I got these black artifacts when imaging M33 last night using an ASI1600MC-Cool with Sharpcap Bin 2x2.
Sharpcap Camera Settings that produced the artifacts:
Debayer Preview=Force GRBG
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Output Format=PNG files (*.png)
Binning=2
Capture Area=4656x3520
Colour Space=RAW16
Hardware Binning=Off
High Speed Mode=Off
Turbo USB=96(Auto)
Flip=None
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=450
Exposure=75
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=99(Auto)
White Bal (R)=50(Auto)
Brightness=0
Gamma=50
Fan=On
Temperature=-19
Cooler Power=100
Target Temperature=-20
Cooler=On
Auto Exp Max Gain=300
Auto Exp Max Exp=30
Auto Exp Max Brightness=100
Mono Bin=Off
Fan On=On
Subtract Dark=C:\Users\robin\Desktop\SharpCap Captures\darks\ZWO ASI1600MC-Cool\RAW16@4656x3520\75.0s\gain_450\dark_3_frames_-18.1C_2016-10-22T04_50_10.fits
Display Brightness=1
Display Contrast=1
Display Gamma=1
When I changed to Bin 1x1 the artifacts went away.
Camera settings in Sharpcap that did not show the artifacts:
Debayer Preview=Force GRBG
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Output Format=Fits files (*.fits)
Binning=1
Capture Area=4656x3520
Colour Space=RAW16
Hardware Binning=Off
High Speed Mode=Off
Turbo USB=96(Auto)
Flip=None
Frame Rate Limit=Maximum
Gain=450
Exposure=75
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=99(Auto)
White Bal (R)=50(Auto)
Brightness=0
Gamma=50
Fan=On
Temperature=-17.6
Cooler Power=100
Target Temperature=-20
Cooler=On
Auto Exp Max Gain=300
Auto Exp Max Exp=30
Auto Exp Max Brightness=100
Mono Bin=Off
Fan On=On
Subtract Dark=None
Display Brightness=1
Display Contrast=1
Display Gamma=1
TotalExposure(s)=300
StackedFrames=4
Image taken with above settings (no artifacts present):
I had imaged other objects with Bin 2x2 earlier in the same session, with no artifacts. The artifacts appeared after I created dark frames for M33 and applied the dark frames. M33 was the only object I imaged for which I created dark frames. Not sure if creating the dark frames was related to the appearance of the artifacts.
Is this a Sharpcap issue or something else? I did quit Sharpcap, rebooted my laptop, and restarted Sharpcap but the artifacts persisted until I changed the binning to 1x1. Thanks for any help on troubleshooting this issue.
