Hey there! That's so kind of you to say, I'm very glad you find the videos relaxing :) - EAA is definitely a great thing, and it's only getting better over time as software and hardware just keeps improving!
Super Video, ich arbeite auch mit Sharp Cap , aber erst seit 2 Monaten und habe noch große Probleme mit der Handhabung. Da ist ein solches Video mit Erklärungen mit Live Session wirklich Gold wert. Vielen Dank für die super Tipps.
Hey there Graham! - Ah that's superb to hear, I'm chuffed to hear you liked the video, thank you so much for watching and getting in touch :-) I've just seen you have a channel too, instantly subscribed mate, I look forwards to having a browse through your videos! All the best, Luke
Hi Luke! I know I'm commenting on an old post however just need to say how blown away I was with this! Still watch it pal. I'm def a newbie! Dusting my old scope off during lockdown and finding how far everything has come. Anyway got a Celestron 8hd Edge Evolution with Hyperstar at F2. Your posts are bostin mate ( probably can tell I'm in Dudley but did get my Yorkshire accent working up North!) Sharpcap Siril Hubble palette all cracking mate! Love your stuff keep it coming cheers Rich!!
Hey there Rich! - Ah mate that's brilliant to hear, thank you for taking the time to let me know you've been enjoying the vids so much pal! :-) That sounds like a fantastic rig, the edgehd is a lovely scope and I'm sure hyperstar is a ton of fun to use! I'll definitely do my best to keep the vids coming bud, thanks again!
Thank you Pete! - It's great software, very effective and a lot of fun to use! :-) I appreciate your time watching and sharing a comment! Clear skies :-)
I see you use high gain quite often, would love to see a video on how you make your initial decision as to how you approach exposure and gain. Is it just your experience? Surely, not just guess-work.
Hey Joseph! I determined the high gain setting for short exposure imaging by looking at the manufacturer published sensor testing graphs that you can find online, they show the read noise bottoming out by around the 450gain region and for short exposure imaging you want read noise to be as low as possible as a general rule of thumb 👍 In general imaging outside of sharpcap I use almost exclusively 100 gain for the increased full-well count, allowing me to expose for longer per frame and have to transfer and stack less overall when the night is over :) Hope that helps!
Hey Luke this was a great video and very well explained, I loved all the detail about Sharpcap and will make a great reference when I try this. Those images at the end were incredible, almost like your taken the traditional way. Great work bud. 👍👏
Heya Ollie! - Thanks so much for that mate, I really appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment and give feedback :) I was really happy with how they turned out, traditional imaging still has the edge really, but it's also a lot more work! Thanks again mate :)
Hey there Sebastiaan, you are totally right - Every single time I do EAA I have so much fun! 😃 Thank you for watching and commenting mate 👍 I appreciate it so much
Hey! That's great to hear, I'm extremely happy you found it useful! A huge congratulations on your gear purchase, I'm sure you will be so happy with it 👍👍 Thank you for your time, I appreciate it!
Luke, once again your answers and solutions are amazing! Have you ever thought of writing a book for struggling APers like me? Thank goodness you’re into making your videos. You really do have a talent for breaking down and simplifying topics that seem so incomprehensible. I think I’m about to run out of questions (at least for the moment, LOL), however, when you say to cap the scope and establish the curve off the left vertical, I’m assuming this can be done anytime (like making a dark library) indoors, right? So, the brightness/offset changes with each change in the gain? I had no idea this was the case. And finally, when you say to check the histogram is there a difference between the “histogram” and the “Smart Histogram”? Can’t tell you how much it means to not be confused with these topics. Keep doing what you’re doing...DON’T STOP!
Hey Joseph! - you are too kind haha :) I really appreciate you saying that though, it's very good of you - thank you! To answer your question about offset - you are right, it will indeed change with gain - you'll notice that if you use a lower gain the histogram view you'll see should be a "clean" spike, but at very high gains, you'll see spurious offshoots popping up, and the spike will broaden out horizontally - generally, the higher the gain, the higher the offset required to safely prevent data clipping off the left :) you'll want to use the normal histogram view for the task by the way :) I'll keep going! i'm having a great time chatting, creating, learning and sharing - so thank you for your time! As always, do feel free to keep firing away with questions mate, I really don't mind! Clear skies, Luke
I've been using SharpCap for live stacking since my first astro camera. I actually live stacked with my guide camera first , before I got my more serious imaging cam! I found it so much fun to watch the picture develop right front of my eye, that half all my images are sharpcap live-stacked and people can't believe that for example I live stacked 3 seconds of exposures of Orion nebula with plenty of detail and the core wasn't blown out and it's only like 20 minutes of a stack! Here is a tip. If sharpcap recommends some very low gain and can't stack because of not enough stars to be seen, turn on the digital gain (2x, 4x etc) in the live stacking options! It's not gonna turn on any real gain, only do it for itself to see the stars, but won't effect the real gain or apply it to the stacked images.
Hey Frank! Thank you for taking the time to write out such a thorough comment mate! I'm really glad to hear you are enjoying love stacking, I find it just the same as you by the way! - it really is so much fun to watch the image develop on screen :) I used to play with my guide camera the same way too haha! Trying to image M51 with it is one memory from it 😁 it actually worked alright! Thank you re: the digital gain tip 👍 it's something I should have brought up in the video to be honest but totally forgot! Thank you for watching, I really appreciate it 👍👍
This is the best video I’ve seen on Live Stacking in SC! Thx so much for doing this. I finally have a better idea on how to improve focusing, histogram management, and overall technique. Can you tell us your Bortle level ? Cheers!
Great video and I stuck it out till the end - haven't stacked that many frames due limited visible sky at the villa ; yours are impressive results. Just started to experiment with dithering wipes out hot pixels like magic. I use Sharpcap to livestack but also save raw frames for later processing. Platesolving does not always work but awesome when it does . I am using a F/L around 1800mm with a 533MC camera. The 2600 is impressive but expensive here in Sydney Australia.
Hi Clifford! - that's some major dedication mate, thank you so much for your patience! I too generally dither sharpcap sessions, I believe there's the option of direct dithering now too with no guiding involved which could be interesting in certain situations/user cases :) I should really save the frames too when possible! 👍 I love the 533, it's a brilliant camera! I bet using it at 1800mm f/l you have a great rig for some smaller targets, planetary nebulae and galaxy imaging especially! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment, and again for watching the whole video! All the best, and wishing you some clear skies 👍 Luke
Hi like. Your channel is awesome. I watch Trevor from backyard astronomy. And although his images are amazing. He gets sent thousands of pounds of gear which is not going to happen to most of us. Your channel however keeps is more real imo. And your images are just as good given the gear you have !! You have earned a sub from me my friend. Keep up the good work. I can see you have a genuine passion for it 😄
Thanks so much my friend! I'm glad my love for this subject comes across in the videos :-) I love watching Trevor's videos, he's been a major inspiration for me in getting started with making astrophotography videos too - glad to hear you like his stuff too mate! Thank you so much for your kind words and your support, it means the world mate! All the very best, Luke
That was an excellent tutorial, Luke. Loved it. And the quality of your results, wow. All with a near full moon. And not yawning over all those hours, well done.
I agree with you with tutorials I want to see everything you have to do, don't assume everyone knows what your talking about. Spell it out for those new people great video.
Thank you Ian! - I'm sorry to hear the weather wasn't as nice for you, hopefully the weather will settle soon and we can all have some fun! Thank you for watching mate :)
The 'Propeller' is very distinct in your M13 shot. It's a weird thing to see, and almost looks too perfect to be real! ...but it was first seen in original visual observations of M13 with the 72" Rosse reflector in Ireland many years ago.
Hey mate! - that's an interesting thing to notice - good eye!! those short subs can help you pick out some absolutely crystal clear details with the right conditions eh?, it's pretty amazing how far things have came along now in this field! Thank you very much for watching!!
Me once more Luke (sorry), sorry, but I have another piece of the puzzle to add. I set up during the day just now and ran a LiveStack test...everything worked flawlessly....15 minutes, with over 2k subs, no drops! Go figure, huh? I re-downloaded SharpCap/ZWO, but I’m leaning on thinking I did something wrong and it wasn’t the hardware. Tonight will be clear and I’ll give it a go once more. The mystery continues. FYI: I used the same laptop just now-no problems. More to come. (Also, please forgive that I message you on your different video channels, I’m not familiar with “messaging”...let me know if I should do this from one channel only. Of course, if you remain willing and I haven’t burnt you out). Joe
That's promising news at least Joe! - I assume to test during the day you ran live stack with no alignment to make it work? if so, could the problems at night be from the stacking settings? (star detection, star size, amount of stars, focus, digital gain etc etc) - it might be worth checking again next time out if it fails to stack again, then try stacking without alignment and see if it works that way - if so, you're one step closer to solving the puzzle! Don't worry about which video you message from :) it all just shows up as notifications for me anyway. Best of luck Joe! Luke
This was exactly the video I was waiting for, it's like a life feed of the imaging night and what to do, thank you very much for making this Luke And ofcourse great images and the Cygnus Wall is outstanding, what an image 👍👍 One thing I don't understand, you always use an IR/UHC filter you say, but the 2600MC PRO's protective glass is already IR filter, so isn't this giving you problems ?
Hey Siegfried! I did actually record this with you in mind :) would you believe it, I actually recorded quite a lot more footage too but it ended up on the cutting room floor as they say, the video was going to be feature-length otherwise haha! I know it's not a fully-fledged tutorial, but I hoped that it would be enough information to help someone fill in the blanks and get underway with imaging :) Regarding the UV/IR cut filter, you are right that you could get away without it :) I notice that the 2600 product info is showing a d60-ir filter which i believe was unspecified until recently, so that's good news! - thank you!! Again, thank you for the lovely comment and kind compliments! :) it's much appreciated, and I hope that this video helps you in some way! Clear skies, Luke
Great video Luke! I've often wondered what EAA was, so now I know and I'm going to try it. I even have the same camera as you :-) SUBSCRIBED! (just fyi, there is no point in cooling your camera unless you have a totally dark site, as thermal noise will be swamped by light pollution in any case - I used to cool my 2600, but I don't any more)
Hey Stuart! Thanks so much for the subscribe, that's awesome :-) RE: cooling the 2600, definitely agree there's little point cooling the cam very far for thermal noise reasons, but it can still be worth cooling it as lower temperatures also help to suppress hot/cold pixels a bit :-) Clear skies mate and I hope you get the chance to try EAA soon!
thank you very much for this video I enjoy and learn a lot, next time will try to go for livestacking, what and how you save after the session of livestack?
Hey there my friend! :-) I'm glad to hear you'll try out livestacking! - RE: saving, if you just hit the "save" button in sharpcap, it will save a few different versions for you - a 32 bit tiff, a 16 bit tiff, and a view of what you are currently seeing on screen :-) I hope that answers your question! Clear skies!
Hi Luke, I just want to thank you for that video which, for my money, wan't a minute too long! Indeed there wasn't time to cover something I wanted to know. My software setup is the same as yours: SharCap, PHD2, Carte du Ciel but my hardware is different: Celestron Nexstar 8SE 2032 mm (f/10), ZWO ASI183MC Pro. Also, lacking your stoicism, I operate the laptop remotely from a second one in a warm lounge using a free version of VNC viewer. This has the added advantage that the laptop outside can sit in a plastic box to shield it from due. I live by the coast in Cornwall and humidity is always very high and heavy dew common. I was interested in your use of PHD2. Like you I use single star FWHM but use SharpCap's automated stepping and final position features. Actually watching you I think I will switch to manual driving to explore the minimum of the parabolic curve but I wonder if there is any reason why you don't use the "Go to Best Focus Position" that can allow for backlash by approaching from the same direction as the scan? My initial motivation for watch your video was to see how you set up star detection for live stacking. With a much smaller field of view my stars have a larger FWHM and despite apparently having lots of good stars I do sometime struggle to get enough and end up with longer exposures to get some faint ones that SharpCap considers good enough. If you have done anything on optimising that I would love to hear about it. I so glad I stayed to the end; that imaging of the Cygnus Wall blew me away. I've been quite pleased with my attempts at galaxies and this year I set myself the goal of taking that sort of target. The trouble is that I am both lazy and impatient! Of course my scope's field of view is far too small but I really would prefer not to get into mosaic photography. I was toying with the idea of switching scope roles and using the main scope to guide and using the guide scope to take data. Also I really don't want to invest a lot in a monochrome camera and a set of filters but you demonstrated spectacular results with an RGB camera and a single filter. I have failed to find any good beginner's guide to this aspect of subject. Did you say that you were using a UV/IR filter and would that work on a simple refractor guide scope? Also have you done a talk where you show how you take that almost monochrome image and stretch it to full colour? Again, many thanks for taking the time to make that video. Nick West
Hey Nick! Thank you for taking the time yo share your thoughts mate, I appreciate it! Regarding focusing, just force of habit really, no reason to not use the goto if your backlash is being corrected for properly (tested by fwhm ideally) Regarding stacking, I've had quite a bit of experience stacking with REALLY tiny fields of view, my 300pds plus a little planetary camera in my recent shot of M97 is one example that might be useful, the best method to get enough stars to stack reliably is some digital gain, that really can help! On the note of processing the OSC image of the cygnus wall to a SHO like appearance, I used an optolong l-extreme filter for the shot, and processed in PixInsight, I figured out this technique about a year ago now and have three tutorials for how to do this on my channel here, they should be quite easy to find! Thanks again mate, and I hope that helps 👍
Hi Luke, I'm impressed. Not only do you make great indexed videos but you give prompt helpful replies to anyone who stumbles across your site. I will definitely be looking at the other stuff you put up. Not only is Astrophotography a great hobby, you get to meet people so willing to help total strangers! Thanks again mate, Nick
Yup, you nailed it again. I just tried a gain of 570 and with a brightness of 38, the white curve is clearly off the left vertical, however, the green curve is clipped...doe that matter? At low gain (120) the white spike is a couple of centimeters off the vertical (very close, but off). Is the aim to get as close as possible without clipping? Anyway, thank for your rapid response...sending clear skies from New Jersey (suffering from the Manhattan sky dome)...Joe
Hey Joe! - I'm very glad to hear it's working for you! - it's not ideal that some pixels clip the left at very high gains, but it's also not entirely unexpected to see that sort of thing happen - I'd say if you can't adjust up the brightness/offset enough to un-clip the green, then in that case I would use a lower gain generally for most projects :) Oh and just to put your mind at ease, it's totally normal that the spike is very close to the left at low gains (120+ where HCG mode is automatically on and read noise is lowered) - mine's just the same as that :) regarding the aim, i'd say you want a small - but comfortable - offset from the left, that way the maximum portion of the camera's dynamic range is available to you to use for your imaging tasks, there's no need to worry if it's not perfectly optimized though! - just make sure it's not clipped left and you are good to go :) Thank you for letting me know how it went Joe! Luke
Great video mate many thanks. What do you get with Pro that you cant do with 4.0? I am reading that PA doesnt feedback your movements but it also says you DO get the error displayed with the free version- I've never used it is it worth the 12 quid? After agonising forever I have decided to go down a camera lens route for photos (using Rokinnon f/2 135mm) and a cheap astro camera/guide scope for EAA just to see what the limits are of my AZGTi. We've had months of crap weather down here but hoping to test it all out and your videos defo help a lot.
Thank you very much mate! - RE: SC pro, it's absolutely worth the 12 quid mate :-) for polar alignment alone it's worth it in my opinion, but if you're doing EAA you'll probably more than get your money's worth out of the extra live-stacking features from a pro version too, such as sigma-clipped stacking, very handy! I wish you great joy with your kit mate, the 135 f2 and AZGTI is a great combo! Clear skies :-)
I’m sure you must remember starting out with this hobby (where I am at right now) where everything seems so overwhelming, which is why I sincerely appreciate your willingness to help out. To this end, please let me clarify my previous question to you. When I asked how long to expose, what I meant was when you go to an object, how do you know what exposure to set prior to stacking. If, for example, I go to the Whirlpool galaxy and I want to use 120 gain, how do I know whether to use 30 second, one minute, two minute, or longer exposures when stacking? Do you use the Smart Histogram/brain in SC? Is it just experience? Perhaps the mini histogram to get the curve off the left vertical? My guess is that when you’re exposing for more than a few minutes on each frame, the length of each exposure isn’t as important as the number of frames stacked over time. Or is it a matter of just seeing what develops on the stack? . Anyway, thank you for the insights on read noise. You’ve been too kind already, I’d be more than willing to pay you for “tutorial” lessons rather then to abuse my welcome here. Yours, Joe
Hi Joseph! - I'm sorry I misinterpreted your previous question! - to figure out how long to expose a target per subframe for a given gain, an ideal approach is a simple test exposure at your chosen length - You could then look at this exposure and decide - is the target framed correctly? Is there star trailing present? (is the guiding/mount able to deliver good exposures at this length) is the brightest part of my target saturated? (is it "blown out" and thus you are losing potential details that might be present in the bright areas) are the (brighter) stars saturated? (this is hard to determine by eye, but have they gone totally white in the core but still have colour in the edges/fringe) - this is a personal taste thing, I dont mind a few saturated stars in the interest of getting good exposures everywhere else in the frame. Those are the key things in my mind when checking an exposure, with sometimes the addition of "can I see (when stretched) most of the intended DSO in a single frame?" - this isn't really a rule but more just something I look for personally. (stacking brings out faint stuff anyway just due to the increased signal to noise ratio of a stack over a single frame) the smart histogram is also a decent choice but you'd ideally want to adjust it's parameters to include as little noise as possible in the calculated exposure (basically the read noise contribution you'll find acceptable, 1% i'd probably set) regarding getting the histogram off the left side, with a cooled CMOS like your 294 this should never be a problem during capture as you'll be using "offset" as part of your gain setting, this will add a base pedestal of ADU to every read operation, making it so the actual data is pushed along right on the histogram and unable to clip left, even in the case of a dark/bias frame - side point, but I do not recommend bias frames for the 294, instead take dark-flats, 2-3 seconds long - and ideally take flats that use that sort of exposure length too, control this by dimming your light source :) ) you are right that the individual exposure is far less important than the sum of all the exposures over time, further - there's a huge range of acceptable exposure lengths to use, all with extremely similar results, you may well find that anything from 60s up to 600s all work fine and give a similar end result - I'd say this should not be something you worry much about in the end :) if you have any other questions, feel free to fire away! - don't feel bad, I'm more than happy to help Good luck! Luke
Luke, I am absolutely blown away by your response! You are amazing. I’ve been trying to digest all the posts on Cloudy Night forums for the 294 and flats....and you’ve just summed up everything I’ve been reading, i.e. dark flats; 2-3 second exposure, etc. And your explanation for how to determine exposure for subframes has given me-finally- the clarity I’ve been looking for. Only one question remains (for now, LOL). You mention “using “offset” as part of your gain setting,” by offset, is this the “brightness slider in SharpCap? And if so, I’ve seen that there are many views on this in the forums. How exactly, does one determine the “offset” (brightness)...would this be accomplished by looking at the histogram and using the brightness to get the curve off the left vertical? Thanks again for your willingness to share your expertise....and keep those work-flow videos coming, you can’t imagine how helpful they are.
@@josephluciani5531 Hey Joseph, I'm really happy to have helped you! :) regarding your question about offset, I do believe the native ZWO driver (if you are using ZWO 294) sets your offset automatically for you based on the gain, however in the event that it does not - here's a surefire way to sort out a safe offset setting to use - first, select the gain that you want to use, lets say 120 in your case if it's the zwo 294 secondly, put your lens cap on the scope like you're going to take a dark frame. the next step is to start the camera looping short exposures if it isn't already, a sec or two each is fine, and then open the histogram tool - finally, the histogram should look like a spike towards the left side of the histogram panel - but importantly, not touching the left side! if its already away from the left by a small separation then you are good to remove your cap and proceed with imaging :) if not however, than adjust the offset/brightness to push that spike to the right a bit :) a rule of thumb to keep in mind is that it's better to have too much offset than too little! when you've established your offset ( it's likely already fine and shouldn't need adjustment) - then take your calibration frames at that gain+offset to match, so everything is consistent. I hope that demystifies the process for you a bit! :) All the best, and feel free to keep firing away if you are stuck! Clear skies, Luke
Another gem of a video Luke! I've only ever used SharpCap for polar alignment, but this live stack video is awesome - I intend to give it a go this evening on M31. Thanks for a great tutorial!
Hey Steve! - I did the same thing mate, I just used it for PA but it's live-stacking is really robust! so much fun to be had doing it :-) Thanks so much for watching mate! I hope your m31 goes really well!
You’ve got such a high output in videos. Impressive. How much time do you need to edit these!? I usually take at least 1 hour for each minute of video... 😳😅 Not even mentioning all the outtakes...
Hey there Martin! - this one was honestly a bit of a slog to edit, and it took forever to render haha, I was so worried it would crash and I'd have to start over 😅 There was plenty of outtakes, you don't need to feel alone in that regard mate! 😁 Thank you for watching and commenting! Really appreciated 🌌
Nice work again. I need to move to castleford I think. Did you use a separate UV/IR cut as I thought the 2600mc has it built in. I was going to try my first light on a broadband target without using my 2”” UV/IR filter
Haha, that would be great mate 👍😁 I did use the separate filter, I think the listing for the camera was recently updated and it now says "D60-2 IR cut", so I'm assuming uv is not blocked? I'm not 100% on it but it's deffo not been hurting to use the uv/ir cut filter anyway 👍 Thank you so much for watching and commenting mate!
Hey mate, just wanted to say I double checked the D60-2 ir specs, and it seems it does indeed block both UV+IR so you should have no problems! I hope that helps you! Clear skies
Hey again Dave! 6 weeks and Cygnus will be positioned better at least 😊 so many good targets just right around the corner isn't there? I know I mentioned this just a sec ago, but honestly, thank you so much for watching and commenting mate, I really do appreciate that you took the time to do that 🙏 Clear skies Luke
Great job on this video. BTW maybe next time recall to format your usbdrive/memorycard/usbkey to NTSF format. The native format for those drives are fat32 or extFat, and it has a limit of 4gb. NTSF has no limit.
Hey Robert! On my camera (Nikon d7500) it's really easy as it has a built in feature for creating time-lapse footage from your current photo settings! - I'm sorry if that's not much use mate!
@@lukomatico I don't have a nikon, but can you suggest the time interval settings that you used. I am working a night shift and really enjoying binge watching your videos.
No problem at all Robert! - I'm chuffed to hear you are having a binge on the videos! 😀👍 I was using iso 3200, 70mm f4.5, 6 second exposures in 10 second intervals 👍 I hope that helps mate :) and I hope you enjoy the binge haha! 😀 I also use these settings at 18mm frequently to good effect, it turns 1 hour into about 15 seconds of footage at 24fps
@@lukomatico It does thank you. It's a real pain seeing the clearest skies in weeks and not being able to image. Clear skies and looking forward to your next video.
Hey Luke, that was a great video, very informative. That sygnus wall image was insane! Did you say you used an additional IR cut filter? Or am I right thinking that the 2600 mc pro comes with a built in IR cut? Cheers Luke!
Hi Simon! - I did use an additional filter, but I needn't have done so - you are right that the 2600mc comes with a uv/ir cut filter anyway :) Thank you for the kind comment, and for watching! Clear skies
Hey mate! - If you are using a different camera to me then that's likely what's wrong - not all of the options are available across the board unfortunately :-( Hope that helps you figure it out a bit! Clear skies
@@lukomatico yea thanks i noticed a few hours later after i posted the comment, it did not even let me change to1080p but after a while it started working XD
@@lukomatico and your final image montage looks great, i am gonna test my 127 celestron eq but i also got a new telescope recently Omegon ProDob N 304/1500 DOB it's a nice upgrade to the 127 celestron because that telescope is not as terrible as many people describe it as XD just a low lvl entry i still had a lot of fun with it :)
Superb video Luke thanks very informative as im a real noob. shows what can be done, cygnus wall looks amazing. Really enjoyed this video and will probably have to reference it many times lol. thanks for uploading.
Hey Andre! - It's amazing how much can be done with Sharpcap Pro - I do love the program!! I reckon I will have to revisit this kind of thing but full of winter targets instead! :-) Thank you very much for watching and for joining my channel memberships! All the best mate, Luke
My goodness Dave! I'm amazed that you have watched the whole thing! That's absolutely tremendous, I hope it wasn't too boring overall mate! Really though, that's very kind and I appreciate it hugely 👍👍 Thank you Dave!
That was really informative! I recently bought a Nextstar evolution 8 HD + ZWO 1600 MM camera and really excited to get cracking on some deep space photography. There are a number of software packages that can be used for astro photography but I came across one of the talks from Roblin the author Sharpcap. I was really impressed with his methodical/scientific approach to optimising exposures for deep space photography and the software is pretty powerful and versatile by the looks of it! I have loads to learn so videos like yours are really helpful. Keep up the great work! p.s I am also glad to see you getting good results on an F7 scope! There seems to be a bias towards faster scopes (and that definitely has a place) but I am pleased to see great results with a 'slower' scope. Robin himself was keen to stress that you don't always need long sub exposures to achieve great results. Thanks a lot Luke.
Hey mate! - thank you so much for your well thought out comment, I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts! You could definitely do a lot worse than following the advice of Robin Glover! One seriously smart cookie :-) Good luck and clear skies my friend! 👍👍
I've just come across this video and I want to say thanks a million for taking the time to share all this tuition. I realise the amount of work that you have put into this - well done. I've just bought my first astronomy camera (QHY183C) after dabbling with a DSLR for a couple of years and this video has given me a massive education into moving onto the next level. Keep up the great work.
That's awesome Kevin, I'm really so glad this video was useful for you my friend! 🙂 Wishing you some clear skies and the best of luck with getting to know your new camera too! Thanks for watching!
Hey Ethan! That's absolutely awesome mate, I'm really excited for you! - There will no doubt be some frustrations ahead while learning, but it's all worth it in the end! being able to experience the night sky through astrophotography is priceless in my opinion 👍👍 Thank you so much for getting in touch, I love to hear about things like that mate! Wishing you the best of luck and plenty of clear skies! :-) Luke
Hey man, so i tried what u did with the live stacking in sharpcap but my 90 second images are way worse than your, what did you do to make them so beautiful?
Hey mate! - I'm sorry to hear you've had issues getting the images to where you want them to be, I'm afraid without knowing more about your scope, camera, filters and your skies then it's hard to help further yet my friend! Thanks for your kind comment!
Thank you very much mate! - It's really rather good software and with so many unique tools, I just seem to be in too deep with APT at the moment to think about regularly switching hehe :) Thank you for watching!
Wow! Luke this was many videos all rolled into one, you're like the Terminator T2000 of the astronomy world! As a focus mask user I found the Full width half max section really interesting, and I would love to see a tutorial on plate solving as I'm trying to drag my self out of decade old habits lol Images all stunning, but you have such attention to detail I shouldn't be surprised really lol. Fantastic tutorial Luke, it really was like EAA the feature film! :)
Hey there Chris! Fantastic to see you again mate :) What a great comment re terminator T2000😂 As long as I'm not the T1000 at least, as he was a bit of a bugger! 😜 I'll definitely take a look into making a plate solving video then mate, it really is so slick when implemented well into software, APT is especially impressive with it because of the object browser and custom coordinates which are really useful for framing certain fields of view 😊 "EAA - the feature film" brilliant 🤣 maybe that should have been my title actually... 😁 Thank you so much for your time Chris, I must sound like a broken record but still, thank you!! Clear skies 👍👍🌌🌌
@@lukomatico Describing the T1000 as a bit of a bugger hahaha....gold. I almost want to overdub the original trailer and drop that line in there :D No, seriously thank you Luke :)
They can indeed! You can input your imaging equipment's parameters to stellariums equipment manager, then either simply simulate your field of view or actually fine & frame targets when using it as a planetarium with stellariumscope plugin 👍 hope that helps!
Hey mate! - That would be cool for sure, I guess as a workaround you could use SharpCap's folder monitor camera for live-stacking direct from your NINA session's output folder - Maybe a bit of a faff around though! :-) Thank you for watching!
@@lukomatico good point. Thinking about this now, PixInsight has an EZ Stacking script, which monitors a capture folder. Would be an interesting exercise. Nothing against SharpCap, I just really really don't like subscription based software purchases.
Luke, I’d like to give you a quick update (and a couple of new questions)...The laptop issue was remedied (Robin Glover suggested I try the SharpCap 4.0 beta version with it’s many bug fixes, plus I increased the laptop performance capacity-it worked and I was able to image a great shot of the Whirlpool last night!!! If you don’t mind, perhaps you can help me with the following: 1.) I started out with a 120 gain/1minute exposure. I wasn’t able to see the whirlpool at all...since I just wanted to test the laptop, I quickly upped the gain to 340/exposure 30 seconds) and was able to see the galaxy. I started my Live Stacking at that point. My question is this, if I wanted to get longer exposures at 120 gain, would I have continued to up the exposure tests (i.e., a 2 minute, or 3 minute exposure)? Would I eventually have seen the galaxy if I had continued to make test shots with higher and higher exposure (assuming I didn’t want a gain higher than 120)? I assume this is correct, but once again, let me ask what you would have done if 120 gain/1 minute didn’t produce an image (prior to LiveStacking)? 2. In PhotoShop, the ‘levels’ on my image showed a histogram clipped on the left side of the graph. I assume this means that I lost data, however the LiveStacking histogram was not clipped during the actual capture??? In PhotoShop, with the main curve clipped on the left, there just isn’t much wiggle room for improving the image. Any suggestions? Thank you for being such a valuable resource, Yours, Joe
Hey there Joe! First off, I'm really glad to hear you had some success and have been able to capture M51 :) well done! Also, great to hear that SC 4.0 beta has done the job and you can use your new laptop! As to exposure, in a 1 minute exposure at home with my camera + scope (f7) + skies, with an unstretched view I'd expect to see almost nothing, but with a screen stretch I'd see very faintly m51s basic core shape per exposure, perhaps you just need to enable the screen auto stretch function on Sharpcap, it's on the right side where the gain /temperature etc sliders are, there should be a mini histogram view with an auto stretch button in it :) It doesn't alter the data in any way of course, it's just a screen stretch 👍 As to what I'd do, often times I'd either increase the exposure or increase the gain until I saw at least something per sub exposure, then just hit go on the live stack/capture plan :) Regarding the histogram being fine on Sharpcap then clipped in photoshop, that's an odd one indeed. Are you maybe saving files as 32bit masters? I've seen that sort of thing before myself and just changing to 16 bit files when saving fixed it - beforehand images were pure black! If not that, then I'd check also the bit depth of your recordings from sharpcap in the toolbar on the right, at the top - have it set to 16 bit rather than rgb24 or anything else really, the less things to go wrong, the better! I hope some that that is helpful Joe! Good luck for next time out, and clear skies :) 👍👍
@@lukomatico Not only is your response helpful, as usual it’s spot on! Your knowledge of this hobby is incredible...can’t tell you how important it is to have someone looking over your shoulder pointing out solutions. Always grateful, Joe
Thank you so much Corin!! I'm really glad to hear it :-D It was fantastic to meet you by the way, I'm really glad we got the chance to speak and share some thoughts! Thank you again for watching and clear skies my friend! Luke
@@lukomatico Hey Luko, It was great to meet you at PAS after watching you RU-vid tutorials video on Sharp cap. I enjoyed your videos , I hope we get to meet up again soon, best wishes your family, clear skies 🙂🌠
Thank you Corin!! I very much hope we do meet again my friend, I'm sure we will anyhow! :-) Thank you for your kind words and best wishes to you and yours! Luke
Hey Dave! It's really versatile software, and if I'd dithered ask the results too they'd be a bit better also which is nice :) I notice you've left me a few comments which is brilliant mate, I'll get to them right now :) 👍👍 Thank you!
Mate, I'm up the road in Leeds and just starting out my journey into astrophotography. This video has been the most helpful thing I've come across in months. Please, if it's not too much trouble, could you show us how on earth you processed your stack of the Cygnus wall and bring out all those beautiful colours. The stack obviously looked like nothing but red to us but that final image is amazing. Thanks for your guidance and I'm looking forward to giving SharpCap a thorough test drive soon!
Hey Phill! - Thanks so much for that mate, I'm really glad you liked the video!! :-D If you're wanting to edit one-shot colour narrowband images into a "hubble" -esque palette, then I have a good few tutorials for it on my channel here, - here's one using free software for processing, Siril. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YkxhGhuj3YQ.html I have others for PixInsight too, where you can actually go a lot further with the image, but that's paid software of course! :-) Best of luck with SharpCap mate and hello from Cas! :-D Clear skies!
wonderful video. I have been wanting to understand live stacking in SharpCap. Super easy to follow. Thanks for leaving in all the little glitches. Makes me feel more normal when my sessions have a few bumps. :)
Hey Rick!! I really appreciate that mate, I have a bunch of fun making EAA/livestacking videos like this one - I'm super happy to hear it was useful to you! Thanks very much for watching & clear skies!
Laptop on the kitchen chair is the same technique that I use for my laptop. Love the videos. Thanks for sharing your clear skies and your imaging routines. I learn something new every time.
Hey Luke! I've been coming back to this video to guide my own forays into EAA again and again. Thank you for the time and effort you've put in creating this! I actually went through all the comments to see your responses to questions. Great work and all the best with your observatory build!
That's awesome to hear mate, thank you so much for commenting to let me know it's been useful for you!! :-) The observatory is coming along well by the way, cheers!! Clear skies my friend 👍👍
Hi Luke, I am starting to learn how to use sharpcap and any short or long tutorials on its various features will be very much appreiated. Keep the good work up.
Hi Robert! - thank you very much for getting in touch :) I'll keep that in mind, I know a lot of people really enjoy Sharpcap! It's fantastic software 👍 Clear skies mate!
Hey Aarij! - Thank you so much for your kind comment, it's honestly extremely motivating for me to hear that you are enjoying the videos! :) I'll definitely keep making videos mate, people like you keep me going! - Thank you :) Luke
Thanks for another great video! I was out last night practicing with an ASI120MM and finderscope, still waiting for the proper stuff from FLO (ASI294MC pro, reducer, ED80). Got a reasonable M51 considering the resolution, 30mm finderscope. Was impressed how Sharpcap does the plate solve and centering. Mount is Explore Scientific EXOS2 PMC-8, and tracks really well. I saved the raw frames and stacked in Affinity photo (£24 right now, with 90 day free trial, no subscription) It does stacking (Light, dark, bias, etc) and background gradient removal. Excellent Ring nebula, did you get the nearby galaxy in the frame? Ramsgate, Kent, Bortle 5-6ish
Hi Dave! :) - Wow, thank you for the great comment! I think you'll be very happy with your setup when it arrives, that's some great equipment and a nice mount too :) - congratulations! it's a really good idea that you practiced with the guide cam+scope, as basically all the fundamentals are exactly the same as when you'll be using your bigger rig, great idea to get some time under your belt (and you had some fun too with m51 by the sound of it!) Thanks for the tip about Affinity Photo - I've just had a good look around the site at your recommendation and it does seem very streamlined! - I didn't know about that app and it might well be useful to me, so thank you! (it's great that it's multi-use, not just limited to astrophotos at least) re: ring nebula, I did capture it which I was pleased about given the low brightness of the galaxy and really bright sky conditions on the night! Thank you again, for watching and commenting :) Clear skies, and I hope your gear gets delivered soon!
@@lukomatico Thank you, just watched Dave Eagle's sky diary and noticed Vesta is in Leo and moving quite fast, might be worth a try to get a trail over an hour or so with short(ish) exposures.
Hi Luke, just wanted to say how much I appreciate your efforts with the videos. I only started trying astrophotography last year, coincidentally just as lockdown started and I can definitely say that I would have given up long ago had it not been for a number of channels like yours. Working alone in a field which I now realise is pretty complex, it has been immensely valuable to be able to learn from folks like yourself. I have been hung up on so many little details as I have gone along that have ended up being solved by watching other folks method, and getting clear explanations. I appreciate that making these videos is a lot of work, but I for one really appreciate your efforts. One specific question from this particular video. When you showed saving after the live stacking sessions in Sharpcap are you just saving it's "baked-in" stacking, or are you also saving all the subs for subsequent processing in DSS, Pixinsight or whatever ? I have Sharpcap but have never looked at this facility. It would be wonderful for things like public access sessions for people to see an image building in real-time ! Kind regards, Nick
Hey there and thank you so much for the really lovely comment Nick! - it really is extremely motivating to hear that you have enjoyed and gotten use out of my videos and others like them! 👍 As quite a quiet person, I never really imagined I'd be able to help others through the medium of video, but I'm so glad I did give it a go because the support from people such as yourself has been incredible right from the start which really does help! What a great time to start astrophotography by the way, just as we all lock down you discovered the keys to another world and all its wonders! 🌌 Regarding your question about the files I saved in sharpcap, they were all the baked-in stacks that you saw processed at the end :) no further stacking or anything like that was done 👍 just image processing in pixinsight Once again, thank you so much for watching and commenting, your support truly is valued :) Clear skies, Luke
Luke, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank you for all the support and information you’ve give me this past week. Your videos and responses have literally advanced my skills/knowledge 50% ! Now it’s time for practice-skies willing. A bit off topic for me with all my AP questions, but being a psychologist, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how your humble and sensitive persona is expressed in your videos. It’s we, the viewers, who are grateful for your efforts and skills. And, being a bit greedy, I’d love to request a video on PHD2 auto guiding. Why? Because if anyone can cut through the nuances of auto guiding, I know it’s you. Yours, Joe
Hi there Joe! - I can't thank you enough for such a lovely comment - I am truly humbled. Thank you! I hope the skies clear for you and that you get the chance to practice everything! Do let me know how it goes if you have the spare time, and also feel free to fire away with any new questions that crop up of course! I'm so grateful for every interaction, the fact that someone is taking the time to comment or watch is so amazing to me, and I'm just so thankful for it! Thank you so much again for your wonderful comment, I appreciate it tremendously! Luke
Fantastic video! With Covid there’s no way to get out and learn from others....your workflow was so helpful. Keep up the great work, as you know this can be a horribly complicated hobby and for a beginner-quite intimidating. Your video makes all this seem doable.
Hey there Joseph! That's really encouraging to hear, I'm glad my video was helpful for you! You are 100% right, this hobby can be so intimidating that some people don't ever end up giving it a try even if they'd like to, so hearing that this made it look doable is great news 😊👍 Thank you very much for your time and lovely feedback!
I’m relatively new to all this. I looked up my ZWO 294 MC Pro read noise, which was 1.2e @ 35 db gain. Not sure how that helps me with setting a gain for short exposures. I’m trying to graduate to 2 minute exposures and beyond, so I would probably use unity gain (120 for my camera). When you’re doing a multi-minute exposure at unity....how do you know how many minutes to use if you want to do live stacking? Sorry for all the questions. I do appreciate your videos and any advice.
Hey Joseph! - regarding why low read noise is important for short exposures to be useful, allow me to try and explain : read noise is present is every frame as its injected noise during the process of the camera reading the image off the sensor, so when you are in a low signal strength situation like a short exposure then the read noise is larger by proportion than it would be in a long exposure where the read noise would be totally swamped and insignificant. Basically, if you want to use short exposures then low read noise is a boon because it increases the signal-to-noise ratio in your favour, allowing you to still take beautiful images :) Regarding at 2m exposures however, I'd use the 294 at 120 gain like you mentioned, it's plenty long enough that any tiny increase in read noise will not be a factor worth consideration in the end result of stacking :) Your final point on how do you know how long to expose when live stacking, I like to expose until I can see the DSO in each frame, even faintly. That's usually enough! I hope that helps somewhat! 👍👍
Hey Michael! - thanks for watching and commenting mate :) Great to hear you've gotten into astrophotography, hope you're enjoying it so far! It's such a rewarding hobby. What gear are you currently using if you don't mind me asking? Cheers!
@@lukomatico Hey Luke its stes dad btw lol eqm35pro, zwo 120 mini , canon 40d, skywatcher star travel 120 all they had in stock i am after an ed80 , then the 50 mm guidescope, 2x and 5x barlow standard eye pieces :)
@@metalmick67 Heya Mick! - Ste mentioned to me that you'd gotten started recently :) It sounds like you've got some nice kit that'll suit you for ages there mate! quite similar to my own first setup actually, I had a canon 100d, eq5 pro, startravel 120 and no guiding - I had loads and loads of fun doing 60s exposures on all sorts of targets until I became completely obsessed and the upgrades began haha! All the best mate, Luke
