SharpCap & NINA - Camera issue after Polar Align - Forums

Topic starter

Aug 6, 2023 · Edited: Aug 6, 2023

I recently switched from the ASIAir Plus to a EAGLE5 Pro (mini-pc). I am now using SharpCap for the polar alignment and N.I.N.A. for the rest of my deep sky captures. From my research, the polar align in SharpCap is the way to go and it work really good for me so far. The experimental all-sky / three point features doesn't interest as long as they're "experimental".

I usually tell N.I.N.A. to slowly cool my camera in advance, long before the polar alignment. Eventually, when it's dark enough, I connect to the same camera in SharpCap, do the polar alignment then close it. From that point, N.I.N.A. is no longer able to retrieve an image from the camera. Well… it "succeed" but the image is cut in half, full of artifacts and it seems like I'm always getting the same broken image that is stuck in some buffer. To fix this I simply have to tell N.I.N.A. to reconnect to the camera. But now I have to restart the cooling from scratch and lose a lot of precious time.

The camera is a ZWO ASI6200MM.

What am I doing wrong?

Sean van Drogen

Aug 6, 2023

You should not have both SharpCap and NINA connected at the same time. You can cooldown with SharpCap and do your PA and afterwards connect to NINA you will have to restart the cooldown in NINA but this should not take that long as it’s already been cooling from SharpCap.

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BBRAUNCCP

Aug 6, 2023

I’ve been using the 3 point polar alignment in NINA for a few months now. I used to use Sharpcap & I can tell you with absolute certainty that the NINA polar alignment works perfectly. I don’t generally use it in other parts of the sky than around Polaris to do the alignment, but once I polar align, I can check it in PHD2 using the guiding assistant & It consistently reports sub arc minute polar alignment error. Just watching it guide for a while, I can see that it’s not doing much correcting on the dec axis. I have a polemaster, and I have a license for sharpcap pro but don’t use either anymore. I highly recommend you using the NINA polar alignment routine.

CS,
Bruce

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Miguel T.

Topic starter

Aug 6, 2023

I’ve been using the 3 point polar alignment in NINA for a few months now. I used to use Sharpcap & I can tell you with absolute certainty that the NINA polar alignment works perfectly. I don’t generally use it in other parts of the sky than around Polaris to do the alignment, but once I polar align, I can check it in PHD2 using the guiding assistant & It consistently reports sub arc minute polar alignment error. Just watching it guide for a while, I can see that it’s not doing much correcting on the dec axis. I have a polemaster, and I have a license for sharpcap pro but don’t use either anymore. I highly recommend you using the NINA polar alignment routine.

CS,
Bruce

Thank you for the input, I will give the 3 point a try.

Sean van Drogen:
You should not have both SharpCap and NINA connected at the same time. You can cooldown with SharpCap and do your PA and afterwards connect to NINA you will have to restart the cooldown in NINA but this should not take that long as it’s already been cooling from SharpCap.

It does indeed re-cool much faster, but the power restart from 0% and take quite some time to make it's way back up to where it should be. About 5-10 mins before the temperature is right, depending how hard I'm fighting against the summer heat. I will try 3 points in NINA as Bruce suggested.

James Tickner

Aug 6, 2023

I would second the comment about the 3-point alignment function in NINA - it works really well. I also switched over from using Sharpcap - not that there's anything wrong with its alignment tool, but it's just more convenient to have everything in one place and not be connecting/disconnecting cameras.

One tip: if your initial polar alignment is badly off (say more 1-2 degrees) then it's worth running a second pass of NINA's 3-point alignment. My typical workflow is to run an initial align - if it reports a starting error less than 1 degree then I proceed until the reported error is < 1 minute. If the initial error is more than one degree then I quickly adjust to within a few minutes and then restart the alignment process and continue until I have an accurate alignment.

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jewzaam

Aug 6, 2023

Agree with sticking with three point alignment in NINA. I prefer the PA in SharpCap but the issue of cooling tipped me over to NINA. It's not as good as SharpCap I think but gives you PA without view of Polaris and works good enough. There's no need to get to super accurate PA if you're guiding. I recommend watching "Optimizing Guiding with PHD2" by Andy Galasso from the 2019 AIC: https://www.advancedimagingconference.com/articles/2019_Galasso

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Jim Raskett

Aug 6, 2023

+3 or is it +4 for NINA’s TPPA.
I have used it for years and have directly compared it to Sharpcap Pro and find it every bit as good.
PHD2’s Guiding Assistant and Guide Log Viewer verify PA.

Jim