Live Stacking Deep Dive Walk-through

Based on some questions and feedback, this video is going to walk through how I make the most out of live stacking using Sharpcap Pro, a CMOS camera, and a Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) filter. I'll go through the settings and steps, as well as some real live stacking on the California and Flaming Star Nebulae.
SharpCap - www.sharpcap.c...
PHD 2 - openphdguiding...
Follow me on Instagram - / lazy_astronomy
And on Astrobin - www.astrobin.c...

[@dieterludwig8388]

I've been looking for a video about livestacking for a long time. This one is the best I've found so far. Great! Thank you very much!

[@NormanMcCall]

Thank you very much for posting this step by step video. I have been on a 2-year mission to get my C11 SCT EAA setup working and just recently achieved my first EAA success. Now I have directions to take it to the next level. This is super exciting. I really appreciate you taking the time to create & post this video! Best regards, Norm

[@rickpaul9858]

Best video I have seen on sharpcap.

[@timpearce2281]

Excellent tutorial that is detailed and straight to the point with no bs. This video was a huge help. Many thanks, Lazy.

[@randallpatrickc]

VERY informative - I have SharpCap but am still just using ASI Air and an uncooled ASI294 on a C9.25/.63 & EQ6. I learnt a lot from following through this. Now to try to start darks and flats and maybe dithering (I have a guide scope and Mini ASI that came with my used pile of stuff). It seems that having the camera at the same temp allows you to use library calibration. Again, you really know your stuff and very well structured. Impressive & subbed.

[@JohdagM]

This is delightful and very simple to understand for a beginner like myself. Thank you!

[@STLS]

Best SharpCap tutorial on live stacking I have ever seen... Well done... Our new Arizona desert observatory has a 10" with Hyperstar and 294mc Pro cam with the UHC-s filter ... looking forward to setting it up in just 30 days from now. -Marc Dantonio

[@jeffreyirwin883]

Thanks so much! Very informative. Can't wait to receive my ASI294mc pro camera and try out SharpCap! Really appreciate it!

[@DrJoeSelfCoaching]

Amazing video instructions! Your patient, methodical, clear approach is much appreciated. Please consider more of these!

[@marygarcia4544]

Great video!! I finally got my first ZWO ASI183MC Pro and had no idea how to use it, you video made it a lot clearer. Thanks! Not to many how to detailed videos on using Sharp Cap pro with these cameras i also upgraded to Sharp Cap pro for live stacking. Thanks again

[@curtishorn1267]

Great job going through sharpcap step by step.

[@AmatureAstronomer]

Useful information. Thanks.

[@gwzapo]

This is an outstanding video!!! Thank you so much for sharing your time and experience.

[@solarwarden5164]

Excellent.... thanks for going over this in such detail. Will definitely try all you have shown in my next session.

[@Pescadoraficionado]

Thanks so much! I learned a lot with tour video Sir!. Clear skys!!

[@MrZizilis]

EXTREMELY well explained! Many thanks!

[@sebastiaansmit5751]

This video will definitely improve my live stacking skills! Really wel explained!

[@ergio1]

This is a great video, very clear explanation and all the details, thanks

[@rickpaul9858]

Great video on using sharpcap.

[@skatter3112]

This is an awesome video. I was curious bout the Preproccesing tools, and explained it very well. I am planning on doing a shorter version of your video on me own channel. Hope you dont mind. This was an eyeopening experience of the benefits of livestacking. I am using Sharpcap Pro 3.2 myself, and now I can do much better pictures. Thx a bunch.

[@humlakullen]

You are awesome... Thanks a million:-)!

[@Ronbo765]

Great video. Will a hydrogen alpha filter work with a dslr? Will you get a color shift?

[@jamesdougan8789]

thanks for this video i have learned so much from this on how to work the live stacking i will be using this video as a walk through and give EAA a proper go now i really appreciate you posting this video cheers james D

[@lazyastronomy3348]

Thanks James! Glad to hear it and I hope it helps you get going!

[@YASAJTV]

So without HA flter the nebula wont show up?

[@AZKenReid]

The display histogram stretch affects the display only, not the data.

[@scottbaerson1534]

Excellent video! If you aren't a teacher or a professor then you may have missed your calling.

[@johnathanedwards8706]

Thank you for making this video-very informative!

[@Sc-Runner]

Hi John - I’ve played this entire video twice now and took notes . I’m new to EAA , don’t want to spend a lot of time in processing , so live stacking was for me. Had a good experience live stacking m42, decent stacked image . However I was very disappointed last night trying to live stack the Leo Triplet galaxies . Even after 15 minutes of stacking with 30 second exposures, the galaxies were still just shapeless fuzzies . I thought I’d at least see the shape of the galaxy after a live stack . Perfectly clear night , city with lots of light pollution , zwo asi294mcpro camera , duo band filter , Celestron AVx mount. The images of the Leo triplet was not any better than what I’d see if I just did visual astronomy on it , so I was let down . Is this expected ?

[@ssadams]

For some reason I get a black screen? I enjoyed the audio though.👍

[@user-io8sy1ui4b]

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.

[@georgwoeber]

great video, thanks a lot. imagine how even greater the stacks would look, if the cooler had been turned on and cooled from +10 to -10 😉. daring to say that because the same happended to me recently 😂 ...

[@canonxsi79]

Awesome video bro big help

[@gebaxke]

thank you, great video

Great video! Very well explained and to the point. Well done sir. One question though. What happens with the stack when you got a bad frame and you got star trail/movement or mount error or something like that? Is the stack wasted or there is some rejection process in the back? Thank you.

[@lazyastronomy3348]

Sharpcap at least has a setting in the bar that shows in the bottom when live stacking is on to choose "Sigma Clipping" This uses a basic rejection algorithm to remove outliers like a single bad star trail, airplanes, etc.

[@bugman1954]

I've been using Sharp Cap Pro for about two years. I'ts a pretty easy program to use but your explanation make it easy to understand pretty much the whole program. For us that hang out in Night Skies Network (www.nightskiesnetwork.com/) where the users broadcast EAA mostly using SCP.. I will probably watch this a couple of times to catch those things I still need to try to understand. One suggestion for SCP users to find this great video is to include Sharp Cap Pro in the title. Tom in MO

[@Chris_NGC6188Ara]

If I'm capturing data with NINA, my camera will be hooked up to NINA. So can you add the same camera to Sharpcap as well and this is how you can live stack? I'm confused if you can have one camera hooked up to 2 programs doing 2 different tasks.

[@rickpaul9858]

No. But you can use Nina and use Live Stacking in Pixinsight. It can read the images. It’s a script called EZ live stack.

[@Chris_NGC6188Ara]

@@rickpaul9858 Thanks Rick. I have have both Pixinsight and Sharpcap Pro and would like to use Sharpcap more then just it's polar alignment. It seems to have a lot of unused features.

[@donstimson6655]

I can see why you might want to use the small display stretch histogram on the right side rather than making all adjustments with the livestack histogram when the livestack level settings are very close together and because of the finer granularity you get with that histogram. But the drawback is that to save the display histogram stretch, you need to save "exactly as seen" which is an 8-bit representation rather than "save with adjustments," which (if the camera supports it, is a 16-bit representation. Can you comment on this aspect of the pros and cons of using the display histogram stretch on the right side rather than making all adjustments with the livestack histogram?

[@lazyastronomy3348]

Sure Don. When it comes to 8 bit and 16 bit images while live stacking, I normally wouldn't bother with a 16 bit image for getting a save of the view as seen on the screen. The view on screen is already stretched and non-linear, so much of what you want those 16bits for has been messed with by stretching it in Sharpcap directly. If I'm going to save a 16 bit file, I want the stack without anything having been done to it so I can stretch and process it in another application like GIMP, Photoshop, Pixinsight, etc. That's the way I'd go if I want to try to take my livestack and spend an hour or so doing post processing to get the absolute best out of that image. However, if I'm happy enough with what I'm seeing on the final screen and don't plan to mess with it anymore, I'm very happy to save exactly as seen. That gives me a final image that I won't mess with that's ready to post on Astrobin, Instagram etc. In that case, 8 bits is more than enough to show the full range and allow minor tweaking at the time of posting.

[@donstimson6655]

@@lazyastronomy3348 Thanks!

[@jcinaz]

I'd like to know how you managed to get your PHD2 to track as well as it does. Did you use SharpCap to Polar Align? Did you also do anything else like Drift Align?

[@lazyastronomy3348]

I use a Polemaster for polar alignment, but if you look at the timings, I'm only doing 15 second exposures. At that short an exposure, you don't need to be anywhere near perfect on alignment. The stars just don't have that much time to move.

[@wernerrecks]

...… many thanks for the very detailed and excellent video, I learned a lot !!! May I ask you a question ? I am just starting the Deep sky photography with my Meade LX200. I don't have the pro version of Sharpcap and I am using the ASI 1600 MC cool. If I start live stacking with the setup for PNG files I always get a final Picture in FITS and I don't know, how and what to change in Sharpcap in order to get a final PNG summery picture. Thanks in advance for your help. Regards Werner

[@lazyastronomy3348]

Thanks Werner! For saving a stack as a PNG, typically I use the Save As button in the lower right side of the live stack bar, and choose the save exactly as seen on screen option. If that’s still saving only as FITS, check the Sharp cap preferences from the main menus at top, there might be a default in there set to fits.

[@wernerrecks]

@@lazyastronomy3348 Hi, thanks a lot for your quick response. I just checked it and it seems to work !!! Thanks a lot for your help !!!! Werner

[@jcinaz]

Are you saying that monochrome flats should be taken even for a OSC camera?

[@lazyastronomy3348]

John Carter Sharpcap lets you do either, and both will work. The problem with color flats is that it can sometimes be difficult to figure out the right peak to get a solid flat, which typically gave me some odd gradients in the colors. Your experience may vary. Feel free to try both and use what gives the best results for you.

[@roysparkizay]

how do you open an image in sharpcap?

[@lazyastronomy3348]

royspark from the camera selection menu, choose folder monitor and then from the right side options there will be a browse button to pick the folder that has your images.

[@roysparkizay]

​@@lazyastronomy3348 when i try to open an image it's just black with no data.