ZWO Planetary Cam Newbie

[Al Long]

Hi all,

 

I took delivery of my ASI462MC this week. I did manage to get a couple of snaps, but am highly confused by the settings. Any advice for starting out?

[+Ibbo]

Which software are you using for capture?

 

[Al Long]

I’ve got sharpcap and firecapture. Not decided which I prefer 

[+Ibbo]

I normally use FC.

What are you struggling with ?

 

[Al Long]

Just figuring out where to start setting-wise lol. 

[+Ibbo]

For Mars

i use a region of interest

I use a histogram of about 75-80% on the red and leave the others at default

I am getting about 90ish fps (you should get better)

if I cannot get 90fps I drop the exposure and increase gain to get me back to the on the  75% histo

 

with mars you can take quite long runs of up to about 10mins

 

using Autostackert 3 I set to derotate in advanced settings and analyse then stack at 25-50 and 75% of frames

 

into registax for colour balance RGB align  & wavelets using intial layer of 1,2 or 3 and adjust the slider for 2-1  whichever gives the best (don't overdo it too much) then ps to finish

 

jupiter and saturn rotate much quicker and the runs I keep to 3 mins with the colour cam

 

have fun

 

tweak focus  at the scope on a regular basis as seeing changes it quite a bit and you can be off a touch

I

 

[+Ibbo]

If you get problems with buffering drop the frame rate till you can afford an SSD or a new fasterlaptop but you should be OK using a region of interest.

[Al Long]

Thanks Libbo. Now I just need a clear sky!!