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SharpCap - free Astro Webcam Capture Software

rwg

By rwg
in Imaging - Discussion

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1CM69

1CM69

Posted
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Just a quick question Robin but using the Polar Alignment function, are you supposed to adjust the mount on to the star using the mount motor drive or manually via adjustment knobs?

thanks

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perdrix

perdrix

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If that's the case it would be useful to be able to have both 2.9 and 3.0+ installed at the same time.  Is that doable?

I probably will pay for the upgrade, I'm considering right now.

Dave

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Dinglem

Dinglem

Posted
Posted

I have a question about the polar alignment function, I can't see polaris through the polar-scope, due to my house roof, but can just see it through my scope and finder. I can't move my mount further away from the house as my garden slopes down sharply from my raised patio reducing my view of the night sky. Would the limited view around polaris prevent the polar alignment function from working properly?

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rwg

rwg

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Here's what to do to test... (assuming you are going to use a finder/guider for aligning)

* Place the mount in place in the home position (weights down, scope up) with good enough polar alignment to see polaris through the finder.

* Put the camera in the finder and get focus, check that you can see a full field of stars in the camera

* Rotate the RA 45 degrees to the right , check that you have still got a view of a full (or nearly full) field of stars in the camera

* Rotate to 45 degrees to the left (ie back past the home positon and 45 degrees further), again check for a good view in the camera

If you can see stars across the whole of the camera view in all three positions then you should be good to go. Note that normally SharpCap recommends starting in the home position and rotating 90 degrees, but in your case the 90 degree rotation would drop the level of the scope/finder to the point that you'd probably be blocked. However, the actual starting position doesn't  matter, it's the rotation that's important, so starting 45 degrees to one side and rotating to 45 degrees the other side of home is fine.

Note that you can test all of this without needing SharpCap Pro - even in 3.0 - testing/measuring your PA doesn't require Pro.

cheers,

Robin

 

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Dinglem

Dinglem

Posted
Posted

Robin, thanks for the answer as I had realised after my post that by moving my mount 90 degrees from the home position it would be at the same level as the polar scope and unable to see polaris :embarrassed:. If I am able to use will be purchasing a license for pro version.

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  • 2 weeks later...
paul mc c

paul mc c

Posted
Posted

Hello Robin,firstly what you have done in amazing,i am fairly new to astro imaging but your software has made it a real joy.

I have been using it on my laptop on windows 8 and have no problems at all.

I an now using my old desk top which i now have in my observarory which runs  windows XP,but i cant seem to be able to down load it.

I tried to down load the 2.9 version, and was getting amalware message saying the file was corrupt,so i removed the malware but still cant get it to download.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

tHanks paul

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rwg

rwg

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Hi Paul,

it seems that Norton has wrongly decided that one of the old beta builds was virus infected and has thrown a wobbly over the sharpcap.co.uk web site :( Possibly it applies to Symantec too as they are basically the same company now.

SharpCap installs that are uploaded to the web are virus checked by about 60 virus checkers using VirusTotal - you can see the report for the latest 2.9 build here for instance. You may find it easier to transfer the download from a different PC to your XP PC via a USB stick if downloads are playing up.

cheers,

Robin

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Stub Mandrel

Stub Mandrel

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17 hours ago, rwg said:

Not bad at all for 'accepting the default settings' :) What camera are you using?

SharpCap user @turfpit (of SharpCap User Manual fame!) has been writing more documentation and his latest is a guide for capturing Jupiter which you can find here : http://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/howtos/jupiter

cheers,

Robin

Thanks Robin,

ZWO ASI120MC

I suppose my real question is 'why is 60 0r 70% gain good?' - it's the equivalent of discovering the right ISO for a DSLR, and I have discovered that that isn't straightforward and is very different for different cameras.

Also, is COLOUR8 AVI with the ZWO uncompressed? My impression is that it is as the files are huge...

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  • 3 weeks later...
Stub Mandrel

Stub Mandrel

Posted
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Hello Robin,

I just ran a full scan with window defender and it claimed to find a Trojan in Sharpcap's install file

file:C:\......\SharpCapInstall-2.9.3085.0.exe

The virus in question does seem to be associated with a high level of false positives: Skeeyah.A!rfn

Not sure if you need to do anything, but this may cause issues for you if everyone gets the same result.

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rwg

rwg

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Hi Neil,

yes, it's been picking that up for about a week now - it's a false positive and it turns out it's the uninstaller application inside the main .exe that gets flagged up. My first approach was to try reporting it as a false positive to Microsoft, but in spite of getting an email back from them confirming it was malware free it's still being flagged by Windows Defender.

So... I removed 2.9.3085 from the web site and replaced it with 2.9.3086. All that is different is the version number, but (touch wood) the new version is not being flagged by Windows Defender.

cheers,

Robin

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  • 2 months later...
Tommohawk

Tommohawk

Posted
Posted

Hi all. Well I ran into some problems using Firecapture for DSOs so decided that maybe I should try Sharpcap - but I still have a similar query!!

The GUI is great and I think I've got it set up about right - but as soon as I set the exp time it starts looping for the preview - which is fine - but then when I "start capture" it might be half way through a looping exposure and I cant tell if I'm only capturing half an exposure. Hope that makes sense?

The problem is compounded because if I preview the images in Windows explorer, the exposure time doesnt disply for some reason - is this ia PNG thing? And the details pane doesnt show the exp time either.

Can anyone help me with this please?

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  • 1 month later...

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