serial adapter. Open Windows Device Manager and expand the Ports folder. There you should see an entry for the adapter with the COM port number in brackets. If in doubt, unplug the adapter with that Ports folder open. The one that disappears when you unplug the adapter is the one you're looking for.

Then select that COM port in SharpCap. The Auto USB setting might not work in your case.

[rwg]

Chris might well be correct - if neither of these solutions get you anywhere, let me know and I will have a dig in the code to try to work out what else is going on (but I won't get a chance to do this until the weekend)

Robin

PS. you are on the latest (1.5) version, aren't you?

[yesyes]

Robin, is there any chance you could make a slight modification so that clicking Cancel in that dialogue actually cancels it? At the moment if some setting is wrong, no matter what you do, the dialogue keeps coming back. If one clicks on the LX version of the webcam by mistake, one HAS TO select a valid COM port in order to exit from the dialogue.

[themos]

I'll add that the SharpCap I'm using doesn't seem to offer a Setup dialog for the focuser BEFORE you select it. Most ASCOM clients provide that so you can fix up any misconfiguration. Am I saying this right?

[cbuchner1]

Oh my god. Sharpcap comes with source code! Thank you so much.

I have some experience processing things in CUDA (parallel computation with an nVidia graphics chip). One idea I have is to suppress air turbulence in real time by means of motion tracking and image warping. This could be done as an image processing filter within SharpCap. So I will be spending some time doing such a filter. This could be very useful for doing zooms of the moon surface - not really for deep sky imaging as there is not enough information in such images to reliably detect the motion of the air.

I won't even have to develop the motion tracking/estimation part myself, as there are frameworks available that can do this, e.g. here:

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=105611&st=0&p=1097237&hl=motion&fromsearch=1entry1097237

Of course some smart people have developed this before (maybe not in real time), here is an example featuring the moon:

http://youtu.be/TicOQ4mNj_s?t=14m20 - watch the entire presentation for technical details.

[rwg]

@yesyes

Yep, makes sense - will try to do this when I get a chance

@themos

I thought this was done automatically by ASCOM if the device hasn't been configured and you select it, but not if it was already configured. I must admit to not being sure since I don't have an autofocuser myself so I don't really use this part of the code

@cbuchner1

yep, the code is there to use, although I haven't released the source to the new DirectShow code in 1.5 yet - this shouldn't stop you from writing a filter and just copying the already compiled new directshow binary across as you shouldn't need to change that.

cheers,

Robin

[martin_h]

I have just used SharpCap for the first time with a QHY5 and I seem to have multiple streaked images on the capture/preview screen. Not being a webcam user or indeed intending to be, I just tried it out of interest but thought you should know.

[TheThing]

Yep, running 1.5.340, which I think is most up to date.

Will try looking at the ports next.

TheThing

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