Switched from modded Canons to ZWO - what capture software should I use?

[g__day (Matthew)]

Hi Folks,


Its been a while since I last did any astrophotography - my astrolab has been idle for a year or two. When I left all my gear I had just switched over from running two modded Canon DSLR to cooled colour and mono ZWO cameras.


I am wondering what is the best software to control an imaging session with a ZWO ASI071MC Pro and ASI1600MM-c + 7 position filter wheel.


I had been doing test shots with The SkyX + camera add on, but had previously used BackYardEOS (two instances) to control the respective Canons. I have the latest version of APT but haven't used it much at all, and an old version of MaximDL v5. What camera control software would people advise for capturing subs? I want to control both cameras and their respective focusers if possible. So I have never tried Nebulosity, PI and other software out their. Lastly my Astrolab is controlled by a Windows 7 PC if that shapes the camera control software decision.



Generally I will likely wish to check my mount and hand controller is three star aligned at power on - so take a shot of a chosen guide star - centre it in the frame if the display software has a way of showing where the sub centre is - a X or dot or centre hairline, then I focus using a Bathinov mask - then its away to my imaging session on my nights target. If the imaging software can't show the centre on the sub - I can probably use The SkyX's Closed loop Slewing (CLS) to use Plate Solving to centre my star then select this position is my hand controllers sync point.


Many thanks all - keen to hear what options I should consider - what are their pros and cons and which folk consider I should rank my first, second and third choice!


Matthew

[glend (Glen)]

My personal preference is SGP, it does everything you asked for and runs under WIN7. It can be run remotely,, even if that is just Teamviewer from the backyard. It can be setup to alert you when a sequence finishes, or an error of some sort occurs.

[xelasnave]

Hi Matthew
Great to hear you are getting back into it.
I have a zwo with filter wheel and so far running it with sharpcap.

No complaints so far.

I was and probably will go SGP but if you want to get started its free.

Good luck and hope to see some images real soon.
Alex

[The_bluester (Paul)]

I am in the process of moving to SGP for my ASI294 as it automates focus a lot better than APT (At least for now) and with my C925 it is more or less essential. The SCT changes focus dramatically over an evening as it cools down.

SGP is far from cheap but seems to best do the job at the moment if you need unattended autofocus.

If you don't need automated focus, APT would probably deal with it all nicely and IMO is presented in a much more user friendly way than SGP is.

[Startrek (Martin)]

When I eventually progress from a DSLR to an Astro camera in the future I will probably initially start with APT as it has many similar features and look to that of BYEOS

[g__day (Matthew)]

Some enthusiasts with ZWO gear on Facebook suggest run two instances of Sharp Cap - must read up on its capabilities to handle sequences of shots or varying duration.


Another idea is to let The SkyX run my SCT with the ASI1600MM-c and filter wheel - which makes some sense, and have Sharp Cap manage the ASI071MC Pro.


Will research Sequence Generator Pro some more too, $99 US isn't bad for what it offers!

[Saturn488]

SGP hands down.

Steep learning curve but well worth it. Will not use anything else.

[g__day (Matthew)]

Well I am going to two step it - first step - upgrade Sharp Cap tp Sharp Cap Pro ($19 per annum) and get the hang of that to run my ASI071MM Pro. Then look at SGP.