Easy Workflow For Stacking in SharpCap

As per the title, this video shows only a few settings in Sharpcap are needed to get the best results for beginners when they try stacking. A check list is shown which viewers may wish to pause the video when shown, in order to copy down the points. Hope it is useful.

[@traceymonroe9026]

Great starter video for Sharpcap. Really explained the "basics" to get you up and running quickly.

[@LM-ek2hb]

OMG... Your teaching intuition, cadence and ability to instill confidence are off the charts! You have skills that educators hone for years or can only dream of. Did you know?

[@jurgenkohlmannhuber2754]

Best sharpcap presentation I have seen in 2 years, brilliant

[@willissutherland8516]

And Jurgen you are SO CORRECT...THE PRESENTATION IS ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT

[@markromanoff805]

I can't thank you enough for this tutorial. I was figuratively beating my head against the wall trying to figure out sharpcap. This was a masterclass of lucid explanation.

[@jackmilligan8045]

Thank thank thank you for a very good overview of sharp cap and stacking. Got into the hobby a couple years ago and have evolved to the point of using these type tools.

[@RonaldBryson]

Best video I have seem for stacking I have ever watched thank you.

[@colinbacon1738]

excellent teaching. will watch a good few times. thankyou .

[@newbee1016]

Hi Carl, It has been along while since this video was put up. I have had an extremely long break from astro' stuff. I am revisiting all the videos that I put away to refresh the memory bank on what to do with all the different astro programs. The weather has been lousy down here, I cant imagine how cloudy it has been for months I cant recall it been so bad or that I have never taken any notice of it before getting into astrophotography. We are supposed to get a couple of sunny days down here so I am hoping to get some solar imaging done, been playing with different cameras and getting the program sharpcap pro up and running, so when I stumbled upon this video again I found it will help no end. Cheers Robert

[@DrJoeSelfCoaching]

Carl, your video is simply a tonic for my many months of utter frustration trying to image the night sky. Finally, I'm able to see what's necessary to progress. Your video is a masterpiece of making the complex seem ordinary--quite a talent. I'm going to view this again and again until I can capture an image worthy of framing. I can't tell you how fortunate I was to connect with you on the forums.

[@carlsmith992]

Thanks Joe. Indeed a Zen moment as I do not regularly cruise that forum! I got sharpcap working with dslr raw files and posted on that forum about my solution. Just pure chance when I saw your post and thought ... I've been there, done that, know the frustration! Watch a few times Joe and write your own notes. Don't expect to get such a sharp image as you see in that video Joe. I have different equipment and been doing this a long time using many types of equipment. It is the techniques, the workflow, which is the important take-away from the video. Do the best you can with what you have using the techniques as shown in the video. Cheers

[@Diocrew]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! As a a beginner this is so helpful to me!

[@jeaneye7927]

Excellent video! I feel like I'm ready to jump in an get started as soon as the ZWO camera I just ordered arrives!

[@lesterselmes7557]

Am very much a beginner, but I found this so informative and so easy to understand. Can't thank you enough. Will be practicing what I have learnt from you.

[@johnrobertson1953]

Very instructional, helpful video. I tried your advice last night with Altair & M15 with decent results. Thank you very much.

[@johnloftchristiansen2553]

Answers to so many questions. Thank you.

[@richardmontagna3737]

Carl - I'm a complete novice and have been struggling with understanding SharpCap. Your video description was right on. Extremely well done. I've subscribed so I can learn more from you. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and your great teaching skills.

[@gebaxke]

Thank you very much. Learned a lot more in this 37 minutes, as in reading, browsing, YouTubing for a year.

[@ismihaidar2181]

Hi Carl.. Thank you.. Appreciate your teaching.. Very cool.. Love from Malaysia.

[@malcolmbrandon6806]

I am a newcomer to Sharpcap and have been using the SVBONY 305 camera tonight to practice what has been taught in this video. Like others watching this video taught me a workflow to follow for which I am extremely grateful. However in practice this evening when I set the exposure to get the left hand side near the bottom corner on Jupiter and Saturn I didnt have any gain left to reduce and the planets were too bright. When I looked at a group of stars whilst I could get the histogram curve my exposure was to long causing star trails. It however gave me a routine to follow and then from there I then adjusted my settings to get what I hope will be some good exposures. I agree your instruction technique is brilliant. looking for more tutorials from you soon.

[@carlsmith992]

Glad to hear you did end up getting good exposures Malcolm. However, planets are so bright they are actually not stacked in Sharpcap. Sharpcap stacking is for faint objects like nebula and galaxies. Planets are imaged by using sharpcap to take video at 30 to 60 frames per second and then that video is processed the following day in registax or autostakkert. Google for how to take images of planets .... and also google for registax and autostakkert .... and there will be help on how to take video within the SharpCap HELP. Cheers and have fun in your imaging journey.

[@Muesli711]

Easily one of the best astro tutorials on KZbin. Many thanks 👍

[@jonb595]

Thank you so much. Best You tube video on this subject !

[@marshallnauck4193]

This is fantastic! Thank you for the extremely clear and concise instructions. Novices like me really value this type of help. THANK YOU!

[@steffgess]

This is one of the best tutorials I've ever seen, excellent. Thank you!

[@bedfordbeds]

Great video Carl, very informative and I love the work flow!

[@joefranklin8189]

Your videos on SharpCap saved my bacon. I could not get it to work until i watched them, then I shot a decent stack of the ring nebula. Thanks for sharing them.

[@carlsmith992]

Glad to have helped you get started Joe.

[@jamesfast3038]

Great videos! Detailed yet clear guidance for us novice astronomers fascinated with EAA and live stacking. Thanks so much!

[@michelmoreno990]

Many thanks CARL for this "demonstration" I have many informations now to process... Clear Skies M

[@astronomynotebook]

Thanks Carl ...now with your tutorial I feel more confident 😊

[@larrypatterson3957]

Excellent tutorial, Carl. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us!

[@jamespoyak6467]

Thank you very much for taking the time to make this video. I'm a beginner and this has answered so many questions that I had and was unable to find the answers to. Five Star Rating!

[@carlsmith992]

Glad it has helped you James.

[@pksacoma]

This is one of the Best Tutorial I had ever found in KZbin congratulation 👍👌

[@Intheskyes1]

I have learned so much from this video. Excellent presentation. Thank you so much.

[@denodan]

I focused camera during the day and made a note of were the focus number were on my hand controller, as the celestron focus motor shows numbers you can write down, and input and goes to that focus

[@cook6052]

Carl, thankyou for your superb tutorials! Viola! The lightbulb turned on.

[@asmxh]

Excellent video Carl👍 I learned a lot. I love your SharpCap videos. I’m just starting out, have a 224mc & SharpCap Pro. I haven’t even taken one image as of yet but with this video and your “Easy way to learn VA/EAA” video I have now a great understanding of how these things work. Your explanations of the Histogram & how to use this tool are outstanding. Thank you for your work and anything more you can show in SharpCap, especially with the 224mc, will be greatly appreciated by me:) This is truly awesome stuff.

[@hcp2890]

What an excellent tutorial, now I can’t wait to try and practice!

[@willissutherland8516]

Carl...Thank you so very much for your step-by-step SharpCap tutorial..This Imaging newbie Beginner needed your instruction and your method of instructing...And I am copying all your points...Enough can not be said in Appreciation...CAV

[@lyoung-gb5su]

Carl, Thank you for an incredible presentation of some of the processes needed and tools used in SharpCap. Nicely done !!!

[@millerblaine2047]

InstaBlaster

[@timmyers3428]

Carl, absolutely fantastic video, easily understood, you have a wonderful teaching talent. I just found the Folder Monitoring Camera earlier today and with your assistance have brought life to some old images without having to work with DSS or Gimp. I can only imagine how good future imaging will go using your parameters for starting with the correct Histogram. Now I have to look and see what other gems you have out there in the land of You Tube, thanks again.

[@jasoncopen5745]

Wonderfully helpful video tutorial! I shot my first set of planetary data last night using SharpCap 3.2, my Celstron 8se and 224mc with VERY little knowledge of what I was doing. Needless to say I have a TON to learn and this was immensely useful!! Cheers! Also I am the PROUD 500th sub for your channel and VERY honored to be so :-) Clearskies!!

[@leedavcyclist]

And just like that, it all starts to make sense. Thanks for this video, very informative & educational 👍😎

[@colmbrazel]

Excellent video well done thanks!

[@NevadaDesertSkies]

Thanks for this tutorial. I've never had much success with the LiveStacking feature in SCP and now I know why. i was also using the auto-stretch feature in the main capture histogram as you were. Now I can't wait for the next clear night to give it another try. Also, a nice explanation of the "folder monitor" feature.

[@newbee1016]

Hi Carl, Great video, very informative and easy to follow. I have had SharpCap on my comp" for a while now and never thought any more of it till now, I will have to do some experimenting with it to get used to all the sliders. We have had some lousy weather down here Vic" as well we were getting a lot smoke haze for long time.

[@carlsmith992]

Ditto up here in Brissie ... smoke haze for months ... and now floods! Australia .... a land of drought and flooding rains. Bad for astro but thank thank goodness for the rain putting out all the fires and filled dams ... so good for those poor beggars on the land.

[@KB-vb5xp]

The first half of the video you suggested the histogram lines should start near the left corner bottom and peak about 15 to 20 percent to the right and not go all the way right before they ended. The reasons you explained all made sense, but then when you gave the example of the stacking acquisition I noticed that neither histogram ever had that shape or followed the suggested rules from the first half of the video. Any info that would help me grasp a better understanding of those differences would be appreciated.

[@sammymedina3996]

Bravo! Appreciate you sharing your craft. I'm looking forward to trying ny hand with DSO imaging in the coming weeks!

[@MikeLikesChannel]

This is an incredible tutorial, thanks Carl!

[@mercury7]

Found this useful, might be good to do another now that 4.0 is released…. Most likely going to be the same workflow but Robin has done a good bit of work so some stuff might be different…. One unadvertised thing is ability to save the brain function for cameras that have both low gain and high gain settings, doing sensor analysis and letting the brain recommend exposure and gain is fantastic

[@jamesdixon2085]

Thank you for this. In the 12 to 17 minute point of the video you were adjusting gain and exposure to get the right end of the histogram to hit the floor around midway. Was that because when you stack that would move the right and you didn't want to clip the highlights in the stacked image? If so, do you just know from experience how many frames you can stack before that happens?

[@trevorbray7960]

Hi Carl, thank you for publishing these excellent tutorials. I started EAA this past February and love it. On a fast learning curve with c9 using SC. After watching this video able to see first nebulas with my son using live stacking. Can you provide a list of recommended DSO’s for beginners? Cheers

[@carlsmith992]

Here you go ... 20 minute video on this just for you. It is best to learn how to figure that out than get a list from folk on the web .... as they may suggest targets which are either way too big or way too small to suit or fit your scope/camera combination! By knowing how to plan and find good targets you will always be able to do this - even when you change cameras, reducers, mounts or scopes in the the future ;) kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqPKepmdl8aNgZY

[@jerrykapchan103]

Just watched...great tutorial!...thank you!

[@nxu5107]

What a great video with few classic Aussie terms and doses of reality mixed in. Thanks . I must say it’s your ramblings and the tech stuff together that makes this video fun to watch. May I ask how did you manage to focus on your laptop from the scope? Surely you must have a lot of back focus? Great stuff

[@carlsmith992]

My "scope" used to make the video was an 18mm Canon wide angle lens with Vello C mount adaptor which allows fitment of a ZWO ASI224 camera - and the "screen" which acted as the artifical star was my TV across the room. So with an 18mm lens it was both widefield and focus works fine on stuff across the room when using an 18mm FL lens ;) The entire video capture of my laptop screen showing sharpcap and the image from the ZWO224 of my TV across the room was captured using ShareX (free) video capture software running on my laptop and which captures desktop video and audio through the laptop mic. Cheers

[@nxu5107]

@@carlsmith992 Carl, many thanks for taking the time to respond. Thanks to this video I managed to see the sky using sharpcap and Altair gpcam 224. Purely down to your video. I couldn’t get it to stack though. I was pointing at Polaris in parked position. May be I was using the wrong capture type. I used both tif and avi. But I’ll go through the video a couple of more times to understand the technique better. Your videos are great as there is less jargon and more of the home truths.🙏

[@brianwalton3016]

Great thanks, have looked at them ,as stated it would be "nice" to have one video (maybe the relevant parts stitched together) so that it is one video expanded on showing out of focus stars and how to get them correct focus ,Sharpcap APT or others . Are you doing it by graphs or just lowest,highest numbers. I do it by eye on Sharpcap . Getting bright star. Cantering. Bahtinof mask and then putting scale upto 150% and adjusting so lines are in right position. Reduce scale to 16% and then Goto target. Any better way or an alternative way is a step forward on the learning curve. Cheers mate.

[@jamesmunoz5786]

Execellent video sir , thanks so much .

[@michelp.1383]

Thank you so much! This is very helpful

[@jimtaylor5802]

Carl - glad to have found your KZbin channel (from Sharpcap forum). Novice, less than 6 months into AP. My question - I see how you adjust the exposure and gain to have the histogram line start at the XY axis and then have it end midway - what's the white line (saturation or whiteness) measuring? Why did you choose the midpoint on the histogram - why not have it end where the green line ends? Finished the full video - wow, learned a lot and can't wait until Friday in central Iowa - may have 3-5 hours of cool/cold clear skies. Thanks, Jim

[@carlsmith992]

White light (the name for the light we as humans see) is composed of the three primary colours of reg, green and blue. Various rods and cones in our eyes gather RGB light and our brains combine those 3 primary colours into full spectrum color which we see. RGB when combined is called white light. Color camera sensors and color images operate is the same way as our eyes. Color camera sensors are covered in pixels, and are arranged in thousands of 2x2 square pattern which are red, green, then on the next row green and blue pixels. So those thousands of 4 pixels in 2x2 arrays all over the sensor carry the RGGB signals to software in-camera or in software where they are combined into white light which we see in the colored images displayed. So the histogram shows the intensity of the red green and blue channels curves, as well as the overall white light (combination) curve. Being what we see, the white light curve is used to judge if ok, or not, to start stacking. If the left edge of the white curve merges into the left vertical axis it means there is signal/data which has been lost or clipped. We will never see it in the image. So by bringing it just slightly away from the left hand vertical axis, you are guaranteeing that you have all the faint dark low intensity light. For the right hand side (ie why that white light curve should go low near the midpoint of the histogram and not go low way over to the right hand side) watch the video again to hear how those areas across the histogram horizontal axis are .... count of very dark pixels to about 10% of the way across. Then count of pixels dark to a bit less dark ie shadows from 10-30% across. Then count of pixels of midtones/mid-intensity and very bright intensity zones from 30% all the way to the very right hand side. We do not want the image to be extremely bright in the 50% to 100% zone. Bright in the 50-100% region means the count of the number of pixels in the image which are mid brightness to very extremely bright would be a curve higher up vertically above the horizontal axis. Think what the image would show. Astronomy objects are all very black (the background of space), a smaller portion of the image is very faint/dim (nebula, galaxy arms etc), then a big gap of kind of no signal in the 50% to 90% tone area until suddenly a bunch of very bright (stars) in the 90-100% area. So if you artificially stretch the image / increase the curve height in that 50-100% regions where there really isnt much signal, the image would be overexposed and washed out. Faint stars become super bright and bright stars become bloated with all those stars, bloating, and over-exposure hiding the faint dust and darker stuff (to the left of 50%). BTW from the explanation of the RGGB 2x2 matrix on color sensors you can see why the green channel curve on the histogram so often extends way over to the right .... as there are 2 pixels gathering green light. Astro cameras often show images with a greenish hue over the entire image. That's why the stacking histogram has RGB sliders to allow you to adjust those effects out of the image when you start stacking.

[@jimtaylor5802]

Carl, your explanation connected a lot of the pixels (or dots - no pun intended)! Will rewatch the video - I’m sure more pixels and neurons will get connected. I need to rethink my workflow and see the value of this approach using SharpCap. Ironically, the next video that popped up was sensor analysis - that complements the wisdom you’ve shared - getting the right exposure and gain will improve my results. More work needed in this area to take right first steps - my assumption was that long exposures at the lowest gain was the secret to getting the best stacked images. Looking forward to your next tutorial to advance my knowledge in this space.

[@brianwalton3016]

Carl been through the video again and it is a very useful starter for everyone and your presentation is great. At the very beginning you say that everyone will be able to focus so let's move on ! As this is for new starters is there any chance of you doing a video with how you actually do your focussing? How do you setup.? Do you use Sharpcap as your aid,are you using a Bahtinof mask,do you use FWHM or any of the other aids in Sharpcap etc. Yes it's been done before and there are a few decent ones on KZbin but not Yours and with your skills in presentation and the dulcet tones Of your voice I,m sure it would be a good addition to your selection of KZbin videos.

[@carlsmith992]

Thanks Brian. I've just culled a bunch of video's as I have been trying to find the time to put together playlists on topics. So watch this space. I also am looking for some decent video editing software and having a "proper" intro etc. Basically I want to get more professional about it! However, the video which you watched here on stacking does include where I say to do star alignment with eyepiece, then slew to brightest star in your location and centre it using hand control directions buttons. Then as it is now centered in the eyepiece take that out and insert the camera and the star will be very close to centered in the image from the camera. Set max gain and set exp to 1 or 2 secs and you should definitely 'see' it. If not it will be because focus is way off. Just adjust focus until it comes into focus. Also there are snippets/tips in other videos which show focusing help. Namely .... First 5 minutes of the following video is about how easy it is to find focus in the daytime + tips on making a template to use at night to simply rack focuser drawtube to touch the template and you insert the camera at that pre-tested known focus point. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWKxkqV3acSkrrs This next video shows how to make a bahtinov mask from flyscreen. They throw much better spikes compared to the normal design which makes them especially useful for focusing small camera lens (for which a normal Bahtinov mask design off the web or commercial will not throw any spikes at all for a camera lens - too small aperture). kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5a4pGqme9yAgNk This next video shows how on a SCT, including if fitted with hyperstar, that a small bahtinov mask (EG for an 80mm scope) placed on the front corrector plate doughnut aperture will still throw perfectly good focusing spikes even though the whole front plate is not covered. Usually people buy a large SCT mask and cut and velcro together the pieces to enable unhinging it like a PacMan design to slip around the hyperstar. Thats fine but if you have a small mask handy it works fine too. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qGqrgYusndxpkLM Hope to make a focus video sometime containing all these tips plus the FWHM etc tools. When our skies are clear again. Cheers

[@nelsonrivera6575]

Finally a video that's not overwhelming with lingo and i can understand ,so would you say that between scp , apt and backyard eos ,you don't need no more astrophotography programs ? ,thank you , subscribed

[@alphacentauriproxima]

This is so helpful! Thank you.

[@benc7805]

Carl Great tutorial Cheers

[@triggershotphotography5223]

Hi, I had a practice last night but I find that the live view takes an age to show the updated view when exp and gain are altered. Also when it has eventually updated the live view and I alter the slider again, it takes an age again. I was just practicing with a ZWO ASI 120mm on the Redcat 51. Am I missing something? Thanks

[@martinhiggins9814]

Hi Carl, many thanks for a very informative tutorial. You mentioned that you save individual images for later practice. Could you tell the method for doing this? Cheers!

[@carlbellitti4672]

Hi Carl, Great video I joined an astronomy club and I just started EAA with some success and some failures. I refer to your videos a lot. Couple of questions 1) The DSLR vs ZWO exposure time difference for galaxies I presume is due to the difference in noise. You can crank up the gain a bit more on the ZWO, which lowers your exposure time? Second question, from one of your other videos, once you determine the optimum gain for your ZWO, do you use that value in all situations, or is it dependent on the target?

[@woldsweather]

3 months? I've only had 2 clear nights in 3 months here in England. Wouldn't you want as long an exposure as you can get away with without trailing?

[@compubyte2010]

AWESOME VIDEO.. thank you. it has HELPED ME A LOT. and can't wait till tonight.. I have one comment.. as a newbie.. I noticed you kept saying DLSR's ( not my nikon or canon etc. ) but dlsr's. and then you'd mention 'my ZWO" . not my "astro camera" ? you did it a few times ( Mostly between 20:00 - 21:45) , am I to assume when you say DLSR it's any dlsr, and when you say ZWO . it's any Astro Camera? ( Unless they make other stuff ? or are ZWO's the only ones that work with Sharpcap? anyways . thanks,and off to find some more of your videos !!

[@carlsmith992]

Glad it helped you Frank. SharpCap works with many brands of astro and non-astro cameras. Suggest you go to SharpCap website and check it out. Cheers

[@brianwalton3016]

Carl it's good to have you back. Another great video that has stacks of info in it and needs to be viewed several times as it sinks in. Your a great teacher on the subject and I would definitely have been in your Astronomy club If i was closer. However with the beauty of videos like this it's as if I was looking over your shoulder anyway just talking to me.(I,m on earphones). Are you still using Astrotoaster as well as Sharpcap or are you using Sharpcap live stacking as the way forward in Eaa?

[@carlsmith992]

Thank you Brian. Yes, it's been a while. Terrible bush fires and high winds for many months, then Christmas, now flooding rains! Rains have filled dams and put out fires so I cannot complain. I admit, when there's been good skies I've just grabbed the chance and headed out for myself. Re Toaster vs Sharpcap. My fav astro camera(s) are still DSLR's - pinpoint stars, cheap 2nd hand, simple to use. Astrotoaster works with DSLR's and while absolutely fantastic, it's slow stacking (on my laptop) taking about a minute to register and stack each frame as it comes into the stack. Whenever I've used Sharpcap with my ZWO camera's its stacking is extremely quick - only a second or two! Even when using a megapix sensor! So when Sharpcap 3.2 came out with DSLR support via ASCOM and also a folder monitor function ... I went out and tested. But I found no ASCOM driver worked with my model Canon. And while the folder monitor option works with many file formats, when it came to DSLR's it only works with jpegs from them. However, I found Irfanview solved my problems - free open source, can be run by command line, and therefore a fully automated batch file could be setup to watch for Canon CR2 raw files, convert to tif format and place into the Sharpcap folder monitor. Bingo ... the best of both worlds! My fav DSLR sharp stars, ease of use, and cheap as chips combined with extremely fast stacking in Sharpcap - as you see in the video. Within 5 seconds of the shutter closing I see the result of the stack. So yes ... Sharpcap will be the way forward for my EAA. I have a video on how to make all that work and will publish it shortly. Cheers.

[@georgeshepherd6887]

Further to below could you add a file with some frames for one to practice on until some time when we in Scotland get clear skys lol

[@BrokenPik]

Hi Carl, you took images with your DSLR but the frames are \TIFFs ? Help? i tried this with my Fits Comet Atlas and it could not stack any of them, probably because they are in LInear mode...

[@gregkushner9214]

What bin are you using?

[@jimheywood7113]

A really easy to understand work flow for SC. I have stumbled about and gotten some acceptable images but having a plan is really a good thing. Wanting to move to some more capable stacking and editing software..Do you have any suggestions. I have a Mac with PS and astropanel plus some stand alone stacking software.

[@MrGuitar50]

Great video Carl! So does SC eliminate the need to take dark frames? I'm going out tonight to try this out. Thx!!

[@SkyShedPODTeam]

Thanks Carl! Your videos are most helpful in getting started with CMOS (Altair 249C TEC). Question; Will your neat histogram process for determining duration and gain work for fainter objects? You mention using it on bright objects. Next time it's clear I would like to try it with some fainter objects. I have not tried it with brighter objects and looking forward to trying it on those as well. We build obs and I have little time for imaging. Too busy assisting other astronomers, so when I do get out there I don't have a lot of head scratching time. Your videos have saved me months , as will this answer I hope. One more questions if I may. ( C14 Ede w/ .7X reducer, new EQ-8 Rh) Longer subs beats more subs for dim objects, or more subs beats longer duration. That combined with your Histogram process will be the key I think. By longer I mean180s rather than 80s. Not 1hour subs. lol CS!

[@carlsmith992]

Glad to help. Yes, the histogram will always work to find correct exposure - but don't fixate on getting that exact shape. The peak must always be far enough away from the left hand side in order for the curve to rise up to that peak clear of touching the left hand side vertical axis. Sometimes the peak is very close to the left hand side (faint stuff), and sometimes further away (brighter stuff). Depends on the object. You should fixate on "what" the histogram is, in order to use it. The horizontal scale is from pitch black on the left, getting slowly brighter and brighter the more you move across, until very bright on the right hand side. The curve itself is a count of the number of pixels in the image coming from the camera, which are of all those intensities from totally black to very bright. Hence an image for a huge bright nebula will have the larger number of mid-tone/mid brightness pixels than an open star field, which is mainly pitch blackness of space with a smattering of very bright stars. So a correct histogram for a huge bright nebula will have the peak more to the right where it is counting brighter shadows and mid-tone intensity pixels, while the open star field will have the peak more to the left, as black pixels cover most of the image (blackness of space between some bright stars). Also, I suggested for beginners to always start with bright objects as they are easier to find, and image. Nothing worse than only just starting out in the hobby and picking a very tiny, very faint object which, as a beginner, you will have a lot of difficulty imaging. You won't known if you landed on target as the image is always dark until you know from experience what to do and how to check if you are really on target. It is so much easier as a beginner to go to the big and bright stuff, which is by being big and bright, much easier to find, centre in the image. The "art" and biggest learning process is then figuring out how to use the "stretches", the black, white and midpoint sliders in the stacking histogram, in order to tease out the details in the images. Once you've mastered doing all that starting with open clusters, then move onto the biggest and brightest globular clusters, then after mastering that go next to the biggest and brightest nebulas, and when have all that mastered move onto the fainter stuff. This will never be done in one evening. You don't learn to ride a bike in just a few hours and it's the same with EAA/VA/NRTO or whatever you wish to call Observing With A Camera. You are on a journey, enjoy the journey. Enjoy the challenge. All the best.

[@SkyShedPODTeam]

@@carlsmith992 Thx!

[@javiercuellolopez5610]

Hi. Do you know how automated rgb sequence in sharpcap ? Thanks

[@paulbarrett423]

I have watched 100s of videos trying to get my head around astrophotography, without doubt this is one of the easiest and best, everything made sense. now in saying that if I was to use a mono cam and save all my files RGB would it be the same? What I mean is open folder monitor (lets say blue) and live stack it then repeat with green then red then combine the rgb in pixinsight or photoshop

[@gregkushner9214]

What cable are you using with your DSLR?

[@carlsmith992]

The standard cable which comes with your DSLR to connect it to the PC. The benefit of Canon DSLR's is it comes with Canon EOS Utilities which loads onto the pc and which provides the LiveView direct sensor feed from the camera, plus from EOS Utilities you then control the ISO, exposure, shutter and intervalometer all built into EOS Utilities .... as well as instruct the Canon camera to save any shots taken into any directory on the pc. It is from the saved images folder you can then stack the frames using either AstroToaster (see other video's on my channel where I use AstroToaster live) or SharpCap. But SharpCap is a PITA to get working seamlessly / automatically to pick up RAW files format. It will auto pickup jpegs but jpegs are compressed and especially bad dark shadow compression. I would strongly suggest you stick with using proper astro cameras with sharp cap as there are heaps of users to help you with the Sharpcap/astro camera combos to live stack etc, while there are very, very few to help you with trying to stack non-astro camera images using SharpCap. There are also very, very few using AstroToaster. See a video on my channel Eta carina single 15 second VA / EAA with very basic equipment to see a proper astro camera in use with SharpCap .... the astro cameras are plug and play and work very easily with SharpCap and its stacking etc. Plus the extra sensitivity of astro cameras designed for such astro work allow MUCH easier processing than DSLR's built for "normal" photography ie not built for extyreme low light. Cheers

[@jaymsohn]

Hi there! I am a novice in the astronomy. To do SharpCap live stacking using EOS R with a lens, what driver do I have to install? It seems that SharpCap Pro 3.2 does not recognize EOS R automatically when I connect with a cable directly.

[@carlsmith992]

Sorry mate, but I do not know. You will have to go to the sharpcap website to find out how to get SharpCap working with EOS and other DSLR cameras tethered. Also join the CloudyNights website forum which has a sub-forum called EAA in which there is a thread or two for how to do it. Be warned - many have to recompile the ASCOM drivers to get it working. So you have to be quite tech savvy to get it working.

[@jaymsohn]

It looks a bit risky unless SharpCap proivdes a proven driver, so it's better for me to use Folder Monitor Camera option for the time being^^ Thanks for the kind response!

[@jaymsohn]

@@carlsmith992 Following your advise of contacting Forum, I've got a recent ASCOM driver over ASCOM platform. It works fine and I got an image from my DSLR on Sharpcap 3.2 in my room for the test like you. Thank you very much! On the contrary, from ZWO ASI120MM-Mimi + 32mm guide scope combination, I couldn't get an image from Sharpcap after choosing listed ASI120MM-Mini from camera tap. Do I have to do something for focus control? In this video, after choosing the camera, you get an image of your desk monitor. But in my case I didn't get anything except dummy screen, even I controlled exposure and gain value several times. Is there anything to control focusing in physical ZWO ASI120MM-Mimi + 32mm guide scope combination?, where I can't see. Please help me^^

[@carlsmith992]

@@jaymsohn You always have to find focus with a camera on any lens or guidescope. Some have helical focusers on the guidescope, and some do not. Some require you to slide the camera nosepiece in and out until you find focus. Some cameras have so much "backfocus" that they require you to purchase an extension tube before they reach focus! If you still have problems finding focus then contact the cloudynights EAA forum again mentioning your specific 32mm guidescope and asi120mm and ask on there. Cheers

[@NevadaDesertSkies]

Could you do a tutorial on the autofocus methods in SCP and how they work?

[@carlsmith992]

I do not use any of the SharpCap focus tools preferring to simply zoom in on the star and focus using that (the smaller a zoomed star appears on the screen the better the focus). Also, none of the focus tools in SharpCap are "auto" ... they all rely on you manually adjusting the focus knob on your telescope, then checking a graph or number displayed in whichever tool you choose to see if the adjustment worked.

[@gregmckay666]

@@carlsmith992 If you have a motorized focuser that SharpCap recognizes, it will control the focuser for you so you don't have to manually touch the scope. What it will not do (unless using the new scripting feature in the latest beta version.) is do it automatically after a temp drop or after a certain number of frames.

[@georgeshepherd6887]

How did you get the the frames into sharpcap I tried with a set of Fits files but they wanted to go into Fits Liberator

[@motoflatdrag]

I have the pro version of SharpCap, and the words "easy" and "SharpCap" should never be in the same sentence.

[@carlsmith992]

LOL. Nothing beats getting out there and using it over and over. Each camera and scope and ones own way of thinking about the task at hand gradually makes sense of it all over time.

[@raueugen9047]

Far from being easy workflow