Basic FireCapture settings for the ASI120MC

dsnay

Hi,

I just picked up one of these beauties at NEAF and had my first go with it last night. It worked well despite poor seeing, but I'm wondering about all the debayer settings available in FireCapture.

Does anyone have any recommendations on the various settings for this camera to yield a proper color video stream?

I'm also interested in any recommended starting points for gain/exposure settings given that I'm shooting through a Celestron C8 with the XLT coatings.

I realize any recommendations should be considered starting points and that I'll have to adjust them most every night, but it would help to benefit from everyone else's learning experiences.

Thanks for helping get started.

Dave

riklaunim

Gamma with no changes. Exposure/Gain depends a lot on the object. I try to go no slower than 60-65 FPS on Mars, no slower than 55FPS on Jupiter and 30 FPS on Saturn. Gain lowered to avoid overexposure for brighter planets. Some also shoot at max gain at much shorter exposures and collect much more frames and stack more of them. Which works best depends on processing, seeing and more - you can test it.

robert

As with web cams I try and keep the gain as low as possible and adjust the frame rate to get a resonable image and then bring up the gamma until it seems to be the right hue this works with firecapture but start off with the gain at 50% also the gamma as with the exposure start at the second one from the bottom and work your way up until the bright image fades then start building your image on the screen the most IMPORTANT thing to do while adjusting your image is to FOCUS constantly as the image will change before your very eyes.

I find the best image size is 640x480 but start with full the full range until you can center the Planet and at the start do use the profiles in firecapture as for the Debayer settings perhaps some can post what settings should be used and how to set them and also I am at a loss to explain how to capture without Debayer and to convert back to a colour image as I am a newbie please treat these guidlines as my approach to a very exciting world of the ASI 120MC.

Finally a message to ZWO and Sam as your working on cooling for your cameras will this be able to be retrofitted.

Finger Crossed

chrisas7

I just received my ZWO ASI120-S and I am trying to capture colour images. What setting in FC do I used to do that. It seems to be capturing everything in mono. Does the preview image always show in mono? Should I be setting it to debayer?

Sam@ZWO

its called raw data which is mono

you can then debay it after capturing

raw data can save 2/3 harddisk space

mikenc

Sam wrote:
its called raw data which is mono

you can then debay it after capturing

raw data can save 2/3 harddisk space

Just ran across this form topic while searching on how to convert data back to color after capture. All my images are ending up B&W after stacking. I am using firecapture with the ASI120mc-s camera. Some ones help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Michael

riklaunim

You debayer before stacking. FireCapture has a Debayer application that can do it.

mikenc

riklaunim wrote:
You debayer before stacking. FireCapture has a Debayer application that can do it.

Thanks, for info. Will look for that option and give it a try. I am assuming you just reload captured video into fire capture debayer it.

Best Regards:

Michael

Just found article on internet about firecapture debayer. It is a separate program found in FC directory. Plan on checking it out after work today.

mikenc

I must be doing something wrong. Loaded a video of Jupiter and ran it but no color. Tried three different clips all same results.

I must be setting something wrong . Everything i capture is mono.

Michael