Hi Graham, hope I can help.
I use FireCapture to capture images from my ASI224MC in the following way. Use a reduced Region of Interest (ROI), making sure that the height is about 50% larger than the planet you are capturing. The maximum capture speed you can get is related to the amount of data coming through the cable which is related to the size of the preview (ROI) screen. Next, use the "Crop" tool to draw a box around the planet, FC will keep this in the centre of the ROI and makes stacking in AS!3 easier. See the first image for where these settings are.
Next, make sure that "High Speed" mode is checked. This captures the video in 8 bit which also improves speed, there is no impact on image quality for capturing the planets in 8 bit mode. You can find this setting by pressing the "cog" symbol on the "Control" box, see the second image.
I have found that for my setup the best results are obtained by setting the shutter speed for Jupiter to 6.66ms (ie max 150 fps) and Saturn to 10ms (max 100 fps), then adjusting the gain level so that the peak histogram level is about 50% of maximum (ie max value about 128).
Capture the images in undebayered format (ie not RGB colour). There is a setting in FC where you can force the recordings to only record in raw format, it's in the "Image/Debayer" settings area.
You do not need to use PIPP in your process (in fact PIPP screws up the Bayer pattern), drag the video straight into AS!3 and follow the steps
I mentioned previously.
Capture Jupiter for 3 minutes, Saturn for 5 minutes, Mars for 4 minutes (I usually image at 200 fps for Mars, others go much higher), Uranus and Neptune I normally choose 10 or 20 fps.
For the images I took at the start of the month (see link
here), my FC settings for Jupiter and Saturn are shown in the logfiles attached to this posting.
Andrew
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