![]() Once your graph shows a clear point of best focus, you can either move the focuser back to that point using your normal focuser controls, or use the ‘Goto Best Position’ or ‘Goto Best Score’ buttons. In this case (on a planetary target using the ‘Edge Detection’ mode), higher scores indicate better focus, so the point of best focus is at the maximum of the graph. The result will be a graph – like the one shown below – showing how the focus varied with the focuser position. Once the parameters are set up, you simply press either the ‘Scan In’ or ‘Scan Out’ button and SharpCap will work through a sequence of focuser movements, measuring the quality of focus at every step. The first new feature is the ability to make SharpCap perform an automated focus scan over a user-definable number of steps. Now in SharpCap 3.0 there are two important new features which can be activated from the Focus Score Graph when using one of the Focus tools and an ASCOM focuser. If you use an ASCOM focuser with SharpCap then this is the feature for you! Previous versions of SharpCap had a range of tools to help measure the quality of focus of the image to assist with focusing (and accurate focusing can be one of the hardest parts of Astrophotography). The editor can automate most of the things that you can do manually in SharpCap (and some things unique to sequencing, such as full autofocus) The Advanced Sequence Editor – if you want to automate things that the Deep Sky Planner doesn’t cater for, from planetary imaging to Live Stacking to all-sky recording, you can probably do it in the Advanced Seqeunce Editor.You can let SharpCap automate moving to the target, centering, autofocus, filter wheel changes and much more. The Deep Sky Sequence Planner – this allows you to quickly plan, test and then execute a deep sky imaging run.SharpCap 4.0 brings that ability, with two tools: One of the requests that we’ve heard again and again from SharpCap users is to have the ability to automate part or all of the imaging process. Sequencing capabilities are new in SharpCap 4.0. Deep Sky Sequence Planner/Sequence Editor SharpCap background subtraction will remove a constant background level from each colour channel, effectively removing the sky glow and any colour cast associated with it from your images before they are saved or stacked in Live Stacking. If your sky glow is close to a neutral colour then you can use an image stretch to largely remove it, but if you have a noticeable colour cast to the sky glow (perhaps due to the typical orange colour of streetlights), it can be hard to deal with. Once you have applied dark and flat frame correction, the background of your deep sky images still won’t be the deep black of space – that’s because you will almost certainly have sky glow due to light pollution. Background Subtractionīackground Subtraction is a new feature in SharpCap 4.0. Just like the flat frame creation tool, SharpCap has a dark frame creation tool that will help you create averaged master dark frames and store them in a dark frame library. Dark frame subtraction is of course a great tool to use alongside SharpCap’s Live Stacking feature to get the very best images from your EAA session. It’s now possible to create and use master dark frames that have a greater bit depth than that of the frames being captured, preventing level quantization in the master dark becoming an issue when stacking large numbers of frames. Dark Frame Subtractionĭark subtraction is another feature, like Polar Alignment, that has been improved in SharpCap 3.0. ![]() Not only will SharpCap apply flat frame correction to every frame that comes from the camera, it will also assist you through the process of capturing a master flat frame by capturing and averaging a series of flat sub frames. Of course, you can use the flat frame correction feature while deep sky imaging in SharpCap too – for example while Live Stacking to correct for uneven illumination of the sensor due to vignetting. Planetary and Lunar images will benefit from using live flat frame correction too as it eliminates dust donuts caused by specks of dust on the sensor, camera window or filter. Although flat frame correction has been largely associated with deep sky imaging, it’s now an essential part of many Solar imaging workflows to help remove Newton’s rings and other artifacts arising from the use of narrowband solar filters. Live flat frame correction uses the high speed multimedia accelerator instructions built into modern CPUs to allow a flat frame correction to be applied to each and every frame captured, even at USB3 video speeds (Note: a high performance CPU is required when using high frame rates with USB3 cameras).
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