Interview with Robin Glover, Developer of SharpCap

SharpCap (www.sharpcap.co.uk/) is highly regarded by purchasers of CMOS astro cameras, not only for camera control for astrophotography, but also for its “live stacking” capability that is revolutionizing Electronic Assisted Astronomy (EAA). AAA.org and Westchester Amateur Astronomers (WAA) member Mauri Rosenthal conducted this Skype interview with Robin Glover who developed the software. The 35 minute discussion covers the state of the art (as of October 2018) and how and why Robin created this transformative application.
An abbreviated transcript of the discussion can be found in the November, 2018 issues of both the AAA.org newsletter Eyepiece (www.aaa.org/eyepiece/) and the WAA newsletter SkyWAAtch (westchesterastronomers.org/ne.... Mauri’s Instagram site (featuring images almost exclusively captured with SharpCap) can be found at / mtrastronyc .

[@stefankaemmer2714]

Excellent talk. Thank you for sharing.

[@Avocettech]

Thanks to both of you for this brilliantly demystifying interview! Wished I’d found it sooner, but still very timely for me at this point on my personal learning curve.

[@DylanODonnell]

Interesting, thanks! I will give the small exposure stuff a crack with the rasa 8

[@BrokenPik]

You might be surprised Dylan..

[@800mmTelescopeProject]

So what's the verdict Dylan?

[@GamjaField]

Smart histogram alone helped my imaging session a lot. Although I built a potable setup with ASIAIR and stuff but sharpcap us the reason why I still bring laptop.

[@DrJoeSelfCoaching]

As a newcomer to Sharpcap I was most interested in your video. As you say, there are many "learning curves" involved in astrophotography, unfortunately I'm at the first curve, but with Sharpcap as an incentive, I'm sure I shall persevere. Thank you for a fantastic interview. I would appreciate it if you could post some Sharpcap "training" videos for beginners like me. Great job and thank you.

[@bronxriverastronomy5046]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm not sure when we'll find time to do training videos but I'll make some suggestions -- the first is make sure you read through the SharpCap User Manual -- I think it's very well written and well organized. You can find additional helpful information in the SharpCap Forums. A third resource would be the EAA section in Cloudy Nights Forum. Good luck and clear skies!

[@2badger2]

What happens to this smart histogram when you use a light pollution filter?

[@58gnr]

very reasonable price !

[@GalaxyArtMedia]

Sounds interesting and complicated, this topic is still an open question for me, i did watch a part of a video seminar where Mr. Robin Glover show a chart with recommended exposures length, it seemed a little sf to me all the calculation there and 24 sec x3 on bortle sky 5 if you have rgb sensor, i do not think 1 min and 12 sec will be enough, possible i did not understood correctly. What i did test and make a comparison, under bortle sky 4, 600 photos of 1/2 sec at iso 6400 using 300mm lens at f 5.6 that is 5 min total integration time, stacked in dss and compared with 1 single exposure of 2 min iso 800 using Skywatcher Ed80 with corrector/reducer at f/6.3 and Nikon D7200, i did got better quality in the single exposure. I know the Ed80 is better then The tamron 70-300mm but the difference was much higher in noise on the stacked image. i would like to know with a more simple general answer, shorter exposures versus longer exposures

[@dilipsharan8699]

Very enjoyable. Met Robin a couple of times at various Astronomy exhibitions and saw Robin give a fascinating talk at the Practical Astronomy show in Kettering, UK in March 2019 ( czcams.com/video/3RH93UvP358/video.html )