red dwalf Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 it`s arrived ! 9 am this morning must have been one of the first deliverys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Looking god rob I expect at least a couple of Jupiter images before it's too late! I'll accept Mars also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red dwalf Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 i`m fingers crossed for tonight ! managed to get a shift swap at work so i can have a play with it later L.O.L. do you guys go for 30 FPS on max pixel size or do you do you reduce chip size for more FPS ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red dwalf Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 did anyone look at there invoices ? it says value $10 webcam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Excellent Rob, hope you get to try it tonight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldfruit Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 My own experience with my ASI120MM is that rather than use it at full resolution, if you set it lower, say 640x480 you will be able to achieve a higher frame rate. I also used mine as a guide cam for the first time yesterday and it worked a treat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red dwalf Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 thanks for the tip, using as a guide cam was my second roll for this camera, i`m using the atik titan at the moment which is a bit of a waste when i could be doing small dso targets with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 I often frame Jupiter with as small a resolution as possible to fit just the disc in (unless the moons are looking nice) say at 320x240 and that way can dramatically increase the frame rate and grab more data more quickly in the periods of good seeing. I've had it at 120fps before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red dwalf Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 wow 120 fps is fast indeed, having read some of the instructions it advises not to go through a usb hub, i have got another 5 meter active usb cable i could use to keep it separate from the hub but my hub is powered so was wondering if anyone has had any problems using a powered hub or do you run it separately ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Personally I don't use a hub so can't comment I'm afraid. I jst have it connected directly to laptop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red dwalf Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 might have to run another active usb cable under the obsy floorboards, real pain getting the first on in there, i knew i should have put them both in at the same time, oh well it`ll kill and hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz Type-R Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 did anyone look at there invoices ? it says value $10 webcam I think all astro goodies should come with a invoice such as that, then we can show that to the wife/husband and get away scott free! "Dont worry dear, it's only a $10 webcam, not expensive at all". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red dwalf Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 i`ve got it on the table ready for when she gets home Daz L.O.L. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ibbo Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 (edited) is that wise she might want the other 90$ you said it was I used mine at 600 x600 at whatever frame rate I could get have fun with it Edited February 28, 2014 by Ibbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red dwalf Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 it`s giving me a headache, typically i loaded all the drivers, wont work very well with firecapture, keeps saying capture error, i can get it to work with sharpcap but very slow frame rates and if i try to change the settings it freezes up, same with phd guiding, manage to get one shot and it freezes and nothing. Help ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red dwalf Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 (edited) finally got it working ok i think, unistalled all the asi software, installed ascom 6 sp3, reinstalled the asi software, camera driver, sdk, and ascom driver in that order and seems to be work ok now, i don`t like computers ! anyway in PHD i find that the picture locks if you go below 1 second captures, but he quality looks great, i had the little lens on the top and you could clearly make me out in the dark warm room, pointed it outside the window of the warm room and the garden, house lights on all over the house could clearly be seen. can i ask you guys that use sharpcap for settings, it now works ok with sharpcap 1 and 2 and how do i load firecapture onto my computer, i have the disc that comes with the camera, but it just has files and software on it, the software is in a zip folder i have extracted it the the programs folder on my pc, but i can`t see how to start the program, no shortcut given and it`s not in the start, all programs list. Edited March 1, 2014 by red dwalf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Re:fire capture don't use the one on the cd go to fire capture website and download from tree and that newer version works. I got nothing but freezing from the cd version. As for settings in sharpcap 2 it all depends on the target/nights conditions. On Jupiter recently I have been experimenting with keeping the gain as low as possible and keeping the exposure relative to how low I put the gain on order to keep a fairly bright image in love view screen. So I have gone as low as 11 on gain before but increased exposure to compensate. With the shadow transit pics that I last posted I had the gain on 30 and the exposure on 0.065, gamma always at 50, brightness on 5 (I think-can't check as deleted files) but basically I spent ages each clear night trying different settings then playin back the Avis and assessing. Once you have had it a while and done all your mess about runs to see what works best for your site (i.e. Light pollution etc) and te current conditions of the night you're capturing on, you'll get used to it and things get much easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red dwalf Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 thanks Felix the same thing was happening to me in firecapture fron the disc, it starts then freezes with a capture error, what version of firecapture are you using ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Version 2.3 Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red dwalf Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 ok i`ve downloaded the firecapture 2.3 into c/programs and it`s made a firecapture folder, inside there is about 100 files ! which one starts the program please ? theres nothing in start / all profgrams relating to firecapture and no shortcut on the desktop. anyone help a computer fool start the program and is there any ohter files in need to run the asi120mm camera ? thanks for the help in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toymaster Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Rob, Just an idea. Have you installed it or just copied the files? Usually you download the files to a folder say on your dektop and there is a setup file among the others that installs it. It has to be installed to write to the registry and be able to run. Not familiar with this software but have installed many other apps over he years Ade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 In amongst the loads of files Rob is one called Firecapture.exe-that's the one I make a shortcut to on my desktop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red dwalf Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 sorted it, it downloads a zip file which installs the files wherever you tell it to and thats it, no windows install, then apartly you have to find the file that is reliant to your camera, in my case it was firecapture_asi, this then loads the reliant files using ms dos and thats it. it now works apart from i only seem to be getting 1 fps, how do you increase this ? i`ve tried a few things but it`s not flying fps yet. getting there slowly L.O.L. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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