Help understanding cameras for telescopes

[Bearcatrp]

Just ordered it. Hope it works out for awhile. My first venture into photography with my telescope. Cheap enough to learn what I really need. Thanks again folks.

[Bearcatrp]

Looking on QHY web site for the software I need. Just want a verification this is the right software...
https://www.qhyccd.com/download.html
Looks like it is but don't want to mess up with the wrong software.

[ram]

Yep, that's the software, for Windows the System Pack is what you need... you can see they have links to FireCapture and SharpCap also. But if you download the System Pack, in the future use the UpdateCheck program that is provided so it keeps the versions up to date (though sometimes this can break things---no need to install a new version if your current version is working well).

--Ram

[Bearcatrp]

Thanks for confirming this. My camera arrives Thursday.

[Bearcatrp]

During installation, I saw allot of errors. Was I suppose to install another program before installing this software? Was looking at the example and didn't quite make sense. The software did fire up though. Guess I will find out when the camera comes in. Will hook it up in the day time to play around with it to get familiar with the software.

[Gfamily]

Just as a rule of thumb, the sensor size in mm gives you an image field of view roughly equivalent to the same size eyepiece.

Yes, I know that depends on the design of the eyepiece, but for most purposes it's a reasonable approach for determining what you'll image relative to what you'll expect to see.
So a 1/3" sensor will give you an image similar to that seen in an 8mm eyepiece.

[Bearcatrp]

Thanks for the info. My 9mm eyepiece works awesome on the moon so if this camera does 8mm, this is going to work out sweet. Just hope my i5 laptop can handle it.

[JayTee]

Just as a rule of thumb, the sensor size in mm gives you an image field of view roughly equivalent to the same size eyepiece.

The actual rule is the diagonal measure of the sensor in mm gives the rough equivalent of eyepiece focal length.

Cheers,
JT

[ram]

During installation, I saw allot of errors. Was I suppose to install another program before installing this software? Was looking at the example and didn't quite make sense. The software did fire up though. Guess I will find out when the camera comes in. Will hook it up in the day time to play around with it to get familiar with the software.

What kind of errors, and what exactly did you install? There is an order you have to go by, starting with the System Driver, to avoid these kinds of warnings/errors. You just need the SystemDriver and EZCAP_QT to get started. The ASCOM driver can be helpful for later but not right now.

But try it and see, and if doesn't work, uninstall everything and start with the System Driver. It also works better if you have a QHY camera connected for some reason - I've had this issue especially when running UpdateCheck. But anyways, as long as you have all the pieces correctly installed, it should work fine. I'm not a Windows person so any help I can provide in this regard will be limited (I do use Windows on one old computer for AP but not on a daily basis).

--Ram

[Bearcatrp]

I downloaded and installed that all in one system pack from the link I posted above. Camera arrives tomorrow so will hook it up and see what happens. Have Ubuntu on laptop too (dual boot). Downloaded the package but cant get it to install. Dont see any packages in the repository either to try.

[Bearcatrp]

Can't seem to get this to work. Downloaded sharp cap. Tried both software with no luck. Not sure if I have a bad camera or I am doing something wrong. Sharp cap recognizes the camera. Tried different settings but no picture of what I have the telescope pointed at about 600 yards away. I focused with a 9mm lens, then put the camera on. Any suggestions? I can place my hand in front of the telescope and the screen goes dark though. Just a blank screen though. Plan on trying at night to see what happens. If nothing works, will send it back as defective.

[Bearcatrp]

Just tried to reload that all in one package from QHY. The ASCOM driver failed to install. Said I need 6.0 or greater. Is this driver needed?

[Bearcatrp]

Tried re installing the drivers. Here are the error messages I get:
The ASCOM driverhelper object has failed to load, this indicates a serious problem with the ASCOM installation

The ASCOM Utilities object has failed to load, this indicates that the ASCOM platform has not been installed correctly

The ASCOM platform 6.0 or greater is required for this driver

same as #1

same as #2

the ASCOM platform 5.5 or greater in required for this driver.

6 errors in total.

[sdbodin]

I can place my hand in front of the telescope and the screen goes dark though.

Sounds like out of focus. If you have not messed with a camera before, focus is way more sensitive than you would think. Either in focus or almost blank. Even worse when trying to see stars.

Just one suggestion,
Steve

[Bearcatrp]

Thank you for your help. It was out of focus. What is the ASCOM driver for? Sharp cap seems to work fine without it.

[ram]

Can't seem to get this to work. Downloaded sharp cap. Tried both software with no luck. Not sure if I have a bad camera or I am doing something wrong. Sharp cap recognizes the camera. Tried different settings but no picture of what I have the telescope pointed at about 600 yards away. I focused with a 9mm lens, then put the camera on. Any suggestions? I can place my hand in front of the telescope and the screen goes dark though. Just a blank screen though. Plan on trying at night to see what happens. If nothing works, will send it back as defective.

Sorry, I got busy with work and didn't follow this thread but my guess is that it is not the camera. If SharpCap recognises the camera you're fine. You're likely out of focus as Steve said (most likely) or your gain setting is low (less likely) or you may have some other setting off also (most unlikely). The point of focus for your 9mm lens is different from the camera which is at prime focus. So set SharpCap to be taking 1 second exposures with a high gain you need to slowly/carefully move the focusser from one end to other and you'll see an image come up. You seem to have to have confirmed this already but you can also shine a flashlight and make sure the screen goes white.

So set your gain to about 75-80% of the slider. Set your file type to be FITS. Set your exposure length to 1 second. I think that's it - if it's a colour camera you may have RGB balance but the defaults should be okay for now. If you changed the sliders, you can reset SharpCap to defaults I believe (so I would start from there and then make these changes and then try it out).

If you do it at night, as you get closer to focus, you'll see the stars as white circles/donuts (if you're using a refractor) and then you can see it smaller and bigger as you move the focusser so you know which direction to focus. That's why you set the gain high so you can see the large donut when you're really out of focus and then you can get ready and move your focusser more slowly.

You don't need ASCOM if you're using SharpCap - it can see the camera directly (which IMO is better). You can google what ASCOM is for more detail but briefly it's a platform for all kinds of different software and gear to talk to each other (basically a standard). As long as you just use SharpCap and the camera you don't need it. But the error you're getting is that you're trying to install the driver without installing the platform (which is a separate download).

--Ram

[Bearcatrp]

Thanks Ram. Before I posted the issues, I did try focusing a little with no luck. Thats why I thought it was either software issues or the camera itself. Had to do allot of cranking on the focus knob. Played with it again late yesterday to get familiar with different settings. Now just wait for a clear sky to try it out on the moon.

[Ed217]

Another option you might want to consider is using an existing DSLR. If you have one, the options for mounting those on most scopes is very low cost. They also tend to provide a much wider field of view than lower cost dedicated ZWO cameras.

Many of those have electronic view finders with live view, which makes focusing much easier. For simple images, you don’t need a computer for starting out. Many of them can be run from your smartphone, or you can use time delay exposures to avoid vibrations.

[Bearcatrp]

Don't have a DSLR. Almost thought about investing is one with a big zoom lens but decided to go for a telescope. Tried to focus on venus last night but didn't work out. Will wait for the moon to learn the software.

[Bearcatrp]

Well, got my 1st try at the moon with my new camera. Harder than I thought but worth it.