133 replies to this topic

[antarex]

HI. I haven't been on the forum lately. I noticed a lot of updates.
I will test the new version of the app.
Thank you.

[Richard Giuliani]

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Dear Astrocapture, I have an old but still current QHY5L-II BN and a Huawei P10 lite smartphone. Should I use USB OTG cable? Is Astrocapture ok with this camera and this smartphone? TNX

 

...

[astrocapture]

Hello Richard,

At this time QHY camera are not supported because there isn't an Android SDK from the manufacturer and I don't have a QHY camera for testing. You can try to send an email to QHY to see if they are interested to add their camera support to the app.

[Amazed]

I installed Astro Capture on my Samsung S9+ and so far this is working for me on my testing indoors. 

The manual helped me a lot. 

I am new to Astor Photography and need to learn everything from scratch, step by step. 

 

MajinSoft- Thank you for making this APP. 

 

I purchased a ZWO ASI224MC for planetary imaging on my Evolution 8 and an Alt/Az mount. The Cam worked on my laptop but I thought a Tablet would be handier to use out doors. 

 

I am not having issues so far just having a USB 2.0 Port on the Tablet. 

 

After testing the Camera with Astro Capture, It took a while to find the TIFF photo files on the tablet. 

I tried opening them and the tablet asked what APP to use. I instinctively chose the default Samsung photo APP that came with the Tablet. That is named Gallery. I found the hard way that the TIFF files will not open in that app. 

I found a TIFF APP on line and installed that.  I was able to search for and open the TIFF Files to review the Photo's. 

They look good. 

 

So now that I can try to collect images, what is the next step, if I may ask?

Is there an App you would use on the tablet to process them or do I need to transfer the files to my laptop and use something like Sharp Cap there? 

 

Now that I think I can operate the Camera thru my Tablet, the next step is to see if I can get images on the Telescope.

[astrocapture]

Thank you Amazed for your really appreciated feedback,

 

As you discovered, files are saved in the Download \ Astrocapture folder. You can use the button Gallery from the main page to see a preview of TIFF pictures and SER videos (metadata and first frame only).

 

The idea of this app is to collect data at the maximum quality and do all the processing on the computer.

I use Affinity Photo for some basic editing, but there are many good software available on the market.

[Amazed]

Hi again, 

 

Now that you mentioned the Gallery Button, when I press it I get a blank screen with no indications of photo's or video's taken at the bottom.

That is what confused me at first.

I questioned if the camera was taking any photo's or were the files stored somewhere else. 

Maybe that needs work. Maybe it is because I did not label a folder for a cession of group of photos?

I look in my default Photo App and nothing there.

 

After reading the manual I saw where the the folder was in the down load section. That is where I found the TIFF Files are.

 

I added a mini SD card to my Tablet thinking that would help provide extra photo storage but the photos are sent to the down load folder. 

Maybe it would be nice to be able to select where the storage folder sits? 

 

Best Regards

Edited by Amazed, 27 April 2024 - 04:02 PM.

[artik]

Is there an App you would use on the tablet to process them or do I need to transfer the files to my laptop and use something like Sharp Cap there?

 

Quoting what @astrocapture posted above.

 

Hello @antarex

...

OpenLiveStacker can already be used for Live Stacking and you can have both app installed.

 

 

[astrocapture]

Hi again, 

 

Now that you mentioned the Gallery Button, when I press it I get a blank screen with no indications of photo's or video's taken at the bottom.

That is what confused me at first.

I questioned if the camera was taking any photo's or were the files stored somewhere else. 

Maybe that needs work. Maybe it is because I did not label a folder for a cession of group of photos?

I look in my default Photo App and nothing there.

 

After reading the manual I saw where the the folder was in the down load section. That is where I found the TIFF Files are.

 

I added a mini SD card to my Tablet thinking that would help provide extra photo storage but the photos are sent to the down load folder. 

Maybe it would be nice to be able to select where the storage folder sits? 

 

Best Regards

Hello,

 

The gallery show files from the Download/Astrocapture folder, if you already moved these files on your computer then something like "0/0 images" is displayed. If you have some long video recording you may have to wait a little for the page to appear. This is an area for many improvements, for example the external storage option is a great idea!

 

Is there an App you would use on the tablet to process them or do I need to transfer the files to my laptop and use something like Sharp Cap there?

 

OpenLiveStacker is another very good app compatible with ASI Camera that can do post-processing. It's free also, worth to have it always installed.

[astrocapture]

Hello all,

 

GIven the recent solar activity, I took a picture of Northern Lights seen from Italy.

This is a great example of how the Astrocapture app (and an IR filter) can save the day when the laptop is not there.

 

 

ZWO ASI 178 MM, C-Mount 8mm f1.4 lens, 720nm IR filter

Edited by astrocapture, 13 May 2024 - 03:03 PM.

[astrocapture]

Hello,

 

New v4.8 is out!

 

- new Storage setting. Now you can use an internal or external memory (ex. microSD, Hard Drive, etc..)

 

- improved reliability

 

Cheers and dark sky

Edited by astrocapture, 15 May 2024 - 06:04 AM.

[cos]

Hello cos,

 

Thank you for your valuable feedback.

 

The app now works in two mode: normal and video mode.

- Normal mode is the default, slower and more stable, intended for photographic use.

- Video mode is much faster, intended for video, but some devices can't handle such amount of data and the camera can freeze after some time. From my tests keeping an exposure longer than 1/15 in video mode is working fine. Faster exposures (ex. 1/100) are producing 100 fps that can't be managed by the smartphone and connection get easily disconnected.

 

1) Can you provide more specific info?

2) Not touching the cable / camera is helping a lot to avoid communication issues. An USB 3 Splitter with a power delivery is helping a lot for stability too. Are you connected with an USB 3 cable?

3) Gain is working fine on the tested camera (ASI 178 MM), can you try it with the wide lens in sunny conditions? Is Asicap gain working with your camera?

4) Listed gains are covering the whole range, intermediate values are not very different (scale is logarithmic)

5) It's a new mode, explained at the beginning of this post

6) Yes, they are RAW images and you need to debayer them in post-processing

Sorry just getting back to testing this. 

1. There seems to be about a 2 second lag between covering the lens entirely with my hand and the screen going black. This leads me to believe its is buffer/transfer related. This is on a Galaxy S23 Ultra

2. Yes using a USB 3 cable, not a  splitter, 

3. I tried during the day and still no image, so maybe its not gain, maybe its something else

4. OK

5. Ill try it out

6. Thats a deal killer for me, The whole idea is to use my phone as a screen / camera. ASICAP was color, and I assumed you were using their drivers. 

[astrocapture]

Sorry just getting back to testing this. 

1. There seems to be about a 2 second lag between covering the lens entirely with my hand and the screen going black. This leads me to believe its is buffer/transfer related. This is on a Galaxy S23 Ultra

2. Yes using a USB 3 cable, not a  splitter, 

3. I tried during the day and still no image, so maybe its not gain, maybe its something else

4. OK

5. Ill try it out

6. Thats a deal killer for me, The whole idea is to use my phone as a screen / camera. ASICAP was color, and I assumed you were using their drivers. 

Hello cos,

 

Can you post a screenshoot or a video showing the issue with the latest version v4.8? Please include a screenshoot of the settings page too.

 

There is no color at this time because I don't have a color camera for testing, and demosaicing can be done in post processing with best state-of-the-art algorithms. ASICAP demosaicing is a simple interpolation and can have artifacts that ruin the photo forever.

[astrocapture]

v5.0 is out and bring the much requested FITS format support. FITS and TIFF files can be saved at the same time, Gallery supports 16 bit FITS files only in this release (8 bit can still be saved and viewed on the computer)

[astrocapture]

v5.1 with some bugfixing is now released.

 

Breaking News! Do you have a Sony Camera without Focus Bracketing? Have a look at our latest app Alpha Focus Bracketing

Edited by astrocapture, 03 June 2024 - 05:03 PM.

[moladso]

Hi AstroCapture,

 

What a great piece of software! Very functional, easy to use, fast, updated,... 

 

It is fantastic for public observations with disabled people who cannot see through the telescope eyepiece.

In a matter of seconds the camera replaces the eyepiece and you can display the image of the Moon on a tablet.

 

Tested with Samsung Galaxy Tab S7, Apple USBC-USBA adapter and ZWO ASI178MM camera. 60fps.

 

Thanks for all your efforts.

[astrocapture]

Thank you very much for your feedback, it's very appreciated.

[cos]

Hello cos,

 

Thank you for your valuable feedback.

 

The app now works in two mode: normal and video mode.

- Normal mode is the default, slower and more stable, intended for photographic use.

- Video mode is much faster, intended for video, but some devices can't handle such amount of data and the camera can freeze after some time. From my tests keeping an exposure longer than 1/15 in video mode is working fine. Faster exposures (ex. 1/100) are producing 100 fps that can't be managed by the smartphone and connection get easily disconnected.

 

1) Can you provide more specific info?

2) Not touching the cable / camera is helping a lot to avoid communication issues. An USB 3 Splitter with a power delivery is helping a lot for stability too. Are you connected with an USB 3 cable?

3) Gain is working fine on the tested camera (ASI 178 MM), can you try it with the wide lens in sunny conditions? Is Asicap gain working with your camera?

4) Listed gains are covering the whole range, intermediate values are not very different (scale is logarithmic)

5) It's a new mode, explained at the beginning of this post

6) Yes, they are RAW images and you need to debayer them in post-processing

Sorry just getting back to this. Still having some issues, Android 14, asi585mc (non cooled). Have not tried video mode, just photo, I have set it to just take a single exposure as to not cause any potential flooding of the device. Yes using usb3 cable, both sides as usbc. Gain seems to work, still only getting grey scale images, 

Generally things are better than last time I tried, will try again later tonight and report back 

[astrocapture]

Hello,

 

Preview is grayscale because is the actual RAW bayered data.

 

Images can be debayered on the computer with almost all softwares.

 

Have dark sky

[astrocapture]

Hello community,

 

Would you like Astro Capture completely open-source?

Edited by astrocapture, 19 July 2024 - 08:29 AM.

[artik]

Hello community,

 

Would you like Astro Capture completely open-source?

Absolutely :-) 

[Voyager_sr2]

Hello there,

 

I tried Astrocapture app with a relatively new ZWO ASI2600MC Duo, but it only able to detect the guide chip, not the main one.

[artik]

Just to add from personal conversation same for OpenLiveStacker - we need to talk to ZWO 

Edited by artik, 21 July 2024 - 11:13 PM.

[astrocapture]

Hello there,

 

I tried Astrocapture app with a relatively new ZWO ASI2600MC Duo, but it only able to detect the guide chip, not the main one.

Hello,

 

The astrocapture app supports a single camera at this time. I released an update (v5.5) and the main camera should now be detected and used. Let me know if this fixed the issue, because I don't have a Duo camera.

 

In other apps you should have ASI220MM Mini or ASI2600MC Duo in the camera list

 

Cheers

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Edited by astrocapture, 22 July 2024 - 10:10 AM.

[emag]

Using Note20 Ultra and ASI290MM with a USB2 cable. Only solar so far, much better than lugging a laptop out in the Florida sun.

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[astrocapture]

Amazing shots! So glad you shared these. Looks like the sun's been putting on quite a show for you.