SharpCap setup on cloudy day

[deg13122]

Hi all,
I am trying get rough settings in place for using SharpCap with my SV105 camera.
It's going to be cloudy for several days/nights.
Can I do anything regarding all the SC option sliders, etc, before I actually have clear dark sky?
Thanks in advance.
Dennis in Texas

[Ruud]

You can always watch tutorials!

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=SharpCap.

Good luck with the skies.

[yobbo89]

Are you doing deep sky or planetary work?

[deg13122]

You can always watch tutorials!

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=SharpCap.

Good luck with the skies.

Ruud, thanks for the YT info. I've watched many, but not that one in particular.
It was very helpful for basic camera settings which I wanted.
I got what I needed from the first half of the YT; the rest concerned deep sky which I'm not into yet.
Thanks very much.
Dennis

[deg13122]

Are you doing deep sky or planetary work?

I'm just trying planets and Moon for now. That's why I got a cheap camera.
I'm using my 10" dob, so finding and just capturing "anything" is a great accomplishment for me.
I have gotten Jupiter into focus a couple times, even with the moons as it's drifting across (about 10 seconds).
By the time I get it back into the FOV and hit "smart capture" on SharpCap I do get something but it has been all blown out. Using the info from the YT I was able to tweak gain and exposure to actually get a reasonable capture.
Thanks
Dennis

[yobbo89]

I can recomend a few settings, lower bit mode will increase frame rate, so typicaly most cameras are something like 12-14 bit and you can lower them to 8 bit ,you'll gain dynamic range back in stacking .

use roi (region of intrest) this a crop feature, this will significantly increase frame rate .

avi or ser file structure is fine.

don't use gamma,turn it off or leave it at it's default. i think solar imageing this helps with different settings but not so much on the dim planets.it just makes processing hard later.


planets historgram should be bewteen 80% and 100% ,idealy keep it under 100% , 99 % is fine , i think you can get away in mono imaging on some blue channels about 60% ..

use high speed usb mode, if you get droped frames or corrupted data, turn it off or adjust the usb bandwidth settings..

use high gain settings ,50% 75% or even max. keep the exposure settings very short, adjust the exposure settings or gain settings to forfill the 80-100% histogram..

i use something like 5ms-10ms exposure and 350 gain on my camera for bright planets, which i think something like 75% max gain .