Zero dropped frames!!!: Page 3

Zero dropped frames!!!

wvreeven

satch984 With 10 sec exposure time there really is no reason to have any rejected frames at all.

starnet59

satch984 Agreed, around 75% is the best you can hope for. But I would not call this "great" and on longer captures and mosaics you usually get less than 50%.

Tech@ZWO

wvreeven Thank you very much for your test and time. I hope to clarify the imaging time issue first. Seestar also needs some time to enhance, handle the image, dither and so on during imaging, so even all images stacked succeed without discard, It is also difficult to get more than 48 minutes of superimposed images during an hour of shooting

wvreeven

Tech@ZWO Understood. Then I'd like to repeat a request that has been made several times on this forum: please introduce a mode where all images are saved without any enhancing so we can use the imaging time to the max.

wvreeven

marvindj Thanks for reminding me to switch off Live mode. I gave this a try tonight and it indeed works as expected. I got 180 images of 10 sec in half an hour. Great!

Tech@ZWO Support@Seestar It looks like SeeStar continues imaging while it dithers or maybe while it repositions the target in the center of the field of view. It would help if it doesn't do that so no images with star trails are gotten. Sorry for being so picky. Disabling the Live mode already is a huge advantage for me!!! Thanks for all the support you have given me here.

curtismacc

A lot of folks miss the point just made by Tech@ZWO. Overhead (dithering, enhancing, writing the image to memory) takes up a significant amount of time which doesn't add to the stacked image time. If you save every frame and then take a look at the time stamps on the saved images you will see a general pattern with ₁₁.5 sec between the first 4 frames which includes the 10sec of imaging plus ₁.5sec of overhead for enhancing and writing the image to memory. Between the 4th and 5th frame this climbs to ₂₁.5 sec due to the dithering. So for every 50 sec of stacked frames, assuming no dropped frames, it will take 4 x 11.5 + 21.5 sec = 67sec. So you have 50sec of stacked frames in 67sec which comes to ₇₅% efficiency of imaging for perfect, zero dropped frame, stacking. So in 1 hour expect no more than 45min (sorry ZWO Tech but I say the overhead is 25% not 20% and another person on CN did the exact same analysis independently and found the same result).

starnet59

curtismacc I have no problem with 75% stacking efficiency, I also consider that the best you could expect. I do have a problem with less then 50% efficiency, especially in mosaic mode. For me mosaic efficiency starts at less then 50% and goes downhill from there, the longer you wait, the smaller it gets. I have never seen the effective mosaic exposure time go beyond 110 minutes, no matter how long the total exposure is. After wasting many nights on mosaics with nothing to show for it, I have completely given up on it. As far as I am concerned, this feature does not work and I am using the planning feature instead to acquire the data and then doing my own mosaics with third party tools.

marvindj

wvreeven If I understand you correctly, this option already exists. Disable "Live" from Me->Advanced Feature->Live. Read the Info provided for this toggle. I've used it several times after making sure the scope was centering the image correctly (that is, I start with Live enabled, let a few frames stack and ensure its what I want. Then disable Live and let it run)....

satch984

starnet59

This is your problem I think

I usually do mosaic during all night with efficiency of 50%
8h shooting / 4h of exp

curtismacc

starnet59 Yes, I have seen much poorer stacking rates with mosaic as well.

starnet59

satch984 And are you OK with that? How many normal exposures could you have done in those 8 hours? Also, do you stay awake for 8 hours at night or do you set an alarm?

satch984

starnet59

I repeat myself
4h of real exposure
I use planning mode

starnet59

If you are using planning mode you are not in mosaic mode. I too achieve about 75% stacking efficiency in individual shots or in planning mode. But I was never able to even complete a mosaic, the stacking efficiency is really bad, it starts around 30% and goes downhill from there. I do not think this is my problem, since individual images and planning mode seem to work as expected.

satch984

starnet59

You can use planning mode and do a mosaic in the same time......

starnet59

OK, but I still consider the SeeStar mosaic mode unusable. I do not understand why I get up to 80% efficiency on individual images, but I cannot even complete one 2x mosaic, one night is not long enough for that. I lost so much time trying to get anything useful out of it that my interest in SeeStar mosaics right now is nil. I would rather do my own individual exposures using planning mode and then stitch my the mosaics myself. Even if it weren't for the dismal stacking efficiency, the limitation to only 16 by 9 and up to 2x frame sizes would be a deal breaker for me.

I am a big fan of the new planning feature, the mosaic mode not so much.

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